Unlock Your Winter Potential: Bike Fitting and Mobility for Cyclists

By Pat Casey — The off-season is an excellent opportunity for cyclists to transform their performance and comfort. Winter provides the perfect setting to step off the pedals and focus on two critical aspects: bike fit and purposeful mobility training. Addressing your own individual movement compensations through strength and mobility training can help lay the groundwork for a more comfortable, injury-free, and performance-driven environment for your body as you train for the season ahead. 

The Foundation of Performance: Bike Fitting

A bike fit is the cornerstone of cycling efficiency. Changing your position around your strengths, compensations, and functional limitations can help optimize your riding position for performance and mitigate risk of injury or discomfort on the bike. Yet, a common pitfall is expecting a fit to solve every issue without addressing the rider’s underlying physical conditions. Complacent adaptations formed over years of lifestyle demands, dominant patterns, or previous injuries, and resulting compensations around these adaptations are often what lead to the symptom: pain. 

Cycling is a highly repetitive sport, with fairly fixed ranges of movement in forward flexion can lead to muscle imbalances in our “front bodies.” Over time, these imbalances can limit the range of motion in both sides of our bodies, causing discomfort, or even result in injury. While a professional bike fit adjusts your setup to your body, it cannot resolve deep-seeded muscular inhibitions that ultimately lead to a ‘tug of war’ between overactive muscle groups, and weaker, guarded muscles on the opposing sides of the body from our more highly-’trained’ areas. When cycling demands change in the winter, we have a unique opportunity to address the myriads of lifestyle and cycling-driven adaptations we hope to both address. This can also help to encourage muscle activation from newfound ranges of movement when it comes time to hit the throttle again. This is precisely why bike position is only part of the solution. 

Small Steps to Big Gains: Building Healthy Habits

Incorporating mobility exercises into your routine can be manageable. Research from the Journal of Sports Medicine suggests short, consistent sessions are more effective than sporadic, intensive ones. Dedicate 10 to 15 minutes daily to mobility work, and you’ll see significant progress.

Make it enjoyable by pairing exercises with everyday activities, such as foam rolling while watching your favorite show. Use habit-tracking tools or apps such as TrainingPeaks or Ladder to stay consistent and set achievable goals, like completing a certain number of weekly sessions or having a daily workout/routine that’s pre-set by a coach. Adding a social aspect—such as joining a class or collaborating with a partner—can make the habit even more sustainable. 

Your Winter Program: Strength and Mobility for Cyclists

Here’s a tailored strength and mobility program to help cyclists address flexibility, correct imbalances, and build foundational strength. The exercises can be performed in a gym or at home with minimal equipment.

Warm-Up

Begin each session with dynamic movements to increase blood flow and prepare your body:

1. Leg Swings (1 minute): Swing each leg front-to-back and side-to-side. It helps to hold onto something and maintain balance through your core. 
2. World’s Greatest Stretch (1 minute): step into a long lunge position. Plant your hand opposite the forward foot down to form a 3-pillar position. Open the opposite arm towards the sky. Rotate down towards the floor and back up. Repeat slowly, breathing to encourage relaxation during the stretch. 
3. Arm Circles (1 minute): With straight arm out to your side, perform tight circles with your fingertips. Perform forward and backward circles to activate and mobilize your shoulders.

Mobility Work

Focus on improving your range of motion with these exercises:

1. Windmill Exercise
   • How to Do It: Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, hold a light kettlebell, or simply use your hand in a fist overhead with a straight arm. Maintain your gaze on the kettlebell or hand, bend the opposite knee as you hinge at the hip on the weighted side, and lengthen through your side body as you feel a stretch. Breathe. Then control the movement as you elevate your chest back to a standing position and repeat. 
   • Target Areas: Shoulders, side-body, hips, and hamstrings.
   • Reps: 3 sets of 8 per side.
2. 90/90 Shin Box
   • How to Do It: Sit with both knees bent at 90 degrees, one leg in front and one behind. Rotate gently between the sides.
   • Target Areas: Hip rotation and flexibility.
   • Reps: 3 sets of 10 per side.
3. Alternating Floor Scorpions
   • How to Do It: Lie face down with arms extended. Lift one leg, extending through the back of your hip and rotate the leg across to the opposite side of your body.
   • Target Areas: Thoracic spine and lower back. 
   • Reps: 2 sets of 12.
4. Hip Bridges (Progressing to Wheel Position)
   • How to Do It: Lie on your back with knees bent and feet flat. Push through your heels to lift your hips, engaging your glutes and hamstrings, while extending the front of your hip. For advanced flexibility, progress to a full-wheel pose.
   • Target Areas: Glutes, hamstrings, and hip flexors.
   • Reps: 3 sets of 12.
5. Foundation Training by Dr. Eric Goodman
   • Explore targeted movements for posture correction, integrated breath work, and to help your body down regulate pain by returning to its anatomically accurate state. These exercises are particularly beneficial for cyclists with rounded shoulders or hunched postures! Visit www.foundationtraining.com to learn more! 

Strength Training

Strength training stabilizes joints and prevents injuries, complementing mobility work. Add these exercises to your routine:

1. Planks
   • How to Do It: Maintain a straight line from head to heels, engaging your core.
   • Reps: Hold for 30-60 seconds, 3 sets.
2. Goblet Squats
   • How to Do It: Hold a dumbbell close to your chest and squat down, keeping your chest proud and your core engaged. Inhale on the way ‘down,’ exhale on the way ‘up.’
   • Target Areas: Quads, glutes, and core.
   • Reps: 3 sets of 10-12.
3. Lunges
   • How to Do It: Step forward into a lunge with your front knee supporting most of your weight at 90*, alternating legs.
   • Target Areas: Glutes, quads, and hamstrings.
   • Reps: 3 sets of 8-10 per leg.
4. Deadbugs
   • How to Do It: Lie on your back with arms and legs raised. Lower one arm and the opposite leg without touching the floor.
   • Target Areas: Core and hip flexors.
   • Reps: 3 sets of 10 per side.
5. Push-Ups
   • How to Do It: Perform standard or modified push-ups to build upper body strength.
   • Reps: 3 sets of 10-15.

Cool-Down

Conclude each session with static stretches to enhance recovery:

1. Hamstring Stretch: Hold for 30 seconds per leg.
2. Child’s Pose: Relax in this position for 1-2 minutes.
3. Pigeon Pose: Hold for 30 seconds per side.

Conclusion

Winter is more than a time to pedal base miles; it’s an opportunity to unlock new areas of your physical potential. A professional bike fit is just the beginning of the process. Dedicating even a small amount of time each day to your mobility and strength training will help produce a more resilient, balanced, and prepared cyclist. The next step is to schedule a bike fit or consult an expert such as a strength coach or physical therapist about building a strength and movement program tailored to your body’s individual needs!