Lately I’ve been hopping up onto things - mostly curbs about 6-10" high. Nothing spectacularly high by any degree, but I’m having a lot of fun with it - plus I drop in off of them easily enough.
However, it seems that after I do a lot of hopping up, the lower right-side of my back gets sore. It’s definitely muscule soreness, but I’m not sure exactly why.
My current theory is that my form just sucks. I also use my right hand to hold onto the handle to pull up on the uni when I’m hopping, so I’m thinking that I’m “semi-turned” and it’s contributing, but I really don’t know.
Has anyone else had this or can anyone give some tips on proper form to lessen the strain on your back? I don’t have this problem if I’m just “pogo-ing”, which I’m assuming is because I’m perfectly vertical.
Any help is greatly appreciated! I’d rather fix what I’m doing wrong than give up hopping around - it’s great fun!
I used to get this alot too. i also hop with my right hand, and your right, your body does tend to twist just a bit. What i found was that my seat was so low i had to bend my back a bit to reach the handle when i was standing up. So, obviously i raised the seat a bit and it was alot more comfortable. Plus the comfort allowed me to practice more before i would get sore and thus increase hop hieght!
If that doesnt work it might just be that you are now putting alot more effort into your hops than just pogoing because you are trying to gain hieght… It might just be one of those things that you adapt to over time.
Keep us posted
-Phil
Thanks for the info - I tend to ride with my seat really low for my height. I have a KH seat and when I try to do SIF stuff, it helps a lot, so I just got used to riding with it low.
I’m going to take a day or two off to make sure I don’t pull anything seriously, but I’ll try raising the seat up a bit and see how that works.
Ive started ride my seat quite low too( i ride seat in trials right now) i guess ive just gotten used to it.
i hold the seat with my left hand and the lower left sid eof my back gets kind of sore from time to time, im doing the same height hops too. i guess i just like my seat to be a little lower. good to know other people have the same things going on
It never happened to me, probably cause I have a pretty strong back, especially from training, and all the other sports I do.
One of my friends, before he got into unicycling, he used to play video games non-stop, and ended up getting kinda lazy and a bit bigger then he should of been, but now he lost a lot of weight, and unis with me almost everyday, hes also becoming quite a good guitar player, so now i have another person to jam with, but because of him unicycling, his back started to hurt really bad once he learned how to hop, it doesn’t anymore, but I think it is because he was working muscles in his back that haven’t gotten worked like that in a while.