Recovery - I Love Bicycling

The Benefits of Cold Exposure for Cycling & Life

June 13, 2023 by Eric Lister

In recent years, the topic of ice baths and cold exposure have become incredibly popular in the fields of sport, health, and fitness. Beyond the social media videos of people jumping in lakes and tubs full of ice, however, is a discipline that isn’t just for show. It can have a profound impact on your well-being and cycling performance, and this article is going to show you why.

(Image Credit: Adobe Stock)

What Is Cold Exposure?

Cold exposure refers to the practice of deliberately subjecting the body to cold temperatures for varying lengths of time. This can take many forms, including cold showers, ice baths, immersion in natural bodies of water, or even exposure to cold air. Each of these has their own unique benefits and disadvantages.

Cold Showers

Cold showers are one of the most accessible and moderate ways of introducing yourself to the cold. You can control the temperature if things get too intense, and you’re also only periodically exposing each part of your body to the cold as a result of the directed nozzle. Ending your normal shower with a cold 30 seconds to a minute is a great way to get started.

Cold Bath/Ice Bath

A cold bath or ice bath is a significantly different experience than the shower, because your body is actually submerged in the cold for a given length of time (you don’t actually need ice, your coldest water setting will be plenty). It is best to only submerge your lower body in the beginning, as things get even more intense when the upper body and neck are submerged.

Natural Bodies of Water

Being out in nature and embracing the cold is one of the most invigorating experiences a person can endure. It is also, however, one of the most dangerous. You truly have to surrender to Mother Nature and be able to handle the fact that you have no control of the things outside of you. This mental aspect, though, is also one of cold exposure’s biggest benefits, regardless of setting.

(Image Credit: Adobe Stock)

Benefits of Cold Exposure

The benefits of voluntarily subjecting yourself to the cold are far-reaching, indeed. Prescribing somebody a cold bath, for example, dates as far back as Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, and the classical Greek period (specifically between 460 BC and 370 BC). Cold baths were believed to stimulate the body’s natural healing mechanisms – which turns out to be true.

Stronger Immune System

Cold exposure is a stress on the body that activates the immune system. Your body responds to the stress by executing a series of defensive processes, similar to fighting off an ailment. This marginal stimulation is similar to the slight tearing of muscle fibers during exercise, which grow back bigger and stronger. The outcome in this context is better disease resistance and immunity.

Brown Fat Production

Brown fat is not like body fat (adipose tissue/”white fat”). It is a metabolically active tissue that helps you regulate your temperature by using body fat as fuel (like a furnace). People who work outside or do regular cold water immersion have higher levels of brown fat, making them more comfortable in the cold, and also serving as an important indicator of health and longevity.

Improved Circulation

The human body contains a vast network of blood vessels, upwards of 100,000 miles worth (that’s enough to go around the Earth 4 times). When the cold water hits you, everything inside contracts, and blood rushes away from the extremities and towards the core. As you’re warming up, everything dilates, giving this entire network an internal workout and massage.

Waste Removal & Recovery

The flushing of blood helps facilitate recovery through the removal of waste byproducts (such as lactic acid) and the delivery of nutrients to tissues throughout the body. Also, by strengthening your circulatory system through the adaptation to this stressful stimulus, you will be better prepared to recover and perform in future rides, workouts, and other training.

Mood & Alertness

Cold exposure has been shown to produce a staggering increase in noradrenaline and dopamine by 530% and 250%, respectively. Noradrenaline (norepinephrine) is responsible for arousal and alertness, while dopamine is known as the pleasure hormone, and is released when we are doing something that makes us feel good (and also depressed when we are feeling…depressed).

Mental Resilience

Cyclists know how tough our sport is, and how important the capacity to deal with discomfort is. Voluntary cold exposure allows a person to consistently and systematically override their fear response and learn how to handle stressful situations and sensations. Not only is this beneficial for your riding, but for every other area of stress management in life, as well.

(Image Credit: Adobe Stock)

How Do I Do Cold Exposure?

Start slow. As we’ve already established, getting into cold water is a stressful event, and needs to be taken seriously. Many people say they don’t like the cold or even hate the cold, and that cold exposure is something they could never do. Well if that’s you, you’re not alone…but you can do it. Here’s some quick technique tips followed by a few pieces of beginner advice.

