Foto: iStock.com/Youngoldman

When those initial long bike rides are painful.
 
As the days get longer and the spring sun makes an appearance, bike rides are finally becoming longer and more strenuous again. And your muscles can usually feel it. Because sitting on a bike for long periods, without changing position, strains your muscles and makes you less flexible. The hunched-up position on a bike – especially on a racing bike – is unnatural for your body and takes some getting used to.

So it’s sensible to gradually increase the length of your bike rides. However, you will still experience physical issues at some point if you don’t do specific flexibility exercises alongside this, allowing you to alleviate the symptoms. Accompanying measures allow your body to become increasingly accustomed to the challenge of lengthy bike rides. A few minutes – at regular intervals – will suffice. Here are five exercises to try out!

Flex your thoracic vertebrae

The hunched-up position sitting on a bike makes it difficult for your hip muscles to deliver their full potential. And unfortunately, this risks shortening your hip flexors. To perform well on a bike, you need both strength and length in those muscles. The following two exercises will strengthen and extend your hip flexors.

Here’s how:

• Perform a long forward lunge, extend your back leg as far as possible and bend your front leg so that your lower leg is roughly perpendicular to the floor. Stretch your upper body forward, while resting the hand opposite your front leg on the floor at foot height.
• Now extend the arm on the same side as your front leg upwards towards the ceiling and turn your head in the same direction (A).
• From this position, bring your arm back down and extend it past your knee to the opposite side (B).

Take note: actively stretch your back knee so that it doesn't bend. Your pelvis stays centrally aligned during this exercise, even as your upper body rotates.

Repetitions: 2 sets of 10 repetitions per side.

Bend backwards on your knees

Here’s how:

• Kneel on a soft surface with your legs hip width apart, keep your upper body upright and look straight ahead (A).
• Now extend your arms upwards towards the ceiling (B+C).
• Then stretch as far back as you can from your thoracic spine without losing your balance (D).
• Let your eyes follow your hands towards the ceiling, with your abdominal muscles fully activated.
• Slowly return your upper body to the starting position and lower your arms.

Take note: use your abdominal muscles to maintain control during this exercise to make sure that your lower back doesn’t become concave when you move your arms backwards. Also remember to use your neck muscles to ensure that your head doesn’t fall backwards, but remains upright.

Repetitions: 2 sets of 10 repetitions.

Hands up!

Your shoulders, neck and thoracic vertebrae suffer the most as a result of the specific position on a bike. Actively straightening your back is a successful way to counteract this. The following exercises help stretch all your vertebrae and train the muscles at the back of your body.

Here’s how:

• Stand directly against the wall with your legs hip width apart, your arms angled 90° upwards and your knees ever so slightly bent.
• In this starting position, your heels, buttocks, back, head, shoulders, upper arms and elbows are all pressed against and touching the wall (A).
• Now slowly slide your arms up the wall, without letting the backs of your hands lose contact with the wall, as well as your forearms, elbows and shoulders (B).
• Then slide your arms back down to the starting position.

Take note: many people find the correct starting position strenuous. Your lower back usually wants to detach itself from the wall, so you need to counter this by applying the correct abdominal tension to rotate your pelvis backwards so that your lower back touches the wall again. The same applies to your neck: always lower your chin slightly towards your chest. A lack of flexibility in your thoracic vertebrae and shoulders means that your elbows want to detach themselves from the wall when sliding upwards. So actively push your shoulders back during this exercise and only lift your arms high enough to allow your elbows to barely touch the wall. Over time, you should be able to lift your arms higher and higher.

Repetitions: 2 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

Rotate your upper body

The rear and inner muscles in your legs also become tense when cycling. Both these muscle groups therefore deserve their share of stretching after lengthy bike rides – the more energetically the better. The following exercise provides a workout for your hamstrings and the adductors in your legs, strengthens your lower back and rotates your thoracic vertebrae.

Here’s how:

• Stand with your legs wide apart and your toes pointing forwards, bend your upper body forward keeping your back straight, place your hands on your breastbone and look down (A).
• Now rotate your upper body from your breastbone as far to the left as possible, hold this position for a moment and take a deep breath. Then turn to the other side, while breathing out (B+C).

Take note: your legs and pelvis must remain still and shouldn’t move. Stretch your back and keep it straight.

Repetitions: 2 sets of 10 repetitions.

Lift your knees

Here’s how:

• Stand with your legs hip width apart, wrap an elastic band around the front of your feet, keep your back straight and rest your hands on your pelvis (A).
• Lift one knee as high as you can against the resistance and then bring your foot down, stretching it as far back as possible (B+C)

Take note: move your knee slowly, ensuring your pelvis and leg remain still. In addition, attach the elastic band so that it doesn’t slip off the front of your foot when stretching backwards.

Repetitions: 2 sets of 10 repetitions per side.