Yoga for the Touring Cyclist
 

Hey y'all. I was lucky enough to do a nice collaboration with Abi Carver, a yoga instructor who specializes in routines for cyclists and other athletes. Good, restorative stretches for the end of long tour days — I know a few cyclists who saw a return to long-distance riding after injuries through yoga.

I'm no yogi, but when my knees go weak and my back starts to fail, you bet I will be!

Yoga for Touring Cyclists

I was surprised by the response on this board a few years back when I mentioned that I always spend time stretching while touring. People thought that was just something for racers. Hopefully, there has been some eyes opened to the virtues of maintaining flexibility for all riders since then.

On tours I do some stretches like Sun Exercise to combat back/leg soreness but then it becomes obvious that much more benefit if one does a yoga regime in preparation too. Hard cycling tends to make the core curl up vs better posture of straight back/hips forward (like good racers). Yoga also helps breathing & stretches help circulation to remove toxins from tired muscles.

I've been practicing yoga for about six years now. I began simply for the benefits of reducing anxiety and found that there are many more benefits that come from it. Now that I have started cycling, I have found that when practicing yoga my muscles are tighter from riding and my routine helps a lot to counteract that.

Thanks for the link. I'm always interested in new yoga information.

I've been practicing yoga for the past couple months, recovering from a soft tissue hip injury. It's helped immensely.

I've found that it really aids my day to day recovery, as well. My data suggests that my next day rides are a lot weaker if I don't do yoga after the previous day's ride.

My mother teaches yoga, and her health level for her age is envious. I will surely start taking classes when I'm not so tied up with grad school.

Most of my clothing comes from Prana, so I'm already a good aesthetic fit.

Pro athletes pretty much all do stretching even if it's formally 'yoga'. I've seen NFL players warm up, they even have guys to help them do the leg stretches, heh. A long time ago ace Aussie cyclist Ian Jackson wrote a book on yoga for athletes--back then yoga was not so well-known in US etc. He wrote that yoga did much to help minimize or prevent injuries. I once read an article by an exercise expert that noted while many racers do a fairly good job at leg stretches, they often neglect other stretches esp back/hip etc. & a lot of times, until one starts doing yoga, one isn't aware of how tight certain parts really are.

Ideally, one should do cardio, stretching & strength training. I guess we bikers want to hop on the bike & get some miles in, it's easy to neglect stretching/strength parts, I'm certainly guilty there. Well ski season is coming up, yoga is also highly recommended for skiing too.

I have a chronic back issue unrelated to cycling. It was getting to the point that getting out of bed was painful and bending over would cause sharp pains. A yoga/stretching routine reduced the pain by about 80% and keeps it mostly in check. I've always meant to incorporate yoga into touring but haven't actually done it yet. Cool topic, thanks for the link.

I see fitness as tripod with the three legs: strength, endurance, and flexibility. Most of us cyclists are all over the endurance but may be lacking in the strength & flexibility departments. Yoga is THE key flexibility.

I don't stretch before or after. I'm 50. I just finished a 74 day tour across Canada, no pain what so ever. I have been home for 30 days, pain every day, and I don'[t sleep worth a crap. Kinda funny though. The first or second week of the tour, a couple of the girls thought it would be a great idea to do yoga after a riding all day. It lasted 2, maybe 3 days in a row. They might have done it that many more times the rest of the ride. I guess if you are into it before you go, you may keep it up. Otherwise, IDK.

Congrats on the tour! Just curious--what saddle did you use? I used to ride 300+ km/week, didn't do much stretching. I think that on a long tour the fitness level goes up & the effort becomes routine. But now my riding schedule is erratic & on longer day rides I get some fatigue & tightness so stretching helps. I guess there can be a psychological/physiological letdown after a long tour but constant pain & sleep difficulty sounds pretty serious.

I have a Brooks B-17 on my touring bike, on my mountain bike, and 2 on the tandem. The one on the touring bike had probably 2000 kilometres (1200 miles) on it when I left. It now has nearly 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles). Uber comfortable. For me and my wife, they have been comfortable out of the box. As far as pain and not sleeping well, I've done nothing as far as physical activity i.e. biking, weight lifting, aerobics, since I have returned from my tour. I have worked in the yard and garden quite a bit though-so doing stuff my body is not used to, so that is partly the problem. The other part is probably our bed. We bought a Temperpedic a few months before I left on tour. We should have gotten a sleep number bed, in retrospect. It would be easier to match the comfort of sleeping on an air mattress in a tent. In fact, my dad was just telling me last week that their sleep number bed is 20 years old this year, and they still love it. I slept so well on tour, now if I could just convince my wife to ride with me a 100 kms a day.......

I only looked at the first third of the video linked in the OP. I would be hesitant to follow her lead too closely. Her approach is fine for those who don't have any back issues, but could be disastrous for someone coming from a history of lower back problems.

Not surprised to hear you used a B-17! A friend w/bad nerve problem in back/shoulder bought a sleep number bed & likes it a lot.

Yeah with yoga it's best to start slow, some poses can overdo things it one isn't careful. Sometimes on tours (w/o doing much stretching before the tour) I get some lower back soreness & try to stretch it out but then the stretches can actually make the affected area feel temporarily more irritated. Not a sharp pain indicating I've caused damage, more of a sign that I shoulda been doing the stretching program before additional stress of touring.

BTW I read a forum post by a tourist who was dealing with back & saddle soreness (IIRC) & moved to lower handlebar position & found it helped take pressure off sensitive areas. Also at Richmond2015 I saw that many of the racers keep their shoulders really low (of course the fast pace dictated some of that). So on today's 50-mile ride I made an effort to keep hips forward, back stretched out & use lower handlebar positions. Seems like it helped minimize saddle & back discomfort. The SQLab 610 active Fitness saddle I'm trying out encourages the hips-forward style--otherwise the sitbones try to slide forward off the padded section.

I too have back and neck problems from numerous car accidents (mainly people running red lights.) One of the benefits I found after starting yoga practice was the the back and neck pain reduced greatly. I can really tell when I start slacking.

On another note regarding stretching (and gymnastics for that matter) I have since noticed that much of it is indeed simple yoga poses.