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by Rob Wed Dec 19, 2007 7:38 pm
Hi John,

Great session on weight training last night.

I was struggling with one (well more than one, but the others can wait) aspect of the practical for the "get set" prior to dead lift or bottom of the "squats":

You stressed the importance of keeping feet flat on the floor. If starting in the upright position with the bar across my shoulders in readiness to do some squats I could not go down very far at all without my heels lifting from the floor. I could get a bit further by leaning forward a little but then felt my lower back pulling a bit - I'm assuming that's not good!

Now again I'm guessing that my heels won't stay down due to very tight tendons somewhere - I'm not the most supple athlete around and I'm sure its worse than usual after heavy miles at the weekend....

So how should I approach this? Do the squats with good form but not actually move very far and allow the squat exercise itself to loosen things up over a period of time? Please don't say I need to do some stretching - I hate it - it hurts. :wink:

Rob

by Arthur Thu Dec 20, 2007 8:59 am
I bet John says 'hamstring stretches' :)

by PhilBixby Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:11 am
"Please don't say I need to do some stretching - I hate it - it hurts."

...and here was me thinking it was just me age. Go on Rob! Give it some! if yer not weeping, it's not working!

by Rob Thu Dec 20, 2007 9:42 am
One of the interesting aspects of Tuesday was that we didn't actually do stretching.... well we did, but it was dynamic stretching. We did all the stuff that footballers do at 2-20 on the pitch on a Saturday including the "ministry of funny walks." It was actually good fun and hurt far less than tugging statically at your tendons and was strangely satisfying as we finished with a bit of a "sweat on". You'd look a bit of a narna doing it down the street though :oops:

R

by PhilBixby Thu Dec 20, 2007 10:41 am
Sounds like a warming-up routine, rather than post-ride already-warmed-up stretches. I've read plenty of recommendations *not* to do serious stretching with cold muscles (ie don't stretch before a race, etc) but to do them after a ride or at the end of the day. They still hurt like hell tho. AND (according to Caroline) you still look like a narna.

by Arthur Thu Dec 20, 2007 1:43 pm
What sort of stretches are you two doing? When I stretch, it never hurts. My understanding has always been that one should take a stretch to the point of tension but not so far that the muscle shakes/hurts, and deepen it gradually.

Works for me, with no pain.

by IanH Fri Dec 21, 2007 11:55 am
I agree with Authur you should always stretch until you can just feel it starting to tighten up then hold for a while, not until you feel any pain, this has to be done only when you have warmed up, you should be able to go a little further each time you stretch with time.

Since I took up cycling I am guilty of not doing enough stretching and I felt it after Tuesdays session.

by PhilBixby Fri Dec 21, 2007 4:23 pm
I've found over the years that if I stretch "until I can feel tension in the muscle" it has absolutely no effect, whereas stretching - always when warmed up - to the point where it really is as far as it'll go has increased my flexibility over time. I hold each stretch for 30-60sec depending on how much time I've got. Some are worse than others. The sit-on-floor-one-leg-straight-grab-toes-and get-nose-to-knee is easily the worst, but seems to have been effective in helping me be able to spend much more time down on the drops without discomfort.

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