Off Season Posterior Chain Strength Training for Cyclist and Runners

The term "off season" is commonly misunderstood to many folks out there as being the time of year when you kick back and take it easy. In reality the off season is when the real work is done in preparation for pre season and then actual on season competition. I also hear many people say "I don't want to do weight training because I'll gain muscle mass which will weigh me down". I'll save the rant I have about that statement for a later date. We should all be riding and running, but this is the off season and unless you want to stay at the same strength you were last season, you better make friends with some sort of strength training program and gain more muscle. More muscle mass equals more strength....easy math and a fact.

Where I'm going with this post is the fact that the posterior chain is either poorly training or in most cases completely ignored. The posterior chain is made up of many large power producing muscles. To make it quick and easy to understand, the Hamstring group, Glutes and Erector Spinae are the most import "links" in the chain when it comes to producing power and explosiveness in cycling and running. The Anterior chain is also important and without working both, imbalances will be created, thus creating a possible road to injury. With that said, since most cyclist and runners are already "quad dominate", a need to focus off season strength training more towards the posterior chain is essential.

I also see an enormous emphasis put on doing core in the 8 minute ab fashion when endurance athletes remember they have a gym membership. Abs are great. They help hold us up and they look good unless they're playing hide and seek under an inch or so of fat. Here's a few issues with that type of mentality. 

1) If you run or ride or walk like a chicken, then doing crunches all day are what you should be doing.

2) Most of the "crunch" type programs tighten up the hip flexors. We're cyclist and runners. We already have that problem. Why should we make it worse.

Look, I'm not saying "don't do any traditional abdominal exercises". I do them twice a week and I see the benefit when I swim and in my posture. What I'm going to say next is why I started these last couple of paragraphs.

When you work the posterior chain, you are doing exercises that also fire the core. If I'm doing a squat, my core better be firing or I'm going to fold in the middle and that would hurt. All the spinal loaded exercises done to strengthen the posterior chain require that the core fires. If the core is firing, it is working and that's a core workout right there.

In conclusion, I really think that all athletes should put some focus on strengthening the posterior chain. It's all about nuclear power production to create speed and that's what these muscles are...nuclear power plants. 

Live Powerfully!!

Releasing the Hip Flexors

The Psoas Major and the Illicus are in everyday terms in the athletic world known as the hip flexor. The action of this muscle is flexion of the hip. What does that mean? Every upward stroke of the pedal is done by hip flexion. Every time the leg is raised when running is done by hip flexion. Great...what does this have to do with anything. Great question. Multiply the amount of pedal strokes over a season or a lifetime. You can do the same math for every stride when running. It adds up. Do you sit down? Your hip is flexed and those two muscles like to stay in that position. To make a very long story short, just about everything we do in a normal day causes the hip flexors to get tighter and tighter and tighter.

Most people have learned the basic hip flexor stretch. It's a great one that I personally use at least once a day. What I am hoping to communicate here is another way to release this muscle group and provide you with more flexibility and great range of motion.

I've have become a very big proponent of myofascial release using items such as foam rollers and balls. Most athletes are now wise to foam rollers and use them regularly on their legs. What a lot of people miss is the fact that the quads and hamstrings are just one part of the equation. They do a lot of work in flexion and extension of the hip, but they are not alone and they don't take quite the brunt of punishment as the hip flexors.

The following is an example of something I learned about helping the hip flexors to release with something as simple as a tennis ball and some tolerance to a little discomfort.

• Position a tennis ball on the floor and lay on top of it placing it in the area above the groin and about an inch or two towards the top of the leg.
• Roll on the ball until you find a tender spot. The tender spot always tells you where the problem spot on the muscle is. It is going to hurt a little and the key is to to bear it out. You can stop rolling once that spot is found and just stay there for 30 seconds or so. Repeat a few times.
• Upon completing the myofascial release, get up and do the standard hip flexor stretch for 60 seconds. Repeat one more time. Make sure to hold good spinal posture though the stretch and get to a point where you can lift both hands over your head.

• After doing this try to move around by walking.
• Drink a little extra water throughout the day to help the repair process. You created microtears in the muscle and now repair is key to insure that the muscle comes back to a better state than it was before you started.

Try this if you want to achieve better hip flexion, you will not be disappointed.

When to Use Ice and When to Use Heat on a Sports Injury

Do you know when to use ice and when to use heat on a sports injury? Most athletes know to apply ice to an acute injury, like a sprained ankle, but aren't so sure when to use heat. The following guidelines will help you sort it out.

