Cycling and Back Pain

Cycling and Neck Pain

Back pain is one of the most common causes for discontinuing exercise as well as one of the most common causes for time off work, and back pain doesn’t just mean your low back!

Back pain doesn’t just affect the unfit, it can affect everyone and that includes cyclists. A study in the USA in 2010 looked at both amateur and professional cyclists and found that up to 60% suffer from back pain and this can be pain from the base of the skull and headaches to pain at the base of the spine and even into the groin and into the leg in the form of sciatica. 

I am the chiropractor in Islington that  spends  a good deal of time on a bike so I understand the demands on the  body and I will do everything possible to make a diagnosis and fix your problem!

As a keen cyclist I  am aware of the stresses on the body from riding a bicycle, whether its a sitting upright on a Brompton or mountain bike, or in the more aggressive flexed forward position of a road bike

What do we do to assess the spine?

  1. Palpation of the spine to assess for inflammation and tenderness as well as feeling how the spine is functioning

  2. Orthopaedic evaluation of your spine.

  3. Neurological evaluation assessing muscle strength, sensation testing and reflexes.

  4. Postural evaluation of your spine.

  5. X-ray studies.

  6. CT scans for cyclists can be useful if you get pain on hyperextension of the spine.

  7. MRI for cyclists that get pain on flexion or with any neurological signs or symptoms such as tingling, numbness, burning pain down limbs, or muscle weakness or when a disc herniation is suspected.

Common causes of neck pain in cyclists:

  1. Trigger points in the neck muscles in a response to repetitive looking over shoulder.

  2. Trigger points in the neck due to hyperextension of the neck and in a response to degenerative changes to the facet joints and disc degeneration.

Neck pain can give way to headaches if the problem isn’t addressed soon enough or not addressed in a satisfactory way. This can then take the problem from an ‘on the bike’ problem to a work related problem. Therefore prompt action to deal with the symptoms and their causes  are important.

As a chiropractor in Islington I have seen plenty of cyclists with neck problems and cyclists have a good response to treatment if the treatment plan is followed, and that includes doing the correct rehabilitation and in some cases getting a bike fit to change the position you adopt on the bike.








Brian Bamberger