The Best Warm-Up?
Melane has started training to do a century ride (100 miles) this July, she is riding over 30 miles on each of her training rides, she is finding the first few miles tough going, this is quite normal for most of us, but you can help prepare your body for the efforts to come. Here is our advice
Question:
I am training for 100 mile bike ride in July. Now that I am riding 30+ miles at a time, I find the first 3 miles the hardest. Is there a warm up exercise that I can do to help minimize this?
Hi Melane.
Yes the first 3 miles can be hard and believe me its not just you! If you just jump on the bike and ride as hard as you can then you will feel tired very quickly and run a high chance of injury. There are two things you can do to minimalise these problems.
Stretching Exercises
These you should do before and after your ride, warm up and cool down: Stretching is important during your warm-up, before you run, because it increases blood flow to the muscles. But stretching during your cool-down may be even more important. Stretching afterwards also will help you relax.
Don’t overstretch: While stretching can promote flexibility, stretching too far actually can damage the muscles especially if you’re recovering form an injury. By overstretching, you will cause the muscle to recoil to protect itself from tearing and injury. Also, don’t bounce while stretching. Hold the stretch in a static position, this works best.
Here are five basic stretches that should help, check out the internet for many more, you will find there are lots for all sports, so study as many as you can to decide which will suit you.
Piriformis Stretch: The piriformis muscle is responsible for lateral rotation of the hip, keeping the piriformis muscle loose is important for overall flexibility. Lying on your back, cross your legs just as you might while sitting in a chair. Grasping the under leg with both hands, pull the knee toward your chest until you feel the stretch in your buttocks and hips.
Quadriceps Stretch: The quadriceps is the muscle in the front of the thigh, important for lifting your knees. To do this exercise while standing, simply grab hold of a stationary object for balance with one hand and use the opposite hand to grasp the leg around the ankle, lifting it toward your buttocks. Keep your back straight and not allow the knee to drift forward ahead of the stance leg.
Hamstring Stretch: The hamstring is the muscle that runs from just below the knee up into the buttocks. It’s the muscle that lifts the lower leg and bends the knee after the quads have lifted your knees. Lie on your back, keeping the back flat. Grasp the back of one thigh with both your hands and pull that thigh into a 90-degree position to the floor. Then slowly straighten your knee.
Gastroc Stretch: The gastroc muscle, along with the soleus, is located in the back of the calf. Lean against a wall or other stationary object, both palms against the object. The leg you want to stretch is back, several feet from the wall, your heel firmly positioned on the floor. Your other leg is flexed about halfway between your back leg and the wall. Start with your back straight and gradually lunge forward until you feel the stretch in your calf.
Soleus Stretch: The soleus is the other major muscle in the calf, located in front of the gastroc. Position yourself similar to the gastroc stretch with back straight and palms against the wall. The difference is that you start in a seated position with your legs bent, your buttocks dropped. Gently lean into the wall until you feel the stretch in your lower calf.
There are also stretching excersises for the shoulders, trunk, thoracic, abdominals, groin and lateral stretches, all still important for the cyclist.
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A Good Warm-Up
The other thing you can do is to start slowly when you go for a ride, keep your pulse down, pedal in a low gear and take it easy until you feel that your muscles are warm and flexible, this can take up to half an hour and in some cases longer depending on how much you train, your body type, age and what you have been doing that day or the previous day. If you work standing up or sitting down all day or have a particularly hard physical job then you find your body is stiff and less flexible, this is where stretching and a good warm-up is very important and helpful for performance and preparing the body for exercise without injury.
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For more help with training give our sister web-site cyclingmind.com a visit and check out more ways to gain fitness and plan your training.
