Flexibility Training

In order to do well in any sport or activity without becoming sore or injured, your body must be in shape. The best way to be in shape is for your body to be flexible. There is such a thing as flexibility training, which helps to work the muscles and make them more pliable so they don’t tire so quickly. When your muscles are tight, they tend to pull more easily and cramp up, which often leads to tendonitis and other injuries. Your tissues are also more prone to injuries when you’re not in good shape. With flexibility training, your muscles will allow you to be more powerful and cope with the stress of exercise and physical activity.

Flexibility Training For Cyclists

For a physical activity such as cycling, you’ll be putting emphasis on your muscle contraction and its opposing forces, your ability to relax and the overall effect on your range of motion while you’re actually pedaling your bicycle. The more tired your muscles become, the less flexible they become. This will make it more difficult to move your knees, hips, and ankle joints as you continue to pedal. Because of this, one muscle group will have to work harder than the other just to get the joint moving because the opposing muscles are working against the movement. When your muscles are pliable and flexible, they give you much less resistance and work with you.

Range of motion is extremely important in any type of activity. The two types of range of motion are passive and active. A passive motion is when you are stationery and stretch from this position. Although passive stretches work well as a way to improve your efficiency and will reduce your chance of injury, you’ll get much better performance with active stretches and movements. The reason for this is because when we’re cycling, we’re using repetitive and contractive joint movements. So the main areas of the body you need to concentrate on are the knees, hips and ankles.

Learn About Your Body

Before you start flexibility training, it’s important and necessary to determine which areas of your body need more flexibility. Some parts of your body may need more flexibility training than others. The best way to determine this is by taking a personal flexibility assessment on yourself so you’ll know what kind of shape your body is in based on your physical condition and personal history. A personal flexibility assessment (PFA) will help you in figuring out what areas need the most work based also on what activities you plan on doing. You can join the thousands that enjoy their physical activities as well as workouts because they’re in the best shape they can be.

Cycling is a very popular sport and pastime today, especially with the emphasis there is today on exercise and physical fitness. Whether you consider yourself in good physical shape or out of shape, it’s important to do some sort of stretches. There are a variety of different types of stretches available. If you’re in doubt as to what kind of stretches you’ll want to do, you can do as many do and do all body part stretches. In fact, there are all body part stretches that can be done while you’re cycling after you’ve already warmed up.

These all body part stretches are called this because they’ll take care of all of your important body parts used for exercising. They are, however, different stretches for different part, rather than one particular stretch.

Examples of Excellent All Body Part Stretches

An excellent stretch for your calf is to stand on your bike pedals having the cranks go up and down, while keeping the heel and leg that’s the lowest in a straight position. Lower the heel of the other leg past the pedal frame and hold for a few seconds. Repeat this procedure with the other leg. A good stretch for your hamstrings takes place by standing on the pedals with your bike crank horizontal. Most of the stretch will be felt in your front leg in this exercise. Keeping both of your legs straight, move your body so it’s almost on top of the handlebars. Lower your shoulders and tilt your pelvis until you can feel your hamstring stretching. Hold this position for a few seconds, then change pedals and do this with the other leg.

There are also several different stretches that can be done while you’re off your bike. These are also some great all body part stretches that only take a moment or two. While keeping your shoulders level, tilt your head to one side and hold it there for a few seconds. Now you can switch to the other side, making sure to not let your head rotate. This is a great stretch for your neck. A combination lower back and legs stretch requires you to lie on the floor with your lower part of your back flat on the floor or ground. While grasping your leg right below the knee, pull it towards your chest and hold it for a few seconds, then switch legs.

Don’t Forget the Hams

Hamstrings are a part of the body that is often injured in sports activities so it’s important that they always get properly exercised and conditioned. A good hamstring stretch is lifting your leg to waist height and resting it against a wall. Bend the other leg a little while keeping the lifted leg straight. Bend your body close to the leg that’s supporting you and hold this position for a few seconds then switch legs.

While often exercising sounds like a tiresome job, it’s very important to condition your body before physical activities, especially with these simple all body part stretches, which only take a few minutes.

