OldTryGuy

Dr. George Sheehan -- ​"We are each an experiment of one. A unique, never-to-be repeated event.” So true and like all things, personal requirements are as one deems necessary. I've rarely ever stretched and have never suffered dire consequences for not doing so.

DANG, are you grinding a pound or two of beans at once??? Neither my VEVOK or JAVA PRESS requires anywhere near those rotations for a MOCHA, Espresso, French Press, Drip, Perk or Pour Over.

Go to sleep and things might be different when you wake up. What ever floats your boat is the name of the game. Sounds like your plan is working so keep on - keeping on.

Inusuit

[QUOTE=Trakhak;22791404]I've never stretched or done yoga in over 50 years of training on the bike. Never suffered for lack of stretching./QUOTE]

How do you know you haven't suffered from not doing something? Just curious about your scientific method.

NoWhammies

I am not stretching after my rides but I am rolling. I have a foam roller that I use after my runs and I have started making use of the roller are spin class. Rolling hurts. A lot. I have been rolling consistently for about a month now after both my runs and rides. Not sure if I am seeing any difference in my ability to ride/recover. But for the 20mins the rolling takes after my ride, I will keep it up.

I have also added one or two days of yoga to my workout routine. Man are my muscles tight! This getting old stuff is for the birds.

jaxgtr

I generally do some stretching after long rides, or any longer physical activity as part of the cool down. Sometimes it seems to help, sometimes it does not. I've found that I beat my body up more doing yard work than on a bike, but that is to be expected, since I'm using other muscle groups not typically used with cycling, so I make sure to stretch in the garage after I have put everything away.

rsbob 

[QUOTE=Inusuit;22791406]Oh here we go again. Had a very nice thread going and the handbags at dawn start to be thrown. Can people just be f’n nice for a change?

Inusuit

[QUOTE=rsbob;22791692]Wow! Sorry for offending your sensibilities.

Siu Blue Wind

[QUOTE=Inusuit;22791719]Saying sorry means you wont do it again.

rsbob 

[QUOTE=Inusuit;22791719]More people than just me are tired of the needless sniping. And you can keep your obviously insincere apology.

Life is to short to deal with your sort - off to the Ignore List.

livedarklions

Horse crap. I don't stretch before or after because I've found it has no benefit FOR ME. Basically, it's all pain, no gain. There's huge genetic variation in muscles that make stretching either comforting or uncomfortable. And all studies indicate that the traditional static pre-exercise stretching routines decrease performance and slightly increase likelihood of injury. In other words, centuries of "conventional wisdom" about the role of stretching were just wrong.

I'm not going to tell you not to stretch, but don't call me "just lazy" because I don't.

Inusuit

[QUOTE=rsbob;22791768]Happy to be there! People with such a thin skin should stay off the internet.

rosefarts

My flexibility has really gotten worse in the last few years.

I get throbbing low back pain, probably from work and kids, rather than bikes. If I can spend 5-10 minutes stretching, maybe every other day, the pain is basically gone. It usually takes some pain to remind me to do it but it works. Hard to complain about that.

I was visiting a place that stretches you. Kinda like Thai massage but stretchier. I found it to be very helpful when I’m super tight, not to useful if I’m a regular amount of tight.

If you look at “fitness” as some combination of strength, endurance, and flexibility it’s definitely the neglected aspect.

Im not following my wife to yoga class. Somehow, I bet I’d end up with stitches.

Flip Flop Rider

it cannot hurt..if you feel you need it, do it, if not don't
lazy has nothing to do with it..oh look at the lazy guy riding his bike for 3 hours lol
if I feel I need it, I'll do it

PeteHski

I've tried stretching, I've tried yoga (badly!), I've tried foam rolling (hated it) and I've tried using a massage gun. I just don't seem to get on with any of that kind of stuff. I'm probably just too impatient to do it properly and that leads to more problems than it solves - for me at least. Warming up on the other hand I think is really important before a hard effort, especially as you get older. So I try my best to at least do that, along with a few token stretches now and then. The only time I've had muscle pulls in recent years is actually from attempting to stretch.

Trakhak

Thanks for mentioning warming up, which seems to become increasingly important for some of us as we age. Gently moving joints and muscles through the normal range of motion while getting the cardiovascular system up to speed---makes sense to me.

Funny---when I began bike racing as a 13-year-old kid, in 1964, I never seemed to have to warm up. Or, at least, the older (16-to-19-year-old) guys in the club would occasionally tell me to slow down at the beginning of a ride: "Don't you ever have to warm up?"

I should have said, "What do you mean? I am warming up!" (Hadn't yet learned how to be a smart-ass.)

GhostRider62

Warming up when young = 10 minutes

Warming up when old = 30-40 minutes before doing really hard efforts

At least my N = 1 experience

Rollers and stretching? I'm trying but not liking it

big john

Warming up becomes more important to me as I get older. I do lots of climbing rides and I'm usually near the slowest if not the slowest one there. The times when I can warm slowly and do some climbing at my own pace I feel a lot better chasing later. If I start with the group and there is an early climb I will push harder to try and stay close and the later climbs will be harder.

I have had some back injuries and sometimes I stretch my lower back but I don't have a routine. I've tried some different stretching over the years and I don't really think it had a significant effect on my cycling. I have a plastic roller thing I use on my quads if they are tired and I have a ride the next day.

For me the best thing for cycling is to keep the weekly hours and intensity up. Lots of miles and lots of hills, then I'm ready for a hard ride. Well, as ready as I'm going to be.

livedarklions

My impression from the literature is that there might be some benefit to pre-workout dynamic stretching, and none of the increased injury that occurs with static pre-workout stretching. However, it's unclear if it's more beneficial than a basic warm up routine. In other words, if it seems to be working for you and you don't mind it, keep doing it because it's not going to do you harm.


Honestly, the amount of elastin in muscles varies so much from person to person that it seems really reasonable that there's no one-size-fits-all approach. If you feel better with a stretch routine, do it. I just get annoyed with people making judgments about people who don't (absolutely NOT you, in this case).

Eric F 

I thought this was interesting...

livedarklions

T
That's actually a dumb version of the "scientific method". If I don't do x, and I haven't suffered, it is easy to state that nothing including x has caused my suffering. Admittedly, I can't say for certain that the absence of x won't cause suffering in the future, but that's a different question that may be unanswerable for anything without resorting to statistical odds.

I'm not claiming my lack of stretching has caused my not suffering. That would require better than anecdotal evidence.

rsbob 

Screen shot of what you found interesting:

Eric F 

Hmmm...I can see my linked YouTube video just fine.

livedarklions

This subject always gets so heated among some of the people of my advanced age in part because us not-stretchy people had to suffer through seeming endless routines of painful cold muscle stretching at the hands of teachers and coaches who warned of dire events if we did not, and came to find out later we weren't actually doing ourselves any good with this mild form of torture.

It's such a subjective topic--some people feel miserable if they don't do it, some of us feel miserable when we do. Ultimately, we might as well be arguing about what is the best shoe size.

livedarklions

Think you might have a weird browser setting. I can see the linked video.

rsbob 

I hear you about age and stretching. Unfortunately when we were younger, the common method of stretching - which I did as well, up to last week - was static. After my muscle pull, I will now switch to dynamic since time off the bike is a drag. Thanks for your comment

Eric F 

Even as a ute, I have always tended to be a bit more flexible than others my age (but not to freakish extremes), and my body tends to like stretching which I still do on a semi-regular basis when I'm feeling uncomfortable tightness. At 54yo, I can still bend over and put my palms flat on the floor. This is just how I'm built.