Most of us enjoy riding our bike more than going to the gym right? But if we practice a few carefully chosen exercises, we can boost our strength and mobility, avoid injuries and become a better rider! The best part is, we can do this anywhere, no gym required. In Episode 1, Vicky shows us a few useful variations on the Squat.
If you ride mountain bikes or road bikes it is common to have problems with the upper back, or maybe a little in the lower back. So we’re going to do some strength exercises and a bit of mobility in the upper part of the body. Also when you’re on the bike, you spend a lot of time in the same position, we sit a lot of the time – so you might have a short hip flexor, short hamstring, which can give a lot of problems with your lower back.
Also, if you work in an office, you may have some of the same problems. Sitting in front of a computer, in a bad position, with your legs up. We may have the same problem with the hip flexor, hamstring, lower back and weak upper back. So these exercises will help to make sure that we can get a good posture.
Warm Up
Before starting, we recommend that you can go for a brisk walk, maybe 5 to 10 minutes. Or even just do some dynamic movements of the arms, or just jog on the spot to get the blood moving.
Basic Squat
We’re going to start doing squats. We will also add arm movements to make sure that we work the upper part of the back. You will also probably feel it a little bit in the lower back if you have a lack of mobility. So raise your arms, lean forward. You can bend the knees a little bit. Try to get as far down as possible. If you don’t reach the floor, no problem. We’re just warming up. Go down in a squat position. You might already feel that this is quite difficult because of lacking mobility in the hip. Coming back up, raise your arms, and do the same once again.
Now if you’d like to add a little bit more of intensity, you can try to raise your arms earlier. If you want to work a little bit more on the front part of your thighs, the quadriceps, you can have the feet a little bit more narrow. You should always have the knees and the toes pointing in the same direction. If you open up your feet a little bit more, knees and toes pointing out, you’re going to be working a little bit more of the glutes. All of these muscles are involved in cycling.
What is important is to keep your knees and your toes in the same direction. We’re going to add arm movements to also work the upper body. So as you go down, raise the arms. If your knees are little bit in front of the toes, it doesn’t really matter, but you want to keep your back straight.
Coming back up, you’re going to do 10, 12 repetitions and if you want to add more intensity for your back, try to raise your arms but maintain the back straight. Normally the struggle is to come down and your arms and back will not be straight. Try to raise the arms and extend the back.
We’ve talked about how this squat is great for the legs, that you have different positions. If you want to work more the front and the quadriceps or more the glutes in the back. Now we add the arms not only for mobility, but as we are seated like this on the bike, we want to make sure that we have enough strength in the back to keep a good posture. So you can either add arm movements which start activating the muscles, or you can add the higher level, which will activate the muscles all from your back around the spine down to your lower back.
Mobility Squat
We’re going to continue with a squat, but this time we’re going to add mobility, not only for your hip, but also for your upper body – to involve more of the core. This is especially good for the mountain bike, when we have sudden change of direction or we suddenly have to ride off a drop. We start going down in a squat, as far down as possible. Maybe in the beginning you cant go all the way, because you might have a lack of mobility and you can’t get any further – no problem, stay there. You’re going to feel the burn more in the legs in this position so you might not be able to hold the position for very long.
When you get more mobility, you will be able to go further down. Place your arms on the inside of your knees and push out to open your hip. You will also feel it in the muscles in your back as you keep your back straight. Now if you want to add a little bit more of a rotation and core work, try to go even further down, and add a rotation with your arm. You’re going to feel it all around your back, also a little bit in the waist. To relax your legs, come up, relax a little bit and go back down. This is a great exercise to be prepared for any kind of situation, both on the road and the mountain bike.
Mobility Squat and Flexibility
Next level of the mobility squat is to add a stretch for the hamstring. Go down into the squat, rotate to add some core work and mobility work in the upper body. Now try to keep your hands as low as possible. Then extend your legs. Then go back down to the squat, mobility, rotation, and upper body movements. We add the hamstring stretch. When you begin doing the mobility squat, it’s normal to only go down half way, and you will feel how far you can go, because your back will start curving.
What you really want to do is to try to come up and push your knees out to the side and get your back straight. And then bit by bit as you gain mobility, you will be able to go further down, maybe to the point that you can actually touch your feet and maintain the back straight. Push your knees out and try to do the rotation from here. Maybe you can only get half way the first time. No problem. Bit by bit, you will gain mobility.
Now the hamstrings. What normally happens is that you get half-way and there is a lot of tension in your hamstring. Don’t worry, you can just raise your back a little, and what we normally do is to keep the back a little bit curved. Now in this position, you could try to extend the back and you will already feel the hamstring tighten again, and then bit by bit you will be able to reach down further when you gain flexibility.
When you’re working on flexibility and mobility, you want to hold each posture a little bit more than just two seconds, so maybe 10, 15 seconds in each position. We all need a better posture, we all need to be able to maintain a good position on the bike. All riders need strength and mobility, from those who just go out for fun on the weekend and those that ride at high competition level.
Siw Viktoria Johansen is a Fitness and Lifestyle Coach and an Ambassador for Liv Cycling. She rides and races MTB and road bikes.
