evanyc

So what kinda stretching habits to ya'll have? I generally only stretch right before a ride, but I've been meaning to start up an every morning routine. How about everyone else? What type of stretches do you do?

anthropete

I usually stretch for about 10-15 minutes right before riding. I think it helps to loosen me up a bit. Ironically enough, I have read that stretching after the ride is equally if not more important than before. I don't usually do this. Maybe I should look into it.

Pete
https://www.viovio.com/anthropete

arcellus

yuh, i've heard from several places that you can hurt yourself by stretching cold muscles. i think the best is to ride for a bit, get warmed up, then get off and stretch. if that's not an option, it's still probably best to stretch after riding.

and don't forget to stretch those hip flexors!

absntr

I don't usually stretch at all - if you ride enough, you shouldn't have to. I read that somewhere too, I forget where. Maybe someone else can confirm. I usually start slow if it's the first ride of the day and if it's early morning. I just want to get my muscles a little more awake and in tune with the flow.

I haven't done Yoga in over a year but when I was doing it regularly, it was amazing for riding.

arcellus

i've also read that too much stretching, meaning too much flexibility, can be bad for endurace sports like running and cycling. the extra flexibilty leads to more motion in your joints, which can lead to more repetitive-stress injuries.

weed eater

i do a short workout/stretch/yoga at least every other morning, thanks to the diligence of my master trainer, who also is my SO. I think in general it helps a lot, both for flexibility and for bone strength. I've twisted my ankle in ways that used to put me out for two days, and nowadays it just warms me with a rush of blood and adrenaline, and i'm fine a few minutes later.

I always learned it's good to stretch just before a ride, but I rarely do it nowadays. As for stretching cold muscles, we usually do a brief warm-up, then a stretch, then a workout. jumping jacks and stuff. New video out soon, lol.

EnLaCalle

I don't stretch. I actually hate stretching. But I know I should do it. Especially on those 60 mile plus days. I really have to force myself to go beyond just stretching my quads.

If I go running, I do the whole battery of stretches, head to toe. I've thought about taking up Yoga b/c it's purpose is stretching in and of itself. Because when I'm stretching at home, I find myself itching to be done with it and move on to the next stretch/finish stretching altogether. So I can do something else that I don't dislike nearly as much. My logic being that if I'm there (yoga) solely to stretch, maybe I won't feel the same way. Haven't tried it yet. It's difficult to bring myself to start paying for something that I try to avoid if it all possible.

Oh well. Maybe you should start an "NYC Morning Stretches Thread" and get us in line. You could be like Spike Jonze dancing in that Fat Boy Slim video...

Jose R 

I would like to know the sources for these claim.

If anything extra flexibility prevents injury.

Bernard Hinault once said that to be a good cyclist you need to have supple muscles. And in order to have suppleness you need to have flexibility. and in order to obtain flexibility you need to stretch. In one of his books he talked about bike techniques that every cyclist should be able to do; one was to ride the bike while off the saddle with just one knee straddling the top tube while keeping both hands on the bars and your ass near the BB, or something like that.

If you go on to cycling news track page and look through their photo archive you will find photos of the top elite track riders mingling around the infield during a World Cup event or championship. In some of these photos you will see them doing the unthinkable, yes stretching. And note the type of stretches they do and then figure out which muscles or ligaments they are stretching and why.

As far as my personal regiment: I stretch at night (never in the morning) right before I go to bed when my muscles are warmest and ligaments are soft. And I try to do as many different stretches as I can and hold them for as long as I can. I try and do this every day, but don't usually, so it comes out usually every other day.

arcellus

the "if you ride enough, you shouldn't have to" claim is crap.

as far as my "too much flexibilty can cause injury" claim, i don't remember the source. it was mostly pertaining to distance running, though. as in, extra flexibility means extra motion in the joints, which can lead to inflammation. not pulls or sprains, mostly the repetitive stress type of thing.

i've been training for a marathon and found early on that extra motion in my hips caused some serious pain. i quit doing really intense stretches and went back to more of a "loosening up" type of routine, and suddenly no more pain. i hear lots of runners talking about this, trying to lose a bit of lower body flexibility.

absntr

I didn't believe it either really. Still, I don't stretch enough except when I do 30+ mile rides. I still do a few yoga moves but don't call it a real practice of any sort. I need to find more time.

I read that somewhere, I wish I could remember where I read it. There was probably more to it.

