In addition to biking, we also do yoga in the BluA community. There are so many good reasons why to practice yoga and also so many different styles of yoga. Whether you seek a sweaty exercise with crazy acrobatics, to increase your level of flexibility or simply pure meditation and relaxation, yoga got you covered.
For us cyclists, the most common reason for bringing yoga into our workout routine is probably to counteract muscle stiffness and perhaps to build strength otherwhere than our legs. Cyclists are known to have supreme cardiovascular fitness and phenomenal leg power, but when it comes to flexibility and upper body strenght, many of us fall short. Typical weaknesses include stiff quads, hip flexors, hamstrings and lower backs, accompanied by tight shoulders and chest muscles.
Some of the poses we like to do on a regular basis to balance these weak spots are shown below. These are pretty advanced, so we do not recommend trying these at home without further guidance. We have left a link to yoga journal, which we consider a highly reliable source, in case you are interested in checking them out.
Camel pose
Camel pose stretches the entire front of the body, from the ankles all the way up to the throat. It really targets those deep hip flexors (psoas) and opens the chest, which feels so great after a ride. The pose also strengthens back muscles and improves posture. Learn more about camel pose by heading over to yoga journal: https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/camel-pose
Monkey pose
There are so many different variations of this pose to stretch your thighs, hamstrings and groins. We love to do the full monkey pose, but this can easily be modified either by doing another variation of the pose, or by applying props. You can read more about the pose here: https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/monkey-pose
Reclined heros pose
This pose is described as a balm for tired legs at the end of a day (or ride). Some key benefits from this pose is stretching the abdomen, thighs and deep hip flexors (psoas), knees, and ankles. It also strengthens the arches and relieves tired legs. If you want to learn more about this pose, head to yoga journal: https://www.yogajournal.com/poses/reclining-hero-pose
As you might have guessed, we have been doing quite a lot of yoga and even had a career as a yoga teacher, back in the days. This is something we are really passionate about and we would love to share more here on the blog.
Would you like to learn more about yoga? If so, what would be most interesting to you?
Would you like to have a full stretching routine to become more flexible, a session with restorative poses to do after a ride, a yin yoga sequence to slow down and relax or perhaps a killer core routine to gain strength? Leave your comments below!
Namasté
Σχόλια