do you sit a lot at work or home..?
not saying you're a couch potato - but sitting for long periods tightens the top thigh muscles
then when you cycle the kneecap is pulled backwards causing intense pain
ask me how i know..!
PRINT THESE.........................................................
1. Leg Swings
“In biking your hip flexors can get really tight because there's that forward motion just repeated," says Stephanie Duryea, C.P.T. “Working on hip flexor mobility and your hip mobility in general is really important.” Multidirectional leg swings are an effective dynamic stretch for warming up the hip joints and muscles in all planes of motion. Stand with your bike to one side, holding the seat for stability. Begin to swing your outside leg forward and backward, keeping it straight and extending the length of the swing each repetition. Repeat 10 times. Next, turn to face your bike and swing your leg side to side, stretching the outer hip and thigh muscles and the groin muscles. Repeat 10 times and then change positions to work the other leg.
2. Cat and Dog Stretch
Triathlon coach and certified strength and conditioning specialist Scott Seamster explains that during biking you get a lot of power from your back coming through your glutes. “It all works together, so flexibility in that region is really important,” he says. Your back may also become stiff from remaining in a hunched position throughout your ride. Seamster recommends doing a cat and dog stretch to warm and loosen the muscles surrounding the spine. To do the stretch, get onto all fours with your shoulders directly over your wrists and your knees underneath your hips. Slowly arch your back, letting your belly drop down toward the floor and your hips and shoulders rise up. Then reverse the position, rounding your spine and tucking your pelvis. Repeat for 30 seconds to 1 minute,
3. Heel-Toe Walk
To target your lower legs, triathlon coach Scott Seamster, C.S.C.S., suggests parking your bike and doing a heel-toe walk. “It’s good for getting your calves warmed up and ankle flexibility, and it’s good for your shins as well,” says Seamster. Take a step forward, landing on the heel of your right foot. Stay on the heel and briefly lower your torso down over your right leg. Raise your torso back up and transfer the weight onto your right foot, rolling from the heel to the ball of the foot. Rise up on the ball of the foot as high as you can, then lower down and take a step forward with your left leg, landing on your heel. Continue to walk in this way for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
5. Chest Stretch
Hunching over handlebars for miles can cause your chest muscles to tighten. Before you start peddling, triathlon coach Scott Seamster, C.S.C.S., recommends doing a quick dynamic chest stretch that also targets your legs and back. Stand facing the side of your bike with your feet hip-distance apart. Grab the top tube, or your seat and handlebars for a little wider grip, and lean forward at your waist so your back comes parallel to the ground. “Hold there with a slight flexion in your elbows and pressing your chest down toward the ground.” To make this dynamic, hold for periods of about 3 seconds, stand up tall and then assume the position again for 5 to 10 repetitions. “You get a chest stretch and a low back stretch all at once
6. Dynamic Runner’s Lunge
Even bikers can benefit from a runner’s lunge, because it targets the quadriceps, hip flexors and hamstrings. To get into a runner’s lunge, take a big step forward with your right leg and bend the front knee to 90 degrees. Keep the knee over or just behind the front toes and straighten the back leg as much as you can. Bring your hands down on the floor on each side of your front foot. Certified personal trainer Stephanie Duryea recommends doing a dynamic version by raising your torso perpendicular to your legs and lifting your arms up in the air. “That's going to get into the abdominals and stretch the quads and the hip flexors,” she explains. Repeat 5 to 8 times and then do the stretch with your left leg forward.
7. Butt Kicks
Open up your quads and hip flexors preride with butt kicks. You can do this one standing in place or on the move. Jump up and down on alternate feet, bending one knee at a time and kicking the foot of that leg back toward the glute on the same side. Try to get your foot as close to your buttock as you can for the maximum stretch, recommends Stephanie Duryea, C.P.T. Keep your torso upright and your pelvis tucked just slightly. Don’t jump too hard or too high -- it’s the kick part of this exercise that’s most important to open up the fronts of the legs. Continue kicking for 30 seconds to 1 minute.
8. High Knees
Dynamic warm-up stretches are most effective when they simulate the activity you’re about to perform, says Stephanie Duryea, C.P.T., who recommends doing high knees before biking. Simply stand in place and lift one bent knee up at a time as high as you can. To make it a little more challenging, speed up the pace, hopping back and forth and kicking alternate knees up as high as you can. “That's the motion that you're doing in biking -- your knees are coming up and pulling on your glutes and your low back. Your body's like, 'OK, this is what I'm going to be doing for the next 30 to 90 minutes,' and then your body's getting warmed up in the way that it's going to be used,
9. Shoulder Reach
Your shoulders do a lot more work in biking than some other cardiovascular activities, such as running, so it’s a good idea to loosen them up with a targeted stretch before getting on your bike. Triathlon coach Scott Seamster, C.S.C.S., suggests a shoulder reach, in which you stand tall, reach your arms up over your head and shrug your shoulders up and down. “Keep your biceps next to your ears and reach your fingertips for the sky so you get a stretch in your latissimus dorsi,” says Seamster. The latissmus dorsi runs underneath the shoulder and down the sides of the back and is responsible in part for adducting the shoulder, or bringing it in toward the body.
10. Active Squat
“One more I really like to do for cycling with my bike is I grip the top tube and the handlebar and I lower my hips all way to the ground into a squatting position,” explains triathlon coach Scott Seamster, C.S.C.S. You can make this dynamic by holding at the bottom of the squat for 1 or 2 counts and then rising up again and repeating. “That gets your low back, your quadriceps and your glutes,” says Seamster. It also gets your calf muscles -- the soleus and gastrocnemius. Seamster instructs that you should keep your heels on the floor and squat as low as you can while keeping your torso erect and your gaze forward.
