Look Pro: The Hunchbacks of Notre V
The flat back position is perhaps the greatest lie ever told in sport, provided you ignore any of the racing we’ve seen in the last decade or two.
It is possible, I suppose, that when we talk about a flat back, what we really mean is that on an elementary level, all curves are really just a series of straight segments connected at an angle; while a rider’s back may look arched, it really is flat in an existential sense.
Because no one really rides with a flat back. Even riders who famously rode with a flat back, like Greg LeMond, actually rode with only the upper portion of their backs flat. In fact, the only rider I can think of who was as happy as a Texan in an Amgen factory while riding with a truly flat back was The Gypsy himself. It bears mentioning, however, that a search through the Velominati Archives shows only intermittent evidence of him riding with a truly flat back.
If you’ve ever tried to get your back completely flat, you’ll have noticed that it feels awful. Your shoulders tense up, your hips roll forward. It certainly doesn’t do your bits any favors. As you try to accelerate, your shoulders and hips tense up even more in an effort to keep the back as flat as possible.
There is a very simple explanation for this: The V abhors a straight line; it requires smooth curves in order to flow freely from the various V-Receptacles spread throughout your body and into the guns where it is processed and converted into Monumental Devastation.
As you pursue the V-Locus, keep the following points in mind:
- The key to a Magnificent Stroke is to find a tension-neutral position on the bike.
- Let your hips find their natural position. It will likely be somewhat vertical, causing your lower back to arch.
- Tension is the enemy. Relax your shoulders, elbows, hips, and neck. Even relax your fingers if you find them trying to strangle the bars.
- Like a Jedi uses the Force, let the power of The V flow from your arms through your lower back and hips, and down into the cannons.
- The harder you are hammering and the closer you are to achieving nuclear V-ission, the more important it becomes to keep your back and shoulders relaxed; you are wasting precious energy on staying tense. Use that energy to fire the the guns instead.
And yes, Cycling is hell for your posture. If that’s what you’re after, take up yoga.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo Galleries/frank@velominati.com/Flat Backs/”/]
@Marcus I’m tentatively scheduled to be in Melbourne around February 20-22. Looking forward to it!
Woah, just noticed LeMan’s bars in photo #6. What’s going on with those? They have a seriously long and pronounced curve to the drop section.
Also, not again yoga and I know it would be great for me. I just have trouble being so calm for that long. And, there are plenty of other things I could do to help myself out. I’ve traveled to Vietnam and most mornings you can find flocks of older women in the local park just kind of dancing and moving to a boombox. Kind of like freestyle meets Tai Chi. Just doing that – moving, swinging my arms, etc. helps, since I tend to either do heavy exercise (cycling or soccer) or be totally sedentary. Just getting up from my desk throughout the day to move and swing about helps. Jumping rope is even better.
Maybe one day soon I’ll find the inner peace to commit to yoga…
Oh, and every time we get onto such topics and old bike photos come up…I thank my lucky stars that I have an older steel bike. They just get me far, far more jazzed up than modern carbon. And, I get to feel some sort of connection to the history of an awesome sport that I’m still relatively new to!
Pozzato and Ballan both are pretty close to table flat in this pic from the 2012 Ronde. Not that it helped them any in the finale.
@alexei They’re just trying to keep low to avoid being scalped by some lanky Dutchman waving a big flag.
@Chris
What a glorious damn day that was.
@Marko One shot that day (slideshow) running across a field together gave the impression of the Beatles Abbey Road (photo) with extra members.
@Marko
Indeed it was. Happy days.
@unversio
That was the following Sunday during Roubaix. Good shot though as well and fun times. 5 minutes later we met Van Summie’s VMH.
Flat backs, great photos, VMH yoga! (I can watch yoga all day…)
Superb article, and great comments so far. Especially now that I am commenting…
@pistard
No, do not stop doing that. It is one of life’s little pleasures to catch a glimpse of how badass you look as you whip by a window. Subsequent crash and all.
@frank
Chicks dig scars…
@brett
Rad. But that’s not a flat back. That’s a perfect V-Arch, in fact.
@James
Its not much, but it helps a lot. I’m naturally pretty flexible (oddly enough) in just the right ways for cycling; I’m completely inflexible in other ways.
All I do is lay on my back while watching TV and do three sets of 50 leg lifts; I lift my legs from just above the ground all the way up to 90 degrees. To start with, I’d keep my legs together, but after a month of that I started to hold my feet about shoulder-width apart when I lift them up – its much harder that way. I finish each set by holding my legs a little bit above the ground for a count of 15 seconds.
This has two benefits: it seems to work the lower back and the abdomen, and it doesn’t require me to take out time for an indoor workout, which is something I detest. Basically, I do these without noticing that I’m doing it that much.
@SimonH
Being 6’3″ and slouchy, this is what I’m hoping more core work does for me (minus the dragging knuckles and car wrecks)
@VeloVita I’m of similar build and try to do this routine periodically if I get lazy before very long my back will let me know it’s time for some more reps: http://www.bicycling.com/training-nutrition/training-fitness/core?page=0,1
Although the idea of proper pilates is intriguing.
@minion
Photographic proof that you also swing for cows.
@Deakus
My dad suffers from something similar and cycling fixes it as well; his theory is that cycling builds up the muscles along your spine and keeps your vertebrae from squishing the discs.
@alexei
That photo does a great job to perpetuate the Myth of the Flat Back. Have a good look and you’ll see the upper portion of their back may be fairly flat, but their lower backs are carved sharply to get there. Especially Ballan; it takes him until about mid-back to get flattish.
