The Importance of the Psoas Stretch for Cyclists

April 6, 2023 by Eric Lister

Your primary hip flexor, psoas major, is a muscle that seems to have its hand in just about everything. When it comes to cycling, we are constantly putting it into a shortened position through contraction in the upstroke and our bent forward, flexed hip postures on the bike. This article will show why having a psoas stretch or two in your recovery toolbox might save you from countless days of lost riding due to tension, pain, and ache.

We’ll see later in this article how the psoas muscle is one of the main causes of lower back pain in cyclists. (Image credit: Beaunitta Van Wyk/Adobe Stock)

Sounds dramatic, doesn’t it? Well, the truth about this tissue is a tricky one, especially in our sport. When we say it has a hand in everything, we really mean it. It is (perhaps infamously) known as the stress muscle because of its proclivity towards holding tension as a result of stress and trauma in all areas of our lives.

For example, the psoas has an intimate relationship with the diaphragm, your primary respiratory (breathing) muscle. They cross over each other and share nerve innervations through similar vertebral segments of the spine. Dysfunction in one can cause problems in the other.

Cycling is unique in that there is a lot of cardiorespiratory stress, and also postural stress on the body because of how it has to move with the bicycle. A proper bike fit can certainly help, but there is simply no way around the fact that our hip flexors are going to get smashed as a result of too much biking.

Psoas Anatomy & Positioning on the Bike

(Image credit: VectorMine/Adobe Stock)

Our psoas is the only muscle that connects the upper and lower body. It attaches to all five of the lumbar (lower back) vertebrae, which is slightly troublesome (sarcasm) if you’re going to be chronically shortening it, as is the case with cyclists, but also just people in general with modern lifestyles that involve a lot of sitting at desks, on couches, and in cars.

The reason is because as the psoas shortens, it starts to pull on those lumbar vertebrae. This hyperextends the back into a position called lordosis, and consequently tilts the pelvis forward into a position called anterior pelvic tilt. Tightness in the hip flexor muscles also weaken their opposing muscles, the glutes (butt), in what is known as reciprocal inhibition.

Different pelvic positions. (Credit: sumaki/Adobe Stock)

Cycling exacerbates this process because of the positioning of our hips while riding. They are always in a somewhat flexed position, even at the end of our downstroke. This constant flexion is a recipe for psoas tightness, and is one of the reasons why cyclists are plagued with so much lower back pain.

Notice the position of this cyclist’s left hip. It is almost completely flexed, further exacerbated by her bent forward torso. (Image credit: Artem Varnitsin/Adobe Stock)

Benefits of Psoas Stretching for Cyclists

A testament to this muscle’s activity while we ride is that it has a bigger volume in more competitive cyclists, and grows even further with intense cycling training. By performing a variety of psoas stretches on off-days or even during and/or after your ride, it’s possible to mitigate the effects of psoas stiffness that will inevitably inhibit its function and wreak havoc throughout the rest of your body.

More than half of cyclists experience low back pain, and much of that can be attributed to dysfunction in the muscles surrounding the hip joint. Not only can a tight psoas pull on your lower back and anteriorly tilt your pelvis, but it can disrupt the timing and action of different muscles, causing some to overwork and others to become weak and underutilized.

As previously mentioned, there is a distinct relationship between the psoas and how you breathe because of its proximity to the diaphragm. Cyclist’s are already prone to faulty breathing patterns through their bent forward postures and the cardio demand of the sport. All the more reason to take care of our hips so they don’t contribute to what is often a cause of neck pain in cyclists.

Psoas Stretches

Below you’ll find some excellent hip flexor stretches that you can incorporate into your recovery routines, downtime, and even pre/during/post ride if you are experiencing low back pain as a suspected result of hip flexor tightness. Stretching before/during a ride can cause a subtle relaxing effect on the hyperactive hip flexor muscles, sometimes alleviating the pain that would otherwise arise.

Half Camel

Instructions:

Start in a kneeling position with your knees, hips, and shoulders all stacked posturally on top of one another
Place your hands on your hips or lower back
Gently press forward and arch backwards, feeling a stretch in the abdominals and front of the hip
Hold here for one minute

The psoas sits deep inside your abdomen, attaching to all the lumbar vertebrae. This stretch serves as a gentle opener to the hip and mid-section, and strives to reach into those internal fibers to help them release tension and relax. This is a great one to do in between periods of sitting.

Lifted Hip Flexor Stretch

Instructions:

Rest one foot on top of a chair, focus on squaring your hips forward
Keeping your chest tall, press the hips forward, extending your elevated leg behind you
Hold for one minute
Switch to the other leg
Hold for one minute

This stretch allows you to go slightly deeper into the psoas muscle by keeping the torso erect and elevating the back leg. The elevation forces the hip to go into greater extension, which is the inverse function of the psoas and other hip flexor muscles.

Low Lunge Quad Stretch

Instructions:

Start in a kneeling lunge position, both legs bent at 90°
Squeeze your butt to tilt your pelvis backwards into a neutral position
Engage your core at the same time to lock the position in place
From here, gently stretch the back quad and hip muscles by pressing the hips forward
Hold for one minute
Switch to the other leg
Hold for one minute

Your rectus femoris is a quadricep muscle that gets hammered while cycling. It has a dual function of knee extension and hip flexion, both repetitive movements in pedaling. Since they’re both hip flexors, by releasing the rectus femoris it helps the psoas to relax as well.

Get Rid of Cycling Back Pain!

Are you tired of suffering from back pain and discomfort while cycling? Look no further than Dynamic Cyclist. This comprehensive resource addresses the most common muscle imbalances and adaptive muscle shortening that lead to pain and reduced performance on the bike. With just 15 minutes a day, you can follow along with the video programs to alleviate tension and improve posture, so you can ride pain free and reach your full potential on the bike. Try out their 2 month Low Back Focus program and experience the results for yourself. Click here to try 7 days free!

The Ultimate Guide to Cycling Neck Pain: Causes and Solutions

March 21, 2023 by Eric Lister

Cycling neck pain is one of those nagging issues that can really hinder the other aspects of your life. The muscles in your neck are constantly supporting your breathing, interacting with your shoulders, holding up your head, and countless other important functions liable to irritate any pain, soreness, or injury that could be developing or already present from cycling.

The reality of our sport means that the neck is going to have to sit in some uncomfortable positions from time to time. In fact, up to 60% of cyclists experience some sort of discomfort in this area. Whether our necks are prepared to go into those positions, how we can prepare them, and what we can do to optimize our necks on the bike will be the focus of this article.

Neck pain from cycling doesn’t have to slow you down, and we’re here to help you fix it once and for all.

(Image credit: SciePro/Adobe Stock)

Causes of Cycling Neck Pain

Does cycling cause neck pain? The short answer is yes, but the reasons behind it can be complicated. We have to approach the topic of cycling neck pain through a wide-angle lens, because it’s seldom a single factor causing the problem.

Forward Head Posture (FHP)

FHP is an epidemic not just amongst cyclists but the general populace as a whole. The term is referring to the forward position of the cranium (head) relative to the shoulders and spine. Also commonly called text neck, scholar’s neck, or computer neck posture because of its correlation and likelihood of development after prolonged texting, reading, or spending time on a computer.

What many people don’t realize is that their head, on average, weighs 10-12 pounds, and that this weight gets amplified tremendously as the head moves/tilts forward from the midline. For every inch of FHP, it adds roughly 10 pounds to the head. As you can see in the below picture, this can equate to the neck having to support 60+ pounds of sustained pressure throughout the day.

