Hi all
Need adivce, i struggle with back pain only when racing. I race half and full ironmans. I do a lot of training in my tt position mainly indoors but when racong i always get in agony with my lower back locking up and i cant push power.
Any adivce.
Also should i try to flatten my back? And how do i do this with the bike setup? I have a relativly curved or hunched position. Pretty aero. But never have any pain when training with that setup
Your position from indoor to outdoor riding can change enough that it kicks off some issues. The first questions would be whether you the bike is level on the trainer, do you ride the same duration indoors and outdoors, and are you looking up the road more when riding outdoors?
Without any additional information, I would guess question 3 is the root of your problem, especially as you say that your position is hunched. Just remember that you neck and lower back are all connected, so the more one end changes the more the other end needs to change to compensate. My guess is that you need to investigate your seat and/or come up a bit in the front and add some reach.
Hi all
Need adivce, i struggle with back pain only when racing. I race half and full ironmans. I do a lot of training in my tt position mainly indoors but when racong i always get in agony with my lower back locking up and i cant push power.
Any adivce.
Also should i try to flatten my back? And how do i do this with the bike setup? I have a relativly curved or hunched position. Pretty aero. But never have any pain when training with that setup
For me personally, I don’t have back issues, but notice the whole curved back thing depends on if a person properly rolls their hips forward in TT. Not doing so may mean you don’t have a comfy enough saddle or chamois setup to do it. It may indicate other fit issues.
But for me, it’s the mental note of “roll the hips”. If you can but don’t, the back will hunch/curve and might be less comfortable.
Yep, curved or flat back is not a result of the stack/reach, but of how you settle into the position. Don’t get me wrong, stack/reach can help you settle into a good flat back position, but you can still ride curved back if you’re not aware of what you’re doing. Good to get a mirror next to the trainer and see how much you can change your profile just by how you sit on the bike.
Hi all
Need adivce, i struggle with back pain only when racing. I race half and full ironmans. I do a lot of training in my tt position mainly indoors but when racong i always get in agony with my lower back locking up and i cant push power.
Any adivce.
Also should i try to flatten my back? And how do i do this with the bike setup? I have a relativly curved or hunched position. Pretty aero. But never have any pain when training with that setup
I wonder if your issue is more from the swim. I have the same issues. Back usually doesn’t bother me on long bike rides but during a half or full, lots of back tightness. Figured out my issues are from the swim.
Either my body position in my wetsuit or the combination of wetsuit and arching the back for sighting is putting enough strain on my back that when I get on the bike it’s probably already tight, then as I’m biking, the normal tightness I get from biking is compounded with the extra tightness I got from the swim and it causes the pain.
I started doing lower back strengthening exercises which have helped. Seem to still get pain but it comes on later in the bike and hurts less than it used to.
John Cobb (perhaps one of the greatest fitters of all time) used to emphasize the Type “A” back and the Type “B” back when doing fitting. I quickly found the following from way back . . . it makes the point even though dealing with helmets:
In the '90’s I developed a system to help identify different rider’s back shapes. I broke it down to two types, & . “A” style backs are what we all think we have but very few really do. It is the classic “flat” back. These riders seem to have a natural ability to get good pelvic rotation, this opens the diaphragm for great breathing. This style back combined with an aggresive TT position will post some low aero drag numbers. It is common for these riders to be able to “turtle” their heads or drop their heads lower than the shoulders, when you have an aero helmet on, the tail falls nicely between the shoulder blades. The long tail helmets fill in this valley and the air flows smoothly off the back. “B” style riders are much more common and can be easily spotted because of the long arch in the back. The flexibility is almost all concentrated in the shoulder blade area and can often times be a very accute bend in a small upper back area. Learning to rotate your pelvis will really help these riders because it is common for them to ride with restricted diaphragms, this hurts your breathing. For these riders, a long tail aero helmet sticks up in the air a lot and will do little to make the air flow off the riders back. One of the things I look for is the relationship of the helmet and where the air begins to flow around the stomach and off the hips. It is very rare for the fastest helmet for an rider to be the best choice for a rider. Then, the shoulder shape, “square” or “rounded” which can be on either shape back, will help determine the better helmet choice. For B style riders I would generally use a shorter, lower, tailed helmet, like an L.G. Rocket.
Perhaps this could be helpful for you. There are still a couple of You Tube videos out here on the Type “A” back and the Type “B” back.
Hi all
Need adivce, i struggle with back pain only when racing. I race half and full ironmans. I do a lot of training in my tt position mainly indoors but when racong i always get in agony with my lower back locking up and i cant push power.
Any adivce.
Also should i try to flatten my back? And how do i do this with the bike setup? I have a relativly curved or hunched position. Pretty aero. But never have any pain when training with that setup
I wonder if your issue is more from the swim. I have the same issues. Back usually doesn’t bother me on long bike rides but during a half or full, lots of back tightness. Figured out my issues are from the swim.
Either my body position in my wetsuit or the combination of wetsuit and arching the back for sighting is putting enough strain on my back that when I get on the bike it’s probably already tight, then as I’m biking, the normal tightness I get from biking is compounded with the extra tightness I got from the swim and it causes the pain.
I started doing lower back strengthening exercises which have helped. Seem to still get pain but it comes on later in the bike and hurts less than it used to.
I was dealing with the same issue from the swim up until very recently ie a few days before iron Man Maryland several weeks ago. For me it was always or at least predominantly wetsuit related and the arch it would put in my back because of my legs riding higher.