Shoulder & neck pain help please

andymiel1973

I got back into cycling this year and since January have done 1000 miles on my Kona Hybrid and lost a load of weight and million times fitter than I have ever been. I'm now commuting daily and doing a big ride at weekend (80mile solo ride last weekend).
Bike set up hasn't changed in last 8 months neither has my riding position (as far as I can tell).
Last 3 weeks I've been getting a burning hot pain between shoulders at base of neck building in intensity to cramp. What is causing this??

I've read various things saying it could be reduced blood supply to shoulder muscles due to riding position or visor on helmet causing my neck to hyper extend!

The pain first showed half way through a toughish 60 miler so put it down to tiredness, though I'm now getting pain on commuting rides of 12 miles so not sure it is entirely tiredness.

My mileage has increased steadily and confident i haven't overdone things but i don't do any upper body workouts do I need to start?

any advice will be gratefully received.

crankycrank

A few things that can cause this type of problem are.
-Your bars are too wide or too narrow
-The reach to the bars is too far
-The bars are too low
-I'm guessing your hybrid bars only allow you to ride with your hands in one position. Barends (if you don't have them already) might allow you to move your hands to different positions and may relieve some of the pain.

Any of these problems can cause extra stress at the base of your neck and shoulders. I know you said that your position hasn't changed but the increased mileage your doing can definately cause pain that wouldn't surface on shorter rides. Also try doing a few neck rotations every 20-30 minutes while riding to keep the muscles from tensing up or just stop and take a break once in awhile during the ride to let the muscles relax. It could be any number of problems but changing your riding position and stretching seems to help most of the time.