The primary concern is that we spend a lot of time in a very flexed position.
Whether we’re sitting at a desk, sitting at a car, sitting at a table, and in our case
sitting on a bike; we have so many postural distortions that we maintain while we’re
working out, that it’s hard for us to break away from the inflexibility that comes because
of them.
The overriding objective with all five of these stretches is to basically restore the
body’s natural posture.
In this restoration of natural posture basically starts with an aligned spine.
We can’t do much unless the spine is properly organized.
Then we kind of weave in the shoulder girdle and the pelvic girdle, and that gets some
of the muscles that become overly tightened when we adopt that cycling posture.
This should be an everyday endeavor.
So we’re only talking about setting aside 10-, maybe 15-minutes each day, but optimally
this is done every day.
Whether you do it before your workout or after your workout is up to you; you can even do
some of these stretches on the bike, but make time for this every day.
We’ll address three aspects of the spine: the cervical spine (or the neck), the thoracic
spine (which is basically the middle of the back), and the lumbar spine (which is the
lower back), then we’ll hit the shoulder girdle, and the pelvic girdle.
What we’re trying to address here is the muscles that are constantly in that overextended
position by pulling the head into a flex position.
Then with the second stretch, we’re trying to address thoracic mobility.
So most of the spine, say for the neck and the lumbar spine, is what we’re after here.
Again, in the case of cyclists and anyone who sits for long periods of time, are in
a really flex position.
So by draping our spines’ in an extended position over any number of surfaces, we’re
trying to unlock all that tension.
And optionally with this one, you can reach your arms overhead and brace them on either
a kettlebell or a barbell or really anything that forces you to reach overhead and holds
you in place.
And that further opens up the spine; it extends the anterior chain and releases some of those
muscles that are also tight from us being in that hunched over position.
With the third stretch we’re down at the base of the spine, the lumbar spine.
Again we’re trying to open up the spinal segments, the vertebrae, that are in that
constantly flexed position by simply extending that low back.
This is an exercise you can do pretty much anywhere.
You can do it in a seated position, you can do it on your bike, ideally you’ll do it
in a standing position, but basically you’re just moving in and out over extended position
and trying to free up some of that tension in the lumbar segments.
When it comes to the shoulders, gripping handlebars, being at a computer, holding onto a steering
wheel all pull us into an internally rotated position.
All this musculature gets tight, and all this musculature back here gets overstimulated.
So we’re trying to counter that internal rotation by stretching out those muscles and
allowing them to open back up.
That includes both the shoulder and the chest.
With this stretch, when you inner-lace your hands behind your back you can put them in
any number of positions.
Whether you put them high towards the upper spine, low towards the lower spine, hands
tight towards one another, with a gap in between each other, at some point you’ll settle
on a hand position that rings true.
It shows you this is the spot that needs most of my attention.
In some cases you can facilitate this stretch, and sometimes you need to, by bringing in
a buddy and having that person actually press down on your shoulders and drive them into
the floor because you lose most of the benefit of this stretch, perhaps all of it as soon
as those shoulder blades come unglued.
And this fifth stretch is probably my personal favorite because it addresses both the hip
flexors and the quadriceps, two areas that are chronically tight in cyclists.
This final stretch can be done in a couple of ways.
You can do it up against a wall, or you can do it on a couch, hence the name “couch
stretch”.
The idea, though, is to get in a stretch position and remain there for a pretty long duration;
I’m talking a minute and a half, two minutes at a time before moving to the other leg.
And it’s always important to bear in mind this is a progressive process just like anything
else.
So if you can’t stretch something as well as you’d like, give it time.
The more you do these, the easier it is to recognize the benefits.