Flexibility is the range of mobility around a joint and the muscle that surrounds it. Flexibility training should reduce the risk of injury, create a good range of movement, improve the movement around the joint, reduce muscular ache, increase co-ordination and increase blood flow circulation.
A strength and conditioning expert or physiotherapist will be able to test all your muscles for flexibility, but here are three basic tests to get started.
Test 1: Chest and shoulders
Place your hands on your hips and get a partner to pull your elbows together behind you. Your elbows should be able to point back behind you, creating a 90-degree angle with your body. Any less than this and the muscles at the front of your shoulders and chest are too tight, causing bad posture on the bike and tension in the neck.
ADVERTISEMENT
Test 2: Hip flexors
Lie on your front and pull one leg up behind you to get your heel to touch your buttocks. Once in this position, try to pull the knee of the leg you are stretching off the floor. If you can’t get your heel to your buttock then you need to increase flexibility in your quadriceps.
If you can get your heel to your buttocks but can’t get your knee off the floor, you need to spend time stretching your hip flexors. Tight hip flexors will make your pelvis tilt forwards, causing your lower back to arch and leading to back pain and overuse of the lower back muscles.
Test 3: Hamstrings
Lie on your back with both legs straight out in front of you. Keeping both legs straight, slowly pull one leg up towards you, holding it just behind the knee. You should be able to get your leg up to at least 90 degrees without feeling too much of a stretch on your hamstrings to have adequate hamstring flexibility for pedal efficiency.
1. Shoulder/chest stretch
2. Kneeling hip flexor stretch
3. Towel hamstring stretch
You can read more at BikeRadar.com
via BikeRadar All the latest from BikeRadar.com http://ift.tt/2bsOzym
No comments:
Post a Comment