How much do you stretch?

Stretching is one of the most important things you can do to aid recovery time in any sport. As well as reducing tension in key tendons, it fosters a healthy release between the actin and myosin fibers in your muscles, lowering the chance of post ride cramps.

These are two benefits of stretching that aid comfort for riders, but there is an additional benefit to be gained from a few special endurance-specific stretches. When stretching your groin and glute muscle groups, you also release pressure that builds up on key lymphatic vessels. These vessels are responsible for removing toxins from your muscle tissue, and by reducing the pressure on them you allow for a quicker recovery time by facilitating the movement of these toxins out of your legs.

So in short, stretching regularly should be done by any cyclist looking to improve performance and recovery - daily, even on off days.

see http://www.cyclingforums.com/showpost.php?p=1867046&postcount=15

ric_stern/RST said:

see http://www.cyclingforums.com/showpost.php?p=1867046&postcount=15

Argh, thank God!

Where is Biker_Linz these days. Haven't seen him around in a while.

I don't stretch, that's a shame I know.

I don't particulary like long warmups neither.

I believe that stretching is good to make you more flexible.

As for injury prevention, I don't know. I have very bad knees, and so I stopped stretching my quads, and stopped doing any stretching exercise that puts stress on these articulations many years ago.

And for what it's worth, I stopped doing gymn exercises that put stress on my knees as well. In other words, I stopped doing any type of exercises that are generally believed to be good for injuries prevention, and I have my best season ever on the bike so far, with no interruption due to knee pain.

Doctor Morbius said:

Argh, thank God!

Where is Biker_Linz these days. Haven't seen him around in a while.

He's probably unlikely to come back. Linds is busy doing his PhD, so you'll just have to make do with his boss! 😉

Ric

ric_stern/RST said:

He's probably unlikely to come back. Linds is busy doing his PhD, so you'll just have to make do with his boss! 😉

Ric

I heard that guy was a real pain in the keister. You wouldn't happen to know who he is would you? 😉 😄

I started a daily stretch routine for the lower back and hamstrings a couple of years ago to "fix" my back pain while riding. Believe it's also helped with recovery and injury-prevention. Just a couple of minutes every morning before getting dressed is all it takes.

Kids may not need to worry much about stretching, but at age 58, I believe it helps me stay in the game. Even if it only helps to maintain flexibility, that's still a good return for 2 minutes a day.

Doctor Morbius said:

I heard that guy was a real pain in the keister. You wouldn't happen to know who he is would you? 😉 😄

:eek:

dhk2 said:

Kids may not need to worry much about stretching, but at age 58, I believe it helps me stay in the game. Even if it only helps to maintain flexibility, that's still a good return for 2 minutes a day.

Flexibility doesn't improve by itself without training it, as we get older.

Also, lowerback and hamstring are probably the two most important muscle groups to keep flexible for bike training/racing.

I use to stretch before a ride, but the past couple of months I stopped doing this and just stretched after 30 mins to an hour on the bike. I always stretch after a ride.

I just finished a charity ride and on the first day we rode over 100km without stopping (well 1 quick pee stop). I never hurt so bad! The following days (knowing about the lack of stopping) I stretched before the ride and felt much better.

Now I know that unless I get to stop early at the beginning of a ride to stretch, I have to stretch before.

I'd read news about the studies on stretching and stopped stretching at all, but later ran into trouble. Even still, I rarely stretch before a ride; only if I feel particularly (painfully) tight, and even then only for a minute.

But a herniated disk sent me to physical therapists, surgeons, pain managers, accupuncturists, and finally a chiropractor. The sumation of all their advice was that stretching AFTER working out, as part of the cool-down is very necessary. That said, I know this much to be true: In my case, if I go more than few days without stretching AFTER I ride, my back is in a terrible state and it takes several rides/stretches before I'm feeling limber. If I've been stretching AFTER rides, I can almost always pick up and ride nearly any distance I have time for, without any back pain. In particular, I seem to need to stretch my hip flexors/soaz(sp?).

Stretching may not be required for everyone, but nobody should dismiss it outright; especially if they have any pain; even if it seems unrelated.

ric_stern/RST said:

see http://www.cyclingforums.com/showpost.php?p=1867046&postcount=15

The link you provided about stretching is of limited value in my opinion. He refrenced two studies with a combined n of 20. The first study was a survey.

Do you have any other info/links/refrences? Or, do you think the studies are valid with only a few subjects? This seems to be a drawback to sports medicine/physiology research.

Are you aware of any prospective studies regarding stretching, performance, and injury prevention with bigger numbers?

Interesting reviews on injury prevention (conflicting conclusions of course):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16679062&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=15782063&query_hl=3&itool=pubmed_docsum