Yoga Cross-Training
for Cyclists

By Paige Greenfield

Five reasons why yoga will make you a better rider.

Yoga isn’t just for your bendy sister-in-law or a satiated Buddha. In fact, taking just one weekly yoga class or doing 15 minutes of poses after every bike ride will make you a stronger, faster cyclist. “Yoga is the single best cross-training tool,” says Prisca Boris, Yoga for Athletes instructor in Vail, Colorado. “It gives you everything you want while you’re on your bike: Strength, flexibility, power, and stamina.” Yoga also makes you less injury-prone, promotes speedier recovery, reduces stress, and lengthens muscles to give you a longer, more powerful stride.

Need more reasons to start? Here are five.

1. Recover without Being Sore

When you finish a ride the two things on your mind aren’t Triangle Pose or Sun Salutations but before you shower and eat, doing at least five minutes of post-ride posture will open your hips, back, and shoulders release lactic acid from your muscles to reduce soreness, says Baxter Bell, M.D., a family practitioner, yoga instructor, and cyclist in Oakland, California. Stiff muscles are dry muscles, so stretching and lubricating them increases recovery speed. This will also increase your stamina during training and guard against saddle-soreness tomorrow.

Do Triangle Pose: Stand with your legs 4 feet apart. Raise your arms shoulder-height, parallel to the floor with your palms down. Turn your left foot in about 45 degrees, and your right foot out 90 degrees. Your front heel should bisect the back foot. Bending from your hips, extend your torso to the right directly over your right leg, placing your right arm on a block behind your right foot. Stretch your left arm toward the ceiling, keeping your shoulders stacked in a straight line. Stay in this pose for 30 seconds to one minute. Inhale to come up slowly. Reverse the feet and repeat to the left.


2. Crash Protection

Textbook crash instructions say bring your arms into your chest because using your extremities to break your fall will likely break your arms. So you hope you land on your shoulder. Problem is, shoulders are the most mobile joints in the body, making them the most unstable and prone to dislocation. “If you crash, it’s really helpful to have strong shoulders so they won’t budge from their sockets when you hit the ground,” says Andria Baldovin, creator of the Yoga for Cyclists DVD. Acing Downward Facing Dog will give you the shoulder strength you need.
 
Do Downward Facing Dog: Start on your hands and knees, placing your hands directly under your shoulders, spreading fingers wide. Align your knees directly under your hips, and your toes turned under. Exhale and raise your knees and hips away from the floor until your body is in an inverted V position. Press your shoulder blades firmly into your back, then widen and draw them toward your tailbone. Keep your head between your arms. Once you’ve mastered this move on the mat, find this position on the bike (especially in your shoulders and back) for greater stability.

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