Causes of overtraining
You can push yourself over the edge of overtraining if you fail to adapt to the stress of sustained, high intensity training. If you perform your high intensity training before you have had a chance to adapt to this type of training overtraining can have a fast on-set. As few as ten days of increased training can result in overtraining in some athletes. A lack of proper recovery can also result in overtraining.

The main cause of overtraining
However, the main causes of overtraining is a poorly created program. For example, a rapid increase in your training volume, intensity or protracted schedules of high volume training in addition a recovery and rest period that is not adequate will cause many athletes to risk overtraining. If an athlete fails to consider other stresses they may also be at a higher risk. Even an athlete with a carefully created program can over train. Studies show that standardized assessments of training and secondary sources of stress may not be useful in predicting the risk of a stale program for groups or teams. This variability alone can stress the importance of paying attention to your personal limitations for an increase in volume and the intensity of your training. Over training is a complex condition with prolonged overload without proper recovery being the main cause. Other factors such as competition related monotony ad tedium, travel, psychological, environmental and medical conditions can all add to the risk of overtraining.

Signs to overtraining
The number one sign to overtraining is an unwanted decline in performance unrelated to factors such as an illness or an injury. This drop may come after a period of maintained performance for a greater cost. Other symptoms of overtraining include but are not limited to mood disturbances, fatigue, malaise associated with the loss of energy and vigor and feelings of heaviness in the limbs. Changes in sleep patterns and your appetite have also been seen in people whom suffer overtraining.

Identify overtraining early
It is very important to identify overtraining as soon as possible. This is when short-term interventions may still be helpful. If you do not watch for and heed the warning signs of overtraining, you may be on the road to disaster. As a rule, your body tells you what it needs. You may want to eat everything in sight the morning after a 100-mile ride you. On the contrary you may have no appetite after a very hard effort. You need to be thoughtful and smart about your eating habits. Make sure that you are consuming a sufficient amount of carbohydrates if you begin t feel the signs of overtraining. Match your intake day to day to your training load. Your body will not run on empty any better than your car will. Feed your muscles with carbohydrates at the same rate you are using them.

Overtraining is as individual as you are
Overtraining is as individual as you are. Just because a program is right for your best friend does not mean that it is the right program for you. Effective training is knowing your body’s ability to adapt and recover. Overtraining is poor program management. You can train hard and still not over train if your program is designed correctly with rest and recovery periods. The best way not to overtrain is to “know you”. Pay attention to your body and its signals. Keep a detailed training log, use a proper tapering program before big races and by stepping back and analyzing what you have done you can avoid overtraining.

Solo Training

Information regarding adequate values of maximal and submaximal intensities have been given in various literature. A group of professional world-class cyclists have been examined and tested using a protocol in the preceding section, Padilla et al. (1999, 2000a, b). The report showed the Wmax values ranging from 349 to 525 watts ( 5.7 and 6.8 watts per kilogram). This shows that when friction accounts for 9% in the transmission system of the ergometer then one of the cyclists attained a Wmax of 572 watts, which is a remarkable achievement.

The same cyclist attained VO2max values of 4.4 to 6.4 liters per minute (69.7 to 84.8 millimeters per kilogram per minute), HRmax of 187 to 204 beats per minute, and peak BL concentration at the end of the previously mentioned incremental testing protocol of 6.9 to 13.7 mol per liter.

Ideal professional road cyclist has to have a power output of 334 watts (76 percent Wmax), an oxygen uptake of 4.0 liters per minute(77% VO2max)and a heart rate of 163 beats per minute(84% Wmax). Typical values corresponding to the OBLA are 386 watts( 87% Wmax), 4.5 liters per minute(86% VO2max), and 178 beats per minute(92% HRmax).

A five-time winner of Tour de France was studied and the results showed a power output at OBLA of 505 watts and an oxygen uptake at this intensity of 5.65 liters per minute (Padilla et al. 2000a). Professional road cyclists also show a mean mechanical efficiency where an average of 23% of maximal and submaximal cycling intensities is taken.

For professional cyclists the physical work is given much importance. The aerodynamic resistance is considered which mainly depends on FA, air density, and speed of motion. The rolling resistance depends on BM, pressure in the tires, and the characteristics of the road surface and tires. Hence the physical endurance of a cyclist determines the physiological factors.

