I am doing around 2-3 rides a week ... all off road. None are truely extreme - but I live nr the South Downs, so they do tend to feature in most of the rides.
I have two hard tails - Cotic Solaris Gen 2 and a PP OKA. Both on Pikes
For the last 6 weeks my neck and shoulders have become to ache really badly. About 2 years ago, I had my right shoulder opearted on to free a frozen shoulder.
The pain comes down my neck, ago my shoulders, with refred pain into my upper arms. On the left hand side it get an acute pain when i move my arm backward son one position ( putting ajacket, or shirt, on). I have had frozen shoulder ... and this feel different.
Could it be rotor cuff damage?
On the bike, I have rotated bars, shorter / longer stems, up & down with the bar height .... nothing seems to help much.
I have also noticed my hands going numb when cycling ( which suggests too much weight on the bars) ... I seem to have addressed ths partly ... but the painful shoulders remain.
Any thoughts or am I just getting old?
bars too wide? ( I mean fashionably wide) Puts your arms in a strained position
rotator cuff damage is like a sprain - its needs trauma ie a heavy fall nd doesn't give those symptoms anyway. sounds to me like muswcle spasm
I did cycle into a tree - but no big impact / fall...
Reading up on RC, it can be buy constant small movements ...
Wide bars - well, i do have unfashionable 760s ...
When I had renthals at 740 I didn't have the problem .....
I've had neck, shoulder and hand pain and numbness that steadily got worse over time.
Long story short, I went to a private physio and the exercises have been great. Through my Dr and Hospital I've discovered all sorts of issues, degenerative and otherwise that cause the symptoms and the physiotherapy has been a great help.
edit: wide bars (780) are far less comfortable for me than 750 from a shoulder perspective (I had RC sprain).
Try rotator cuff exercises for a couple of months, if the pain lessens you know what it is. Further to what TJ said, your rotator cuff can become weak by poor poster and the larger muscles over compensating. This leads to spasms when the RC has to work and is not strong enough, this can take years before major pain occurs and then a long time to correct.
Off to see GP , then specialist if needed
740 bars go back on tonight