Anyone do yoga?

[suhollyberry]

I'm thinking about starting yoga today and was wondering if anyone else does yoga in addition to cycling. What are the benefits you have experienced? Has it helped with your riding? Thanks!

[Bikingmomof3]

I love yoga. It increases flexibility and balance, works on the core, and is a wonderful destessor. I strongly encourage yoga. If you are looking at DVDs, my two favourite instructors are Rodney Yee and Patricia Walden.

HTH!

[tulip]

I do pilates now, but I used to do yoga. Yoga really helped my flexibility, as well as really helped me fall and stay asleep. Through pilates I have strengthened my core and all but erased back pain. Climbing is better, too.

[laury]

Yoga and cycling are a great combination. I can't imagine what kind of shape my middle aged bones and muscles would be in without regular Anusara and Iyengar yoga classes. I think yoga helps me recover from hard rides and helps undo some of the stress that cycling puts on my body. I can't wait to get to class the day after a hard ride. In my first down dog I can always tell just how hard I rode the previous day and how much my muscles need to stretch out.

Aside from the physical benefits of yoga, the mental strength and focus I learn in class help get me through long hard rides. In fact, I never rode further than a metric until I started taking Anusara classes. My teacher and fellow students inspired me to ride my first 100 miles. Several years and countless centuries later, I am now trying to apply what I learn in yoga about balance and moderation to my cycling.

The women at my yoga studio may not be hard core cyclists but they are my inspiration on every single ride.

[spokewench]

Yoga is great mixed with cycling. We tend to develop certain muscles which cause imbalances in our bodies as cyclist. The Yoga makes you more flexible strengthens your core and makes you a better cyclist!. I have a bad back and it really helps me out to be more flexible. Also, helps me when my shoulders and neck get too tight from mountain biking and sitting at a computer all day.

I don't think you can go wrong with yoga!

[Kalidurga]

I'd recommend yoga to anyone for any reason, as a compliment to any sport. The physical and mental benefits (and spiritual, as well, if you explore that aspect of it) are tremendous.

One of the first benefits that I think of is that learning to properly use the breath during yoga has been a great help in controllng my breathing while riding. Whether I'm hammering up a hill (or trying to hammer...), sprinting, or just cruising for distance, maintaining an even breathing pattern makes such a difference.

I also had an interesting realization about body alignment recently: No matter what saddle I used or how the saddle was positioned, I had very uncomfortable pressure on my "girlie bits" on even short rides. When I was talking to the LBS tech during my recent bike fitting, it dawned on me that it wasn't necessarily the saddle that was the problem.

In yoga asanas that involve a forward bend, proper form encourages you to bend from the hips and not the waist. This helps to maintain the correct curve of the spine in postures like Downward Dog and Forward Bend. I realized that when I stretched forward to ride on the hoods or drops, I was bending from the hips and rotating my pelvis backward just as I have always done in yoga. In the process, my weight was shifting forward onto the pubic region and causing the discomfort. Since then, I've begun to consciously bend from the waist on the bike, which puts my weight on the sit bones where it belongs. Voila! No more bruised "girlie bits".

The result of this new positioning, though, has been occasional soreness in my lower back, for which, of course, I turn to yoga for relief. Funny little circle, there, but through the combination of yoga and biking I continue to learn more and more about anatomy and alignment.

In addition to bikingmomof3's recommendation of DVD's by Rodney Yee, I'd throw in the suggestion to pick up Yoga Journal magazine or check out www.yogajournal.com. It's a great resource from which I've learned a lot.

Edited to add this link I found at yogajournal.com: Yoga for Cyclists.

[alpinerabbit]

What everyone said, in addition I am just not good about stretching after rides, so a yoga class makes up for it....