A PAIN IN THE NECK!

For the past several years I've been getting a kink in my neck when doing long rides, starting after two hours. It got progressively worse and last year I finally felt the need to seek professional help.  What I found out was that the curvature in my neck is all wrong.  In January I started doing exercises to correct the problem.

Let me back up a moment.  It takes a long time to build you neck muscles to hold up your head and helmet in a forward position.  In 2000-2001 when training for my cross-country ride and multiple 100 mile days, my neck came along with all the other muscles.  It has only been the last five or so years when it started going left that the "kink" developed.  The muscles are still strong, we just need to "straighten" them out a bit.

Well, let me tell you.  I'm learning about all the muscles that affect your neck.  Let me list my daily routine.  Three sets of ten each: Left-right head rotation, flexion & extension (up-down), left-right lateral flexion (side to side).  Three to five reps of fifteen-second Doorway Pec Stretch, ten Scapular Retractions, and then child's pose.  Just last week we added several additional specific Rhomboid exercises.  

In addition, there are two static stretches that I do.  This one I had to start with three minutes and over several weeks worked my way up to twenty minutes a day.  The lower neck is placed on the roll.

The other one is designed to go over a door, but since I had a hook in the garage at the correct height I used it.  You bend your knees with the pad on the back of your neck and the other pad under your chin.  Using 20% of your body weight, you force your neck back.  Hold for five seconds and release.  I am supposed to work my way up to twenty times a day.  It took me a week to even get the correct procedure (It is easier to do than to explain).  Unlike the roll, the repetitions are going slower.  I'm up to doing seven.

The bottom line: yesterday my two-hour, fifteen-minute 30-mile ride was achieved without getting a kink in my neck.  I got a little tightness, but all in all, it appears I'm on the right track.  Hopefully, I'll be much improved before I start training for time-trials and the much more aggressive neck position.

I'm thinking my next post will detail all the exercises I do to facilitate my bike riding/racing.  I get exhausted just thinking about it.