Note the title of this piece “Why Stretching May Help You.” Each cyclist is an experiment of one with different goals, and different strengths and weaknesses. That’s what makes coaching interesting!
As a coach I look holistically at all the variables that will help a cyclist reach that person’s goals. I stay current on the latest research, but I also interpret that research carefully to see if it is or is not applicable to a specific client.
My client Jay’s areas to work on are different from Ellen’s. Jay’s goal is an age-group medal in the time trial. Ellen’s goal is to complete a century. Jay doesn’t even come close to touching his toes. If he were more flexible, then he could ride with a flatter back, be more aerodynamic and go faster. Ellen can put her palms on the floor and stretching isn’t necessary for her performance, but she has a weak core, so core strength exercises are important.
My oldest daughter is a resident at St. Joseph Hospital in Denver. She’s taught me to interpret experimental results carefully to see if the claimed result is a) valid and b) applicable. A study published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal) examined claims made by the popular TV M.D. Dr. Oz. The study concluded that only 46% of his recommendations were valid! (BMJ, December, 2014) Just because an expert—including me—tells you something, test it and verify if for yourself.
Scientific Experiments Test Specific Hypotheses
A scientific experiment is designed to test a specific hypothesis. For example, does pre-exercise stretching have any effect on maximum power? A study of elite college runners concluded that both active and passive stretching before sprinting slowed them down. (Journal of Sports Science, May 2005).
What if the experiment is whether riding with a flatter back reduces drag and increases time trial speed? Yes, a flatter back improves aerodynamics and has a positive effect on speed. A flatter back is the result of improved flexibility.
How does this apply to Joe, whose goal is to go as fast as possible? From the first experiment we conclude that he shouldn’t stretch before a hard training session or race. From the second experiment we conclude that he should stretch almost daily at some other time to improve his flexibility and performance.
If you do a hard ride to build power or speed, then you suffer micro-tears in your muscles, and stretching won’t help to repair these tears. Does this mean that stretching should never be part of a recovery program? Ellen is training for endurance, and riding at a conversational pace she does little muscle damage. She is stiff the day after her long ride, and stretching will relieve the stiffness so that she a) feels better, and b) can resume training sooner. For more information on stretching and recovery see my eArticle Optimal Recovery for Improved Performance.
In most cases stretching helps my clients. Here’s how:
More Power. One of the reasons that Fabian Cancellera was so fast was because of his flexibility (which is partially hereditary). He can place his hands flat on the floor behind his heels! Because of his flexibility he can rotate his pelvis farther forward when time trialing. This allows him to use his gluteals more (big butt muscles) to get more power. Even if you don’t race, making better use of your glutes will make you a better climber, for example.
More aerodynamic. Only two of my clients (one is 74 years old!) time trial, but all of my clients ride in the wind. Greater flexibility improves their ability to stay in the drops.
More on-the-bike comfort. Most of my clients are endurance riders. In their events they ride against the clock and the clock doesn’t stop when they’re off the bike. Improved comfort means less time off the bike. Try this experiment: Stand bent over about 45 degrees with your hands on a table and with your back arched just a little. Lift your head to see ahead and note how much you use your neck muscles. Now flatten your back and notice how your head rises and visibility improves without muscle fatigue!
Relieve ride discomfort. One of our last warm days in Colorado I climbed for three hours up a canyon. My back got tighter and the last half-hour my glutes were screaming. At home I do the cat stretch on my hands and knees, alternating arching the back and then pushing my stomach down to bend the back the other way. Starting back down the canyon I did the same stretch on the bike (always looking ahead!) and, other than those pesky glutes, had a pain-free, enjoyable ride home.
Faster return to training. After dinner while watching TV I stretched for about 10 minutes, paying particular attention to my glutes. The next day my glutes had loosened up enough that I could ride again with pleasure.
Wait a minute, you say. Research shows that stretching doesn’t lengthen muscles or tendons. How can it possibly improve flexibility?
Try this experiment: stand, stretch your arms overhead and interweave your fingers so that your palms are facing the ceiling. Slowly bend at the waist, moving your hands toward your toes. Just stretch until it feels tight, not until it starts to hurt. Hang there for a count of 10, then straighten back up. Do this a half-dozen times.
Are your hands getting closer to the floor? The first time you bent over you went as far as your normal range of motion, but your muscles were still partly contracted. Those six repeats reduced how much your muscles were contracted and increased your range of motion.