Ergometer shows the reading in the laboratory setup but the actual road setup shows the interaction of the cyclist with the environment. For more accurate prediction of the cyclist’s performance potential in the outdoor field it is necessary to assess his or her physiological capacity relative to anthropometric characteristics, (BM, FA, BSA). This procedure is known as scaling. Scaling can be done for maximal, submaximal power output and oxygen uptake by relating these values with individual anthropometric characteristics, which include BSA, FA, BM, BM0_n, BM0_32. It has been proved that uphill cycling ability can be best predicted by oxygen uptake and power output values relative to BM and BM0_79. Cycling on a flat terrain can be predicted with the help of BM0_32.

For a professional cyclist the laboratory offers a non-competitive situation. It helps in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the cyclist. Differences between two top riders are usually attained in time trial and mountain stages. It can be a matter of only very minimal time like 60 seconds but laboratory measurements ignore such differences.

An athlete or a sportsman expends lot of time and energy in training programs to win competitions. It is essential that no part of his time goes unproductive. The regular training constitutes the actual part of activity while the supplemental training increases the flexibility of the muscles and tendons in the participant’s body. For an ideal coordination of the muscles and the brain, supplemental training helps a lot. There by, the regular training sessions are performed at ease and competitions are won at the end of each training levels.

Since each person’s body constitution differs from the other, the responses shown by the people vary for the same stress training schedule. So each sportsman should discuss with the instructor in devising the stress training and supplemental training program to suit his needs. Flexibility exercises must be given more importance. It takes a long time for these exercises to pay dividends. Stretching or cross training for short periods show no signs of visible improvements. The sports enthusiast knows for certain the locations in his body which could give hurdles during the stress training sessions.

Stretching routines should be organized as to apply slight tensile force or compressive force to these sections which needs only few minutes a day. Initial bearable pain should be a positive sign of improvement in these areas. Without these stretching routines, if the sportsman pursues stress training, he is prone to injuries due to overexertion. He should take care not to stretch an injured portion which can inhibit the healing process.

Warming up for 10 to 20 minutes in the early morning increases the blood flow to the muscles and heats up to create more flexibility. Jogging over little distances and brisk walking at least 3 kilometers in the early morning is helpful. The athlete can wear warm clothes to allow his muscle fibers do necessary chemical reactions. Stretching exercises should be started at the top and worked down. The physiotherapists help the sportsmen when they are afflicted by sprain or cramps. They either apply infrared heat or stretch those areas. Each part should be held in the position and pressurized for 20 seconds to get the desired effect. Stretching exercises should not be accompanied by any jumping action. There are chances of muscle fibers getting torn.

Increased flexibility of muscles improves the brain’s control over the muscular action and the bio feedback. Overall posture of the sportsman increases during the game.

Cyclists doing the stress training course should take up running exercises as cross training program. It is very similar to the cycling since the same muscle groups are being worked. Due to the thudding of the foot on the ground in every step, running improves the strength in leg muscles which cycling motions lack. Practice in running as cross training improves endurance, increases VO2 max and aerobic capacity. The cyclist’s muscles in the torso and shoulders are developed while moving the arms during running which cycling does not provide. The control on the bike is improved by this exercise.

Running requires more energy than cycling. A person can cycle for more duration of time than running. The circular wheel and the gear system help in pushing the body weight and the cycle weight forward whereas in running, the muscles have to do the full work of taking the load. Running as cross training stresses the cardiovascular system quicker. It is definitely useful for the cyclist during the uphill training and for improves endurance.
Running expends more energy than cycling and brings out the body heat to a greater extent, which keeps the runner warm in the cold climate. The cyclist moves faster on the bicycle and the wind chill that is formed makes him impossible to travel for longer periods of time whereas the runner has a slower pace so that he need not bother about the chilling effect. During cold seasons, the cyclist can practice indoor training and run outdoors to overcome monotony within the four walls.

Running should be used as a cross training infused with base training in cycling. After the heavy schedule of cycling workouts, the cyclist should take adequate rest before he switches over to running. The cyclist can run as much for 45 minutes per week on the rest days in between the stress training schedules. The instructor’s secret to the success formula lies in making the training format harder and the resting days more relaxed. In fact, each cycling tempo schedule in a day should be backed up by easy running at dusk. This combination helps in the recovery of the leg muscles.

