What stretching or other anti-injury exercises do you do?

[montage]

Avoiding injury is by far the best cure, so what do you do to avoid injury?

I've started a fully body stretching regime to try and avoid even more injuries. I mainly focus on the hamstrings as they are particuarly short, but it is also important not to neglect the upper body, so shoulder and lower back stretches are also important I feel.
Going with the shoulders, I have also started strengthening the rotator cuff muscles - something which is missed by most people in favour of the "beach muscles" Most joints have a set of small muscles which are neglected at your peril...strengthening stabilizer muscles is being built into my regime as well.

What do you do to keep out of the physio's office?
(not what you do to keep fit)

 

[jimboalee]

Stretching.. good idea.

Progressive slow stretches, if you've got a quarter of an hour to spare before the ride.

Do not perform 'balistic' stretches unless you know exactly what you are doing.

Another tip to avoid injury is "Take it easy for the first ten miles".

 

[Moodyman]

All your stretching is good.

But don't do it whilst the muscles are cold.

I spend 3/4 mins skipping to warm the body up. Then stretch like you. Then jump on the bike.

After the ride, I spend about 5 mins stretching all the different muscles groups - especially hamstrings and lower back. Stops the cramps later.

 

[Pompey Princess]

Hey Montage

What stretches or strengthening exercises do you do for the rotator cuff?

Play racket sports and have hurt the RC on more than one occasion!

many thanks

Nicky

 

[navrat_biker]

you can do things like squats, lunges, the plank, usual shoulder/arm stretches these all help to stretch and strengthen muscles. performed before and after a training session.

 

[Crankarm]

Avoiding injury is by far the best cure, so what do you do to avoid injury?

I've started a fully body stretching regime to try and avoid even more injuries. I mainly focus on the hamstrings as they are particuarly short, but it is also important not to neglect the upper body, so shoulder and lower back stretches are also important I feel.
Going with the shoulders, I have also started strengthening the rotator cuff muscles - something which is missed by most people in favour of the "beach muscles" Most joints have a set of small muscles which are neglected at your peril...strengthening stabilizer muscles is being built into my regime as well.

What do you do to keep out of the physio's office?
(not what you do to keep fit)

Eh??? You've gone all technical .

As or more important than stretching is massage especially lower legs calves and Achilles. Also core muscle strength - lots of chin ups and crunches. Lying on one's back keeping one's legs about 6 inches off the ground for as long as possible. It can help by extending your arms back straight out behind your head to act as a balance. Only stretch after a ride. Don't stretch cold muscles. Ride gently at first. Spin.

 

[Fiona N]

I find a combination of pilates and yoga is great for general conditioning. Apart from stretching (legs, glutes, back and shoulders, mainly) when I come back from a ride, I often (3-4 times a week) do an hour in the morning. These sessions start with sun salutations to warm up then move on to a variety of yoga positions, particularly for hip and back flexibility and upper body strength, before pilates core strengthening and control exercises, some of the physio's exercises specifically for ITB and knee stability, and finish with the deep glute/piriformis/ITB stretches.

On the knee stability, I spend a lot of time standing on one leg and doing shallow one leg squats. Why waste time when brushing your teeth, chopping veggies, etc. I also have a rebounder and use it for one leg squats which improve proprioception as well as strengthening feet, ankles and knees. This is usually just 10mins a day or so.

Other exercises from the physio I do as needed, if I think a problem is re-occurring, say, but there's not time to do all my remediation exercises everyday - my list is currently about 25 items long

The alternative to all this is not riding my bike

 

[chigman]

I just warm up with 5 mins on my cross trainer on a really easy setting, just like spinning a really low gear on the bike.

Steve

 

[HLaB]

I had IT band problems before so I follow the exercises at the bottom of this page and some others sometimes. I quite often do ham string stretches (heel to the bum) standing on the other leg, squat too. Or I lie my stomach clench my buttok, raise the lower leg to the vertical, then in a separate movement I lift the knee off the deck. Another one I do is too lie on my side with knees together in front of me and I lift the top knee. Sorry I don't the correct name for these and probably don't describe them right either.

 

[Fiona N]

I had IT band problems before so I follow the exercises at the bottom of this page and some others sometimes. I quite often do hamstring stretches (heel to the bum) standing on the other leg, squat too. Or I lie on my stomach clench my buttock, raise the lower leg to the vertical, then in a separate movement I lift the knee off the deck. Another one I do is too lie on my side with knees together in front of me and I lift the top knee. ...

I'm wondering about your interesting physiology there HLaB

 

[HLaB]

I'm wondering about your interesting physiology there HLaB

The leg starts of horizontal then I raise the lower leg (i.e the tibia & fibula or the section below the knee) through 90 deg to the vertical. Am I missing something here, it doesn't physiologically hard to me

 

[Fiona N]

Well you weren't too clear about that lower part of the leg and I just had visions of lifting the whole leg - and it did follow on from hamstring (rather than quad) stretches involving heel to bum Probably just a warped sense of humour from over-familiarity with my physio

 

[HLaB]

Well you weren't too clear about that lower part of the leg and I just had visions of lifting the whole leg - and it did follow on from hamstring (rather than quad) stretches involving heel to bum Probably just a warped sense of humour from over-familiarity with my physio

lower leg always means lower leg in my book; its probably a good job I'm not a physio

 

[fossyant]

Don't bother much, other than some stretching with my fubar'ed left shoulder !

Warm up enough before 'canning it'.......