Yoga poses for cyclists

Spend a lot of time on your bike? Take after Sir Bradley Wiggins and incorporate some yoga poses for cyclists into your day.

For endurance cyclists that spend a significant amount of time bent over their handlebars, strain on the lower back, shoulders and neck isn’t uncommon. As a result, as well as lower back pain, cyclists aren’t usually strangers to the old tightness in the hamstrings and hip flexors either. While the regular ‘stretch and hold’ routine might feel good at the time, it doesn’t really cut it when it comes to counterbalancing the shortening and compressing of the muscles during your bike ride.

Practising yoga regularly encourages the lengthening of these muscles, helping to develop flexibility as well as strengthening the core and boosting control over the breath.

A yoga sequence done as a warm-up, cool-down or regular separate practice is a thorough approach to making sure your body’s physical needs are being met and preventing injuries. Try these poses at home to get started.

Downward-facing dog

This pose builds strength and stability along the length of the body while opening the spine and backs of the legs.

Instructions:

Start on the floor on your hands and knees, placing your knees below your hips and your hands slightly forward of your shoulders. Spreading your hands, index fingers parallel, tuck your toes under. On a exhale breath lift your knees away from the floor.

Try at first to keep the knees slightly bent and the heels lifted away from the floor. This allows the spine to fully lengthen. From here think about lifting your sitting bones up towards the ceiling.

Then with your next exhale breath, push your thighs back and allow your heals to stretch toward the floor as the knees start to straighten. Think about pulling up the quadriceps to protect the knee joint and take your emphasis of the pose into the back or your body, away from the shoulders and the wrists.

Engaging through the upper outer arms, allow your shoulders to draw away from your ears creating space for the neck. Position your head between your upper arms to avoid it hanging, this allows the full length of the spine to stay aligned. Breathe steady inhales and exhales for 30 seconds to a minute.

Crescent lunge pose

This pose stretches the hip flexor and psoas muscle, counteracting the shortening effect bike-riding has on these areas.

Instructions:

Starting on all fours, bring your right foot forward and place it in between your hands on the mat. Check that your right knee is lined up over your right ankle and keep your left knee on the floor, behind the line of your pelvis.

Inhaling, lift and lengthen your spine, raising your arms overhead to bring your hands into prayer position.

As you exhale, breathe into your hips, lowering your pelvis down towards the floor. You’re looking to feel a deep stretch in the front of your left leg and possibly a stretch around the right hip flexor, too.

From here, breathe for eight steady inhales and exhales.

If you’d like to advance the pose further, you can work on taking your torso into more of a back bend – reaching the arms further behind you and possibly resting your hands to your third eye centre between the eyebrows.

Be sure to stay supported through your core muscles and avoid collapsing in the lower back.

When you have taken your eight breaths here, place your hands on the mat by your front foot and step the right knee back to all fours. Repeat on the other side.

Forward fold

This pose helps to let go of the tension built up during a ride by fully extending through the length of the spine and hamstrings.

Instructions:

Start sitting with both legs lengthened in front of you.

Inhale and reach the arms up overhead creating length through the spine.

As you exhale, lengthen and reach forward from the hips folding over the legs. Your hands can rest on your shins or maybe your toes. If you want to assist yourself deeper in the pose you can use a strap around your feet and hold onto that.

Allow yourself to breathe and relax here for 1-3 minutes.

Naomi Costantino is a London-based yoga teacher and co-founder of Eden East.