Running is an injury producing activity because of the high impact it generates, at every step. The injury is due to eccentric contraction wherein the muscle lengthens as attempt is made to shorten it. The calf and quad muscles experience this contraction while climbing down the stairs and not during climbing up. So it is advisable to run on grass or on sea sand rather than on hard concrete roads with canvas shoes.

The best way to loosen up your body is to begin with some gentle stretches. You can stand with your legs with knees slightly bent. You can then bend down towards your feet. Stretching your hands down to your feet is the next essential step. You need to feel he stretch in your hamstrings. Repeat these steps for 15 to 20 minutes. However, you should not try to bounce at any stage. You can try another stretching exercise as well, which requires you to stand with your knees slightly bent and erect with your feet slightly. You can stretch your quads and relax your hamstrings.

You can work through your body to stretch your neck, shoulders, legs, ankles, groin and back. You can even try low impact aerobic activities like brisk walking or running to warm up your muscles. This helps to increase your heart rate and warm up the blood so that you can do workouts without any strain

Trunk Stretch

You can stretch your neck and shoulders by slowly rolling your head around your neck in a full circle. You should keep your back straight. Repeat this step at least times in either direction. You can turn your shoulders up towards your ear and release. You need to repeat this step 5 times. As your back requires stressing more in cycling, you need to spend some time in stretches before stating it.

It is crucial to stretch your back and hip before commencing any heavy workouts. You can lie on your back with knees bent. Place our feet on the floor slightly apart. Then put your hands behind your neck and pull your head forward off the floor. You have to stretch the back of your upper spine and neck. Doing this for 5 to 10 seconds is highly beneficial to your neck and back.

You can do the above stretching exercise with simple modifications as well. You have to lie on your back with knees bent and place your leg one over the other. Then put your hands behind your head, while keeping your upper back and shoulders on the floor. This gives you better stability. Yu need to remember that simply stretching is enough and you should not aim to touch the floor with the knee. You can do this at least for 30 seconds on each side. You can try t bring your knees to your chest and pull in with your hands. This gives better stretch to your back.

Toning-Up

You can use another stretching in which you need to sit and stretch your right leg and bend your left leg to cross over the right leg. This twisting helps to give good stretch for your back and hip.

You can stand with your feet and bend forward to lace your hands on the floor. Bend your knees slightly to reduce the stress in your muscles. Do this for 30 seconds.

Thoracic Stretch

It is quite common that we all want to keep ourselves fit. It is not only for running after a bus or for playing with our kids, but for leading healthy and happy life. Stretching helps to loosen up your muscles and it increases your flexibility. You can select some simple stretches, which offer more fun while doing. You can try this useful stretch. You have to place your left foot between your hands and bend forward with your knee over your ankle. Shift your weight back onto your knee, extend and straighten your left leg. You should feel the stretching in your left hamstring. You need to hold this for 5 to 10 seconds gently.

If you work in your computer for many hours or spend more hours in one position, you may feel very tired at the end of the day. A simple stretching exercise can help you to relieve from pain and tiredness. Start this exercise by gently swinging your arms side by side and punch them slightly. Hold the side of your chair and take one arm up gently, then bend it over your head. Repeat the same for the other side. Take the arms out to the side and move your hands in clockwise and anticlockwise motions. Repeat this process at least 10 times. Then take your arms out to the side and bend at the elbows. Pull your shoulders and elbows back.

Abdominal Stretch

The most important cause for sports injuries and health problems is due to lack of flexibility. The hectic lifestyle contributes to stress, back pain and osteoarthritis. Injuries may take long time to heal, if your body lacks flexibility. A study reveals the fact that people suffering from back and knee pains have tight hamstrings and hips. In turn, if your body is flexible, then it is more efficient and enjoys more range of motion. A flexible body is strong and is not vulnerable to injuries. It recovers from severe workouts much easily. Stretching makes your body more flexible and so you can feel better and enjoy more stability.

