The Yoga practice has been increasing in the last couple of years between all the athletes of all different kinds of sports. But what are its benefits for riding?
Yoga is often seen as a type of stretching. Being able to touch you toes, mastering handstand like the Insta yogis and all that kind of stuff. Truth is that yoga is a very ancient practice which benefits mind and body like no others.
Performance, speed, power. All things that as riders we all need to work on. In addition to lifting weights, working on your cardio and eating healthy, a yoga practice can help you improve all of them massively if done correctly and regularly, of course.
La combinazione di movimento e respiro nello yoga permette di migliorare il controllo della respirazione durante la guida.
And yes, although some types of yoga allow you to speed up your heart rate, feel the sweat and the ‘when-does-this-class-ends feeling’ it’s during the slower practices that you can really tune in with both your body and your breath.
Now think about your riding, while going up to a steep climb. How much are you able to tune into your body? How much can you feel how’s your breath doing? Is it going faster? Is it mouth-breath? Do you truly pay attention to it? Probably like us, very rarely.
Combining bike & yoga will give you three most important benefits:
We’re sure you want to enjoy your ride by being focused and relaxed. By being able to work and pay attention to the technique while admiring the beautiful landscapes around you. In order to do so, controlling your breathing is one of the first things you should pay attention to, and work on. Developing a steady, smooth breathing pattern helps you stay focused yet calm. The result? Giving your full power while you pedal!
Yoga works on building that connection between you and your breath, recognizing its length, its changes and improving, without you even realizing it, your lung capacity.
Like in any other sports, strong and stable muscles and joints help you to have the best performance. In riding the core has an important role, helping you have an effective pedal stroke as it’s the center you push from. Let’s not forget that a strong core helps with our spine, relieving back pain. In yoga your core is engaged through the whole practice and as you breath consciously you keep working on your subtle core muscles without even realizing it.
Quads and hamstrings are the most affected muscles during the ride. But let’s not forget about our shoulders and back. We spend so much time in the same position, affecting the whole upper part, as well the lower part. An after-ride yoga session helps you lengthen the muscles and your joints, helping you recover faster ride after ride. Still can’t touch your toes after months of yoga? Try touching them when your foot is on the pedal, we are sure you can.
Bike & yoga is a perfect combo to take your riding to the next level. It is so perfect that we have decided to make it an experience!
Check-out our Bike & Yoga weekend, also available with E-Bikes, of course!
Oh, little spoiler, for the first time we also take you riding out of the Aosta Valley! See if you can find where we go.
