How Stretching and Yoga Affects Cycling Performance - Ask a Cycling Coach 197 

started doing yoga consistently in mid january. feels SOOOOOOOOOO good. gaining total-body flexibility and strengthening is only a good thing. i feel so much better when on the bike an invaluable compliment to cycling. i would recommend it to anyone. i was even doing crossfit for a little while at the same time. and threw that away. yoga gave me a MUCH better, total-body workout.

I have an issue with this because at the beginning of the video Chad implies that Yoga is the same as and essentially limited as only stretching until Jonathan stated his input at 2:20 and then he kind of flip flops back and agrees that Yoga is not just stretching. Yoga is SO MUCH MORE then you guys discuss here. Yoga is balancing, breathing, stretching, opening, posture, mindfulness, binding and so much more. I personally use yoga post ride to re-lengthen and extend, and reset muscles that have been firing and contracting during the ride. If I do not re lengthen my posterior chain calves/hamstrings, spine, etc, I can feel the tightness while recovering. Yoga works, and thats the bottom line and everyone should do it, especially cyclist. Use it or lose it. Find any yoga class on any given day and you will see individuals that cant even bend over and touch the ground. Just wrap your heads around how bad it must be to be locked up like that. I will add that all of my yoga is under dedicated classroom instruction from trained individuals. In my experience I can confirm and agree that even just an hour of yoga before a "hard" ride or race will be a challenge, but not impossible.

Wow!! 😳 That stretch technique was just awesome!!! I'm really not that flexible but I did it, and even without any warm up, it actually worked!! Thanks TR 🙂👍👍

Steve Hogg said and I agree "if you cycle and don't stretch you got your priorities wrong"

@trainerroad could do a segment on upper quad/hip flexor tightness and seizing during long bike rides...how to remedy muscle fatigue and tightness when training and trying to get better, fast and ride longer.

Hi guys- As a fitness nerd I really enjoy the videos. It feels like what you talk about is grounded in science which makes it easy to listen to. Can you add to the video description some sources and literature so that those of us who want to dig a little deeper can do so?

Would be great if you could post a link to a video showing the stretch routine of McCormick. Could find it and not sure to get all the stops....

It's good for your health, but you don't stretch beforehand. Science shows that stretching before exercise REDUCES performance by reducing stiffness of tendons. Double blind studies showed there was no decrease in injury when stretching pre-exercise in terms of injury prevention in studies with 1000s of participants. Yoga is not going yo make a difference beyond functional exercise in the gym. It is good for your mibd and overall health though.