- The warm up to any session is essential and hard to miss.
The warm down however, is easily forgotten
and quite often overlooked.
After a hard ride, you like to be feeling pretty satisfied
with the work you've done
and probably a little bit tired.
As a result, it's very tempting to just
get off your bike, pop that away,
grab a recovery snack, and jump in the shower.
But what about those mobility exercises and stretches?
Well if you want your body to recover well
and be ready for your next session,
you do need to include these in your routine.
So we've put together seven essential exercises
for you to work through after your next cycle ride.
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Start lying on your back, put your arms out to your sides
and lift your knees up so that they're at right angles.
And from there, drop them gently down to one side.
You should start to feel a really nice twist
in your thoracic region.
If you want to increase that twist or that stretch,
turn your head in the opposite direction.
If you want to increase it yet a little bit more,
you can take your spare hand and just pop it
onto the top of your knee, just to push it slightly
further across, and you'll feel a really nice stretch
going all the way from your legs,
right with which your shoulder.
Make sure you bring it back to the center
and then drop it down to the other side
and hold stretch, both sides.
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Start lying face down and then bend one heel
towards your bottom.
And with your hand on that same side, reach back
and grab your ankle.
And there you want to imagine that you're trying
to push your ankle away into your hand.
That'll automatically cause your chest to rise
and you'll feel a stretch, both in your thoracic spine,
so down the front, but also in your hip.
And then hold that, carrying on with that pull against it.
Make sure you swap to the other side.
And if you want to really double that stretch
and increase the thoracic opener,
then you can do it with both hands simultaneously.
So reach back, grab both your ankles,
and really push against.
You want to try and get your knees off the ground as well
as your shoulders off the ground.
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For this one, start with your feet facing forwards
and parallel.
And then take a lunge step forwards.
And then bend that front knee so that it becomes
at right angles, not going past your toes.
You should already start to feel a stretch
at the front of your hip on the opposite side.
And then just drop your hips down until you feel
enough of a stretch.
If you want to intensify that stretch a little bit more,
raise your arms up above your head,
take hold of your hand on the side
that your hips are already being stretched
and pull that across.
You're putting in a slight side bend
and that'll just really deepen that stretch
into the hip flexors a little bit more.
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Some people get tighter calf muscles than others.
Personally, for this stretch, I like to find
a step or a ledge, then I can use gravity to help me.
If you can do it next to something where you can hold on,
just to make sure you're nice and secure,
and then put the ball of your foot on the edge of that step.
And let the weight just gradually fill down
through your heel with your legs straight.
So one leg at a time.
And you'll start to feel that stretch
in the big belly part of your calf, the gastrocnemius.
Hold that and then come up and change over
to the other leg.
Then come back to your first leg,
and then drop your heel down,
but this time with your knee bent.
And you'll find the stretch move further down your calf
into your soleus muscle.
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There are loads of different ways of stretching
your hamstring, but today we're gonna be using
a band to help us.
So you can use an elastic like I've got,
or a tea towel, or a piece of clothing,
anything that you can fit around your foot
and still reach with your arms.
So once you've hooked it round your foot, lie back.
And then using your hands, you're gonna pull your foot
towards you.
Try to keep your knees straight.
You'll start to feel that stretch down
the back of your thigh, down your hamstring.
And then just hold that.
And if you have got an elastic, you can start to pull it
a little bit closer, and then hold it again,
and relax it back down.
Swap to the other side.
And actually repeat it twice here and see if you
can get it a little bit further the second time.
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Alright this one's a double whammy
because you're gonna get a glute stretch
as well as thoracic rotation.
So starting with your legs out in front of you,
take one ankle and pop that across your knee
so your knee is bent.
And then you'll take the opposite arm
and place that over that knee.
And then with a gentle pressure,
you're trying to twist your body away from your legs.
And you'll start to feel
a really nice stretch through your thoracic spine.
You should also feel it in your glute.
If you want to make this stretch more intense,
you can actually bend the underneath leg
in the opposite direction.
So you're just gonna be increasing the glute stretch.
And then you'll be able to increase
that thoracic stretch as well.
Unwind and make sure that you repeat it on the other side.
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We often forget about our neck and the muscles around it.
But if you spend a long time on the TT bike
in that perching position, then you need to basically
counteract that motion.
So starting off interlocking your hands behind your back
and pulling your shoulders back 'til you've got
a really nice, good neutral posture.
And then from there, just drop your chin down
towards your chest, nice and gently
and you'll feel a stretch down the back of your neck.
And just hold that and relax into it.
And then bring your head back up to neutral.
You can either keep your hands behind your back
or have them by your side.
And then take your ear towards your shoulder,
keeping your face forwards,
and just dropping your head to one side.
If you want to just add a little bit more of a stretch,
you can take your arm and just put light pressure
on your head.
So you'll start to feel that stretch on the outside
of your neck a little bit more.
Take the pressure off, bring your head back to neutral,
and repeat the same on the other side.
Work out which areas are tightest for you
and then prioritize those.
And if you only manage to incorporate a five to 10 minute
routine after every bike ride,
that can still make a considerable difference
to your recovery, and therefore
to your next session as well.
And finally, don't forget the good old foam roller.
If you want some ideas of how to use that,
we've made a video specifically on the foam roller
you can find just down here.
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And if you want to work out how to get more power
on the bike with just four exercises,
we've got a video that Mark made down here.