Wow! I didn't realize this article was coming out today. Cam did a great job of editing it. I really love how it reads. Only correction is that the last picture of my brother riding is on Odyssey at Canmore Nordic Centre, not Fernie, just for accuracies sake. One of the things I love most about NSMB is that the comment section discussion is so often really good with thoughtful, mature, and meaningful input. I really appreciate the positive responses and well wishes. Thank you everyone.
Regarding the neck strengthening regimen, I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't gotten there yet. Life has sort of done what it does and I just hadn't followed though, but now in my red faced state I am recommiting to this plan.
The whole head and neck injury prevention science in MTB is really not great in my opinion. I am certainly not an expert in this area (as an emerg doc we are jacks of all trades and masters of none, and keeping up with all the latest and greatest studies in all areas is pretty much impossible) but when I have searched for medical studies it's been really hard to find studies specifically on mountain biking. It's also hard to design studies that really prove that certain devices really do what they claim to do, and while you often find a lot of studies, once you really go through them you start to identify all sorts of problems with their design that really throws a lot of doubt on their findings
If there is interest, I am certainly open to working with Cam and taking the time to really comb through the literature and come back with a follow-up article to specifically come up with the best recommendations for preventing neck injury including a MTB specific neck strength regimen. Unfortunately my expectation is that I will not find great science that is going to give us a really definitive answer.
Until then be safe, ride within yourselves, and enjoy doing the activity we all love.
June 9, 2022, 3:03 p.m. - Moritz Haager
Wow! I didn't realize this article was coming out today. Cam did a great job of editing it. I really love how it reads. Only correction is that the last picture of my brother riding is on Odyssey at Canmore Nordic Centre, not Fernie, just for accuracies sake. One of the things I love most about NSMB is that the comment section discussion is so often really good with thoughtful, mature, and meaningful input. I really appreciate the positive responses and well wishes. Thank you everyone. Regarding the neck strengthening regimen, I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't gotten there yet. Life has sort of done what it does and I just hadn't followed though, but now in my red faced state I am recommiting to this plan. The whole head and neck injury prevention science in MTB is really not great in my opinion. I am certainly not an expert in this area (as an emerg doc we are jacks of all trades and masters of none, and keeping up with all the latest and greatest studies in all areas is pretty much impossible) but when I have searched for medical studies it's been really hard to find studies specifically on mountain biking. It's also hard to design studies that really prove that certain devices really do what they claim to do, and while you often find a lot of studies, once you really go through them you start to identify all sorts of problems with their design that really throws a lot of doubt on their findings If there is interest, I am certainly open to working with Cam and taking the time to really comb through the literature and come back with a follow-up article to specifically come up with the best recommendations for preventing neck injury including a MTB specific neck strength regimen. Unfortunately my expectation is that I will not find great science that is going to give us a really definitive answer. Until then be safe, ride within yourselves, and enjoy doing the activity we all love.