by Jo McRae
Post-exercise: The contract-relax technique can be effectively used post-exercise too, but you can simply hold the relaxation phase for much longer – for 20–30 seconds. Post-exercise you can leave the ‘contract-relax’ part out altogether if you prefer and just gently ease into the stretch and hold. Perform several repetitions on each side before changing over. Experimenting with subtle changes in position of the head and neck can help you find the tightest spot that needs the stretch the most. For example, turning your chin slightly more to the right or left may really hit the spot.
This stretch can be quite intense and uncomfortable, and it can be difficult to position the head correctly without your whole upper body moving. Try to be patient in learning the position, and if you are struggling with your head and neck alignment, use a mirror, first to the side and then to the front to help you make sense of what you are doing.
Little and often with this stretch can be most effective as it can help unwind a tense neck and shoulder complex without overstraining or pushing it too far too fast.
Sternocleidomastoid neck stretch
The sternocleidomastoid muscle (SCM) is named after its three main points of bony contact on the body, the sternum (or breast bone), the clavicle (or collarbone) and the mastoid process (a bony prominence on the skull near your ear). Your SCMs are easily visible in the mirror as thick rope like muscles running either side of your throat if you gently tip or turn your head from side to side.
The SCM muscles are involved in almost all movements of the head and neck, and in particular help you to look over your shoulder on the bike and tip and tilt your head to one side or the other. Maintaining good range of movement on both sides of the neck so that you can easily move your head and neck in all directions is important for good visibility on the bike and to stay safe on the road.
Preparation
Sit up tall on a chair or ball, lifting your chest and ensuring your lower back is lengthened in its natural curve. This will be easier on a ball or chair that is high enough to allow your thigh to slope downwards slightly. Make sure you are not slumping at all to ensure that your head doesn’t fall forwards and is lengthened at the end of your spine and positioned squarely over your shoulders, the back of the head in line with your tailbone.
Movement
Resting one arm against the side of the chair or ball for reference, face forwards and tilt your head sideways so that your ear drops towards your shoulder. It’s important that the opposite shoulder stays down away from your ear as you do this. Lightly gripping the ball or chair on the side that you are trying to keep down can help with this.
Next, tip your head upwards and backwards so that your gaze is directed up and away from your body. This should bring on a stretch sensation in the opposite side of your neck. Hold the stretch position for 1–2 seconds only, before coming carefully out of position to face forwards again.
For this stretch I recommend you hold the stretch position only briefly and check each phase of the movement to ensure you are not accidentally avoiding the effective stretch position. Where the neck muscles are quite tight, it can be difficult to isolate the stretch without your shoulders moving around as a way of avoiding it. By becoming more aware of your seated upright posture you will be more likely to be able to feel the stretch where you are supposed to.
How much and when?
Pre-exercise: Moving into and out of position with care as described, perform 8–10 repetitions on each side before riding, as well as before any strength or core exercises from Chapter 3 and 4, or at your desk to relieve neck and shoulder tension. If you are particularly tight on one side compared to the other, perform more repetitions on the tighter side, or come back to it a second time.
Post-exercise: Post-exercise, this stretch position can be held for much longer. Try holding the position for 20–30 seconds before coming out of the stretch. The stretch sensation should be moderate, not too intense, and repeating 3–4 times on each side will maximize the benefits. Experimenting with subtle changes in position of the head and neck can help you find the tightest spot that needs the stretch the most.
This stretch can be quite intense and uncomfortable, and it can be difficult to position the head without your whole upper body moving. Try to be patient in learning the position, and if you are struggling with your head and neck alignment, use a mirror, first to the side and then to the front to help you make sense of what you are doing.
Little and often with this stretch can be most effective, as it can help unwind a tense neck and shoulder complex without overstraining or pushing it too far too fast.
Essential stretches ready reference pictures
Longitudinal foam roller pec positions for upper back mobility and chest/shoulder stretch
Rotations
Horizontal foam roller mobilization for upper back mobility in extension
McKenzie press-up for lower back mobility in extension
Swiss ball side stretch for the lower back muscles
Piriformis mobilization/stretch for the deep buttock and ‘sciatic’ problems
Wall glute stretch for the buttocks as a whole (post-exercise only)
ITB foam roller mobilization for the lateral thigh/hip/knee problems
Swiss ball quads/hip flexors for the front of the thigh and hips
Hamstrings stretches for the back of the thigh and lower back problems
Bent knee free
Bent knee strap assisted
AIS technique strap assisted
Doorframe passive stretch
Seated upper trapezius for neck and upper back tension
Seated sternocleidomastoid stretch for neck tension
3. Essential strength
Overview of this chapter
•What is strength training and why do cyclists need it?
