That's so they have energy to stretch

When I was in second grade through 5th grade my PE teacher made us warm up and stretch a bit before going out to run or play, then I forgot all about it until I was about 30 years old and went hiking in the Grand Canyon, after walking 20 miles or so in the sand and rocks of that dessert I couldn't almost walk next morning, then a cousin told me that morning to do stretching and that was a miracle, I felt the pain much less and I was able to walk ok again and enjoy the rest of the days thanks to stretching. Since then, after I do some kind of exercise that gives me that little muscle pain I do a little stretching too and I feel it helps. Now before going to ride my bike and after I'm done I do too, but just a little, it's more like a warming up kind of thing. I just feel weird jumping in the bike straight from being lazy and not moving a lot, it's like my muscles are sleeping so stretching a bit makes me feel ready to start biking. For me it helps too with back, shoulder and neck pains now that I'm biking.

my dogs always stretch when they get up before moving around. I guess I am just not as smart as my dogs.

Yes, and I stretch when I yawn. I'm guessing that your dogs don't go through 30-minute stretching routines, either.

Guess I must be having a senior moment. I do not recall having said anything about any 30 minutes stretching routine. You have some unusual yawns it seems.

As a younger man I never bothered to stretch as I did not seem to need it. Now that I'm an old man I stretch first thing in the AM, the equivalent of warming up the auto engine before putting it in gear. Maintaining range of motion and mobility has become increasingly necessary also so I stretch several times during the day. I like some of the yoga moves also as they also increase core strength, good on the bike, as well as range of motion.

:lol:

I didn't, but starting in May, I have had bad SI joint pain keeping me off the bike for the past 8 weeks (going to try a short ride today). My physical therapist has me doing a stretching routine and I'm feeling much better. So will I keep doing it? It could be a correlation implies causation fallacy on my part and I would have healed in 8 weeks without it. But they're pretty easy stretches and only take about 15 minutes three day a week, so I'll probably keep it up.

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Originally Posted by canklecat (Post 18943450)

Yoga is just stretching and balance, from a purely physical perspective. Practiced it when I was younger. Never got into the mysticism bit. I suppose that helps some folks....But to me it's just stretching and balancing.

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My understanding of overall physical fitness is that the four components are endurance, strength, flexibility, and balance. For me yoga incorporates flexibility and balance. For various periods of time I did yoga daily, and about six years ago I even could stand on my head. My practice waned, including after a serious bike accident with a fractured sacrum and I didn’t take it up again until last month.

I have found over the years it to be very effective for flexibility and balance though I don’t think it necessarily helps my cycling (endurance), but I think my cycling helps my yoga. In my current practice, I do seem to be limited by my deformed sacrum.

The way I’ve learned yoga is completely from a book, Richard Hittleman’s Yoga 28 Day Exercise Plan. You learn about 30-40 or so stretches over 28 days and then you’re provided a repeated three-day cycle of those exercises, and you’re encouraged to do the program daily. I’m now into about four weeks of the cycles, and I do note almost daily that I can achieve positions more readily in small increments.

I don’t stretch either before or after cycling, but usually in the evening at the end of the day. Likewise, I’m not into the meditative aspects, and indeed I listen to radio talk shows during my session.

Finally,I have never been into weight training, but I’m planning to start using resistance bands. Richard Hittleman in his book suggests that you faithfully follow the three-day cycles daily for at least a month and they will become habitual. So my plan is after I’ve habituated myself to daily yoga, I’ll start alternating it with the resistance bands.

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Originally Posted by Kevindale (Post 18943624)

…There are a lot of different forms of yoga. Patience isn't really necessary for many forms, but focus and discipline and balance are. I get into a similar mental state doing yoga and riding at close to my limit when I'm solo. One of the keys to enjoying yoga is, I think, similar to what it takes to enjoy riding -- focusing on your own experience, and not thinking about what anyone else is doing or thinking about you. The biggest thing that keeps most people for doing yoga is self consciousness, not patience or an appetite for mysticism.

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Nicely stated @Kevindale. I usually do my yoga in our office suite after hours. I need at least a carpeted floor and a large space, at least about 10 x 10 feet with about a 7 foot ceiling to do my exercises. I tell various personnel who might be coming through not to look because it isn’t pretty. :eek:

From the article, ‘‘Runners and cyclists don’t have much risk for acute muscle strains.’’ Stretching before these activities is therefore unlikely to protect against in­jury....Runners and cyclists can adequately warm up, Dr. McHugh says, by jogging or pedaling lightly."

I have a self-developed cycle training program using Relative Perceived Exertion, with a defined warm-up period of six miles.

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Originally Posted by Jim from Boston (Post 18927818)

My basic training is to ride at my RPE of 50% for six miles to warm up, then cruise at an RPE of 60%, and do intervals (on hills) at 70%. I try to change gears to maintain a cadence of about 85-90 rpm on flats and rolling hills, and about 60 to 80 rpm on harder hills,to maintain my RPE. Shift up to higher gears as the cadence rises, and shift down as the RPE increases

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I defined it as 6 miles because during my first year of intense training I would note at what point I spontaneously felt completely warmed up.(It was a spontaneous observation, not one that I looked for.) After about two months, I noted that feeling usually occurred at about 6 miles.

I stretch my tubulars before mounting them...

Here the latest stretching thoughts from the New York Times . Basically it says stretching is good to do before many types of exercise along with warm up exercise, but not with cycling. It does suggest stretching after cycling and I would add on long rides like multi day tours or charity event century rides I find it very beneficial to stretch during longer rest stops during the day.:giver::giver:

And maybe that's my problem, due to time constraints I only had time to do the cycling and the martial arts, I didn't have time to also go to a gym and or do MA conditioning; but also know that certain martial arts like Aikido, which is what I took for about 40 years, is rough on the joints due to the type of stuff they do with joints.

By the way, Aikido, like quite a few other martial art styles, has a religious belief intertwined with philosophy which I never subscribed too and fortunately the second teacher I had never did either.

I've never been very flexible and, for some reason, since I picked up cycling I'm even LESS flexible. So I'm add a stretching session after rides, and sometimes mid-ride when I take a break. If I don't stretch a bit, I get cramps at night. Not so fun to wake up in pain.