We called on Gravity Haus Dryland Fitness yogis, coaches and biking bosses to share their top yoga poses that prep you for mountain and road bike season.
5 moves to elevate your mountain and road bike game.
The Pose: Reclined Bound Angle
Do It: Lie on your back. Press the soles of your feet together and let your knees drop open to both sides. Lean backward and bring your elbows to the floor. Then, lower your back all the way to the floor.
The Benefit: This is great for opening the front of the body and stretching the adductor muscles on the inside of the thighs. Interlace elbows overhead to elongate the spine and stretch the upper body, says Jenni Frank, founder of Gravity Haus Breckenridge partner studio Bhava Yoga.
The Pose: Pyramid Pose
Do It: Start in mountain pose with feet hip-width apart. Step your left foot directly behind you and allow toes to turn out at a 45-degree angle. Inhale, lift your torso out of your hips, exhale and fold forward, extending your torso over your right leg. Maintain a straight spine. Inhale and lengthen your spine. Exhale and begin to round the upper spine, drawing your crown toward your toes. Keep a micro-bend in the knee.
The Benefit: This is an intense stretch for the hamstrings, the hips and the spine, Jenni says. Bend the front knee slightly if the hamstrings are tight; you don’t want to overdo it in this pose if your flexibility is not there yet.
The Pose: Puppy Stretch
Do It: Start on all fours with your shoulders above your wrists and your hips stacked over your knees. Walk your hands forward a few inches and curl your toes under. As you exhale, move your butt back toward your heels. Press hands down and stretch through the arms while pulling your hips back. Breathe into your back, feeling the spine lengthen.
The Benefit: This less obvious pose opens up a tight chest and shoulders that get rounded from long hours of sitting in the saddle. This will help with aerobic capacity, says Tracy Long, yoga instructor at Dryland Fitness & Spa Vail.
The Pose: Camel Pose
Do It: Kneel at the front of your mat. With knees hip-width apart and the tops of your feet on the mat, sit up tall, tucking your tailbone slightly under. Place your fingertips at the spine base, supporting your lower back with your hands, look up and back as you begin to lean and bend backward. Engage the front of your thighs as you reach for your heels. Keep looking up and back. Engage your glutes and quadriceps and bend your back, touching shoulder blades together behind you.
The Benefit: When we’re biking, our shoulders are hunched forward, the upper and mid back is rounded, the heart center is pulled inward and neck muscles are tightened. Many bikers bend forward somewhere along the spine rather than at the hip crease. Camel pose helps counteract all of this with a lifted heart center and thoracic or dorsal spine coming forward rather than rounding back, says Mark Sisun, Winter Park Dryland Fitness yoga teacher.
The Pose: Half Frog
Do It: Lie on your belly and slide your right leg up to hip height, knee at 90 degrees if possible with your foot relaxed. Bring your arms to 90 degrees at the shoulder and elbow, palms down. Turn your head toward your right arm and focus on breathing into your back while holding the pose.
The Benefit: Bikers can frequently see large, tight, overdeveloped quadriceps and tight hamstrings. This restorative pose will help open hips and stretch out the quads, Mark says.
Another reason yoga rocks: “The breath awareness and control that we practice in every movement-based yoga class is remarkably helpful in an endurance sport like biking,” Tracy says. “In yoga, we learn to breathe into the ribs and belly (most people predominantly breathe into the chest). These deeper breaths improve your oxygen intake.”
Book a yoga class at one of our Dryland Fitness or partner studio locations and feel the good vibes as we roll into Colorado road biking and mountain biking season.