Technique Tips

Breathing is your biggest friend when doing cold exposure. When you get into the water, everything contracts, and your breath will want to become short and shallow. If this continues, you will panic and get out. Focus on forcing in a big inhale, and then slowly exhaling with as much control as possible, no matter how uncomfortable.

This will signal your body to relax and surrender to the cold, where you can then focus on managing the discomfort through control of your mind and focus on your breath. You’ll notice as you practice that the less control you have over your breath, the harder it will be to stay in the water, and vice versa.

Recent studies have shown that 11 minutes TOTAL throughout a given week is enough to achieve many of the benefits of cold exposure. This doesn’t mean 11 minutes at a time, but spread out over the course of 7 days. Daily 2 minute exposures in an uncomfortable, yet tolerable, temperature is a great goal to aim for.

Beginner Advice

A cold shower is one of the easiest ways to start. End your shower with a cold shower by turning the tap as cold as it can go (or in between, if you’re really hesitant). The low back and buttocks are the least sensitive, so they can be good places to start. Try 10-15 seconds (or longer). Slowly increase this time until you can do 2 minutes on cold with water covering your entire body.

The next step would be a cold bath. Keep in mind that this will be substantially more intense than the shower. Fill the tub with your coldest water. For your first time, only fill half way so just the lower body is submerged. Try to stay in for two minutes. You can progress to full body submersion to the neck when you feel comfortable. Take your time.

Natural bodies of water should not be attempted until you have built up a high level of confidence in the tub. You should also never be alone. Especially if it is fall/winter time, the water outside will be even colder than the tub (approx. 2-3℃ to 7-8℃, respectively), and you will have other things to deal with like wind, noises, etc. Safety is the most important thing.

After you get out of cold water (shower, tub, or otherwise), try to avoid hopping right into a hot shower or wrapping yourself in blankets. Much of the strengthening and immunity benefits comes from your body working hard to warm itself up through shivering, which also releases a molecule (called succinate) that stimulates the production of brown fat.

(Image Credit: Adobe Stock)

When Should I Do Cold Exposure?

For cyclists, and athletes in general, there has been some controversy about when cold exposure should be done for the best results. There is evidence showing that immersion in cold water is an effective recovery tool after endurance and high-intensity training (which cycling would fall under). But is after always the most ideal?

When we look at the question scientifically, it’s actually pretty straightforward. When you exercise, you damage the tissue in a minor way, which causes inflammation in the body. These inflammatory markers serve as important signals for the body to repair the tissue and adapt to the stressors that you’ve applied to it. Cold exposure, as we’ve determined, reduces inflammation.

This can work both for and against us. If we are competing in a multi-day event or have to recover quickly between sessions, doing cold exposure immediately after a ride or bout of training can help us recover through reduced muscle soreness, restoration of muscular power and improved perceived feelings of recovery.

If, however, we are just on a normal training schedule where we aren’t competing, there aren’t time constraints, and we’re looking to reap the long-term benefits of each training session, the protocol is different. Cold exposure should then be done before or significantly after (4+ hours) our training so we don’t inhibit the inflammatory/adaptation process from occurring.

Closing Thoughts on Cold Exposure

Having cold showers and immersing yourself in cold water is proving to be a phenomenal way to promote long-term health, mood elevation, and athletic performance. Overall, it is an accessible tool that we can all try, experience, and learn from. Something to help us take control of our well-being, ride pain-free, and enjoy the sport of cycling and life as a whole.

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!

This Breathing Technique Will Make You A Better Cyclist

October 28, 2022 by Eric Lister

If you take the time to learn how to breathe properly while cycling, your performance could go from zero to hero in just a few short sessions. We don’t think about breathing technique because our bodies are designed to try and keep breathing no matter what, and this can lead us down a road of dysfunction we never even knew we were traveling on.

People think that in order to increase your lung capacity for cycling you just need to push yourself harder, faster and longer on the bike. More hills, more sprints and never-ending rides. Sure – this will increase your fitness, but the thing stopping you from reaching optimal lung capacity on the bike could be the way you breathe in and of itself…

Today we’re going to tell you about THE breathing problem to fix if you want to become a better cyclist, and how it will serve you in ways not just on the bike – but in every other part of your life. Breathing is obviously essential, and learning how to do it better is never a waste of time. So strap in, take a deep breath and keep reading!

Source: John R. Perry/Pixabay

Am I Breathing Properly?

“Should I breathe through my nose or my mouth while cycling?”