(Image credit: New York Spine Surgery & Rehabilitation Medicine)

The big ropes you see on the sides of a person’s neck are called your sternocleidomastoid muscles. These muscles get overdeveloped and tight as a result of FHP, and can also flatten the natural backwards curve in your cervical spine. These conditions strain the neck, reduce blood flow to the brain, and weaken the extensors of the neck resulting in reduced stability.

Cycling naturally puts us in positions of FHP, and trains us to hold those positions for long periods of time. Leaning over the handlebars causes the head to protrude forward and the neck to crane back in order to keep our eyes level with the horizon (righting reflex). Because these positions are unavoidable, we have to find ways to correct them in other parts of our training.

Notice the position of the head and neck of this cyclist; protruding forward, craned back. (Image credit: Artem Varnitsin/Adobe Stock)

Improper Breathing

Breathing and neck pain are intimately connected. Optimal inhalation is accounted for primarily by the diaphragm, a large, thin sheet of muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. When contracted, its dome shape flattens out to pull air into the lungs and create room for them to expand. If it’s stiff or not functioning properly, however, other muscles get overloaded.

A muscle group in this category is known as the scalenes. They work as accessory respiratory muscles to help you inhale by lifting the first two ribs. When a person breathes through their chest as opposed to their diaphragm, these muscles get overworked and start to become irritated as a result. Chronic neck pain is often improved by addressing these kinds of faulty patterns.

The three muscles of the scalene group; anterior, medial, posterior. Notice the insertions on ribs one and two. (Image credit: Mikael Häggström/Public Domain)

Because cycling is a cardiovascular intensive sport, coupled with the positions we find ourselves in while riding, make it probable that we will develop a faulty breathing pattern that overworks the neck. Being folded over on the bike can discourage movement of the diaphragm and push our breath up into the chest, where we are only able to inhale ⅓ of the oxygen we could otherwise.

Opening up the breath through breathing re-education exercises, fixing the posture, and corrective stretching are all tools we can use to help combat this issue. By now you’re probably starting to see the links between these causes and how they all can contribute to cycling neck pain.

Upper Cross Syndrome (UCS)

Upper cross syndrome (UCS) is a postural imbalance that occurs as a result of prolonged sitting or standing in a forward head and rounded shoulder posture. It is characterized by tightness in the upper trapezius, levator scapulae, and pectoralis major muscles, as well as weakness in the deep cervical flexors, lower trapezius, and serratus anterior.

(Image credit: art4stock/Adobe Stock)

Cycling requires a sustained forward head and rounded shoulder posture, which can exacerbate UCS. The tightness in the upper trapezius, levator scapulae, and pectoralis major muscles can cause increased tension and compression in the cervical spine, as well as inhibit your breathing, which all further contribute to the problem.

Additionally, weakness in the deep cervical flexors, serratus anterior, and lower trapezius muscles can lead to decreased stabilization of the cervical spine. This can be especially problematic for cyclists who spend prolonged periods in a forward head position, as the neck muscles are required to maintain stability and support the weight of the head.

Poor Bike Fit

Having an improperly fitted bike is going to exacerbate all of the above causes of neck pain in cyclists. Symptoms of a poor bike fit include:

Handlebars too low or having to reach too far forward
- Rounds the back/shoulders and closes the chest, encourages forward head posture
Arms locked out in extension
- Having a soft bend in the elbows allows force from the handlebars to be cushioned while riding, otherwise reverberating up into the neck
Saddle tipped too far forward
- This increases weight bearing load on the arms and increases the likelihood of the previous point occurring
Poor adjustment of helmet and/or eyeglasses
- A helmet too low on the head will cause a cyclist to crane their neck excessively, the same problem will occur with eyeglasses sitting too low on the nose

Solutions for Cycling Neck Pain

The causes of neck pain in cyclists are often co-contributing to one another, sometimes making it difficult to pinpoint the exact root of the problem. However, there are some common preventative/corrective measures we can take to help alleviate the above causes and more by following the advice below.

Strengthen the Upper Back & Neck Extensors

To combat forward head posture and upper cross syndrome that develops as a result of cycling (and other modern activities like office work and driving), we can do exercises in our supplemental training to strengthen the muscles that get weak and hyperactive as a result of improper positioning/loading.

Here are two exercises to help address this:

Prone Cobra/Cobra Hold

Instructions:

Lying prone on your mat, pull your shoulder blades down and together so your arms are in a position like our coach Alisha’s (pictured above)
From here, lift your chest as high as possible off the ground
Squeeze the shoulder blades together, flatten and extend the mid back, and contract the glutes and lower back muscles as well
Keep your neck in a neutral position by pulling it backwards (think of making a double chin)
Hold this position for 30 seconds
Rest for 30 seconds
Repeat three times

This exercise works the mid/upper back, as well as the extensors of the neck in a static hold, which is important for postural endurance. Increased strength in these areas has multiple benefits, including a significantly reduced risk of concussions.

Wall Lean

Instructions:

Start with your feet about one foot away from the wall
Place a towel behind your head and lean into it, keeping the body in a stiff, neutral position (straight line)
Support yourself with your neck in this position, if it is too easy, you can place your feet farther away from the wall
Hold for 30 seconds
Rest for 30 seconds
Repeat three times

The wall lean is a simple exercise to work the neck extensors, which get weak if the head is constantly protruding forward. Strengthening these muscles will help correct forward head posture and pull the head back into better alignment.

Stretch the Sternocleidomastoid, Shoulder & Chest

It is important to couple the following stretches with the above strengthening exercises. These muscles are getting tight and causing neck pain because they’re working hard to try and support us in unnatural positions on the bike. If we stretch them without providing support through corrective strengthening we will only further our risk of pain and injury.

Try these three stretches to counter the muscle tightness that develops from cycling and contributes to neck pain in cyclists:

Lateral Neck Stretch

Instructions:

Stand in a relaxed and comfortable position
Tilt your head gently to one side, make sure to avoid tilting forward or backward
Rest your hand on the top side of your head
Don’t pull, but let the weight of your hand gently stretch your neck to the side
Hold for 15-30 seconds
Repeat on other side

Cyclists with neck pain will help release a likely hyperactive sternocleidomastoid muscle by performing this stretch. Coupled with the neck and upper back exercises listed above, you’ll be offering multiple modes of relief to the painful areas.

Dynamic Shoulder Rolls

Instructions:

Stand with your shoulders relaxed
Roll your shoulders up high towards your ears, then back (squeezing your shoulder blades together), and finally back down and pulling away from your ears
Complete these circles continuously for 30 seconds
Reverse the motion, rolling your shoulders forward
Repeat for another 30 seconds

This simple exercise helps loosen up and mobilize your shoulder blade and trapezius muscle. The upper trapezius and levator scapulae muscles often get tight as a result of cycling. This movement helps loosen them and is great to do pre/post ride.

Single Arm Chest Stretch w/Wall

Instructions:

Start facing the wall with your arm straight out to the side (shoulder height), palm against the wall
Staying close to the wall, slowly rotate away from your arm until you feel a stretch in the chest and front of the shoulder
Hold here for 30 seconds
Switch to the other arm and repeat

Tight chest and shoulder muscles are common with faulty breathing patterns that often develop as a result of cycling. By opening up these tissues we also open up our lung capacity so that the muscles in our neck don’t have to work so hard as we inhale.