Tightness in muscle prevents your body from being supple. It is very difficult for the blood stream to reach all the parts of the body, if your muscles are tight. However, the hustle bustle lifestyle prevents to have flexile muscles. The best way to loosen up your muscles is to spend some time on stretching regularly. You can also enjoy more fun while doing stretching. It is therefore easy to lead a healthy life.

Shoulder Stretch

Cycling is a brilliant sport and the cyclist is required to keep the right fitness levels. They are given professional training and ensured that they maintain the right balance if they are keen to enter professional Cycling competitions.There are various ways to measure the fitness levels of the cyclists.

Cycling is very different from other sports lie swimming and distance running because of the highly variable nature. Different tactics, environmental conditions and drafting makes it difficult for the cyclists and their coaches to monitor changes accurately. The weaknesses in fitness can go unnoticed and the cyclist may not achieve optimal performance. Hence it is important to undertake fitness testing.

Fitness testing is essential to measure the performance level of the athletes and identify their specific areas of their strengths. The physiological variables can be tested. Standard protocols conducive to the athletes have to be set also keeping in mind the environment and the equipments involved.

There are two reasons for fitness testing. The first reason is to systematically monitor changes in a cyclist’s physiology over time and finding out how effective is it in the current training regimen. Changes in training can influence different aspects of physiology. A novice trainer can improve muscular efficiency after endurance training. A sprinter can focus in anaerobic power. If fitness testing is done regularly, then the coach can evaluate the signs of overtraining.

Blood Sample

The second reason for fitness testing is to identify the specific strengths and weaknesses of a cyclist’s physiology that may be influential in achieving a goal. A cyclist with good anaerobic power may be a good sprinter and is likely to do well in track cycling events.

After analyzing the requirements of a particular event the results can be compared with optimal physiological evaluation. This can highlight the weaknesses and they can be overcome by appropriate training.

The physiological evaluation of two riders may be the same but their performance in actual competition may differ significantly. There can be other features that can influence competitive performance. Physiological changes need to be monitored systematically. In addition to this, alternative methods can also be used outside the laboratory environment for those who cannot afford laboratory equipments.

The usual testing procedures are aerobic capacity testing (VO2max testing) performed on ergo meter and endurance performance testing where the cyclists ride on their own bicycles in the laboratory.

V02 Metabolic Cart

Photos from topendsports.

Cycling is a great sport and a wonderful aerobic activity that can keep you fit and energetic. The energy level of the cyclist is measured through various tools before they enter professional sports. Proper fitness training is given to them based on their energy levels.

It is important to determine submaximal economy. Blood Lactate threshold is one of the methods. When the body is not able to supply all of its energy needs aerobically then at that time lactate is produced. A blood lactate profile can be determined by testing blood sample from a finger prick. The point where the lactate rises faster indicates a transitory threshold.

Lactate testing is a measure of submaximal economy but the true value is not very evident. The threshold point cannot be accurately assessed as there may be day-to-day changes in lactate responses. Mathematical calculations also vary. Lactate threshold testing is less beneficial to most of the cyclists.

A group of cyclists were tested for submaximal economy to find out how much energy was consumed while performing a standard sub maximal workload. It was found that the overall work efficiency ranged between 17 and 26% with an average somewhere in the middle. 20 calories out of 100 calories burnt were used in pedaling the ergometer.

Submaximal economy is measured in terms of movement velocity for a given energy consumption. It is the ratio of power produced to the movement intended. For example- cycling with a speed of 40 km.

Another method of measuring the submaximal economy is by undergoing laboratory based time trials. These normally would be at a distance of 20 kilometers and would reveal the actual demands of cycling competition. The athletes can pace themselves effectively assuming that they are well motivated. Time trial test provides good sustained power and average heart rate. Since it is self paced and non steady in nature it is difficult to determine any other physiological response.

An athlete has to have good endurance capability to successfully complete a race. But road cycling and mountain biking depends heavily on anaerobic capabilities. The standard Wintage protocol is used in most laboratories to test anaerobic capability. The athlete has to quickly complete as much work as possible in 30 seconds sprint test. Anaerobic power (the maximal power generated by the muscle) and anaerobic capacity (the total power that the muscle can produce using anaerobic sources) are calculated using peak power and average power. This way submaximal economy can be assessed.