I use to run and my roommate and her boyfriend run daily - about 15+ miles. I notice they don't stretch too much either.

dynaryder

All I can say from personal experience is that if I don't stretch,I'll feel it the next morning in the tops of my thighs and lower back. Course,I ain't as young as I used to be.

ch0mb0

I do a little qigong "chi-kung" exercise if I get the chance before rides...

involves a bit of stretching & loosening up the body, regulating breathing (as mentioned in the "breathing" thread), or even standing meditation

HereNT

So anyone got any fixed-gear specific stretching exercises? My muscles have been getting pretty tight now that I'm up to 150miles a week... Ones that work with the muscles you use when skidding would be best...

bombusben

I find that daily stretching or a dedicated yoga practice really helps both running and biking. I started a few years ago, and never really realized how inflexable I was until I started stretching on a regular basis. I usually don't stretch much immediatly before or after running or biking, but as long as I can spend 30min a day stretching, especially my legs, I feel much better. If I forget, or don't have time for a few days in a row, I can really start to feel it.
Personally, I find that the more I bike, or especially run, the more I need to stretch. I used to run a couple thousand miles a year, and found that the more I ran, the tighter my hamstrings would be, which I think can contribute to bad posture / lower back pain down the road.

Aeroplane

Extra motion in the joints shouldn't be a problem unless it is not in the direction that it is intended to move, or else far more motion than it is used to. Flexibility increases your ability to use the muscle you already have, whether by increasing your stride length (running) or using different muscle groups (cycling).

"Intense" stretching is bad. If it hurts, you are going to far. And, if you stretch too far, the muscle can have a reflexive tendency to lose flexibility, making the stretch counter to its intent. I've been running competitively for 9 years, and that's one of the things that every coach who's worth his salt has told us.

Increasing flexibility and litheness are two reasons that American distance runners have been slowly getting more competitive on an international scale. In the 80's and 90's, the focus was on just working yourself to death, since it worked in the 70's. Stretching helps.

peripatetic

I agree. Usually, the better distance runners are more flexible. Inflexibility in one muscle group can lead to overusing another, and thus injury/debilitation. To the poster who said they were suffering pain in their hips, it's very possible that this pain was coming from inflexibility in another part of your body--possibly your back or glutes. The glutes and the hips are the best muscles to use for running, as they take undue stress away from the knees and ankles. Look at the form of the best runners in the world: they certainly use their hips, stomach, buttocks and shoulders. Most people have really poor running form, which makes them a. suffer pain/injury and b. slow. Don't tighten up or hold your hip muscles, it'll only cause you pain in the future.

The older you get, the more important/crucial stretching and flexibility becomes. Look at all elite athletes: as they age, they move away from resistence training and weighlifting to flexibility and conditioning. This is what prevents injury.

Stretching without breathing isn't nearly as effective as the two together.

Ken Cox

The word stretching misleads people.
No part of the human body becomes longer or more flexible because of so-called stretching.
Tendons and ligaments will not and CAN not stretch.
The muscles stretch only insomuch as rubber bands stretch and then return to their original shape and length.

What we perceive as flexibility and inflexibility flows out of residual tone in our muscles that results from unconscious and or forgotten commands from the cells that make up our brains.
Dead people, corpses, have remarkable flexibility (except for that time during which rigor mortis makes them stiff).
Even very old people who seemed inflexible and stiff in life have unimagineably flexible bodies in death, because they have no brain activity to give their muscles residual tone.

That which we refer to as stretching actually represents a non-verbal feedback learning process in which our body discovers muscle tone and either learns to relax the muscle (usually only temporarily) or to overcome the muscle.

Some forms of yoga offer good body feedback and others can cause injury.
One should "stretch" to the point of pleasant feedback and hold the so-called "stretch" for no more than two seconds (one Mississippi, two Mississippi).
One should alternate "stretches" between the left and right sides of the body, and between extension and flexion of the body, so that the body can teach itself to let go of unconsciously held muscle tone without self-injury.

The injuries that come from not-stretching come as the result of unconsciously-retained muscle tension or tone.
We learn much of this unconsciously-retained muscle tension from our culture and our family, and by age 15 we have locked it in as an almost permanent behavior.
Some forms of yoga, dance and physical therapy can reverse this and enable a person to discover many more options regarding movement and flexibility than one might think.

In the meantime, in terms of reduced injuries and arthritis later in life (past 35 years of age) it helps to "stretch" both ways, both sides, and for only two seconds per stretch in the earlier years.

Y'know what they say: "If I had known I would live this long I would've taken better care of myself."
No joke.

celephaiz

I claim B!

peripatetic

Amen to that, brutha. Man, whoever thought the thirties could become so achey...?

lala

Add another amen. Now that I'm getting all old and crap I'm going to start...next week!

HereNT

Yeah, I'd start too - maybe this next 6 months I can stave off some acheyness before I turn 30... But no-one's given me a good link to a site with how to stretch! I need pics! I'm dumb that way!

phidauex

Yes, HereNT and I need pictures! Anyone got a pictorial guide to some good stretches/exercises we can do at home?

peace,
sam

evanyc

pics! i demand pics too!

habitus

i like jose's practice of stretching just before bed. i'm gonna try that. morning stretching sucks.

cookiepuss

This site has illustrations. You can use the "Pointer's Stretch" when pointing out people on fixies and claiming they are posers. Or the "Heart Warming" stretch when you finally save up for those Phil Woods you have been wanting with color matched deep Vs. Ahhh the joy of stretching knows no bounds!

https://www.stretch.com/stretch.htm

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