Wow, 60+ degrees today in the Finger Lakes, upstate NY. Lots of early season riders I see heading down West Lake Road here in gorgeous Canandaigua right along the water’s edge. A few had a choppy pedal stroke and most were hunched over the bars  in very poor postural form. I am always stressing the benefits of yoga for athletes – esp cyclists. Balancing those miles with some form of yoga, will pay serious dividends. Here are some clear benefits to counterbalance your hours in the saddle…

1.Flexibility
Cycling is a powerful sport, executed in a fixed position often for hours at a time. After a long ride, you will most likely have stiff legs. Over time, without attention to flexibility, these stiff legs will become permanent fixtures. Inflexible leg muscles can be the cause of many adverse conditions, including iliotibial band syndrome, low back pain, knee pain, and overall decreased range of motion. Below you will find some yoga poses that specifically target the muscles overused in cycling.

2. Core Strength
Another cause of low back pain and injury is lack of core strength. The riding position cyclists often deploy, rounded over, is challenging to the back muscles and ligaments to say the least. Breaking poor postural habits on the bike and finding a flatter back and more open front line to optimize the breathflow requires a very strong core – and that is the muscles in the FRONT, SIDES and BACK of the core — all the way around the 180 degrees of your torso.  Many yoga poses – combined with properly timed inhale and exhale – will help achieve a strong core or what I fondly call “the pillar of power.”

3. Breathe Better
The average person uses the top one-third of their lungs only. And when they begin to exercise they just breathe faster instead of deeper. Yoga teaches us to breathe fully, deeply and smoothly/fluidly, to access the full capacity of our lungs. One deep yoga breath provides almost a liter of oxygen to hungry muscles, compared to a teacup’s worth of oxygen in a normal breath. Which will fuel your ride better?

4. Relaxation Response
The deep, focused breathing we practice in yoga has another benefit. It triggers the relaxation response. Deep breaths help to turn off the sympathetic nervous system and it’s fight-or-flight response and engage the parasympatheic nervous system and it’s rest and digest mechanisms. Unless you’re racing, or sprinting to the finish line, consider your time on the bike a rolling meditation. Hone in to the biofeedback you are getting as you become more aware of your body, your breath, and even your surroundings, and being present. Your heart and your mind will thank you.

5. Mental Focus
When you are in the heat of the moment and your time and peformance is critical, a regular yoga practice will help you be more mindful and mentally focused on the mechanics needed to perform at your very best. A mind free of distractions and negative self-talk is a mind that’s free to engage in powerful motivational thoughts.

6. Cross Training
Yoga takes that bent-over posture and turns it inside out. Yoga will help you strengthen your upper and lower back, and stretch your chest, shoulders, abdomen and hip flexors. So instead of having posture that makes you look like a 90-year old, it will give you the posture and body-balance of a 20(+) year old. Who wouldn’t want to sign up…!

7. Balance
Speaking of balance, yoga gives cyclists a chance to get out of those stiff-soled shoes, stand barefoot, and improve their own natural sense of balance. The more time we spend on one foot, the better our proprioception. And these subtle balance clues come in very handy in crucial moments on the bike, when avoiding obstacles, traffic, other riders, etc.

If you’re convinced to give yoga a whirl, here are a few simple asanas (postures) to get you started. (Click the links for description and picture from Yoga Journal). Hold each pose for 5 to 10 long slow breaths:

1. Standing forward bend (Uttanasana): This is an excellent pose to lengthen tight hamstrings. It will also stretch your gluteus maximus, medius and minimus as well as your spinal muscles. Always ‘hinge from the hip’ versus rolling down through your spine. If your hamstrings are very tight, bend your knees to feel more comfortable. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/478

2. Warrior I (Virabhadrasana I): Warrior I is a very good posture to stretch your hip flexors, which are tight in many cyclists. Stand in a lunge with your back foot turned slightly to the side, heel grounded. Reach your arms overhead and try to square your hips to the front. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/1708

