Here at Omstars, we truly believe that yoga is for every one, and we love sharing new information about how yoga can help make your life better. We recently spoke with avid mountain biker, Sophie Elise, who was more than happy to share her list of reasons why yoga is super beneficial to mountain bikers and other athletes who are looking for something to add to their regular routine. If you’re a mountain biker who is curious about yoga, take a look at all the reasons why you might want to finally give yoga a try.
Regardless of your reason for riding, if you’re a mountain biker, then yoga has massive benefits for you. You all know that yoga is about flexibility, right? Plus, it can help you maintain mental alertness.
Many people think they’re not flexible enough for yoga, but the fact of the matter is, you don’t need to be flexible. Yoga is what’s going to help you become more flexible. In fact, even just taking a few stretches every so often will help enhance resilience.
So, why do mountain bikers need yoga?
- It will help you improve breathing
Yoga emphasizes the importance of proper and conscious breathing. The benefits of proper include increased focus and physical strength. To experience this, take the breathing techniques you learn through yoga and practice them as you ride.
Focusing on your breathing as you ride makes you avoid external distractions and instead concentrate fully on the riding activity. The fact that it increases your lung capacity makes you able to ride on those mountains for a longer period of time.
Correct breathing releases tension and stress from your body. It will help you sleep better and thereby have sufficient rest.
You see, negative mental images and thoughts can be a part of our daily experience. As a rider, you might experience panic and develop negative images that affect your race or play up your fears. Especially when taking on new tasks and challenges.
Thanks to yoga, breathing consciously is the easy way to stay in the moment and avoid the stresses that your mind might create.
- You develop physical strength and flexibility
Most people think that yoga just means stretching. That is certainly not the case! A well rounded yoga practice will help in strengthening your body and your mind as well. Mountain bikers who practice in yoga are less likely to become tired after the ride, and they are less susceptible to injuries.
You see, after riding, most bikers develop stiff quads, tight hamstrings, shoulders and sometimes even painful thoracic spine. This is a result of the sitting position and repetitive pedalling for movement. If you don’t cater to these problems they could potentially bring your days of riding to an end.
Yoga is a life saver because it stretches all those tight muscles and ultimately helps to keep them strong. Even if you’re new to yoga, you could engage in simple practices like any of the beginner’s series’ available on Omstars.com.
You’ll be stronger and more flexible before you know it!
- For quicker recovery and balance
When you stay for long hours pedalling on your bike, your whole body becomes tight, making recovery much more difficult. After a long day’s ride, yoga will help you relax and get rejuvenated for your next ride. Plus, yoga reduces the production of cortisol in your body which leads to proper sleep and rest.
Recovery is an essential part of any exercise. It will help you to reduce tension and pain. With proper recovery, it gets easy to identify areas of massive tension to focus on. Yoga will give you the quick body recovery you need after a ride.
Maintaining a hunched back over your bars will make you lose balance over time. When doing yoga, consider poses that help you regain balance. The arm balances and one-legged standing poses can help with that. The benefits of these sort of poses include proper coordination, a strong core and injury protection.
- Enhanced riding flexibility
A mountain biker requires flexibility because biking is a whole-body workout. Moreover, you need massive strength and endurance to peddle on mountains. Flexibility will make controlling your bike easy. Especially when riding on hilly and rough roads.
Yoga can help you increase flexibility and enhance your overall comfort as you move. A flexible body means you’ll be able to move smoothly as you ride. It’s easy to protect injuries with a flexible body because your muscles are less likely to pull or put stress on your joints.
Other than that, yoga can really help you to understand the inner workings of your body, leading to more body awareness. Having a deeper understanding of your body can make all the difference in the world.
- Prevents injuries
Bikers get injured every so often. Sometimes it might be impossible to avoid an injury, while other times, you can. Yoga could help you avoid muscle injuries that result from long rides or falls.
With yoga practice, you stretch your muscles and lubricate your joints, creating more ease of movement and making it easier to avoid muscle injury.
While sometimes you can’t avoid the fall, it’s possible to protect yourself. Considering you have increased flexibility from your yoga practice, you might be able to react in a way that reduces the impact of a fall, ultimately reducing the impact of the injury.
- Improved focus
Mountain bikers need to focus during their ride. While focusing comes naturally when engaging in various forms of exercise or activity, sometimes your brain starts to wander. Yoga helps you learn to focus on one thing at a time.
It teaches you how to stay fully present in the moment. Most yoga teachers encourage their students to avoid mind wandering, offering focus-related techniques that will teach you how to stay present. Riders need focus to win a competition, reach targets and even just avoid injuries.
I can’t emphasize enough how beneficial yoga is to mountain bikers. In fact, yoga is a great complimentary practice for all athletes to consider. If you’re new to yoga, take a look at the many beginner options offered through Omstars.com. And if you’re new to mountain biking, you can find affordable bikes by clicking here.
By Sophie Elise
Sophie Elise is a passionate cyclist, author, and blogger. She is very passionate about writing on different types of women’s bikes, accessories, health, fitness and more. She regularly writes on sportsly.net