•Problems associated with weakness and the benefits of functional strengthening
•Sport-specific training for strength and power
•Remembering the success formula – knowing where you should start
•The primal movement patterns revisited
•Minimal movement requirements to stay healthy
•Developing your strength further for optimal performance
•The neutral spine philosophy
•Consciously engaging your core through the strength movements
•The impact of short and tight muscles on form and alignment
•Strengthening the upper body
•Repetitions, sets and rest periods
THE ESSENTIAL STRENGTH EXERCISES
•The squat (primal pattern SQUAT)
»Swiss ball supported squat
»Prisoner squat
»Stick squat/Overhead stick squat
»Dumbbell front-loaded squat
•The dead lift (primal pattern BEND)
»Short-stop position
»Dumbbell dead lift
•The split squat (primal pattern LUNGE)
»Stick supported
»Stick behind the head
»Dumbbell front-loaded split squat
•Pushing precautions
»Plank preparation
»Kneeling press-up
»Full press-up
•The press-up (closed chain) (primal pattern PUSH)
•Swiss ball dumbbell chest press (open chain) (primal pattern PUSH)
•Swiss ball seated dumbbell shoulder press (push) (primal pattern PUSH)
•The importance of pulling exercises
»Short-stop position
»Dumbbell bent-over row
»Swiss ball prone row
•Bent-over row (primal pattern PULL)
•Twisting options
•Swiss ball seated reverse wood chop (primal pattern TWIST)
•Swiss ball cross crunch/chop (primal pattern TWIST and BEND)
•Swiss ball upper body Russian twist (primal pattern TWIST)
ESSENTIAL STRENGTH READY REFERENCE PICTURES
What is strength t
raining and why do cyclists need it?
Hills. Accelerations. Sprinting. These are the strength elements to our endurance sport. These short efforts are what keep you with a group, get you to the top of the hill first, and help you stay out of trouble in traffic. Your cycling strength might be called your ability to generate force through your bike to translate it into road speed. Pure speed may not rely on strength entirely, but when you take into account the time frame during which you are exerting force, that force becomes power.
It’s worth remembering that strength is always a prerequisite to power and optimal performance. For cyclists, power has become the trendy measure of performance and can be used as a way to log your progress, and identify and work within your training zones. Your power:weight ratio is the other performance variable that is broadly understood, and for most cyclists the holy grail is to improve power output and reduce body weight.
In this book I refer to ‘strength’ as your ability to exert force, either on the pedals to move your bike forwards, when using your body weight in an exercise, or when moving weights as part of your conditioning programme. Muscular strength is always a prerequisite to power.
Together with your heart rate, the power you can produce represents a measure of your aerobic capacity: your ability to take in oxygen and use it efficiently. Endurance cycling is predominantly an aerobic sport; that is to say, for the most part your work rate doesn’t exceed your ability to take in oxygen and ferry it to the working muscles where it’s converted into energy. The bulk of a cyclist’s training is focused around becoming more efficient at this ‘steady state’ type of exercise by way of physiological adaptions in the muscle cells and cardiovascular system.
At low to moderate intensities, where most cyclists spend most of their time, muscular strength doesn’t really come into play to any great degree. The work rate from a muscular standpoint is fairly low and so someone with relatively little strength but good cardiovascular fitness can roll along quite nicely on the flat producing good levels of sustainable power. But we all know that cycling isn’t like that for very long, and when the road goes up and you start to climb, muscular strength and power become a factor almost immediately, as does your body weight.
Most cyclists will have so many gears on their bikes these days that the strength elements of climbing can be offset quite a lot by changing down to find a comfortable gear and maintaining a higher cadence. However, the benefits of changing down and spinning away have to be weighed up against the speed that will be lost. Having muscular strength at your disposal means that you can push into a hill rather than have it push back at you as you begin to climb. Furthermore, you are more likely to be able to keep that momentum going, or stand up and generate more force out of the saddle if the gradient kicks up further as you approach the summit.
The difference in the feel of climbing as compared to riding along the flat is one of the easiest ways to begin to relate to the strength elements of cycling that we will all encounter. Accelerations and sprints are two other key elements, even if it’s only accelerating away from traffic lights, or into or out of a roundabout to try to go with the flow of the traffic. You can of course push harder on the flat too, to make the most of a smooth bit of road, or to chase down another rider ahead of you, and increased muscular effort will be something you will become aware of in these situations too.
The elements of our sport that require more muscular strength include climbing in and out of the saddle, accelerating or sprinting, or pushing harder on the flat. All cyclists need these aspects to one degree or another, and improvements in muscular strength can increase your potential for optimal performance in these areas, as well as making you a more dynamic and responsive rider on the road.