Professional Bike Fitting/ AI Bike Fitting

To avoid exacerbating all of the aforementioned causes of neck pain in cyclists, it’s recommended that you find a reputable local bike fitter to help optimize the positioning on your bike to your unique body and proportions.

Another option is to use an at home bike fitting app like MyVeloFit. This app utilizes the power of AI to analyze your bike fit and make recommendations on how to correctly adjust different components of the bike and ensure your joint angles fall into the optimal range.

The money and time you spend on a bike fit, whether it’s at home or in person, will most certainly be returned in the form of saved physiotherapy, chiropractic, and massage therapy appointments long-term.

Prevent Cycling Neck Pain & Become A Stronger Cyclist!

The above solutions were borrowed from our programming over at Dynamic Cyclist, a fully online and interactive training platform designed for the health and well-being of people in our sport. We address mobility, strength training, injury prevention and more in routines that are fun to follow-along with! Try it out FREE for 7-days by clicking here!

Anterior Pelvic Tilt: How To Correct Imbalances & Improve Performance

March 7, 2023 by Eric Lister

Two of the most common problems amongst cyclists are knee pain and lower back pain. In fact, 94% of cyclists experienced injury during a one-year period of study; low back pain and anterior knee pain being prevalent for 58% and 36% of participants, respectively. While the causes of these issues are numerous and varied, there are several similar originating factors between them, and consequently a structured approach to relieving them short and long-term.

One of those commonalities is the presence of an anterior pelvic tilt in the cyclist’s body. This basically translates to the pelvis, which is the bony structure that your spine sits on and your femurs attach to (it also supports the intestines, contains the bladder, reproductive organs, colon, and more), is tilted farther forward than normal.

Different pelvic positions. (Credit: sumaki/Adobe Stock)

This has ramifications for the entire body, and can be the source of much pain and dysfunction in cyclists at all levels of performance, especially compared to non-cycling individuals. In this article we’re going to talk about why anterior pelvic tilt tends to develop in cyclist’s, the problems it can cause, and what we can do to prevent it from happening.

Common Causes of Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

When we look at a cyclist positioned on her bike, there are some immediate red flags that we can point out as likely contributors to this postural phenomena we’re calling anterior pelvic tilt. We’re about to see very quickly that just the way people ride their bikes in general (because of their design) is one of the biggest pieces of this puzzle.

Use this picture for reference when reading the next section. (Credit: Artem Varnitsin/Adobe Stock)

Compressed Hips

If you look at the picture above, our rider has her left leg at the top of a pedal stroke. If we look at her left hip, it’s in a fully flexed position, accentuated by her bent forward torso. Because this happens thousands of times every time we trek out for a lengthy cruise, our poor hip flexor muscles are being subjected to a lot of short, cramped positions. Over time, this will make them tight.

Tight hip flexors are one of the main causes of anterior pelvic tilt, resulting also in lower back pain. The reason for this is because one of your main hip flexors, the psoas major, attaches to all five of your lumbar (lower back) vertebrae. When the psoas becomes short and tight, it pulls on all those vertebrae, arching your lower back, and tipping your pelvis forward.

Psoas Major. Notice its attachments to all of the lumbar vertebrae. (Credit: SciePro/Adobe Stock)

Other aspects of our modern lifestyles (mainly sitting, by way of office work, driving, and excessive leisure time) further overwork our hip flexors and encourage them to stay tight 24/7. It’s an inevitable part of riding, and something we need to address it in order to get our hips and spine back into a good position.

Weak Glutes

Having a strong backside is not only attractive, but also incredibly important for keeping your pelvis in a balanced, neutral alignment. The gluteus maximus in particular is your biggest, most powerful hip extensor, and is crucial to maintaining good posture through its action of posteriorly rotating the pelvis and counteracting the pull of the hip flexors.

Our hips never fully extend while we’re cycling. This is largely due to the fact that we’re always hinged over at the hips to keep our hands on the handlebars, and almost completely folded in half when dropping down into the aero position. Cycling has been promoted in the past as a good activity for developing our glutes, but these positions unfortunately make that almost impossible.

Biomechanically, the positions we get into while pedaling make it hard to recruit our gluteus maximus. (Credit: Jacek Dylag/Unsplash)

Because the gluteus maximus is such a big powerful muscle, it often needs intense, full hip extension to be optimally stimulated for growth and development. Cycling doesn’t offer that, and in fact causes the body to recruit secondary hip extensors (hamstrings) to do most of the hip extension as an energy conservation method. Weak glutes = anterior pelvic tilt.

Weak Abdominal Muscles

Cycling primarily occurs in what is called the sagittal plane of movement. This plane divides the body down the middle (refer to below picture) so it is split evenly in half, and accounts for forward/backward movements. There is slight frontal plane (side to side) motion when shifting weight from pedal to pedal and leaning to take hard corners, but it is minimal.

The three anatomical body planes and corresponding motions in the human body. (Credit: VectorMine/Adobe Stock)

This is important because our core musculature needs to be challenged in all planes of movement to function correctly. We need to learn to brace and be strong while twisting, moving our legs independently of our torso, lifting loads off the ground, etc. Cycling limits these opportunities by keeping us fixed and reliant on the bike frame in place of support from our core musculature.

Muscles like the exterior obliques, rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis stabilize the back by creating intra-abdominal pressure and influence the position of the pelvis by rotating it backwards. Cycling discourages mechanisms like this from happening whilst riding, allowing our pelvis to be pulled forward by the hip flexors while the core remains relatively dormant.

Other Causes of Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

Having your bike properly fitted is essential to avoid a whole host of injuries, pain, and dysfunction, including anterior pelvic tilt. Having a saddle too high will force you to learn forward excessively to reach the handlebars, compressing the hip joint. If it’s too low, your hip will be forced into extreme flexion at the top of the pedal stroke, further tightening the hip flexors.

Our partners at MyVeloFit offer an AI powered bike fitting app you can use to adjust your bike right at home. (Credit: MyVeloFit)

There are other factors in a person’s lifestyle that are going to encourage anterior pelvic tilt, these include: Having a sedentary job, driving, spending a lot of time sitting on couches and chairs, not participating in any type of explosive movements like sprinting and jumping, etc. All of these things contribute to tight hips, weak glutes, and bad posture overall.

Symptoms of Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

Without getting a professional postural assessment done on your body, there are some common symptoms you may be able to relate to that point to an anterior pelvic tilt being present in the body. Some of these include:

Knee pain: When the pelvis tilts forward, it internally rotates the femur (your thigh bone). This puts awkward strain on the structures in your knee, resulting in pain and discomfort.
Lower back pain & tightness: Excessive pull from the hip flexors can arch your lower back into a posture known as lordosis, often resulting in significant ache, pain, and tightness of the lower back muscles.
Mid back tightness: When the lower back arches excessively, sometimes the mid back will round to compensate posturally. This chronically stretches muscles in the mid back, making them feel like they need to be stretched, when actually they need to be strengthened.
Distended abdomen: When the pelvis tilts forward it stretches the muscles on the front of your abdomen, making them weak over team. This results in a loss of abdominal tone, and a belly that sags forward as the organs fall against a weak abdominal wall.
Loss of power on the bike: If the core can’t maintain optimal stability, it can’t create a strong base for your legs to push off while pedaling, resulting in a loss of power.
Hip pain: An individual is likely to experience ache, discomfort, and pain in the hip if the hip flexor muscles are being overworked and holding excessive tension even in time spent off the bike.