Stretching also helps:
Restore range of motion. When you ride, your feet make circles, with your legs going through a limited range of motion, neither fully extending (except when climbing out of the saddle) nor fully flexing. As a result, your muscles get tight and you lose range of motion. Stretching returns your partially contracted muscle fibers to their normal extension.
Dealing with cramps. Research suggests that muscles that get accustomed to being shorter are more vulnerable to cramping, i.e., muscles that aren’t stretched and are exercised in a shortened position like riding. You can reduce the probability of cramping by stretching regularly. If you cramp, stretch gently to relieve the cramp and then move the affected muscle gently through its range of motion without making it work enough to cramp again. For more information see my eArticle Preventing and Treating Cramps.
Prevent overtraining. Research with Nordic skiers shows that the best indicator of potential overtraining is the skier’s attitude. Is the skier excited about training the next day? Or dreading it?
As reader Neil Taylor suggested in his remarks about stretching, stretching just plain feels good and improves one’s mood! By letting go physically and letting a muscle loosen up, one can also let go mentally, which may reduce anxiety about training. And if you’re not stiff when you roll out of bed, you’re probably more excited about getting on the bike again.
Aid activities of daily living. I’m 65, and most of my clients are in their 50s, 60s and beyond. We have twin goals: to continue to do the sports we love and to continue to live healthy, normal, active lives for as long as possible. The normal condition for most muscles is to be partially contracted. When you are sitting down, your arm and shoulder muscles aren’t at full extension. While writing “Distance Cycling,” I spent too many days and hours working on the computer. My upper body got so tight that I couldn’t reach the pretzels on the top shelf in the kitchen! Stretching helped.
Reduce day-to-day discomfort. When you are sitting, your hip flexors are partially contracted. (They’re the muscles you use to raise your leg.) We all sit too much and, unless stretched, partial contraction becomes the normal position for our hip flexors. This pulls the back out of alignment, resulting in low back pain. You know you need a strong core to hold your pelvis in the proper position. But tight hip flexors and strong core muscles are pulling your pelvis in opposite directions! Both core strength and flexibility are necessary for a healthy back.
Aging gracefully. Falling isn’t graceful! Chronic upper body tightness results in poor posture. Poor posture results in poorer balance. Falls are the number one accident for us older folks!
Part of aging for most people is losing range of motion, another example of “use it or lose it.” The American College of Sports Medicine recommends doing some form of flexibility exercise at least twice a week.
When should you stretch?
The purpose of a warm-up is to raise the temperature of your muscles. Most forms of stretching aren’t active enough to do that and may reduce peak muscle power. Coach Dan Kehlenbach’s Dynamic Flexibility Training for Cyclists does raise the temperature of your muscles and is an effective warm-up, as is moderate-intensity riding.
Why do most pros stretch before a competition? Don’t their trainers know better? They stretch just enough to be sure that they have normal range of motion, and then exercise more vigorously to warm their muscles.
Stretching after you get off the bike will relieve immediate muscle tightness, but won’t prevent Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), the way my glutes felt the day after the hard climb. It it’s convenient, stretch while having a post-ride recovery snack. But if you don’t have time, don’t worry; you can stretch later.
Thinking holistically, the purpose of stretching is to increase flexibility. Since that’s the goal, when you should stretch is pretty flexible (pun intended). In general it’s easier to loosen up your muscles when they’re warm, so stretching later in the day is better than with your first cup of coffee. I know that, but I still usually stretch with my coffee because that’s a convenient time for me. Some is better than none!
How should you stretch?
Many of us remember Bob Anderson’s classic book, “Stretching,” and have an image of sitting on the floor bent forward and holding a stretch for at least 30 seconds. That’s static stretching.
There are many modalities of stretching represented among RBR authors: static stretching, Kehlenbach’s Dynamic Stretching, Alan Bragman’s Active Isolated Stretching, Joe and Maria Kita’s Yoga. Using a hard foam roller on your muscles and massage also relieve tightness and improve flexibility.
Which one is best? Remember the second sentence of this article? “Each cyclist is an experiment of one with different goals, and different strengths and weaknesses.” The answer is: Whichever form of stretching that you like, works best for you, and that you will actually do!
Every one of my clients, if he or she stretches regularly, improves flexibility. For all of the reasons noted above, increasing your flexibility will both make you a better rider and a healthier person.
