Severe shoulder cramp on rides help!

[GoatBeard]

First off, I'd imagine the advice here is just go and see a physio but it's really difficult right now. So just on the off chance anyone has had my problem I thought I'd ask. Basically, on longer rides I start getting a really severe cramping pain under my upper left shoulder blade. The only way to alleviate it is by stopping and stretching it out. Something about the hunched over position aggravates it really badly. There's no swelling, bruising. It's a chronic thing and I've had it for a few years. I believe it originally came on when I punched a nerve in the gym and I had some numbness in the area. It's now a sort of chronic thing.

It's really frustrating as I want to go on longer rides, I'm physically fit enough to do 20+ miles or longer but after an hour or so it just becomes excruciatingly unbearable painfest. I'm on the verge of quitting cycling and doing something else that doesn't aggravate it (running, how boring) I may be able to get away riding a more upright frame like a dutch bike but that wouldn't be cycling any more.

 

[DCBassman]

Bar width could be adjusted, maybe? Narrower?

 

[GoatBeard]

Bar width could be adjusted, maybe? Narrower?

I'm afraid not, I wish. Worst place is the drops and turning to look over my shoulder (junctions etc)

 

[Salad Dodger]

Try a bike with a more upright riding position, perhaps?

 

[vickster]

Try rolling the sore area and all around it with a tennis ball against a wall. It’ll hurt like hell when you get the trigger points

You could flip the stem, ride on hoods and tops instead of the drops?

 

[Globalti]

Have you tried a bike fit? Near me in Clitheroe there's a physio who specialises in bike fit. Maybe you could find an equivalent near you?

 

[vickster]

They exist in London too, but not at the moment as all physios are closed.
It would be better to get an actual diagnosis from a physio for what is a chronic issue, and then move to bike fitting 👍

 

[HLaB]

What frame do you have at the moment? It may be its stretching you out so you are putting too much weight through your arms/shoulder. Off the bike you may be able to do core exercises (planks etc) and on it relax a bit more so stresses dont go as much through the arms or if its drop bar ride more on the hoods as oppose to the drops. You may also be able to tinker with the set up (be careful you don't make new problems for your knees though, get some sort of bike fit to avoid that). Maybe the saddle needs lowered or moved forward and the stem rotated, raised or shortened to raise the bars, with the result of getting your body more supported by your core. Ultimately the bike might be too big for you however. Good luck

 

[steveindenmark]

"Hunched over" gives a bit of a clue.

At a guess you need to to be sat up more. But its difficult to be certain by the information we have. There are several ways of doing it and you have to play with it.

Move your saddle forward. Turn your stem over. Get a shorter stem. Get an adjustable stem that rotates upwards. Any of these may alleviate the problem and are a lot cheaper than a physio or a bike fit.

I also take time to get up from the riding position while I am riding. I stretch my back, stand up and pedal, take turns in exercising my arms and shoulders by making circles. I find it helps. I ride 100+km days and no matter how comfortable the bike set up is, I would find if very difficult if I were not stretching occasionally.

 

[PaulSB]

@steveindenmark has taken the words out of my mouth. As soon as I read "hunched over" my thoughts immediately turned to your position on the bike.

I would suggest reading on here and the web will help you establish the correct basic position and you can then adjust to suit your own body. Hunched is not a word I would associate with the correct sitting position. If you are hunched over the bike moving the seat back would seem a good starting point.

 

[Daninplymouth]

I have the same issue, I think my frame is a bit to large. I flipped the stem and also shortened it by 20mm and this helped a lot. Not sure how long you have been riding but I find it doesn’t flare up as much if I just relax on the bike. The other thing with mine is it usually comes on around 45mins into the ride however if I stop for 5mins and stretch the pain goes and doesn’t come back for 2hours+ and seems to be getting less now the more I cycle

 

[Globalti]

Thats how physical conditioning works.

 

[Daninplymouth]

I would have a look o line at some body positioning tips and try and get some ideas. As said I suffer quite bad sometimes with this, however I have been doing some testing over the last few days.
First off I dropped the stem 5mm and this was fine, then I raised it up by 10mm and this causes really bad pain in my neck. Today I flipped the stem back down so negative and fitted a 10mm longer one. So in theory I was a decent bit lower and more stretched out so would have thought the neck/shoulder pain would be really bad but it was a lot better. I’m wondering if by having stem flipped and trying to sit to upright I was using my arms to hold my body weight up. So today I made more of an effort to tense my abs and core whilst pedalling whilst trying to pull shoulders back to keep my back in more of a straight line and it seems to have helped a lot

 

[Drago]

With luck it may just be a case of normalmaches and pains as you acclimate to riding a bike, and with time and miles on the clock it may pass.

I've a nacked shoulder and raising the bars and shortening the stem helped. IIRC I went from a 110 to an 80mm stem, and inverted it when fitting which also gave a 2cm ish raise. It alters the feel of the steering slightly, though you quickly adapt. The actual steering itself remains unchanged - camber and castor remain unaffected, and a degree of turn around the steering axis brings the same result as before, its only the feel that changes and only a little at that.

Point is you'll have to make a few or incremental changes and see what works for you. Don't bother considering a bike fit to cure it - they're notoriously poor at accounting for atypical ranges of movement or rider proportions. Made my problem bummen worse.

 

[GoatBeard]

All helpful thanks. With me it's not limited to cycling and any activity even like DIY which requires me to compromise my upper back causes it to flare up eventually. I did muck around with bike sizing and went for a smaller frame, short drop bars etc not much difference. With me I sometimes get an accompanying patch of numbness/reduced sensitivity over the affected area but that's more of a winter thing oddly. I reckon it's nerve impingement and a phantom pain from misfiring nerves. When the NHS is up and running again I might look to see if I can get nerve blockers.