Prevention Strategies for Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

While the picture we’ve painted so far hasn’t been favourable to our beloved sport, hope is far from lost for those of us with a tilted pelvis! Actually, the fixes for this problem, depending on the cause(s), can be quite straightforward and easy to integrate with some supplemental training. Try out some of these protocols and see what they do for you and your cycling performance.

Hip Flexor Mobility & Stretching

It has become evident now throughout the duration of this article that the hip flexors are major culprits in cyclists with anterior pelvic tilt. To combat the stiffness that is bound to develop in our time on the bike, we can actively work to lengthen and mobilize these muscles so they rest and function in a more balanced position.

Give this exercise a try, the Reverse Lunge w/Leg Lift. It offers an amazing blend of benefits for the hips as a whole. Stepping back into a deep lunge helps lengthen the hip flexors and also strengthen them in those stretched positions at the same time. The added leg lift (and lunge action in general) also helps to strengthen the glutes and pull the pelvis back down into a neutral position.

Perform three sets of 10 reps per leg, adjusting as necessary. You can also hold a dumbbell in front of you for extra intensity.

Strengthen the Glutes

As previously mentioned, the gluteus maximus, your body’s largest muscle, is our most powerful hip extensor, and plays an important role in maintaining a neutral pelvis by rotating it backwards. If we aren’t getting enough activation of this muscle through our riding, then we need to make up for it in our strength and conditioning routine. Here are some ways to make it stronger.

Any sort of squat, lunge, or deadlift type exercise is going to stimulate the glutes and help them develop. A great bang for your buck exercise is the Jump Squat to Jumping Jack, because it combines a deep squat with a jumping jack which forces you to spread your legs and extend the hips simultaneously, an amazing stimulus for all the muscles in your posterior and lateral hip.

See how you feel doing three sets of 10 reps, adding more or less sets/reps to moderate difficulty.

Strengthen the Core

Being fixed on the bike through the saddle and handlebars discourages any significant use of our abdominal musculature. The bike does all the stabilizing for us, a much different environment than a soccer player sprinting down the pitch or a powerlifter lifting a heavy squat. Certain muscles in our abdomen help to posteriorly rotate the pelvis and counter the pull of the hip flexors. Those are the ones we are going to focus on in this next exercise.

The deadbug is a wonderful introduction to low back/trunk stability and overall core strength. The main focus is keeping your lower back flat on the ground as you move alternating arm/leg away from the torso. By keeping you back flat, you’re using your exterior obliques and rectus abdominis to counter the pull of your hip flexors, and strengthen the core in concert with your extremities.

Three sets of 10 total reps (five/side) is a good start for this exercise. If you feel your lower back coming off the ground, limit the range of motion of your limbs so you can maintain that hollow position.

Build a Better Body With Dynamic Cyclist

The above exercises were pulled from our extensive mobility, strength, and conditioning programming over at Dynamic Cyclist! We have hundreds of follow along instructional videos and routines to help you correct postural problems, prevent injury, get stronger, and become an overall better cyclist in the comfort of your own home! Sign up for a 7-day free trial by heading over to our website.

Ride Pain Free: Stretching & Mobility Program for Cyclists

February 28, 2023 by Eric Lister

Do you experience pain while riding?

As avid cyclists ourselves, we know firsthand the toll that years of hard-earned riding can do to your back, your knees, your muscles, and your body in general. Nasty spills, the same positions, countless pedals, arduous climbs, burning lungs, and everything else that makes the challenges we face on the bike that much more rewarding…it all has a price.

We often come out on the other end with tight muscles, achy joints and chronic pain. This begs the question: “Is cycling itself the problem?”

Well, yes and no.

Yes, because there are components to the sport of cycling that encourage the development of overuse injuries. The fact that we remain stationary in a seated position while riding, that we are hunched over to reduce wind resistance, and that we tend to ride for hours at a time over incredibly long distances (to name a few).

No, because there are things we can do to prevent our bodies from breaking down so we can continue to enjoy and excel at the sport we love.

And it’s these preventative measures that inspired us to write a book…

Ride Pain Free: Stretching & Mobility Program for Cyclists

stretching and mobility program for cyclists

I Love Bicycling and Dynamic Cyclist joined forces to bring you this 7-day guided program that addresses the most common muscle imbalances for cyclists with both dynamic and static exercises. Each routine is designed for cyclists to target the common issues they endure by our team of physiotherapists, athletic therapists, and personal trainers. Through easy-to-follow routines, we will target all areas of the body, and teach you how to alleviate tension and improve posture for pain free riding!

Why We Wrote It

We wrote this book to address the unique needs of cyclist’s worldwide; to help them stay healthy and injury-free.

Cyclist’s face a number of challenges when it comes to injury prevention, and in few sports is it more important to find balance in the rest of your training. We understand how hopeless it can feel to be left with debilitating pain that keeps you off the bike, and we’re here to tell you that there is always a way to not just heal, but thrive.

Stretching and mobility are poorly understood concepts in most sports, and even more poorly practiced. By incorporating the correct stretches and mobility exercises into your routine, and giving yourself the time to open up and counteract the hours you spend on the bike, your body will be that much more prepared to tackle anything you throw at it, on or off the bike.

As cyclists, we understand the specific needs of our sport and the types of injuries we are all susceptible to on the bike. We felt we were well positioned to address those needs with a detailed, 7-day instructional program that is fun to do, easy to follow, and can be done in a condensed time period to accommodate any schedule.

We wanted to show people how easy it is to make a difference in your own body in just 15 minutes a day. And that’s exactly what we hope this book will do for you.

torwaiphoto/Adobe Stock

How This Book Can Help You

The fact cycling keeps a person in the same positions, doing the same things, repeatedly, is both a blessing and a curse.

The bad part about it is that, without properly implemented stretching and mobility protocols, we’re bound to develop overuse injuries that cause pain, dysfunction, and demotivation. The good part, though, is that we can tell where these problems are coming from, and systematically address them through our training.

Some of the common problems cyclist’s experience that we talk about in this book are:

Low Back Pain
Knee Pain
Tight Hamstrings
Neck Stiffness

You will learn about why these tend to develop over time as a result of cycling, the symptoms you may experience, and most importantly, what you can do to resolve the problem and get back to smooth, enjoyable riding!

While going through the routines, you’ll notice that each exercise has a supplementary benefits section that teaches you what it does for the body and why we’re including it. This helps the book to be not just a follow along workout regimen, but an educational resource that will help you train smarter and harder to become the best possible cyclist you can be.

Sidekick/Adobe Stock

Start Riding Pain Free TODAY

Sometimes a little guidance is all you need, and if you’ve been dealing with nagging pain, aching joints, and any other recurring problems on your cycling journey, this book was written for you. Accompanying the written directions are instructional photographs detailing the steps of each exercise, making it fun and easy to read through; it’s like having a workout partner right there with you at home!

Our team of dedicated health professionals and experienced cyclists want to help you enjoy the sport you love. Invest in your health and performance, and get your copy of Ride Pain Free: Stretching & Mobility Program for Cyclists today!

How to Eradicate Shin Splints in Cyclists

December 7, 2022 by Eric Lister

“Shin Splints” is a term often used to describe any sort of pain that runs along the lateral part of the shin bone. It usually starts to occur after prolonged activity and/or training in sports that involve a lot of impact, running or other repetitive movements. Shin splints and cycling have an interesting relationship, because cyclists experience very different forces through the lower leg as opposed to someone like a runner.