3. Warrior II (Virabhadrasana II): As in Warrior I, this posture stretches the hip joints and opens the groin and stretches the inner thigh muscles. Begin in Warrior I and open your hips and arms out to face the side wall. Pivot your back foot toes toward that wall.  Press your feet into the ground and reach out through your fingertips. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/495

4. Triangle Pose (Trikonasana): From Warrior II, straighten your front leg, and tilt your whole torso forward over the front leg, making sure to hinge at the hip. Triangle stretches the side body and the hips. http://www.yogajournal.com/poses/494

5. Standing forward bend with crossed legs: Start standing upright with the right leg crossed behind the left leg. Slowly fold forward, bending your knees if needed. Stick your right hip out and back and walk your hands toward the left side of your feet. This stretch is ideal for the tight IT band (esp at top of IT band) that is notorious in cyclists.

There are many many other great postures for strengthening underutlized muscles and lengthening overused ones. Check back here or go to your local yoga studio and see for yourself. Happy riding.

much to my wonderful delight, a post today by the renowned, well-written and well-informed yoga industry rag, Yoga Journal, reiterates something i have been thinking A LOT about lately and have said about 20 times in my yoga classes in the past two days. this is sound wisdom — for athletes (and all) who practice yoga. this great post – along with all the good news about the metabolic impact and recovery benefits of chocolate (cocoa) have just made my day…now excuse me while i have some dark chocolate followed by a nice savasana….!

Being a yoga instructor, I am fully aware that saying “yoga for athletes” is somewhat redundant or unnecessary, even illogical in a way. Yoga for _______. Yoga is for everything … you could fill in the blank with really anything. The amazing benefits of yoga cross over to anyone, no matter their lifestyle. So it is not technically necessary to say Yoga for Athletes.

BUT, the thing is, yoga IS a phenomenal tool in the proverbial toolbox for sports people – no matter their level, sport or age.

pigeon pose is a deep hip opener releasing tight flexors

Yoga Benefits
The demands of sport and therefore sports training are very specific. Strength, flexibility and fitness need to be developed to make you more successful at your chosen sport. Adding yoga to this very focused approach to training will improve your sporting performance and can result in increased flexibility and strength, and even alleviate nervous system imbalances. Yoga can help rebalance the body by addressing the shortfalls of  training.

Yoga Poses for Sports
According to author and ex-professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page in his book “Yoga for Regular Guys”, the standing poses are particularly useful for developing lower body balance, strength and flexibility. Warrior one and two, the triangle, downward facing dog, chair pose and tree pose being especially beneficial. Seated poses are very good for developing flexibility as they allow you to relax into progressively deeper stretches and then hold these positions for extended periods of time without becoming fatigued. Lying poses such as corpse pose and child pose are very calming and provide an ideal opportunity to focus on your breathing and practice meditation and stress control.

tree pose fosters greater balance, concentration and body awareness

Adaptations for Sportspeople
Years of high-intensity sports training may make performing many of the poses in yoga very difficult and quite possibly dangerous. You should never force a yoga pose as this may result in injury. Many poses can be adapted to suit your individual requirements. You can use props such as foam blocks and rollers, webbing straps and bolsters/cushions to adapt most yoga poses so they are safe, comfortable — achieving proper alignment. As you become more proficient with the poses, you may be able to reduce your reliance on these until you can do the full pose without modification although this may take years of consistent practice. And, bottom line: using props is fine. The correct form and alignment is the important part.

using a yoga strap can ensure correct alignment and therefore optimal benefit, here in reclined big toe pose

Adding Yoga to Your Schedule
Most athletes already have very full – and tiring – training schedules and the idea of fitting more activity into an already packed and exhausting week may be daunting. If this is the case, one of the best ways to introduce yoga is to perform a few poses each day as part of your warm up and cool down. More active poses, such as the sun salutation sequences – or modified versions of it – are ideally suited for warming up before your normal training and the seated and lying poses work nicely as part of your cool down. AND, because yoga puts back into your body what sports training takes out and can be very restorative, yoga practice can also be performed on your rest days without any worry of it affecting the recovery process.

See you on the mat.