That’s a beautiful position he’s got, though.
@Marko
Let me convert this into command-line syntax for you for any event or photo taken during Keepers Tour:
That was * during *. Good shot though and fun times. V minutes later we *.
@frank
I’m not fucking Welsh you sick fucker. That’s just disgusting.
@frank
When my sciatic was at its worst back in June I couldn’t walk from my bed to the ensuite crapper in my house but I could ride for hours relatively pain free – just so long as I wasn’t daft enough to get out of the saddle heading up hill.
@frank
Was told the same by my physio. My bike last “went” about 8-9 years ago, the physio instructed me to get back on the bike as soon as I could without fainting in pain. I did and have never looked back.
Yesss made it to level 1…..
@Nate
Yep, I’ve got that routine saved in my email. I’ve been doing a combination of similar exercises mixed with a few select yoga poses that stretch out my lower back (which is quite tight in the morning since I injured it last year), hamstrings, hips and quads.
The best saying i have heard about one’s core and cycling is that strong legs without a strong core is like firing a cannon from a canoe.
No offence intended….
http://youtu.be/qPNCgda4xD0
@Giles
That should be “Back” not bike – the wonders of iPad autocorrect…
The absolute best thing for cycling is your “core”, this goes for almost any sport and its as simple as sit-ups and planks, equally important is your ass that’s as easy as squats and lunges, do it, it works!
@frank To your point, here’s my racing bike from 1989.
And here’s my current resurrection…
@Jeff in PetroMetro
More saddle to bar drop, but shallower bars? Did you just find a whole bunch of old pics?
@Jeff in PetroMetro
Nice rides there!
Hope you don’t mind, I had a play with your steed’s to compare then and now. I do this to check transferring set ups from one to another. The only thing is that if one bike is leaning over more you get distortion.
Looks like the the saddle to bar drop the same, Mercian higher than the Look. Crank arm length may even this out?
@sthilzy Wow what a useful comparison…I would have thought there are loads of ppl out there who have a couple of bikes of different geometries who would be really interested in a comparison like that…
How do you do it?
@DerHoggz
Yeah, found the motherload of old pics.
@sthilzy
That’s a cool analysis! The pics were taken at different angles. I was below the Mercian. I was above the LOOK. And I used two different cameras, so the distances away from the bikes are pretty different. I’ll shoot a pic of the LOOK at the exact spot that I shot the Mercian. I’ll do the same with my Cervelo, too. I’ll post all that over at The Bikes and try to get each bike lined up.
i sit up on the LOOK just a little bit more than on any other bike these days. As I get older, sitting up feels a bit more comfortable.
@Jeff in PetroMetro Let’s hope I can do them justice!
Sitting up a bit, yeah, I think that’s why I like my cross bike so much.
@Marcus
Amazingly, that seems to be a common-enough saying that when you google “cannon in a canoe” you get a bunch of pictures of people doing yoga.
And this.
@piwakawaka
I was just talking to G’rilla about a bike fit he’s doing for a custom CX. Since my core got stronger, I’ve realized that I’m usually really just pulling on my bars; I can easily maintain my position riding without having my arms on the bars. That translates to being able to be much more effective in how you deal with shocks and bumps because you’re not just pile-driving your front wheel into obstacles.
Handy for the pavé and CX for sure.
Even the shitty core work I do has helped tremendously. Also, when I used to commute with my backpack before I did those exercises, my back would be killing me (there is quite a lot of climbing on my route) and these days I arrive at the office/home feeling just fine. Good stuff.
@Jeff in PetroMetro
That. Look. Is. The. Sweetest. Fucking. Thing. Wow. Down to the white pedals, very LeMond ’86. And that Mercian…wow wow wow.
(BTW, your front skewer is not fixed correctly.)
@sthilzy
fella set yourself up a paypal account, make ppl submit two photos and charge £5 by return to do this. I will be your first customer! I would be really curious about the difference in geometry between my n#1 and n#2!
@frank
Which reminds of the Python gag about American beer being like sex in a canoe…
@the Engine
don’t start that shit again…..I had to spend an hour this morning reading back on last nights firefight just to figure out what the fuck was going on!!….cue ;)
@Deakus
Hmmmm_Thanks for the support! If I do, I’ll need to set up some rules for taking the pics so they are ‘usable’ to do comparison. I tried to keep the bars side on on both bikes. Also need to know a distance, say C-C seat to head tube, or C-C wheel base/axle.
This is what I did to see how my set up may look with what I’ve got before making purchases/refunds to get a position I’m happy with. The Moser, I went through a couple of stems, ended up at 130mm long!
@sthilzy What do you do that with, photochop?
@Dan_R
I’m looking forward to your wheel recommendations. 1200grams gets me to 6.9kg for the bike. Yeah.
@frank Thanks for the compliments on the bikes. I’ll put the bikes right for their official portraits, skewers and all!
@Jeff in PetroMetro Do we get a story about JiPM’s Look v.2?
Yes, I think so. Death. Shock. Tears shed. Bike #2 becomes Bike #1. Prayers to Merckx. Prayers answered. The Resurrection. Good fortune. A beautiful future.
Don’t ever doubt the power of the V.
@Nate If you all will indulge me. And Gianni let’s it in.
@Jeff in PetroMetro I’m not Gianni, but we all indulged you for v.1. Why not v.2?
@Nate
Yes, but there were about 12 Velominati back then. Five of them were Keepers. And even Frank thought about breaking up my story into multiple entries. A serial, if you will. I’ll try to keep this next one a little shorter.