Even more interesting, the two sports often overlap, with participants cross training in each for triathlons or the complementary health benefits in general. This leaves the often undertrained area of the shin vulnerable to excessive impacts and contractions it might not necessarily be prepared for.

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What Causes Shin Splints?

If we think about shin splints as pain along either side of the shin bone, it begs the question…

“What is causing the pain?”

The answer is, it could be a number of things.

While many people think this pain is primarily caused by tiny stress fractures in the shin bone (tibia) itself, this is actually unlikely, especially for cyclists, because the impact on your lower leg while riding is very minimal. There are several other lines of defense if you will that tend to be the culprits in a condition like this that develops over time.

Your body uses pain to alert you to a problem that needs addressing, and the muscles of the lower leg are likely to be causing these problems far before the integrity of your shin bone is compromised.

Lower Leg Muscles & Shin Pain While Cycling

When people train the lower leg (and this includes cyclists), they often focus only on the back of it, where your calf muscles are located. Your calf muscles are responsible for plantar flexion, i.e. pointing the toes down. You use these muscles repeatedly while cycling, every time you press down on the pedal (particularly near the end of your downward stroke).

The front of your lower leg also has a huge muscle which performs the opposite function, dorsiflexion, i.e. lifting the toes up. This muscle is called your tibialis anterior, and it runs from just below your knee joint all the way down your shin before actually wrapping underneath the arch of your foot. All that to say, it has significant influence over a number of areas in your body.

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As you can see from the image above, dysfunction in the tibialis anterior might cause pain at the knee, at the ankle/foot and anywhere in between. It’s a muscle that can get incredibly overworked in our day to day lives and activities of all kinds, including cycling. Because of its function to lift up the foot, we are constantly using it unknowingly while walking, running and even pedaling.

Everytime you swing your back leg forward while walking or running, your tibialis anterior is the muscle that lifts the foot to avoid it from hitting the ground. Everytime you press through the first half of the downstroke and start to transition to the upstroke, the tibialis anterior becomes engaged (especially if you’re wearing cycling shoes or are strapped into a stationary bike).

The countless times that the tibialis anterior will contract leaves it open to overuse and irritation if it’s not prepared for that kind of exertion. As previously mentioned, because of our neglect for this part of the lower leg, this often seems to be the case in individuals who develop shin pain while cycling.

Another function of this muscle is to help us decelerate when walking, landing from a jump or running. It absorbs a huge percentage of our impact and helps us to slow down, change direction and also to keep us from overextending in the direction of inertia. This is one of the key reasons why runners develop pain in their shins, and could be a factor in cyclists who experience shin pain and also cross train with running.

How Do I Prevent Shin Pain While Cycling?

There are two things that commonly need to happen in any athlete who is experiencing shin pain. One is to stretch and mobilize the area so it can relax and better receive blood flow and nutrients. And two is to strengthen it to the point where it can handle the forces you’re asking it to absorb so you can continue your sport without irritation and injury.

Stretch

Here is a simple ankle/shin stretch from one of our daily stretching and mobility routines available at Dynamic Cyclist. This routine focuses on the calf and ankle. We have hundreds of routines available like this for every area of the body to address mobility, strength and injury prevention for all levels of cyclists.

Strengthen

An easy way to strengthen your tibialis anterior muscles is by performing an exercise called Tibialis Raises. It involves leaning flat against a wall with your heels slightly away from the wall (the farther from the wall the harder this will be). While keeping your legs locked straight, lift your toes up as high as you can, slowly lower, and repeat.

Performing high repetitions of this exercise (20-25 rep sets) will train your shin muscles to work under load, and will strengthen them up to be able to better handle the repetitive nature of pedaling and any other exercise/activity you might involve yourself in.

Do You Want to Become a Better Cyclist?

Dynamic Cyclist offers comprehensive, all-inclusive, balanced programming designed specifically for cyclists. Our mission for ourselves and everyone in our community is to ride pain free, and we do that by addressing strength imbalances and mobility restrictions that hinder cycling performance in a systematic and well thought out way.

If you’ve ever wanted to take the guesswork out of your training and be part of something professional and easy to follow, try signing up with us for FREE with a 7-day trial that you can find here!

This Will Make You Faster On The Trails

August 17, 2022 by Eric Lister

Mountain biking is that unique brand of our sport notoriously responsible for its abrasions, broken bones, banged up shoulders and the odd concussion from time to time. Strength training for mountain biking should prepare us for what can sometimes be a winding trail of hostility and potential danger. That doesn’t, however, mean it’s something we should avoid.

The chance to get into nature, explore new technical paths and take in the beautiful scenery are what biking outside is all about. Preparing our bodies to handle the sudden drops, body jolts, jagged turns and unorthodox terrain means we can enjoy ourselves with a built-in insurance policy that protects us from injury and improves our cycling performance as a whole.

Becoming a better, faster mountain biker is always going to be a dynamic, ever changing goal. There are so many areas we can pay attention to for a sport that shifts focus quickly depending on where we are and how we’re riding. We have some universal tips to help and a special routine excerpt from our Dynamic Cyclist training program at the bottom for you to try!

Build Your Confidence

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It’s one thing to preach this idea, it’s a whole other to actually go out and do it. Especially when you’re careening down a mountain at God knows what speed, with every tree and boulder just waiting to stop you dead in your tracks. Exposing yourself to those situations though is precisely the way you get better at mountain biking.

The mitigation of fear is a competitive mountain biker’s innate advantage compared to the amateur rider. They have dealt with almost every situation, and understand how to control the forces that are going to be applied to them. They know their bike and they know their body, so they’re free to let go of the brake and use it all to their advantage.

Riding on different terrain, paths and trails will help educate your mind and body to be more comfortable amidst all the chaos. High confidence has been shown to be one of the few differentiators in downhill mountain biking performance. Other factors included hand grip endurance and aerobic capacity which, if you lack, could be significant performance detractors…

Improve Hand Grip Endurance & Aerobic Capacity

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Surprise! In case that last sentence wasn’t a clue. Imagine the feeling of losing your grip on the handlebars or gasping for air with nature’s every creation flying by you at lightning fast speeds. That doesn’t sound to us like optimal conditions for the intense concentration required under such circumstances.

One of the best ways to get direct functional cross over from your mountain bike training to the trails is with the use of cables. As you can see above, the woman has her arms angled similarly to the position you’ll find yourself in on the bike. Cable machines can challenge the hands, forearms and shoulders to stabilize in a similar way to biking but with progressive loading.

For aerobic capacity, making sure to challenge yourself with lots of uphill riding is a surefire way to get your heart pumping. It’s important to remember too that your aerobic capacity and overall cardiovascular health are the first variables of fitness to decrease upon taking a break from physical activity. Quick to gain, quick to lose, so make sure you train it regularly!

Adjust Your Gaze

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Where you look actually has a significant influence on your overall body position, and this plays an important part in getting the most out of your muscles on the bike. Our eyes have a stimulating effect on the muscles in whatever direction we look, which is built into our nervous systems to help anticipate movement in that direction

The pelvo-ocular response is a reflex that orients our pelvis and lower extremities based on where our eyes are looking. Because of the positions we find ourselves in while mountain biking, there can be a tendency to crane the neck upwards to keep our eyes level with the horizon. This is indeed necessary sometimes, but not all the time.

