When I was in high school, my cross country team thought that a simple hamstring stretch, calf stretch, and a 1/4mi jog was a proper warm up. This was the knowledge passed down by our coach and our fathers from their generation.
Since the 90’s we have come a long way! There have been many studies performed in sports science to examine the best practices for injury prevention and performance. These studies showed us that static stretching doesn’t help injury prevention and the world of “warming up” for your sport was turned on its head. In general, research shows that sustained static stretching should occur after a workout because performance was shown to be negatively impacted if stretching occurs before exercise.
Today we know that the best practices for injury prevention and performance involve a few basic principles.
➡️ Increasing body temperature prior to exercise
➡️ Injury prevention primarily due to an increased and fluid range of motion
➡️ Prevent muscle imbalances
➡️ Neural activation
In addition to improving performance, dynamic stretching will also counteract cycling’s repetitive motions and sustained postures that may cause pain and dysfunction. Simply adding in a 6 min to warm up will help you achieve improvements in flexibility and performance.
A warm up should be effective, short, and specific to your sport and your needs. A recent study published by Eric D Ryan et al suggests that a dynamic stretching routine lasting 6 min as a warm up is ideal for cyclists to improve ride performance. The study suggests first performing a 5 min jog but you could always substitute with an easy spin or jumping jacks.
When we put all these together there are a few considerations. As always, a routine that is designed for you and takes into account your injury history, your sport or activity, and your problem areas is always going to be better for you than a general warm up. At our Boulder office, we can create a customized recovery plan for you, including a proper functional dynamic warm up.
For example, If you have a history of surgery you may need to adjust your warm up to avoid irritating that area or adding more time to warm up that area. If you are actively dealing with IT band syndrome then you might add in a few more glute activation exercises and add in a bit of foam rolling on the front of your hip before exercising.
In our Boulder Sports Chiropractic and Physical Therapy office, we see runners, hikers, cyclists, etc who are dealing with injuries such as Iliotibial (IT) band pain, plantar fasciitis, hamstring strain, lower back and hip pain, knee pain when running, shin splints, or ankle and foot pain with exercise that we fix with modalities like Active Release Technique (ART), dry needling, deep tissue muscle work, joint mobilization, and physical therapy strengthening.
A big component we work on with our patients is appropriate warm up for sport. This typically involves foam rolling, activation exercises, and a dynamic warm up that is specific for their injury.
In this video we have created a functional general dynamic cycling warm-up that will take the main muscles and joints involved in running through their range of motion while activating a few muscles along the way.
If you are dealing with injury in Boulder, schedule an appointment by calling or emailing us today. We have a team of Boulder chiropractors, boulder physical therapists, and boulder massage therapists to help guide you back to 100% ASAP.
Dynamic stretching warm up Perform 3-4 reps each side, each exercise :
Walking knee to chest, Walking quad stretch, Walking figure 4, Walking Frankenstein, Hip Figure 8’s, Forward lunge with overhead reach, Forward lunge with rotation, Lateral lunge, High knees, Butt kicks, and Skipping