Learn More About Optimal Recovery For Improved Performance
The pros know that recovery is as important as training. They eat the right recovery foods after racing, get massages and go for easy recovery rides. Brent Bookwalter who currently rides for UCI World Team Mitchelton–Scott advises that if you have a choice between an extra 20 minutes of riding or spending that time recovering use it for recovery. Coach Hughes’ Optimal Recovery for Improved Performance explains the best recovery nutrition, the value of stretching, describes 5 different stretching techniques and teaches you how to give yourself a massage with your hands or with a hard foam roller (the pillar of pain). He also covers true active recovery, compression garments, icing and using whirlpool or hot tub. The techniques are illustrated with 14 photos.
Coach John Hughes earned coaching certifications from USA Cycling and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. John’s cycling career includes course records in the Boston-Montreal-Boston 1200-km randonnée and the Furnace Creek 508, a Race Across AMerica (RAAM) qualifier. He has ridden solo RAAM twice and is a 5-time finisher of the 1200-km Paris-Brest-Paris. He has written over 40 eBooks and eArticles on cycling training and nutrition, available in RBR’s eBookstore at Coach John Hughes. Click to read John’s full bio.
You guys sure are back and forth on this subject. One article you say it doesn’t deliver, then in your next article you say it’s the greatest thing ever. Too wishy-washy.
This article makes a lot more sense than the previous anti-stretching article published last week. Not only is it more holistic in its approach, but it applies to those of us who are not training for racing, but are endurance riders who want to keep doing this until we drop.
Read the research critically, but do what works for you. I don’t think this is too wishy washy. I do know that if I did not use the foam roller and do the stretches and PT correctives I’ve learned over the years, the stiffness and back issues that have increased as I age would be worse. Yes, I am a sample of 1, who wants to keep the flexibility I have.
I am suspicious of authors who prescribe rigid training and nutritional programs, without taking into account individual differences.
Ditto. I was planning on typing a comment but this one fits me to a “T”…
Thanks.
Excellent insight.
It is a mark of someone lost in academia who believes every one of 7 billion souls has the same body and same needs.
As Ken says, “back and forth”, But I do agree, everyone isn’t the same and therefore different approaches are important,. As Coach John and Mark say, I agree reading all the research is an impossible task and research is designed to support a specific hypothesis, and John’s daughter is also correct research needs to be carefully read. Therefore, ultimately I disagree with Ken, presenting two sides of an issue is a valuable approach,. Reading the two articles critically and assessing how they may apply to you is the value of the articles. I do have one serious issue with one of Coach Johns examples, “Slowly bend at the waist, moving your hands toward your toes. Just stretch until it feels tight, not until it starts to hurt. Hang there for a count of 10, then straighten back up. Do this a half-dozen times.’ will not have an effect on the glutes, but on the lower spine. Bending at the hips will have the desired affect on the glutes.
Who doesn’t recognize the posture of the older avid cyclist–knees slightly bent and upper body leaning forward like Gumby because their hip flexors are too tight to stand up straight? Stretching can prevent this!
Please forgive the snarky reply. My solution to the sore posterior, neck, hands, and back was to go to a recumbent two-wheel bike. All those body pains are thing of the past and I go 25% further for the same effort. You have to be more of a loner to be a recumbent rider. It is literally like a narrow lounge chair with pedals. I changed over at 59 and am glad I did. I do not have the bent over with a sore butt problem that I see on older riders.
Please forgive the snarky reply, but as a fellow bent rider, a recumbent bike comes with separate issues and challenges
Ed… as one of my former bosses always said “those are not issues and challenges, those are opportunities”. We be snarky.
Ditto. Ditto.
Here is the contradicting article from Dr Mirkin: https://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/stretching-doesnt-deliver.html
Reading RBR is what turned me on to Dr Mirkin and I enjoy reading his articles as he usually looks at all the studies. This anti-stretching article seems incomplete.
Funny there is only one reference to Yoga. I don’t understand the resistance of cyclists to Yoga which I find has vastly improved my comfort on the bike.
Under paragraph “Faster return to training” you tell us to try an experiment but you don’t say WHY this works (reaching further and further each time?” Why?
Sorry but I put my head in my hands every time I read an article with “stretching” in the title.
They almost always miss the wood for the trees and this is a case in point.
You do not need to and should not stretch simply to ride a bike.
Rather you should take a huge step back and do a self assessment of how you move.
The question is a simple one: can you move freely and without pain through a full range of motion in all the joints of your body?
If you can then you do not need to stretch.