Tilting the chin too far up will cause our lower backs to arch as a result of this pelvo-ocular response, this in turn will stretch the core muscles and cause them to disengage, which is not something we want. It is instead better, when possible, to keep the spine and neck in a neutral position, retracting the chin and letting your gaze fall naturally in front of you for a tight, stable core.

Deadlift Position & Mountain Biking

An interesting parallel to the fitness world is deadlift positioning in the gym. It has been shown that retraction of the neck and chin into a straight, neutral position helps a person to engage the erector spinae (back) muscles and exterior obliques in their core when lifting. Transferring this activation to the bike would result in far superior force production and absorption.

Ready To Get Stronger On The Bike?

Dynamic Cyclist offers an all around training platform for cyclists of all disciplines worldwide. We have comprehensive strength training workouts, injury prevention sessions, mobility and warm up routines all available with the click of a button!

Give it a try by following along today with our coach, Alisha. This is just one of the hundreds of videos from our library that is available for a low monthly subscription. Our goal is to make you a better, stronger cyclist who enjoys being on the bike and rides pain free. You can sign up here for a 7-day free trial and see what you think!

Strength Training Considerations For Different Types Of Biking

August 10, 2022 by Eric Lister

Whether you’re on the road, a velodrome or carving up mountain trails, your bike riding is going to be significantly improved with a proper strength and conditioning routine. Strength training for cycling is often overlooked because it takes you off the bike, but with a small shift in perspective we’d like to suggest it will actually pack more riding into your life over time.

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Strength Demands of Different Rider Types

Depending on the type of bike riding you choose to participate in, the demands on your body will also change from style to style. While there’s certainly cross over amongst the three types we have categorized below, they all have distinct differences that are unique to that particular discipline.

Mountain Biking

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Diverse terrain, varying depths, hard corners, jumps, rocks, roots and everything the outdoors has to offer are factors that every mountain biker must deal with. The movement is much more dynamic than road or track cycling, and in terms of force absorption this is most definitely the hardest type of biking on your body.

It is well known that adult road cyclists are typically at a much higher risk for osteoporosis than other athletes. Some studies actually show their bone density to closely resemble (and in one case, even be lower than) sedentary control groups. This is not encouraging news for the cycling community.

Conversely, related research has made note of mountain biking being a possible cycling alternative that doesn’t so negatively affect a person’s bone density. Operation of a heavier bike, turbulent jolts and violent carving all translate to more load being put through your body. Strength training for mountain biking should prepare you to handle these types of forces.

Road Cycling

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As mentioned above, road cyclists tend to have a lower bone mineral density compared to other athletes and even the general population. This is because the bike is supporting you while you’re riding, so even though your legs are pumping hard and your heart is beating fast, your bones are sitting there wondering what all the huff and puff is about.

Another factor to consider with road cycling is the prolonged, folded over postures you’ll often find yourself in. The hips have to work in a less than optimal range, the lower back is in a vulnerable position and the neck gets craned back (only some of the issues unfortunately). Low back problems, faulty breathing patterns and tight hips are often the result.

Strength training for cyclists should focus on correcting these postural and functional shortcomings. Introducing load through the body off the bike will help you become stronger on the bike. Not only that, a properly designed program will actually make riding more comfortable and lower your risk of injury despite the less than optimal positions you might find yourself in.

Track Cycling

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Track cycling is a unique discipline within the broader realm of our sport. There are many types of events and formats, but for the purpose of this article we want to focus on the particular differences in sprint cycling. These are races performed over short distances where maximum power and force production is required.

Athletes who are successful in sprint cycling tend to have a higher composition of type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers. Individuals with more fast twitch fibers are capable of producing quicker movements and generating more strength in a shorter period of time (power). There is a direct correlation between muscle fiber composition and sprint cycling performance.

Different muscle fibers react to different training modalities. An explosive athlete like a sprint cyclist will likely be doing a lot of jumping and sprinting exercises. Training with heavy weights for low repetitions will also be common in order to teach their body to produce as much force as possible in as little time as possible. Long, leisurely rides will be for nothing more than recovery.

Lifting Weights For Cycling

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Incorporating weight lifting into your cycling training plan is a great way to make yourself stronger on the bike, balance your pedal stroke and most importantly reduce the risk of injury. The #1 goal of any athlete in the gym (unless you’re a powerlifter, olympic lifter or bodybuilder) is injury prevention, because nothing else matters if you can’t actually do your sport.

Determining how to train, what exercises to do, in what rep range and at what weight can all be tricky variables if you don’t have much experience in the gym. This is where the help of a one-on-one coach becomes valuable, as they’ll be able to provide you with the guidance necessary to ensure you’re not wasting your time doing something counterproductive.

As we’ve already seen, the type of riding you’re doing is going to determine the bulk of your strength training routine. You might be wondering though, is there anything I can do for strength training outside the gym? Regardless of whether I’m a mountain biker, road or track cyclist? The answer is yes!

At Home Strength Training For Cyclists

Dynamic Cyclist is our fully immersive training platform that combines mobility, stretching, injury prevention and strength workouts all into one, easy to use interface. We’ve taken care of all the programming, technical work and coaching so that all you have to do is follow along!

To give you a taste of the world class instruction and workout quality we provide, we’ve included below one of our FULL BODY routines that is going to work you from head to toe. Everything at Dynamic Cyclist is designed to make you better on the bike, regardless of what discipline you most participate in.

Follow along with Alisha, Dynamic Cyclist’s certified coach!

6 Ways To Immediately Get Better At Cycling

July 27, 2022 by Eric Lister

Becoming stronger on the bike is about more than wearing a speed suit and choosing the right kind of energy bar (despite what the manufacturers of such goods would have you believe). We want to delve into the more substantive aspects of how to become a better cyclist, and that involves looking at the sport from a personalized and wide-angle perspective.

The last thing we want as cyclists is to start feeling bogged down by the thought of getting on a bike. If you stop seeing improvement or the body begins to give you grief, all of a sudden the activity you used to love will become nothing more than another chore. You might already be there, but it’s never too late to change things up and reinvigorate a whole new routine.

It’s our goal today to give you six solid tips to improve your cycling, make you a better cyclist and help you feel good long-term on and off the saddle. These tidbits of advice will positively contribute to several other areas in your day to day life, so let’s start making a difference today!

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1. Slow Down

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Overtraining is a real and extremely detrimental condition that we in the cycling community are susceptible to. Your body doesn’t differentiate stress; stress from work, from relationships and from exercise. It’s all the same to the body. Having a cup that’s too full is a sure way to hurt cycling performance and eventually end up injured.

You wouldn’t think that to become a better cyclist you might have to stop cycling. Sometimes stopping completely, sometimes just learning to slow down. Try reducing the overall intensity of your rides by sticking to even terrain as opposed to hilly slopes. Or, have your goal be to enjoy the ride instead of focusing on performance, which is another way to calm a flared up system.

Look at it this way, cycling has been shown to improve executive functioning and mental health in older adults. This is evidence that our sport can be regenerative and medicinal with the proper dosage. Using it as a tool for recuperation and fulfillment (instead of punishment) is a way we can stay on the bike longer while feeling good about the choices we’re making.

2. Cross Train

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Cross training is one of the best ways to improve your cycling performance and make you an overall better bike rider. Not only do you get to explore other recreational and social opportunities, but it’s a physical necessity for any athlete participating in any sport.

Proper cycling posture is a key factor in determining whether your rides will be efficient, comfortable and pain free. Even the most meticulous cyclist, however, will start to feel aggravated after too much time on the bike. Moving your body with different amounts of force through varying ranges of motion is a complexity that it constantly craves.

