On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast we chat to our cycling coach, Devlin Eyden about stretching particularly for a bicycle rider.  He gives us some flexible advice on whether we should be doing it or not and how much is enough.  We find out here if it is more beneficial to stretch before cycling or after and what it can do for our bodies.

Transcript

David Katz: We have another great question for you here today on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast with myself, Mr Active, David Katz and Devlin Eyden and this is something that I’ve done a lot over the years, I place a lot of emphasis on this. A little bit beforehand, more doing it afterwards, but there again, some people say stretch before, some people say stretch less after. Must it be a static stretch? Should you be moving? So many questions there, but looking at a bicycle rider Devlin, what are the best stretches to do for us people who love two wheels?

Devlin Eyden: So, the stretching topic is always a sensitive topic with a lot of riders because they’re out to enjoy the bike and they get the thrill of riding their bike and then they get off and the boring part of having to stretch is, generally they find it to be unimportant, so they’ll forget about it, but it’s key. Overall flexibility, irrelevant of whether it’s just for a cyclist and the particular stretches that are important, overall flexibility for us as humans is important for injury prevention and that goes for daily living, our daily functions, walking around the house, at our jobs, whatever it might be.

Can stretching help with injury prevention?

From a cycling point of view, I think the main focus areas and typically where we start picking up a lot of injuries and niggles and that kind of thing is the lower back, so stretching the lower back, stretching the glute muscles is very important. Hamstring and quads, I usually put those two together, but they need to be stretched on their own and those are probably two of the most important stretches that are key and muscle groups that need to be stretched because with a lot of our high intensity riding and our power riding, most of the power we’re putting out is coming out through either our hamstrings or our quads. That’s key.

Our hip flexes are really important. The hip flexes we tend to neglect and will very often refer, and we might start feeling a bit of knee pain and more often than not, that knee pain is actually a referred pain from a really tight hip flexes. Most of us in modern society in what we might do for a jobs is we sit behind a computer and we sit at the desk for large amounts of time, then you get on the bike and again you’re kind of in a seated position. Those hip flexes are really inactive and start to get really stiff.

When to do static or dynamic stretches

Stretching the hip flexes is very, very important and then the usual, making sure that the calves are stretched out, you’ve got a lot of pressure on your hands and your arms, so shoulder and neck stretching is also really important. There’s an array of stretches. You mentioned in the beginning from a point of view in terms of static and dynamic stretches, typically we would do a static stretch before the ride, before your training session – sorry, the other way around. A dynamic stretch before your training session of your race, dynamic stretch being a movement type of stretch and then you would do a static stretch post-exercise, so once the body is really warm.

When we start doing pre-exercise stretching and you start talking dynamic stretching, it is important first to actually get on the bike, not at a really high intensity, but get on the bike and get the blood flowing through the body. Get the core temperature to rise a little bit and it also makes those muscles a little more malleable when we start talking about just stretching and we’re not over-stretching cold muscles. That again, when your muscles are a little bit cold and you are feeling a little bit stiff, maybe from a previous session, it is really easy then to start tearing and start causing minor injuries.

Dynamic stretches in the beginning of the session, make sure that you warm up first, so you do some sort of light exercise, just to get the blood flowing. Dynamic, as I mentioned, has reference to moving kind of exercises, so that just allows movement around the joints and extended range of motions and then post-exercise is where we then spend a fair amount of time doing the static stretching, so sitting on the floor, lying on the floor, standing, whatever it might be, but focusing on the static stretches.

How often should I stretch?

It’s important then, we all say how much is enough stretching? You would probably be safe to get away with stretching twice a day and working through all your stretches. Again, as I mentioned earlier, it’s for a better lifestyle, for what we do on an everyday basis, your overall flexibility is always going to work. So, stretching twice a day, stretching, if you want to talk sets and reps, holding each stretch between 30-60 seconds per side or per leg or per arm, whatever it might be and then repeating that, doing two cycles of 30-60 seconds per stretch that you are doing.

Then just as an add-on and I have mentioned this in a previous podcast and it doesn’t go down very well with a lot of people, but Pilates is for me personally, I think it’s a really key add-on to your cycling. One, in terms, from a strength point of view, but two, also just helps with that range of motion of movement and in terms of your flexibility, is always going to be a great add-on to your training.

DK: Devlin, I’m not laughing at you because I’m a big yoga fanatic. If I could only do one exercise, it would probably be that because you do feel the benefit as to your body and as you’ve touched on, the add-ons, I find with running it has a huge benefit. Don’t be afraid to try new things, that is the idea that you can take away from this podcast.

If you want to find out more from Devlin, have some one-on-one time with him, all you need to do is join, we have a really engaged community and to sign up for that online community, just go to coachparry.com/join, it gives you exclusive members-only video content, video coaching and access to the private Facebook group, so go check it out, coachparry.com/join.

From myself, Mr Active, David Katz and Devlin Eyden, we’ll catch up with you on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast next time.