Move Better, Ride Faster: Optimizing Cycling Performance Through Mobility
Mobility is the ability to move your joints and muscles freely through their full range of motion. While it is true we don’t utilize our full range of motion on the bike, the higher your level of fundamental athleticism is, the better you will perform and develop on (and off) the bike. It’s a double-barrel benefit: not only do you enjoy the reward personally, since most people overlook or underestimate the value of mobility work, it’s an easy way to improve relative to your competition.
The Cost
Cycling actually stimulates negative adaptation in range of motion. Yes, cycling works against our mobility - therefore, if cycling is your primary mode of exercise, it is vital to have a basic mobility routine. Even more so if you sit at a desk for work. The old saying “use it or lose it” applies directly to mobility. Unless we regularly utilize our full range of motion, we lose it. Since most cyclists don’t use it, they’ve already lost it, which dramatically increases susceptibility to chronic knee, hip, back, shoulder, and neck pain. Most cyclists experience chronic pain in one of these areas, which can be extremely frustrating. Within the WRA Family, however, chronic pain is rare. The solution is 1) a proper bike fit, 2) regular, basic strength training, and 3) you guessed it- regular, basic mobility training. We’ll discuss the strength training component in our next article.
Maintaining a basic level of mobility yields tremendous benefits in quality of life. Most people who have committed to a routine that addresses their mobility will tell you that the best part is how much better they feel all the time. More quantifiable though is the strong relationship between mobility and sleep.
More, Better Sleep
Indeed, when your muscles and joints are tight, your sleep is negatively impacted. You will experience higher quality, and time permitting, a higher quantity of sleep by relieving your muscles and joints of tension. Not only does mobility help to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, it also works to address imbalances or impingements (root cause of tension) in your hips, back, and neck that may be preventing you from sleeping at your best (perhaps unbeknownst to you). An easy way to “test” for this is by answering the following question honestly: How many times per night do you wake up to change sleeping position? Chances are very good that if you’re waking up to change position, that’s a clear indicator that your body is uncomfortable. The root of that discomfort is often tension (it could also be your mattress, but that’s a different article). Regular, basic mobility training will improve your sleep, and by extension, your recovery.
Less Soreness
Riding for extended periods of time can be very demanding on your hips and back due to the fixed position and repetitive movement. The more mobile and the better your fundamental athleticism is, the better your body will cope with this demand. To be clear, if you’re on a structured training plan, some soreness in your quads is expected from time to time. Chronic stiffness and soreness in your knees, hips, back, neck, or shoulders is not. In fact, they are an indicator that, provided your bike is fit properly, your body needs more ability to match the demands of your training. That ability can not be developed on the bike. It can only be created through mobility training, and strength training, off the bike. In addition to creating a higher tolerance to the chronic demands of riding, mobility work also provides targeted relief of acute muscle soreness, allowing you to bounce back faster and perform better on subsequent days.
Better Circulation
Admittedly, there is some academic debate on the accuracy of the following premise. If untrue, I believe the risk of harm is zero, and if true, greatly strengthens the overall argument of this article. As always, you must draw your own conclusion! The idea goes like this: Our bodies' nervous and circulatory systems operate primarily in miniscule amounts of space, measured in fractions of a millimeter. Consider the density of nerves and veins below your knees and beyond your elbows, as well as the veritable highway systems that pass through your hips and shoulders. Logically, our nervous and circulatory systems are negatively impacted by tension and impingements in the muscles and joints, particularly our hips, shoulders, and extremities. Tension is the enemy of circulation, requiring higher pressure to achieve proper circulation, or preventing proper circulation altogether. Through regular, basic mobility training, we can restore our bodies’ fullest circulatory ability, which greatly enhances performance and recovery.
More Durability
As mentioned above in the soreness section, proper mobility greatly improves your tolerance to the demands of prolonged training. In addition, proper mobility greatly improves your tolerance to sudden unplanned dismounts. Below the neck, bodily damage resulting from crashing is primarily road rash, cuts, and massive bruising. Without going down a rabbit hole, falling properly (tuck your shoulder and roll - yes, you should practice this) if at all possible, is the best way to mitigate road rash and cuts. In most cases, the bruising hurts second most after cleaning the road rash, but once the road rash is clean, bruising is generally what you feel the most. Bruising is the result of an impact, or more precisely, a sudden displacement combined with absorbing a massive shock. Regular, basic mobility training greatly improves your tolerance to sudden displacement and shock absorption by improving the suppleness of your muscles, as well as increasing the range of motion your joints and muscles can travel before damage occurs.
Better Quality of Life Through Functional Movement
Can you put your socks and shoes on from standing? Can you sleep flat on your back? Can you squat to full depth without falling over backward? Can you sit comfortably on the ground? Can you get back up again without using your hands? If you answered “No” to any of these questions, you lack mobility. Therein lies a huge opportunity for you!
What about on the bike? Can you swing your leg over your top tube in one movement? Can you look over both shoulders? Can you easily access your jersey pockets from both sides? Can you ride in the drops and comfortably keep your eyes on the horizon for extended periods of time without needing to take a break? These skills are so fundamental and essential that without them, you’re actually a bit of a hazard to yourself and others around you. If you answered “No to any of those questions, therein lies a huge opportunity for you!
Through cycling, we develop tremendous aerobic fitness. You must also develop your fundamental athleticism, a crucial piece of which is proper mobility, in order for your aerobic fitness to translate into other activities. Activities like hiking, running, swimming, rock climbing, crossfit, BJJ, yoga, and carrying luggage, furniture, or smaller humans are all much easier if you’re aerobically fit, but they all also require a level of fundamental athleticism that we can’t develop on the bike alone. Mobility is one of the keys to fundamental athleticism, which will enable you to unlock your fitness beyond the bike.
That’s it! Move better, ride faster. 10-15 minutes a day is all you need. In the next article, we’ll discuss the difference between stretching and mobility training, and how we develop a targeted mobility routine at WRA. Get mobile, and stay tuned!