“How many pedal strokes should I inhale and how many should I exhale?”

“Are intervals the best way to increase my lung capacity on the bike?”

These are all fine questions to ask, but will be a complete waste of time trying to answer if you’re not taking in air properly in the first place. Unfortunately, this is not only the case for most cyclists, but for most people in general. This results in poor performance, high stress levels and even mental health problems like anxiety.

Because of our modern lifestyles of sitting on couches, working at desks and driving in cars, the majority of the population has developed what is called a faulty breathing pattern. This simply means that the manner in which they breathe is not optimal for the way their body is designed to function. This most commonly represents itself in the form of chest breathing.

Chest Breathing

When someone is a “chest breather”, you’ll see their chest and shoulders rise when they inhale. There won’t be any belly movement, and in some cases you can even see the belly go in (called an inverted breathing pattern). Somebody who breathes this way is constantly sending a stress signal to their nervous system, because they are forever only getting submaximal oxygen intake.

Someone who only breathes through their chest can only take in about ⅓ the amount of oxygen their body is capable of inhaling on a given breath. Throughout history, limited oxygen would have been the result of having some sort of stress to respond to – this is partly responsible for the evolution of our “fight or flight” response, but we shouldn’t be in this state all the time.

This is exactly the state perpetual chest breathers put themselves in, and it’s a major contributor to a person’s stress levels and in our specific case, poor cycling performance. Not only that, this pattern of breathing overworks muscles in our neck (scalenes) and rib cage (intercostals). People who have chronic neck and chest tightness almost always have a faulty breathing pattern.

How To Breathe While Cycling

You may have determined by now that you are in fact one of those aforementioned chest breathers, but not to worry! Even though this has by now become a very ingrained and practiced breathing pattern in your body (like, over 20,000 times a day kind of practiced), it doesn’t mean we can’t change it through a little focus and concentration.

Breathing for cycling, and good health in general, should be governed by your diaphragm. The diaphragm is a thin, dome shaped muscle that separates your abdomen from your chest cavity, and is the muscle responsible for what is called belly breathing.

breathing for cycling - inspiration vs expiration

Source: Alila Medical Media/Adobe Stock

Belly Breathing

Belly breathing allows you to take in full, deep breaths that keep your nervous system calm, aid in digestion and allow you to perform to your potential during exercise and sport. When you contract the diaphragm, it flattens its dome shape, providing space for the lungs to drop and expand. It also creates a vacuum which pulls air into the lungs (pictured above).

The term belly breathing came about because of the rise and fall of the tummy during the breath cycle. However, contrary to the common cue, “breathe into your belly”, air does not actually enter into the abdomen. Fun fact, the movement comes from your organs being pushed down and out against your abdominal wall.

Having a fully functioning diaphragm while riding is going to send your cycling performance through the roof. Our seated and often hunched over position on the bike can encourage the stiffness and decreased movement in our diaphragm that we see similarly in desk workers and sedentary people, so it may be a conscious effort in the beginning to get things working smoothly.

Breathing Techniques For Cycling

Most important is to start becoming aware of how you breathe, on and off the bike. The more stressed you are, whether that’s by daily life or by exertion while cycling, the more likely you are going to revert to a chest breathing pattern. Increase your awareness throughout the day, and start consciously trying to breathe with your diaphragm as opposed to your chest.

As previously mentioned, chest breathers often have tight, overworked chests, necks and abdomens. Stretching these areas can help them to relax so that the diaphragm, which is a deep, central respiratory muscle, can start to move, work and regain its pliability and overall functionality. Stop sucking in, free your belly and let it rise!

We recommend Dynamic Cyclist to anyone looking for a comprehensive training, performance and injury prevention platform designed specifically for cyclists. Their follow along video routines are led by world class coaches who give you the right cues to breathe properly while exercising, which carries over to the bike and how you perform during rides!

If you’re interested in giving them a try, you can sign up for a 7-day free trial HERE.

Here’s Why Cycling Recovery Is So Important

August 3, 2022 by Eric Lister

In our go-go-go society the focus always seems to be on working out and never on working in. This despite the fact that we actually get stronger, leaner and more fit in the times when we’re resting as opposed to training. Cycling recovery is no different, so today we’d like to share with you how to make the most of your rest and recuperation to be a better, stronger cyclist.

