Yoga for Cyclists/Athletes

Here’s a recap of my short talk on Yoga for Cyclists at the South East Cycling Expo and a few things to begin incorporating immediately into your training program that will have a big impact on your over-all wellness and on how you ride.

So Why Yoga?

Caring for our bodies has to be about total fitness, not just cardiovascular fitness or strong muscles. True fitness includes structural fitness (how well the skeleton, musculature, and connective tissue orient the body in proper alignment). That’s where the yoga comes in, because yoga works to realign the skeleton and restructure the body.

In cycling we create asymmetries due to constant, sustained, repetitive motion. Some muscles get extremely tight and overworked while others do virtually nothing. Recognizing the imbalances before they become injury and incorporating specific training to address the over developed/underdeveloped areas is smart training and will impact how you ride and how you go about your daily activities.  It’s no secret that the harder you drive a car the faster it wears out.  You have to do preventative maintenance. The same goes for our bodies. Yoga is preventative maintenance. 

Yoga makes good athletes better.  

Take Sarah Mcglone for instance, a Hawaii ironman champion, Ironman 70.3 world champion and 2004 Olympian. She’s been competitively racing and running all over the world for over 30 years.  Sarah specifically sites yoga as the reason she was able to set the world age-group record in the indoor mile and an outdoor American record in the 1500m at age 45.  She urges every serious endurance athlete to incorporate yoga into their training.

The Benefits of Yoga:

Flexibility

Balance

Focus

Breath work (increased lung capacity)

Whole body strength

Injury prevention

Yoga works to realign the body by focusing on the total body- muscles, fascia, joints, ligaments, skeleton. Yoga creates very deep changes in the body, which means improved form, efficiency and power. 

Specific to Cyclists :

Yoga helps strengthen the places that get weak when we spend a lot of time in the saddle, to 

stretch areas that get over worked and it helps speed up the recovery process.

Here’s a few simple postures you can incorporate into your training today.

A) Back/Core/Upper Body

PLANK POSE/ FOREARM PLANK

• plank pose elongates the body and lengthens the neck.
• helps determine a neutral body position. – so important after the hunched over position (flexion) a cyclist spends a lot of time in.
• Developing a strong back and abs at for spinal support and better posture.

SIDE PLANK 

• Building back strength counteracts wear and tear on the back just from living!
• Core strength for balance for technical riding and bike handling
• When we do not have a strong core to support the riding position,  we push too much into the upper body and the lumbar and thoracic spine take the stress.

It is HIGHLY important that cyclists have structural fitness- posture, flexibility and core in order to generate the most efficient power on the bike. When muscles don’t have to over work posturally, they can work phasically- which means greater efficiency.

B) Flexibility in the Back /Spine   

Greater flexibility allows for better alignment in the saddle and entire bike set up- which translates into greater efficiency. Try these poses to neutralize and balance the spine.

SPINAL BALANCE

CAT AND COW 

C)  Hip Flexors, Psoas, Quadriceps, Front Body

LOW CRESCENT LUNGE

• front body opener, keeps muscles long, not contracted and short, better posture
• Keeps flexors and extensors muscles supple- these are typically overworked in the repetitive motion of pedaling

D) Tight Hips

• If your hips are stiff and can’t move or rotate to their full potential the torque will go to the spot of least resistance which is the very vulnerable knee joint. Proceed with caution in this chair pose and if you experience any knee pain at all stop doing this posture. There’s other options we can explore later on.

SEATED PIGEON IN A CHAIR

 WARRIOR II  This standing hip opener is generally safe for everyone.  Improves range of motion in the hips, works to align the entire body. Open hips prevent compensation in the rest of the body- shoulders, knew, ankles, spine. 

E) Hamstrings

My last point is the most important take-away,  even if you never participate in a yoga session in your life.

Stop trying to touch your toes when you stretch your hamstrings!  Wrestling with this “old” variation of the pose can do damage to the upper attachment of the hamstrings at the sitting bones.  It can also stress the hip flexors since it’s extreme forward flexion. If you are already tight and are forcing to reach the toes, it  usually just refers to the lower back- so what visually appears as a deeper stretch for the hamstrings is actually becoming contraindicated as we stress the lumbar spine.

I suggest laying on your back and using a towel or t-shirt or strap around the ball of the foot to give a gentle stretch.

You can also use your bike or chair to forward fold as far as you can without getting into the low back

                    

There's only so many hours in the day... how to incorporate yoga into your training:

Yoga should be sequenced into your training in inverse proportion to the intensity of your training. During times of peak activity and intense training, try yoga with a focus on flexibility, stability and recovery. During the off-season, it's a good time for a strength-building, vigorous, athletic practice.

Stop by my blog next week and I’ll begin to break down these poses and discuss more specific alignment points. As we head into cooler weather and the end of the riding season, it’ a great time to invest in yourself and start yoga. Don’t knock it until you try it. 

Recap of Yoga for Cyclists and Athletes
Presented at The Southeast Cycling Expo Saturday 11/17/12
Coming Soon!