If you can’t, and this applies to the vast majority of people then you should address the root cause through exercises that are far better termed mobility. Stretching is just a subset of the things you may do to address this but there are many more. Stretching just by itself will be totally useless.
You don’t do this just to ride. You do it to feel better 365 /24 and avoid small issues now becoming big ones in the future.
Typically you would then be advised to consolidate any improvements with some strength exercises to help falling into bad habits.
Kelly Starrett’s Supple Leopard book covers all this in far more detail. My experience of following his program is that I feel and perform better at 60 than I did at 30. I have even managed to turn back the effects of over 3 decades of living with a knee wrecked playing football in my mid 20s.
I would strongly recommend getting a copy, it may change your life.
“You don’t do this just to ride. You do it to feel better 365 /24 and avoid small issues now becoming big ones in the future.”
Yes. Maybe we are confusing what appears to be beneficial and common pandiculation (expanded my vocabulary…) with stretching, Pandiculation appears to be the act of contraction and lengthening that runs the muscle through the natural range of motion before activity, like when an animal wakes up. IMHO you should always stretch when it feels good. Don’t need a study to tell you that.
Thanks for posting this article. Stretching and specifically yoga helps keep stiffness away.
Agree. About 20 years ago I fully ruptured an Achilles tendon while playing racquetball. Surgery fixed the problem. Later when I began riding several days a week (solo and with friends), general stretching including both calves felt better and minimized cramping..
Pardon my cynicism, I’m sure you are an excellent “coach”, but pesky facts, especially in the medical field are important. Dr. Mirkin, MD, in addition to being a qualified medical expert supported his conclusions with numerous respected medical studies. I’m sure your daughter who is a resident (I assume in an MD program) would agree on his methodology. In contrast, while you have no medical degree, no science background whatsoever; you espouse your personal opinion as medical fact, yet not once did you provide a study to support your layman opinion; only that it seems to feel good and bring (momentary) flexibility gain. It’s like me saying I’m going to drink a bottle of good Scotch everyday because it tastes good; heck I’m even more flexible (no pain as Dr. Mirkin succinctly points out) after a couple of Scotches, therefore it must be good for me and my flexibility and damn the medical science to the contrary.
For example in your following quote you state and I agree there is immediate flexibility gain from stretching like my Scotch, but then you conveniently ignore medical evidence that the gain is a momentary illusion.
“Wait a minute, you say. Research shows that stretching doesn’t lengthen muscles or tendons. How can it possibly improve flexibility?
Try this experiment: stand, stretch your arms overhead and interweave your fingers so that your palms are facing the ceiling. Slowly bend at the waist, moving your hands toward your toes. Just stretch until it feels tight, not until it starts to hurt. Hang there for a count of 10, then straighten back up. Do this a half-dozen times.
Are your hands getting closer to the floor? The first time you bent over you went as far as your normal range of motion, but your muscles were still partly contracted. Those six repeats reduced how much your muscles were contracted and increased your range of motion.”
BUT, unlike Dr. Mirkin you then fail to point out that, “You can make a muscle longer while you are stretching, but after you finish stretching, the muscle returns to its former length. A review of 26 studies of stretching for 3-8 weeks found that stretching did not elongate muscles or tendons. The people were able to stretch further only because they learned to tolerate more pain (Scand J Med Sci Sports, Mar 2018;28(3):794-806). People who stretch regularly, such as gymnasts and people who do yoga, can stretch further than non-stretchers because they can tolerate more pain or they have less pain while they stretch (Scan j Med & Sci in Sports, Feb 2010;20(1):136-144).”
Your arguments are fallacious. Your daughter would be chastised by her professor and laughed out of her medical class by her peers if she used your methodology and absurd conclusions.
James — My wife (a doctor of physical therapy) and I are friends with Gabe Mirkin and his wife and we’ve been reading his stuff for more than 40 years. I love most of Gabe’s work. But on this issue, I’m with Coach John. My wife reviewed the point-counterpoint piece that was recently published, and she came down on the stretching side.
Be careful of what you are measuring and how you measure it. A study that gathers data isn’t looking at the nuances of an individual person and his needs.
Obviously, stretching done wrong can injure you. That’s a big part of what Gabe reported.
But if you’re not limber enough, you are very susceptible to injuries, posture problems, etc,.
How do you get more limber?
The right stretching program can do that. I don’t know of anything else than can.
I honor all of this in the breach, and my wife is gonna make me take yoga at the local Y to protect my health. Because she knows. . . I can’t go running if I have a pulled muscle.