Source: kenopictures – Adobe Stock

Cycling Recovery 101

Your exercise choices determine the stimulus received by the body, and your recovery choices determine the response. With every workout on the bike, lifting session in the gym or cross training exercise through another sport, you are telling your body that you want to get stronger, faster, more coordinated, etc. What are you telling it in between?

Not allowing adequate rest time in between rides or ignoring the integration of other recovery methods will lead to one cranky, broken, bent out of shape cyclist. Some of us are addicted to giving ourselves away, and have never learned how to properly receive the care that we need. If you’re serious about cycling (or just want to improve) you need to understand the difference.

Mental Health & Cycling Fatigue

It’s sexy to “push yourself”, “give it your all” and “never quit”, but trying to do that all the time is the exact opposite of health and balance. We are constantly caught up in comparing ourselves to other people, not realizing they lead a completely different life with their own unique set of gifts and misfortunes.

Social media and every advertisement out there wants to tell you that you’re not good enough, but when it comes to your cycling recovery, you have to realize that isn’t true. Remember to take the performance and training regimens of others with a grain of salt; that you’re your own person participating in this sport for your own reasons.

Whether it’s for competition, recreation or just simple enjoyment, there are many wonderful things about jumping on a bike. A light perspective and pain free body goes a long way in reducing cycling fatigue, and that’s exactly what the rest of this article is designed to teach you about.

Tools For Cycling Recovery

Relieving our achy backs, painful hips and sore legs after cycling is a multifaceted and often complex, individualized issue. Posture, anatomy and various lifestyle factors all have a say. However, there are certain constants that, if adhered to (even loosely), can be a significant contributor to your post cycling recovery and overall improved cycling performance.

Source: Zinkevych – Adobe Stock

Warming Up

Incorporating a warm up into your bike riding routine is one of the most effective (though underused) methods for reducing soreness and promoting post cycle recovery. Warming up before exercise has been shown to mitigate the effects of delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), which is one of the worst nightmares for a cyclist.

Supple tissues that have been primed for movement with dynamic exercise perform better and are less susceptible to injury. It’s hard to imagine that a significant part of your cycling recovery takes place before you even get on a bike, but that’s just one of the many influences a pre-ride warm up will have on your performance.

Track Your Training

Simple journals that record your overall feelings before/during/after cycling, total distance, terrain and rate of perceived exertion are great tools to monitor performance over time. If you start to feel symptoms of overtraining, such as mental fog and reduced output on the bike, you can go back in your logs to determine where your recovery has gone wrong.

The truth is that you can have all the best resources at your disposal, but with no way to keep track of them it will be difficult to utilize the right one at the right time. Developing a stress-free journaling practice around your cycling will start to create associations between how different rides and periods of training work with your life and body. Without a plan, you plan to fail.

Recovery Rides

If you still want to jump on the saddle without the stress of a full blown workout, then integrating recovery rides into your training is a direct way of doing so. The recovery ride is, at its core, just reduced intensity riding that places the focus less on performance and more on movement and blood flow.

There is one significant benefit to recovery rides not often talked about in the cycling community, and that is learning to control your exertion. Forget the romantic and ego-fueled ideas about perseverance, grit and will. Our sport requires those things, but not all the time. A mature athlete knows when to attack and when to submit.

Self Myofascial Release (SMR)

Using a foam roller or lacrosse ball to give your muscles a gentle massage is a low cost method for long-term health and bodily maintenance. They’re widely available and probably hanging out in the corner of your gym! These implements, when used correctly, have been shown to increase joint range of motion and reduce muscle soreness post exercise.

Not only is this a relaxing practice that you can do almost anywhere, it helps to break up all those stiff, grouchy tissues in your legs and back from being on the saddle. You get to know your muscles in a new way by finding different pressure points (ouch!) and knots that you didn’t know were there, then giving those areas some much needed love and attention.

Source: JustLife – Adobe Stock

Today we wanted to give you a glimpse into our Roll & Release series here at Dynamic Cyclist! We are an all-inclusive training platform designed specifically to train cyclists and help them ride pain free. Our coach Alisha is going to take you through a foam rolling exercise you can do from home, designed to target the hip flexors!

Complete Recovery Plan For Cyclists

Dynamic Cyclist offers a completely integrated training and recovery experience for cyclists of all levels! Stretching, mobility, injury prevention and strength workout routines all in one convenient, easy to use online platform. We hope you join us in the journey to becoming stronger, better cyclists who RIDE PAIN FREE!