General Cycling Discussion - I've been skiing and my legs are sore!

Well we have a lot of snow up in Northern Ontario and the trails for XC-skiing are fantastic. I got out both days this past weekend and it felt great at the time but I am paying for it now. It's funny how you think you are in great shape until you head out and do a different sport.

I must say all the training on the rollers has paid off with aerobic benefits but it will take a few days for the different leg muscles to adapt to skiing. Mostly the hip flexors that are a little tight. I got on the bike to loosen up tonight! That's a change:)

Do leg stretches. The soreness will go away sooner.

I always stretch before and after any excercise routine. I never used to do this when I was younger but I find now that I have not choice if I want to keep mobile.

You're be better off to stretch only after you exercise, that's when it does you the most good and it is very, very easy to injure yourself if you stretch before exercise, particularly if you're not "very" warmed up.

Ride Limber
Pat

Stretching and light massage is extremely important before excercise. You should be doing it all the time. You are right about being slightly warmed up before you do any extreme stretching but you should certainly not enter into serious excercise without doing at least minimal stretching.

You don't stretch COLD muscles. So get out there and do a 5 minute warm up (jog around the parking lot or something) - then stretch!

Pat5319, Captain Crunch and MtnBikerChk are absolutely correct in stressing warming the muscles and exercising/ stretching them prior to a ride. The only time I've ever had a hamstring pull was when I didn't adhere to this advice. You might want to rethink your opinion.

(BTW, I was in my early 50's when this happened.):(