How to Make Your Cycling Posture Proper

Why should you maintain a proper bike posture?

Improper riding posture may cause some healthy problems. Such as:

Achilles tendon pain

Achilles tendon is painful, it usually indicates a wrong way to pedel. Besides, if the saddle is too high, cyclist's toes will be forced to reach down too far when the pedals are at their lowest point.

Knee Injury

if the saddle is too low, it will cause knee problems.

Back pain

Back pain is usually caused by improper cycling posture.

Wrist pain

Wrist pain is usually caused by poor upper body posture and excessive forward leaning of the saddle. Then you will slide forward while riding and unconsciously push yourself back to your original position with your wrist, then put more pressure on your wrist.

Shoulder pain

Shoulder discomfort is usually due to the forward tilt of the saddle.If you only have shoulder pain on one side, there may be an asymmetry in force between your left and right arms. Keep an eye on whether your arms are bent to the same degree or not? Or one arm is raised higher than the other?

Neck pain

If the front of the helmet is too low or far forward, you will be forced to tilt your head upward while riding for a better view. so your neck may bend back too far, which can lead to serious problems, so make sure your helmet fits you properly.

What we can do to improve proper cycling position?

Before correcting the riding posture, we need to pay attention and adjust the bike's parts to fit our position. otherwise it will be difficult to correct the posture.

1) Saddle Height

The height of the saddle is from the top of the saddle to the pedals in the lowest position. When the pedals are at the bottom, the rider's legs should not be completely straight, but should have a slight bend of about 25 degrees. Less degrees means that the rider is not getting the most out of their leg muscles, and excessive flexing will affect your pedaling action and damage your knees.

 2) Position of the knee relative to the pedal

keep the pedals in a horizontal position, and the plumb line from the center of the knee should be just perpendicular to or behind the center of the axle. If the knee is in front of the axis center of the pedal, it will cause the rider's knee to be out of the correct position.

3) Handle position

The handlebars should be adjusted to a level slightly below the top of the saddle, but if the handlebars are too low, they may cause pain in the lower back and shoulders. It is good to allow some bend in the elbows, which can reduce the impact on the shoulders.

4) Pedal position

In general, the forefoot should be over the axis of the pedal, otherwise incorrect posture will force an unnatural twist in the leg, reducing athletic performance and increasing the risk of knee injury.

How to make your cycling posture proper

Elbows bent inward

Elbows should be bent inward, hanging off the rack.your arms can absorb the impact and take the pressure off your shoulders. Also, bending your elbows will increase your balance and reduce the risk of falling off your bike.

Relax your shoulders

To make it easier for your neck to turn flexibly and to prevent back discomfort, keep your shoulders relaxed during the ride and don't let them squeeze in the direction of your ears.

Keep your toes and knees in the same direction

Spine in a neutral position

An important tip when cycling is to keep your back straight, but not overly straight to the bottom of your back pain, and relax your spine a bit.

Don't bend your wrists

From the elbow to the fingertips should be in a straight line. If you always find it hard to maintain during the ride, there may be a problem with the position of the bike parts,adjust your bike to make sure the position of each part is suitable for you.

Move your knees up and down

Consciously avoid moving your knees like the outside when pedaling; they should be moving up and down, not sideways.