Hi John,
Of course there may be exceptions, nor am I criticizing yoga, I do it a couple of times per week myself for enjoyment, yoga is great, although you can even hurt yourself doing yoga, but my point was two fold.
As I previously quoted, ““You can make a muscle longer while you are stretching, but after you finish stretching, the muscle returns to its former length. A review of 26 studies of stretching for 3-8 weeks found that stretching did not elongate muscles or tendons. The people were able to stretch further only because they learned to tolerate more pain (Scand J Med Sci Sports, Mar 2018;28(3):794-806).
Bottom line, stretching will NOT elongate muscles or tendons. It’s a proven momentary illusion. Studies after studies as referenced by Dr. Mirkin and others make this point.
My other point was that John Hughes is not a medical doctor; frankly he has no medical expertise/education whatsoever. Offering medical advice, attempting to refute an MD without expertise and without scientific support seems wrong on so many levels. My wife (deceased) was a Board Certified Neurologist, yet, although an MD and Phd, she would not offer advice or a diagnosis outside her areas of expertise.
After an injury, with a Doctor’s diagnosis and referral, I’ve been to Physical Therapists and I have appreciated their help and guidance. If I have a medical problem, I do not rely on my gym’s “certified trainers” for physical therapy or diagnosis. The same analogy applies here.
This discussion is stale now but still interesting…
“Bottom line, stretching will NOT elongate muscles or tendons. It’s a proven momentary illusion. Studies after studies as referenced by Dr. Mirkin and others make this point.”
I suppose the prior statement is a data point in isolation but perhaps not relevant to the person who actively keeps their range of motion and muscle tone in range by actually stretching both in a static fashion and through Tai Chi and Yoga-like motions over the long term. Auxiliary supportive activities like stretching occurring over decades, not 3-8 weeks, and do in fact maintain and improve our strength and flexibility in our chosen sport.
“My other point was that John Hughes is not a medical doctor; frankly he has no medical expertise/education whatsoever. Offering medical advice, attempting to refute an MD without expertise and without scientific support seems wrong on so many levels. My wife (deceased) was a Board Certified Neurologist, yet, although an MD and Phd, she would not offer advice or a diagnosis outside her areas of expertise.”
This statement is wrong at a base level in the same way that knowing a large collection of facts and procedures may make you a good technician, but does not bestow you with medical wisdom. This attitude is why I shun medical doctors of all kinds except in acute emergencies.
I have followed Mirkin since 1991 when I transferred to the D.C. area and he had a daily AM radio show. His nutrition and dietary advice have been very insightful, helpful and seemingly based on current research. Personally however I don’t think quite as highly of some of his fitness/training advice. He is adamant about literature citations and provides good, reasoned analysis for all of his opinions but I get the sense that there are significant gaps in the whole picture, particularly as some of his opinions are based on a admittedly limited selection of research studies on athletics and performance. I’ve some experience (40+ yrs) lifting weights along with cycling and his oft prescribed approach to resistance training, for example, is generally out of sync with modern theory. I do not mean to disparage him in any way – I’ve followed him for many years because I trust his opinion and his integrity. And to his credit, he will readily admit that the data is curious or worth exploring but not yet complete, or he will clearly state that there is controversy but then offer his opinion.
His article on stretching bears careful reading. He mentions right up front that an extensive review of the scientific literature showed that the benefits of stretching are ‘highly controversial.’ That means there is no generally accepted view, pro or con, yet. I think that most do not stretch to prevent the very few injuries he cites from the literature (stress fractures, shin splints, strains or sprains) but more so to improve overall range of motion or mobility. I agree with the previous writer and also endorse Dr. Kelly Starret’s approach to mobility work which I think is what we’re after – complete range of motion and not to get too wrapped up in what constitutes stretching. I think that Dr. Mirkin’s article, by focusing strictly on the idea of stretching misses the point of improved function and mobility, which is fine but know that his articles if you go back through the many years he’s been writing, are all very tightly focused which is as they should be as he is addressing specific issues as a medical professional through a literature search and detailed explanations of basic anatomy and physiology.
As an aside I don’t recall the coach ever stating that he was a medical professional or medically trained, per se. He is a coach and as such would be expected to be well versed in mobility work (stretching if you like), nutrition, training paradigms, technique, et al. The statement that ‘he has no medical expertise/education whatsoever’ is mean spirited at best and perhaps marginally accurate only in the very limited sense of a formal degree.