For the cyclists out there, your spine needs movement. You have been holding it in a “C” curve for so long. Do this first video after your ride and bring that spine back to life. Follow it up with this simple strength exercise in the second video. Stretching your chest is not enough. There is more involved in the beautiful complex that is the shoulder. Try this move out to gain some strength in the back of the shoulders, help improve your posture and counteract any slouching you may have been doing on and off the bike.
Injury Prevention
Bike Month – Week Three
If you ride a bike, your quads are tight. This tightness can lead to pain around the knee cap. In this first mobility exercise, we use a pin and stretch on the roller. This addition to the regular quad rolling can release some of the tension in the front of the thighs and allow the kneecap to move more freely.
Cycling involves so much forward folding and hunching. We need to counteract that with some strength in the opposite direction. In this second exercise, we are back on our bellies, working that back line.
Bike Month – Week Two
All month long, we will be going over moves and stretches to keep you healthy on and off your bicycle.
This week, we are focusing on hip extension (when the leg extends behind the pelvis). We are starting with an anterior hip release so that we can open the front of the hips and then moving on to an exercise that allows us to strengthen in hip extension.
Foundation Month – Week Two
For our 2nd week of Foundations Month we are moving from the spine to the feet and we are going to progress our hinge.
Having a good connection of our feet with the ground is important for proper movement. If our feet our stiff, our movement above can be stiff and/or sloppy. Whether you are trying to generate force from the ground up, the pedal up, or maybe the rollerblade up, you need your feet to connect to generate power.
Also, let’s progress our foundational move, the hinge, to a squat. Same concepts as last week, but with a bit of a knee-bend.
Trail Month – Week Four
For our final week of Trail Month, we have one, final standing stretch. This one to open up your sides which can start to feel compressed after a long day out. We are also working on our cores with this banded exercise.
Trail Month – Week One
For the month of June, we will be working on getting ourselves trail ready. Check out our stretches and moves all month and keep yourself safe out on your adventures.
This week, we are stretching out our quads with a standing stretch that can be done anywhere. Then we are keeping our hips (and knees) happy with a lateral hip strengthener.
Jumping Month – Week Two
Jumping requires us to stay balanced as we move up and down. These 2 exercises help us strengthen the ankles and hips so that we are less likely to collapse when jumping.
Jumping Month – Week One
This month we will be working on exercises that help with jumping and other dynamic movement. To start off, let’s open up our hips in an active way and the use a variation on a bridge to help engage the posterior chain of the body.
Spine Month – Week One
This month we will be exploring our spines. Week one, we are kicking it off with the center of the spine, the thoracic.
Foot and Ankle Month – Week Three
We are focusing on the ankles this week. In this first stretch, we are trying to gain ankle mobility in combination with hip mobility, since both are needed for proper gait. The second exercise is a little twist on a calf raise to help you integrate the calf strength with the rest of the posterior chain.
Brenna Backe 