Body Position Mistakes While Mountain Biking

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While riding your mountain bike you need to be careful about your body position. Because bad body position has severe consequences on your health. So, today we will talk about some of the common body position mistakes that you should try to avoid if you want to live a healthy life and enjoy riding those mean mountains without feeling the pain.

 

Outcomes of a Poor  Body Position:

More risk of injury: Risk of injuries in different parts of the body gets higher due to bad body position. Because you can put weight on unwanted body areas by positioning yourself in the wrong way during cycling. And sooner or later you would end up injured. So you have to improve your skills as a mountain biker as well.

More pain: Odd position in which we are bent, we put pressure on our back and neck which cause more pain on those body areas.

Worse appearance: A bad position may be responsible for an impaired body image, in which you appear older than you actually are. So, poor body positioning on the bike lasts forever. Besides all the above consequences, there are more serious things that I prefer not to talk about. Instead, we should find out what we are doing wrong.

 

common body position mistakes

7 Common Body Position Mistakes by Cyclists

 

  1. Cycling is a beneficial and fun sport only if you are positioned correctly on the bike. But riders feel pain behind the knee area all the time due to the saddle being too high, causing excessive leg extension. And some feel pain on the outer sides too. A position issue problem that to be taken seriously.
  2. Some riders cause pain to themselves by setting the seat too high. Other do the damage by setting it too low. Lower seat height causes pain to anterior muscle areas. And knee gets injured thanks to the awkward leg mobility space.
  3. After the knee area, riders face most pain at their lower back. There is no doubt that the position of the cyclist is the variable that can most influence when suffering from problems in the lower back, which sometimes can be improved by tilting the saddle slightly forward. The following situations usually cause discomfort in that area: saddle too high or too late, handlebar too far from the saddle or too close.
  4. When we speak of neck pain it is necessary to specify the origin of the pain accurately. If it is in the neck area then you can assume the handlebar is too low or too far in relation to the saddle, which forces us to stretch. And if it is somehow lower than the neck area then it is the other way around. Which means the handlebar is either too close or too high.
  5. The numbness of the hands is quite a common problem among riders. It is caused by an incorrect distribution of weights when riders put more weight pressure for support.
  6. The pains and numbness of feet are also a classic nuisance among cyclists. The origins of these problems are varied. Most of the times it’s a matter of a poor selection of the shoe. Usually, it is a problem related to an excess pressure, ie the shoe is too narrow for the foot and even, sometimes, the sneakers being too tight. This can affect in both the nervous and vascular levels and is, therefore, a source of pain or numbness. Find the perfect shoe and the problem is solved.
  7. The bicycle saddle is often a source of problems. The funny thing is that in many cases the origin of the problem or the pain is not the saddle itself, but the position of the cyclist on it. The comfort on a saddle is based on a correct distribution of the weight. Riders need to sit properly on the saddle by distributing their body weight perfectly.
  8. Choosing the Mountain bike that fits your needs is another main thing you have to consider. If it’s too heavy for you or too small for you then there will be issues.

 

As we can see, the consequences of having a bad body position are varied and it affects us both inside and out. Therefore, resolving the position is crucial for riders. Cyclists need to take it seriously if they don’t want to live the rest of the life with all the pain through riding.

 

 

 

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About the Author Donny Minchillo

Hey everyone, by day I'm a developer, but my mind is always outside. I spend as much time as possible discovering new trails and mountain biking through the Costa Rican jungle!