Tag: knees

Yoga and Stretching

Sidelined today to protect a small tweak, I decided to put my time to good use.  To begin integrating simple stretching and Yoga into my weekly routines.

I was inspired by  Start Spring Training Today with Yoga on Bicycling.com by Tara Stiles as well as Kevin Kelly’s review of the 30th Anniversary Edition of Bob Anderson’s classic Stretching available from Amazon.  Kevin always has great stuff, but this picture is enough to sell one that a classic can still be useful.

Tara lists these as useful for biking and frisbee:

Double Leg Forward Stretch
Runners Lunge
Warrior 1 with Shoulder Stretch
Triangle
Reverse Triangle
Headstand
One Leg Extended
Both Legs Extended
Ankle to Knee
Cow Face

Systems Analysis: The Bike and You

The trick to the local trips is to jump on the bike and go, not to worry about anything but the joy of riding and the hardfun of getting there.  I think I view real riding the same way despite everyone talking about the bike and its rider as a unit.  My advice is to view yourself and your bike as a system, and while you are at it to pay attention to both parts.  My issue was a calf-pirformis issue and minor knee skirmishes.  And I viewed them as unrelated to my bike, despite their regular occurrence when I pushed my speed up a notch.

The October, 2009 Bicycling magazine, a great magazine that still doesn’t get the Internet so don’t look for the article to ever be online, had a great article on repositioning your cleats to maximize power as well as removing painful conditions.  They apparently got the information from Joe Friel who wrote the “Training Bible”.  The article includes pictures and details, but is similar to the first paragraph of this article by Jennifer Sherry.

So I moved the cleats back.  Tomorrow I will go out and find out if the adjustment has an impact or needs further tweaking.  The point I am making after I made the decision to adjust and before I know the impact is to read the articles, make your mind up, and think about the system as a whole.  Makes sense.