Yoga-Influenced Stretching for Cyclists
I've started running through a sequence of stretches at night. I've found that it helps immensely with being able to sleep after hard rides, and I no longer do my bent-forward "old man walk" when I'm stiff and tired after a ride. (Because, y'know... I don't feel stiff and tired.)
The sequence focuses mostly on the hips and low back, and takes about 10 minutes, so it's a great time investment:
- Start in a "hero sit", with an inflatable balance disc between my heels and butt.
- Twist right and left
- Bend backward, support with my arms and extend my hips to stretch the hip flexors. (Essentially an adapted saddle pose.)
- Bend forward into child's pose, but with arms extended to stretch my lats.
- Separate the knees and move up onto all-fours, push the hips backward to stretch the whole hip area.
- Lift the hips into downward dog
- Stretch the calves and hamstrings, extend the shoulders
- Swing my left leg forward into "pigeon pose"
- Bend forward over my front knee, then backward to stretch my abs and hip flexor
- Return to downward dog
- Swing my right leg forward into "pigeon pose"
- Bend forward over my front knee, then backward to stretch my abs and hip flexor
- Move to a cross-legged seated position, with my lower legs parallel
- Bend forward to stretch the ITBs and gluteus medius
- Reverse the legs and repeat
- Return to "hero sit" and let everything settle.
Either I learned this sequence somewhere, or I'm a natural-born yogi, because this makes me feel awesome.
I've been getting a lot of good information from a book called Full-Body Flexibilty. The sequence above comes straight out of Yoga class, but I get more out of it than I used to because I'm using what I know from Full-Body Flexibilty.