Aching Arms!

jordanweeks

Hi,

I am doing a lot of cycling in my home county of cornwall, attacking most of the biggest hills i can find. However, in an attempt to improve leg strength, I have tried staying in the saddle as long as possible before jumping out and hammering down.

The problem I am being faced with at the moment, is that my legs cope fine with this, and its my neck and arms/shoulders that really start to feel tired and ach on climbs...

I was hoping that someone can point me in the direction of what i can do to prevent this? Any specific cross training exercises, free weights, swimming, press ups etc.

Thanks in advance.

Bhima

Just keep riding your bike. You're using your arms in a way they've never been used before, so they're just telling you that they're a bit weak. It'll soon disappear.

If you're out of the saddle, you can reduce the load on your arms by going down a gear so you're going at a higher cadence. If you're on a massive gear, the pedal forces are really high, so your arms need to push harder to control the bike and keep it stable.

jocksyboy

Sounds like your bars may be too low. try flipping your stem. also might be worth trying different positions on the bars when climbing.

ride_whenever

relax, you almost certainly just tensing your upper body too much.