This may come across as a bit of a noob question, but I’m trying to understand the relation between flexibility and aero position in terms of the more flexible you are, the more aggressive of a position you can run on your setup.
The problem I’m dealing with personally is that as a not very flexible individual, I run a pretty tall stack on my bike – so not very aero. So obviously would like to improve this, but what I don’t understand is that there are two points of pivot involved in the bending down to the aero bars: 1) from the waist and 2) the neck’s pivot. I can bend without issues and be in an aggressive aero position, but my neck/traps get extremely tired from holding up my head to be able to look in front.
End Result = I end up riding a big portion of the bike looking downwards, a couple of feet in front of me.
So my question is, how does my flexibility at my waist aid in being able to look straight forward while in an aggressive aero position? Wouldn’t it be my neck muscles that determine that?
Every ride, time yourself with how long you can stay in that position. If you stop after it gets a bit uncomfortable, you’ll notice you can stay a few minutes longer next time. Keep pushing your limit gently and you’ll eventually get to the point where it doesn’t bother you at all and you can do an entire Ironman in aero position, no problem. It’s all in growing it gently.
You’re blaming yourself quite a bit when I suspect your bike setup.
It’s suspicious that you should have to engage your traps at all. When in the aero position your shoulder and arms should be relaxed. You should feel like you’re just resting your bodyweight on the pads. The one unnaturally held position is holding your head up to look up the road. It can take some effort to do that, and that’s where you do have to engage your muscles. But generally not the traps. With very little information I’m guessing you can solve a lot of problems with your equipment rather than “fixing” yourself.