Hi Gang, I live near many county and State parks that have hiking and
mountain bike trails and many times it's good to get out and enjoy the
trails. For the past several years I would just walk the trails as often
as I could and usually put up with a few days of sever pain afterwards.
The Doctors keep saying how important it is to keep physically active but
it's very tough when it seems any activity can cause a flare up and make
me suffer even more. A few weeks ago my wife brought home a mountain
bike for me, it was from a garage sale but only a year old and it was my
size. It's a fine bike with front suspension, much better than I would
have bought thinking I would only ride it on short rides on our road.

About 3 weeks ago I decided to take my bike to the park that has some
modest mountain bike trails running through the woods and meadows with
some hills and turns. I just wanted to see how I would do and enjoy
being back on a bike again, something I did a lot of in my teens and
twenties. I started very slow but the feeling of floating down the trail
was great, such freedom of movement! As I rode I noticed there was no
pounding on my back like with walking and being able to support my back
with my arms took all the load off my spine, it felt very good.

Now I go about 3 or 4 times a week and ride about 7 miles of trails each
time, I'm feeling much stronger and my upper back and neck are getting
stronger so I have more stamina for tasks. It feels so good to be able
to get very active and not collapse in pain at the end. I still have
bad days and days when I can't do anything but lay and wait but on my
good days I think I've found something that I can do that really helps
with my over all health.

I wake up every morning in that awful pain but some times I get out with
my bike anyway and after about a mile of riding the pain is gone and
stays gone till several hours after the ride. I also notice I've been
having shorter recovery times from the real bad flare ups that use to
take weeks or even months to get over now I start to feel better in just
a few days. Don't know if this bike riding is going to make any real
improvements or not but I figure it sure can't hurt. I think it's a
combination of being out in the fresh air and all the movement required
to stay on the trail with my upper body that helps. Riding on a flat
straight road would not be the same, that would tend to make me get
stiff. I never rode a bicycle off road before this year, lots of fun!
My wife also bought a mountain bike and we often go riding together in
the evening at a park. It's easier for me to get to sleep at night if I
go for a ride before dark.

By for now Jeff