Integrating activities that use movements not found in cycling will provide the most benefit. Swimming is a great example; rotation, pulling, back extension, core extension, freeing of the legs and shoulders are all things cycling isn’t great at. An intelligently selected cross training activity will give your body that fresh new stimulation it has been waiting for.

3. Eat Better Food

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The benefits of whole, organically grown, fresh fruits, vegetables and meats are far reaching within your own body, your community and the rest of the planet. Shopping at a farmers market is more than a nice day trip (but it is that too!). It supports local operations and people you get to meet face to face, making a connection between you and what you put in your body.

You literally are what you eat. Everything you digest breaks down to eventually form the cells of your entire anatomy. Organic food is more nutritious and contains less pesticide residues than commercially raised goods. By choosing whole, organic foods (not organic cookies) you’re supporting a sustainable ecosystem both inside your body and outside in the world.

When you eat poorly (and we all know what that means), your body has to try to build muscles, tendons, organs, blood and bone out of garbage materials. How do you think those structures will perform? A hint: They will be at high risk of injury and lacklustre on the bike. Not to mention your mental health, which your food choices have a profound effect on.

4. Implement A Strength Training & Mobility Routine

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Unless you are a powerlifter, weightlifter or bodybuilder, your number one goal as an athlete in the gym (including cyclists) is injury prevention. When you get injured, it doesn’t matter how good you look or how strong you are or what your Vo2 max is…you won’t be able to do the activity you love. This often occurs as a result of a repetitive, improperly balanced program.

The implementation of a strength & mobility routine is how you make up for the shortfalls and detriments of your sport. There is no lack of those in cycling, so we have to be clever with the moments before we get on the bike, time actually spent riding, and off days dedicated to the health, pliability and strength of our bodies.

Dynamic Cyclist is a fully integrated training system dedicated to cyclists. It’s a fraction of the cost of a gym membership and can be performed at home with little or no equipment. They have follow along strength workouts, stretching routines, mobility exercises and injury prevention programs that are all designed to help you become a better cyclist.

5. Get A Training Partner

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Riding alongside a partner is one of the best ways to get better at cycling. Whether it’s your romantic partner, a long-time friend or someone you met at an event, cycling is a wonderful activity that should be shared and bonded over.

Cycling solo certainly has its benefits, but we all need human connection. Shared experiences are the most memorable, and cycling offers us that opportunity to get outside together and explore. If you’ve noticed a lack of motivation lately, a training partner can help breathe new life into the sport you once fell in love with.

Nowadays there is ample opportunity to connect with local biking enthusiasts. Race events, Facebook groups and other online communities mean that if you want to find someone to ride with, you can! For the more competitive athlete, you’ll find grueling hills and long distance pushes far more enjoyable knowing someone else is going through it too!

6. Hire A Coach

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Commissioning the services of a qualified, experienced coach is one of the best returns on investment in any sport or activity. You’ll be under the guidance of someone who has been there and seen the problems you might be facing in themselves and other athletes. Not only that, they’ve learned ways to address those problems and figured out solutions to improve them.

There is a plethora of information, training programs and advice that pervades the web on anything and everything cycling. Deciphering such information can be difficult and result in a lot of wasted time and effort. This is one of the main advantages to working with someone who can separate the wheat from the chaff and ensure you’re doing the right things at the right time.

Dynamic Cyclist’s dedicated 1-on-1 coach, Cory Krist, has over 20 years of experience helping people become better cyclists. He graduated with an honours degree in Kinesiology and uses his extensive knowledge to help people understand the why behind different training principles and techniques. You can learn about Coach Cory and set up a call with him HERE!

Become A Better Cyclist

As cyclists, we all know the importance of staying in top shape and maintaining muscle balance to avoid injury and ride pain-free. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Dynamic Cyclist, the program that offers daily stretching and strength training video routines designed specifically for cyclists. Created by industry professionals, these programs will take your cycling to the next level and help you reach your full potential. So, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced rider, Dynamic Cyclist has everything you need to improve your performance and keep riding for years to come. Experience the results for yourself, click here to try 7 days free.

Knee Stretches for Cyclists

October 25, 2019 by Sarah Lauzé

Knee pain is one of the most common injuries among athletes. In fact, a 2010 study of professional cyclists found that knee pain was the cause for over half of the time spent off the bike. As one of the most complex joints in the body, it makes sense that it’s often one of the first places we experience pain. That being said, it is always better to try and prevent a problem then it is to deal with it. Knee stretches for cyclists can help keep all the components in the knee remain flexible and in place.

Pedaling requires work from the quads to straighten the knee and push the pedal forward and downward with enough power to propel the bike forward. In addition, the IT band contributes to that same movement, although less intensively. These efforts, although low-impact, can lead to problems with knee pain. Tendinitis of the kneecap can be a painful condition, causing you to lose power in your pedal stroke and even keep you off your bike. Stretching these muscles can both prevent and treat these issues, resulting in a healthy, flexible range of motion.

Many cyclists think knee pain means taking time away from the bike and resting up, but that’s not necessarily true. It could be caused by something as simple as a saddle adjustment or new cleats. So, if you’re experiencing knee pain, figure out what it may be stemming from and adjust your training accordingly. To help in recovery, and to prevent further knee pain, try stretching the muscles surrounding the knee on a regular basis.

The Anatomy of the Knee

The first step to preventing knee pain is to understand how the joint works, and what can go wrong. In simplified terms, the knee is a hinge with the quadriceps pulling the knee straight, and the hamstrings bending it. The iliotibial band (ITB) runs down the outside of the thigh and into the outside of the knee, connected at the other end to the glutes and hip flexors. The patella (kneecap) acts as a hinge and a connection point between it all.

To understand knee pain it is helpful to have a basic idea of what lies beneath the skin. In simplistic terms, think of the knee joint as a hinge where the quadriceps muscles pull the knee straight and the hamstring muscles bend the knee. The quadriceps run from the front of the femur (thigh bone) to the patella (knee cap). The patella acts as a pulley to increase the force generated by quadriceps which creates a greater torque on the tibia (shin bone).

To make matters more complicated, the ITB runs down the outside of the thigh and blends into the outside of the knee. ITB stands for iliotibial band and is a well known potential source of trouble for cyclists, runners and active people in general. The ITB is also attached to your gluteals (buttock muscles) and a hip flexors. Often when looking for the source of knee pain we have to pay close attention to hip flexibility and control.

Types of Knee Pain

Knee pain can show up in a variety of forms and for different reasons. These are some of the main types and common causes:

1. Anterior Knee Pain

Anterior knee pain is at the front of the knee, on and around the kneecap (patella). It is most commonly caused by overuse. The quads are attached to the shin via the kneecap so each time you pedal, forces are transmitted across the joint, essentially squishing it against the thigh bone. The part of the tendon attached to the kneecap can become inflamed and sore to the touch. Often referred to as ‘runner’s knee,’ it can happen to cyclists as well.

2. Posterior Knee Pain

The fair less common posterior knee pain shows up behind the knee and is usually a more simple diagnosis. Overextending the knee, with a saddle that is too high or too far back, causes posterior knee pain in most cases, so make sure your saddle is the proper height and adjustment for you.

3. Medial & Lateral Knee Pain

Pain located at the sides of knee in the collateral ligaments is most commonly caused by the feet. In cycling, this would come down to your cycling shoes or the position of the cleat. How far apart your feet are positioned can stress one of the collaterals, causing medial or lateral knee pain during or after a ride.

