Cycling stretches?

cmyk

Anyone got any cycling specific stretches they do before hopping on the bike? Only commuting but psoas and hamstrings are a bit tight this week.

Captain Havoc

I do my generic football ones.

lukester

Good selection here

I'm stretching every day at the moment as per physio's advice.

I focus mainly on hamstrings, calves, quads and one ITB stretch. Hamstrings are the chief offenders for cyclists.

Best 2 bits of advice I got were
1. Hold the stretch for a minute or two at a time, gradually ease deeper, rather than doing short 15 second stretches and repeating. This is what they do in yoga, and it works well.

2. Stretch little and often- rather than doing one session say for 10 minutes, try and do 4 of 2 minutes throughout the day.

One other thing, don't stretch before a cycle. Stretch after, or stretch on days when you don't cycle. There's a study somewhere that shows stretching immediately before a cycle increases your risk of injury.

cmyk

Great stuff, i'll give some of them a go, yep been concentrating on hamstrings myself, and i'll try the post rather than pre stretching too.

topper75

Best keep stretches dynamic before cycling (swinging, bouncing, kicking etc.) and static after cycling (the classic crouching and holding one position for 10 secs etc.).

Turbulent Bill

topper75 wrote: »

Best keep stretches dynamic before cycling (swinging, bouncing, kicking etc.) and static after cycling (the classic crouching and holding one position for 10 secs etc.).

Doing anything 'dynamic' before cycling (when your muscles are cold) is a recipe for disaster - there's a high chance of straining something. Static stretching isn't quite as bad but still not recommended.

Virtually every warmup for field sports / athletics starts with a gentle jog before stretching is used, with the cycling equivalent being to spin lightly at the start of your ride. I try to start gently, put the effort in during the middle of the ride then ease off towards the end as a warmdown.

Post-spin stretching is certainly effective at maintaining or improving flexibility. I generally use the ones from my running days, maybe try out a few different ones and see what works for you.

Lumen

I use this book. It's got lots of variety and is excellent value.

Pre-ride stretching is good, as long as you're stretching properly (gently, progressively, with sensitivity).

Personally I prefer to stretch every morning and evening, whether or not I intend to cycle. That way, when I want to go for a ride, I can just go right away knowing that I'm already limber.

Post-ride, I normally just assume a foetal position and sob quietly.

doozerie

As already mentioned, stretching before exercise is putting too much demand/strain on muscles that are not yet warmed up and therefore risks injury. Loosening out your joints though, or "limbering up", before exercise is a great idea - just work your limbs through their full range of motion without putting strain on any muscles and this will, amongst other things, encourage blood flow and leave your limbs feeling "loose" and mobile before your exercise.

Unfortunately, the terminology used here is not consistent though so what one person defines as "limbering up" another person defines as "stretching". For me, stretching is trying to lengthen the muscles to increase flexibility, while limbering up is just gently mobilising your joints before stressing them with exercise. So, for me, stretching can never be done before a full and proper warm-up (the exercise itself) while limbering up is only relevant, and very beneficial, before exercise.

Lumen

doozerie wrote: »

Unfortunately, the terminology used here is not consistent though so what one person defines as "limbering up" another person defines as "stretching". For me, stretching is trying to lengthen the muscles to increase flexibility, while limbering up is just gently mobilising your joints before stressing them with exercise. So, for me, stretching can never be done before a full and proper warm-up (the exercise itself) while limbering up is only relevant, and very beneficial, before exercise.

Yoga-ists do not usually perform a "a full and proper warm-up", yet their activity falls under your definition of stretching.

Lumen

lukester wrote: »

There's a study somewhere that shows stretching immediately before a cycle increases your risk of injury.

OK, so it's not the stretching itself, it's the cycling after the stretching.

Would like to read the study.

ISTR that there is generally a trade-off between flexibility and stability, i.e. the more flexible you are the less stable your joints. But I assumed that was less of an issue on the bike, since your range of motion is very constrained.

cmyk

It was originally a question regarding stiffness and injury avoidance on my part anyhow. I had been doing dynamic stretching all along, I stopped doing static stretching before exercise a good while ago, as I do for other sports. I just happened to come across a few youtube videos on it, and wondered were there any cycling specific stretching exercises.

I can't really see much danger in dynamic stretching if kept to a degree, surely it is only getting the blood flowing better and warming the muscles, or at least that was my understanding of them e.g. leg swings to warm the hamstrings etc.

doozerie

Lumen wrote: »

Yoga-ists do not usually perform a "a full and proper warm-up", yet their activity falls under your definition of stretching.

Any yoga that I have seen has involved slow movements which gradually put pressure on the muscles and basically form a very good warm-up in their own right. As the name suggests, the aim of a warm-up is basically to get your muscles warm safely and there are many ways of doing that - the most obvious is the external stuff like light jogging, a less obvious way is through the likes of meditation and from what little I know of yoga it falls into the latter category.

So, I expect that yoga-ists do indeed perform a full and proper warm-up but just not in a way that is easily recognisable as such. Similarly, the likes of Tai-Chi provide a very effective warm-up (and more) too, but again not via "conventional" means.

doozerie

Lumen wrote: »

OK, so it's not the stretching itself, it's the cycling after the stretching.

Would like to read the study.

ISTR that there is generally a trade-off between flexibility and stability, i.e. the more flexible you are the less stable your joints. But I assumed that was less of an issue on the bike, since your range of motion is very constrained.

Greater flexibility resulting in less stable joints is a danger where the balance of strength and flexibility is off. If you have extreme flexibility but your muscles and ligaments are not strong enough to provide adequate support to your joints, then you are more likely to incur an injury (and likewise if the balance goes the other way). People who are double-jointed can sometimes suffer from this problem. "Proper" training should increase your muscle and ligament strength as your flexibility increases so that you can continue to support your joints throughout their newly increased range of movement.

doozerie

cmyk wrote: »

It was originally a question regarding stiffness and injury avoidance on my part anyhow. I had been doing dynamic stretching all along, I stopped doing static stretching before exercise a good while ago, as I do for other sports. I just happened to come across a few youtube videos on it, and wondered were there any cycling specific stretching exercises.

I can't really see much danger in dynamic stretching if kept to a degree, surely it is only getting the blood flowing better and warming the muscles, or at least that was my understanding of them e.g. leg swings to warm the hamstrings etc.

Dynamic stretching is safe if done correctly and within the limitations of your own body. It's not always easy to accurately gauge these limitations though, therefore it does pose more of a risk than static stretching.

Personally, I don't think leg swings are a good or safe way to "warm" the hamstrings. They are a reasonable way of stretching them when fully warm though. To warm a muscle you generally have to make the muscle work - swinging your leg up with a leg swing does not work the hamstring, it just stretches it, the hamstring is only worked if you pull your leg back down on the downswing. And considering that your hamstring is already under strain/stretch by the time your leg has swung up, you'll be trying to compress a stretched hamstring (and probably at the limit of its stretch too) when pulling down your leg - if the hamstring isn't already adequately warm before your start then there is a high risk of tearing it at this point.

thebouldwhacker

This is a good site covers all the main areas and shows how to keep shape and form

And this one is just good :pac:

kincsem

http://www.halhigdon.com/15Ktraining/Stretch.htm