Problems associated with weakness and the benefits of functional strengthening
For many cyclists, this list below will highlight something you recognize you want to work on, and for others it may remind you of things that tend to cause you problems or pain. For example, for many riders an increase in climbing meterage can highlight injury problems and expose weaknesses that went previously unnoticed. Strength will be limited by (in)flexibility and (lack of) core strength in succession, because when the workload becomes challenging muscle imbalances will be exacerbated and your ability to generate force will be limited as a result. Muscles that tend to be short and tight will tighten further, while muscles that tend to be weak or inactive may give up altogether. Understanding that strength needs to be built on good flexibility and a balanced core is essential to make real and tangible changes to your body that will impact on your cycling performance.
Symptoms of weakness
•Poor performance or pain in the strength and power elements of your cycling, including hills, sprints and accelerations in particular.
•Injury off the bike when performing day-to-day functional strength-related tasks such as lifting, carrying or moving objects, children, etc.
Benefits of strengthening
•Potential for optimal performance on the bike, particularly the more dynamic and explosive aspects, with benefits increasing when strengthening is integrated with specific drills and skills as part of a periodized training plan.
•The potential for greater power and change of pace provided by strengthening can particularly benefit competitive cyclists.
A lack of strength can become apparent both on and off the bike in equal measure, but functional strengthening off the bike should be the priority before considering maximizing your strength potential on the bike. Injuries caused by lack of strength in day-to-day activities can prevent the consistency needed in your cycling training that will allow you to move towards integrating sprints, hills and other hard intervals to maximize your performance.
The essential strength exercises in this chapter focus on functional strength first, based around the primal patterns described in Chapter 1. The primary goal of these exercises is to prevent injury that will inhibit your cycling performance.
Sport-specific training for strength and power
I discussed some of the arguments for sport-specific training in Chapter 1, and want to reiterate here that it’s essential that you train your muscular strength through the cycling movements on the bike as part of a year-round periodized programme. Introducing hill repeats, specific muscular drills, sprint efforts and other higher intensity intervals are important for any rider wanting to be the best cyclist they possibly can.
In recognizing the physiological importance of sport-specific training, it’s essential to include some on-the-bike strength and power work as part of a periodized training plan, introducing higher intensity intervals as relevant to your cycling goals to maximize the benefits. The secondary goal of the strength exercises here is to develop muscles and movements that have direct carry-over to your cycling. Where there is a direct relationship to these movements, I will make them clear as I introduce each exercise.
Remembering the success formula – knowing where you should start
If you experience pain when climbing, sprinting or pushing hard, I suggest you focus your efforts on the essential stretching and essential core exercises in Chapters 2 and 4, before beginning to introduce some of the essential strength exercises included here. Just skip to Chapter 4 for now.
If you are pain free or have been working on your flexibility and core for some time, you may be ready to include elements across all three aspects in your exercise programme straight away. Chapter 6 on periodization and planning will introduce how you might best include strength exercises as part of your training plan.
Remember the success formula:
FLEXIBILITY + CORE STABILITY + STRENGTH = POWER POTENTIAL
The primal movement patterns revisited
It may seem illogical but it’s quicker, easier and safer to develop strength off the bike first, before integrating that strength into your cycling training. The foundational strength movements that are included here represent a movement vocabulary that
every cyclist should learn in order to avoid picking up injuries off the bike, and to allow you to include the higher intensity intervals on the bike that will mean you fulfil your performance potential.
A detailed discussion of on-the-bike strengthening techniques and practices is outside the scope of this book, but they are an essential part of an optimal training programme. I will hint at where these elements fit in throughout Chapter 6. I discussed the relevance of the primal patterns as a basis for strength conditioning cyclists in detail in Chapter 1. In this chapter, I’m going to elaborate on each of these movements further, and then show you how to train them yourself.
For the most part, the exercises here are all the strength exercises you will ever need to get the best out of your riding in the minimum training time. You will be surprised how little you have to do to maintain good posture and have the functional strength to achieve the training effect you are looking for. Furthermore, if you effectively integrate some strength-based cycling drills, intervals and sprints at the right time of year you will see a progressive improvement in your strength-related performance on the bike too, year on year, and aligned with your own personal cycling goals.
Minimal movement requirements to stay healthy
The level of exercise that I am introducing here should represent a minimal standard everyone should aim for in order to maintain musculoskeletal health, fitness and well-being in general. As important as developing the strength in these movements is learning how to move well, so that all sorts of day-to-day tasks can be accomplished with greater ease and efficiency. All movement is neuromuscular, and while the muscular part relates to flexibility and strength working together, the movement part relates to the nervous system, and how it must ‘groove’ in a consistent pattern that your brain and body can refer to every time you are presented with a movement problem.