Shoulder pain from biking - help!

Triathlon Forum
1

I am hoping the Slowtwitch community can help me figure this out.

I am experiencing intense shoulder pain which I believe to be a form of tendonitis or some form of impingement. I originally thought it was from swimming, but after a four hour bike ride yesterday (most of it in the aero position) I now believe it is actually from biking.

I have a history of hundreds of long bike rides over the years in me so this is a big surprise. My current thinking is that I have recently started to move up on the nose of the saddle and thus my position is more forward than in the past. Perhaps this puts more pressure on my shoulder since my body is rolled over on top more and my arms are closer into my body than previously. I believe my position to be pretty good, but something is wrong. In addition, when fitting my new Vision aerobars last year, the fitter moved my arm position in some for aerodynamic reason and this seems to put additional pressure on my shoulder. The position feels great and does not hurt while I am actually riding. I really felt the pain the night and this morning. The strange thing is that it only hurts in one of my shoulders, not both.

Has anyone else experienced this? and more importantly, what did you do to remedy this? Obviously, if I was to stop biking, I would heal, but I am looking for more of a fix that does not consist of stopping to ride. On the other hand, I believe my position to be better overall and I would hate to consider not riding on the nose because I believe this position gives me more power, is more efficient and works my glutes better thus saving my quads for the run. Small adjustments on the bike have never been a problem in the past. I am doing something wrong?

2

I have a similar issue to what you describe. At first I thought it was a swim issue as well, but small changes on the aerobar pad positioning seems to help. Hopefully someone will correct me if I’m mistaken but I believe it goes something like if the pads are too close to the body (less than 90* angle torso to upper arm angle) puts more strain on the shoulders (deltoids?) while pads farther out (more than 90* angle) uses more of the upper back and traps. Pads that are too narrow also puts extra pressure on my shoulders. The way I look at it is that if it hurts or the position is too uncomfortable to hold during the race, the aero benefits of the position won’t help.

If it’s not a sharp pain, massage may help. I’ve found that leaning the should into a TP massage ball (or tennis ball would work) against a wall really makes a difference.

Hope that helps.

3

Thanks for the help. I had the shoulder injected yeterday and it is a little better, but the fear is that it may be torn. if it does not get better in a couple of days, I may have to get an MRI. I too think it may be partlly due to my bars being narrow. The funny thing is that it is a very comfortable position and I have numerous rides under my belt with the same bar position. However, now that I am creeping up on the nose more, it may put more pressure on my shoulder since it moves me forward on the bars.