4. Iliotibial Band (IT Band) Syndrome

The IT band, running along the outside of the thigh from the pelvis to just below the knee, is a thick strap of tissue that can often become tight or inflamed. This is usually caused by over use, weakness of the gluteus medius muscle, or cleat placement. If the IT band has become inflamed, then rest and ice are in order. If it is tight and sore, then regular stretching and rolling will be your best course of action.

What can cause knee pain?

Although cycling is a low impact sport, too much of anything can lead to stress and strain on the body. Pedalling is a repetitive motion with the constant bending and extending motions flexing the knees and hips. Naturally, with overuse these are the most common sites of chronic-use injury.

Too much too soon

The number one cause of knee pain with cyclists is going too hard or far too soon. It is great to challenge yourself, but going further than your ligaments and muscles can handle will only hinder you progress. Endurance is something that is built up over time, conditioning your muscles over miles and hours. Ligaments take even longer to develop than muscles, with issues often arising from tightness or inflamation.

Improper bike fit

The little adjustments you can make to your bike can make all the difference when it comes to addressing or avoiding knee pain. The height and position of your saddle and the placement of cleats on the bottoms of your cycling shoes can cause or help avoid knee pain, depending on how well they are adjusted for you.

Not Enough Stretching

Flexibility or lack of, is a cyclists nemesis. Eventually if you do not stretch or roll your muscles will tighten so much that you will have difficulty walking never mind riding. Make sure to do stretches that especially focus on the muscles surrounding the knee (see below).

4 Best Stretches for Cyclists to Treat Knee Pain

Bilateral Hamstring Stretch

This stretch is effective for all cyclists because of the involvement of the knee flexor muscles in the repetitive pedaling motion. It is also great for those who experience discomfort in the inner or outer face of the knee, which likely originates at the insertion of the hamstring.

Stand with you feet shoulder width apart and slowly bend at your hips towards the floor. Let your arms hang, or place them on the floor if you can. Your knees should be straight, but not overextended or locked out. You should feel the stretch in your hamstrings and along the back of the knees.

Lunge with Ankle Flex

If you feel tension or strain in your calves, Achilles tendon, or the back of the knee then this is an important stretch.

Stand with your hands on your waist, one leg slightly in front of the other, with your knees straight looking ahead. Slowly lunge forward with the front foot, keeping your rear foot in its original position. Both feet should be making full contact with the floor, including the heel. As your center of gravity moves forward and downward, the rear ankle will act as an anchor and increase the stretch.

Flamingo Position

Because of the involvement of the knee extensor muscles in the pedaling motion, the flamingo position is a great stretch to relieve discomfort in the quads and patellar tendons.

Use a chair or wall the steady yourself, and raise one foot by bending your knee. As you hold the front of your ankle, slowly pull it upwards and gently push your hips forward. As the hip extension increases, you will feel the stretch in the front of the thigh.

Figure Four

Stretching the muscles that rotate the hips, specifically the glutes and piriformis, can have a positive effect on the knees. As mentioned previously, each segment of the leg is connected, and each area can have a domino effect, especially through the knee.

Lie on your back with your neck relaxed and head resting on the floor. Cross your right ankle over the other and place your hands on your left thigh, pulling your legs towards you in a figure four position. Slowly pull on your leg to increase the stretch, feeling it in your glute and hip. Repeat with the left side.

As cyclists, we know how hard it is to stick to a stretching routine. We all want to spend more time on our bike, but maintaining a healthy range of motion and flexibility will, in the long run, keep you on the bike without injury. That’s why we’ve partnered with Dynamic Cyclist to bring you a stretching and strength program that is easy to follow, and is geared towards cyclists. They’re offering our readers a free 7 day trial, just click the link below to get started.

The Perfect Yoga Sequence for Cyclists

August 25, 2019 by Sarah Lauzé

After putting miles in on your bike, it’s important to give your body some relief. Not only does this mean adequate rest days to give yourself time to recover, but a specific yoga sequence for cyclists can help those muscles out a little. Luckily, yoga has your back (and hamstrings and hips).

The key to yoga is to give yourself the adequate amount of time to relax into each pose. Whether you’re a yogi or not, taking time to reach those deep stretch targets and work on your breathing can help you become a more efficient cyclist. Anything less than 30 seconds won’t make a significant difference in lengthening the muscle fibers and tissue, but holding too long too soon can put you at risk of injury.

The Benefits of Yoga for Cyclists

Core Strength

A strong core is vital for cycling power, posture, and injury prevention, especially in your lower back region. As a result of the bent over position on your bike, many cyclists have highly developed back muscles, with comparatively weaker abdominal muscles.

This muscular imbalance is normal, but can cause issues in the long run. If you’re tired at the end of a long ride and have poor core strength, you will be more likely to slump in the saddle. This will place undue pressure on your shoulders and wrists, as well as cause lower back pain once off your bike.

Flexibility & Posture

Much in line with your core strength, maintaining proper posture on your bike will prevent injury. The natural inclination is to round your back as you crane your head to look forward. Not only does this create drag, but it will eventually cause pain in your lower and upper back and neck.

Everything in your body is connected. So, to maintain proper bike posture you have to have adequate flexibility in your lower back, hips, glutes, and hamstrings. The flatter your back can be, the less issues you’ll come up against in your training. Yoga can help you not only build the strength and flexibility to hold your posture, but also help you become constantly aware of how your body is feeling.

Breathing

You may not put much thought into your breathing when you’re attacking a hill. The pressing thought for most is to simply keep breathing, even if it looks more like panting. However, when transformed from an automatic function, it can be great training tool.

Yoga can help you learn how to monitor your breathing, making the most of each breath. It can train your body to take slower and deeper breaths to maximize your oxygen intake.

Injury Prevention

Yoga is ideally injury prevention rather than treatment, but it can help on both ends of the spectrum. Regular stretchingand yoga will reduce your risk of suffering from the typical overuse injuries that plague cyclists. These include IT band syndrome, tight hamstrings, back pain, and knee problems.

Because your legs never fully extend on the bike, your muscles get little chance to fully lengthy. There is also an imbalance of strength, with so much power coming from certain muscles, while others remain underdeveloped. Ensuring you are working and stretching these muscles off the bike will go a long way to keep things balanced.

What a Yoga Sequence for Cyclists Should Look Like

Although we’d all rather be out on our bikes than cross training, given everything listed above taking 20 minutes our of your day to practice yoga can keep you feeling your best while you are out on the road. If you’re not ready to go to an hour long yoga class, whether it be the time or financial commitment, you can piece together your own routines to do at home. Here’s what you should know before getting started.

Same time, same place.

Starting around the same time every time is the best way to turn good intention into a habit. Starting you day off with yoga can be one of the best ways to wake up y our body and mind and get you ready for the day.

From the ground up.

A great rule is to start on your mat, with poses that have your body on the ground, and work your way up. This gives your body time to work up to the more active standing poses.

Be focused.

Remove all distractions if you can. Leave your cellphone in a different room and set aside the time to just stretch. Be patient with yourself in the beginning, as it may take time to quiet your mind.

Keep it simple.

Practicing at home is a wonderful thing, but you’ll want to keep it simple. Start out by following along with the video routine below, or just begin with just these 4 poses. If you want more routines like this one, check out Dynamic Cyclist for more stretching routines for cyclists.