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Saturday, August 16, 2014

5 Reasons Why Yoga For Biking Is A Good Idea

preparation for hand to extended toe posture
By Faye Martins

Biking and yoga are both excellent forms of exercise. They are also both very popular right now. There are people who will swear that one or the other is the best fitness activity you can do, but there's no need to choose sides. Doing both of them is best of all, as they complement one another in several important ways. Yoga for biking can help you stay in great shape and reduce the chances of injuries. Let's look at the top five reasons why you should practice yoga if you ride a bike.

1. Promotes Good Posture and Spinal Alignment

Many yoga poses lengthen the spine and teach you to keep your back and neck in alignment. This is important to keep in mind while you're cycling. The looser your spine is, the more relaxed you'll be on your bike and the less likely you'll feel fatigued from riding.
2. Keeps Your Legs Strong and Limber

Your legs bear the brunt of the work when you cycle. Pedaling is a repetitive motion that takes its toll on the legs. Yoga involves many stretches involving the knees, hips and legs. Over time, cycling can put a strain on your knees, quads and hamstrings. Regular yoga practice can help keep your leg muscles limber and strong. This reduces the chances of injuries to these areas and helps prevent soreness.
3. Makes Your Bike Riding More Meditative

The lessons you learn in yoga can be transferred to riding a bicycle. Yoga teaches you to breathe deeply, relax and enter a meditative state that unified body and mind. These principles work well when riding a bike. They can help you enjoy riding even more. It can also help you stay calm and breathe into pedaling when you experience challenges such as steep hills.

4. Strengthens Your Core

One of the benefits of regular yoga practice is that it strengthens your entire core. Poses such as planks work your abdomen, legs and back muscles. This will make you a stronger cyclist. It also makes it less likely that you will experience back and other types of injuries from riding.

5. Shortens Recovery Time

For cyclists who go on challenging rides, yoga can help reduce recovery time. Yoga provides the perfect counterbalance to the rigors of cycling. You stretch and lengthen your muscles, which helps them recover from the many hours of pedaling you've done.

Yoga and Biking Are the Perfect Combination

Just as there are many benefits to doing yoga for biking, the reverse is true as well. Biking is one of the best forms of cardiovascular exercise. This promotes aerobic fitness, which is not always prioritized in all forms of yoga. While yoga is appropriate for people of all levels of fitness, it can be very helpful to start off with the kind of fitness promoted by cycling. Both yoga and biking are highly beneficial, and they are even better together.
Faye Martins, is a Yoga teacher and a graduate of the Yoga teacher training program at: Aura Wellness Center in, Attleboro, MA.

2 comments:

parvezbdjsr said...

Both yoga and biking are highly beneficial, and they are even better together. Thanks for sharing this info.

Unknown said...

Yoga for biking can help you stay in great shape and reduce the chances of injuries. Nice information!