What if the best way to be a better cyclist was not only to ride your bike a lot? For many years, this has been the common belief in the peloton. You had to spend a lot of time in the saddle, and if you were riding, you needed to sit or lie down. They would do anything but spend time on their feet. But is it the best way? This sounds good at first, but cycling repeatedly without any other complement leads to imbalances, so if you want to do your sport for long, you want to look at complementing your practice.

I’ve always had a deep need to find out the truth, a deep need to find out how to conduct my life, and a deep need to pursue excellence in everything I engage with. I could play any game and always needed to push myself to my maximum ability. This also translates to that chapter, which is about off-the-bike training. I was dissatisfied with the standard advice; I needed to understand how to handle my off-the-bike routine precisely. I wanted to optimize my practice so it would be healthy for my body.

As you may know, cycling offers some great health benefits. It is a low-impact sport, allowing you to do much cardiovascular work without significantly stressing your joints. However, you may need to learn that these advantages come with a cost.

First, cycling lacks an eccentric component. An eccentric movement means a muscular deceleration. When you walk or run, your body needs to absorb the movement when you hit the ground with your foot. In the gym, when you perform a deadlift, you use that eccentric component as you lower the bar in control. However, cycling is only acceleration unless you are slowing down a fixed-gear bike. This lack of an eccentric element can have some ramifications as it is crucial to maintaining bone density and, therefore, preventing fractures.

For this reason, incorporating some resistance training into your routine might be necessary, or at the bare minimum, some walking or running. This is even more true as you age.

Also, cycling is 99 percent forward movements (sagittal plan), which means that when you are cycling, you only extend and flex joints. There are no or little sideways movements (frontal plan), such as abduction and adduction, as this is the case for rotational movements (transverse plan), such as external and internal rotation. This means that integrating some movements in the other two plans makes sense to stay in balance. Cycling also requires that you are stable in these two plans; your body must resist both lateral and rotational forces during the pedaling motion.

Additionally, cycling is not great for making your feet do some work, either. Even though cycling shoe design is progressing, shoes on the market still have a long way to go before they are anatomically correct. In my ideal world, cycling shoes would be flat rather than curved with a foot-shaped toe box allowing toes to spread. These two features cloud proprioception and add no benefits except some aesthetics. But what could be more beautiful than a shoe that respects the body’s anatomy? Thankfully, the team at Lore is working hard to turn this into a reality.

Also, it’s important to note that the foot is relatively passive in a cycling shoe compared to activities such as walking or running, especially barefoot or with barefoot shoes; there are no toe-off movements to propel you forward as during gait. While cycling isn’t great for cultivating your foot stability, when pushing down onto the pedal, you need great foot control so that your foot doesn’t excessively pronate—collapse towards the midline. It means that it has to be accounted for off the bike. Therefore, triathletes almost always display higher foot stability in the off-the-bike assessments than my cyclist-only bike-fitting clients.

Finally, as discussed earlier, many cyclists tend to have poor posture because cycling is not great for cultivating good posture, as many ride with curved backs. You may already have noticed, but if you watch pro races, look how the riders carry themselves on the podium. They typically have a forward head posture with an increased thoracic spine curvature. I don’t believe any sport should make us worse as human beings; sports should make us better. In my experience, if you have a good bike fit and good health habits, you will still need some off-the-bike movements to keep yourself in balance, but not as much as you may think, notably as you would ride without much flexion in your spine. Additionally, walking with flat shoes is crucial here to avoid needing more off-the-bike targeted movements.

For instance, as a cyclist or any human being, you should strive for balance in your life. One aspect you must balance is the amount of on-bike training versus the amount of off-the-bike movement. Testing your posture is an easy way to confirm that your training regimen is appropriately balanced, though, with time, you should be able to feel it thanks to a developed body awareness.

To illustrate proper muscle balance, we can use the analogy of a bicycle wheel. When the wheel is out of true, you will have difficulty going straight on the road; in that case, some spokes need to be tightened while others need to be loosened. Your muscle length-tension relationship works the same way. Imagine someone with an excessive anterior pelvic tilt, which could be seen as a bucket of water pulled by four ropes. In that case, the water would spill over the toes. Here, we need to loosen the rope at the bottom-front and back-top while increasing the tension in the two opposite ropes.

It means loosening the hip flexors and lower back while tightening the deep core and posterior chain (hamstrings and glutes). This is the most common scenario when looking at the pelvic posture. The opposite, called a posterior pelvic tilt, logically needs the opposite treatment. Again, it’s all about knowing yourself.

The first scenario often involves an increased thoracic spine and a forward head posture. In that case, the shortened muscles are the pectorals in the front and the upper trapezius and levator scapulae in the back. The lengthened muscles are the deep neck flexors at the front, lower traps, and serratus anterior at the back.

After you have completed the posture test against the wall, you will have a better understanding of what exercises to do.

If you have an anterior pelvic tilt, use the 4-point tummy vacuum to activate the deep core and correct your breathing pattern. Again, these two go hand in hand. You can also perform the hip extension, which activates the posterior chain, predominantly your glutes, and dynamically stretches your hip flexors.

For an excessive thoracic curvature, perform the prone cobra exercise.

You can also get back to the wall, but move your feet forward by about a foot this time. Then, bring the navel in to ensure the correct lumbar posture and move your arms towards the wall, trying to touch with your hands overhead. If you can’t pass the test while keeping your lumbar curvature neutral and your hands touching, you have some thoracic spine and shoulder restrictions that you need to address.

For these restrictions, perform shoulder pass-throughs, around-the-worlds, and back rotations.

Now, while standing up, try to move your feet toe in. If you have forty degrees or more in both hips, you pass. If not, you need to work on the 90/90 stretch.

For any mobility or stretch, get to the end of the range, which means your maximal ability to stretch actively (no aid of hands) and feel what your body is communicating to you. If it feels challenging but right, do it. If it feels wrong, don’t; you might already have enough mobility. Correlating this information with the test results can give you a double check. The body is always looking for homeostasis (balance); there is such a thing as being too mobile; it would be like loosening all the spokes of a bicycle wheel. It doesn’t work, right?

For the lack of movement in the two other plans, you can incorporate the lateral ball roll into your routine.

Start with around ten repetitions for all these exercises and adjust as needed.

90/90

Hip Extension

Prone Cobra

4-Point Tummy Vacuum

Shoulders Pass-Through

Around the World

Back Rotation

Lateral Ball Roll

You can also incorporate some resistance training. Now, I do three sets of six deadlifts and three sets of six split-stance deadlifts per side. That way, I work my general strength with the bilateral movement and target the unilateral cyclist specificity with the split-stance deadlifts. Combining both types of exercises leads to the best results.

What if you have limited time and would rather spend it riding your bike? This is understandable, but look at it from this perspective: If your training regimen brings your body progressively more out of balance, there will be a point where it becomes impossible for you to ride your bike pain-free and, therefore, enjoy the sport that you love so much. In life, health is the goal. Health looks and feels damn good. The rest will follow.

Summary:

• Know yourself.
• Complement your cycling practice with proper off-the-bike movements to maintain great posture.
• The better your bike fit, daily habits, training regimen, and everyday shoes, the less off-the-bike work you will need.