Acute and Chronic Pain

There are two basic types of athletic injuries: acute and chronic.

Acute Pain is of rapid onset and short-lived, orChronic pain develops slowly and is persistent and long-lasting.

Acute and Chronic Injuries

Acute injuries are sudden, sharp, traumatic injuries that occur immediately (or within hours) and cause pain (possibly severe pain). Most often acute injuries result from some sort of impact or trauma such as a fall, sprain, or collision and it's pretty obvious what caused the injury.

Acute injuries also cause common signs and symptoms of injury such as pain, tenderness, redness, skin that is warm to the touch, swelling and inflammation. If you have swelling, you have an acute injury.

Chronic injuries, on the other hand, can be subtle and slow to develop. They sometimes come and go, and may cause dull pain or soreness. They are often the result of overuse, but sometimes develop when an acute injury is not properly treated and doesn't heal.

Cold Therapy with Ice

Cold therapy with ice is the best immediate treatment for acute injuries because it reduces swelling and pain. Ice is a vaso-constrictor (it causes the blood vessels to narrow) and it limits internal bleeding at the injury site. Apply ice (wrapped in a thin towel for comfort)to the affected area for 10 to 15 minutes at a time. Allow the skin temperature to return to normal before icing a second or third time. You can ice an acute injury several times a day for up to three days.

Cold therapy is also helpful in treating some overuse injuries or chronic pain in athletes. An athlete who has chronic knee pain that increases after running may want to ice the injured areaafter each run to reduce or prevent inflammation. It's not helpful to ice a chronic injury before exercise.

The best way to ice an injury is with a high quality ice pack that conforms to the body part being iced. You can also get good results from a bag of frozen peas, an ice massage with water frozen in a paper cup (peel the cup down as the ice melts) or a bag of ice.

Heat Therapy

Heat is generally used for chronic injuries or injuries that have no inflammation or swelling. Sore, stiff, nagging muscle or joint pain is ideal for the use of heat therapy. Athletes with chronic pain or injuries may use heat therapy beforeexercise to increase the elasticity of joint connective tissues and to stimulate blood flow. Heat can also help relax tight muscles or muscle spasms. Don't apply heat after exercise. After a workout, ice is the better choice on a chronic injury.

Because heat increases circulation and raises skin temperature, you should not apply heat to acute injuries or injuries that show signs of inflammation. Safely apply heat to an injury 15 to 20 minutes at a time and use enough layers between your skin and the heating source to prevent burns.

Moist heat is best, so you could try using a hot wet towel. You can buy special athletic hot packs or heating pads if you use heat often. Never leave heating pads on for more than 20 minutes at a time or while sleeping.

Because some injuries can be serious, you should see your doctor if your injury does not improve (or gets worse) within 48 hours.

Dynamic Stretching vs. Static Stretching

I think back to everything I've learned over the course of my sports and fitness life. I was taught, as most of you, that you must go through a battery of stretches before I was to go participate in an activity. Usually they were in the form of sitting or standing and attempting to touch my toes, or something of that nature. I'm sure you can all think of those five or ten minutes of fun.

I first learned of dynamic stretching from a triathlon coach. It made sense, but it had no science behind it. I did a few of the dynamic stretches before runs and noticed that I was in fact more warmed up. As I embarked on to starting training to become a fitness trainer, it became pretty apparent pretty quickly, that this was a more optimal way to warm up.

To try to emphasize the need for people that may be reading this to try to change the way they think about stretching or warming up, may take a visual and some terminology.

The terms elasticity and placisity should be used when talking about muscles during a given type of activity. Think of a rubber band. When you pull the rubber band and let go, the rubber band snaps back to its pre-stretched size. This is elasticity. Now think of a peice of taffy. When you pull on it and let go it stays the same size as where you stopped pulling. Now move those two thoughts to muscles. Muscles with elasticity are going to be a lot more functional when exericeing than the ones that are pulled to a longer length. Add to

Now move those two characteristics to Dynamic and Static stretching. Dynamic stretching is a group of movements that put the muscles into an a warmed up elastic state, that will be more ready to function at an optimal level. This group of movements emulate real movements and make more sense in relation to a sport. If you are getting ready to run, why would you sit in a hurdler stretch and stetch to touch your toe? Static stretching does not emulate sport or fitness in most instances. Static stretching has scientifically been proven to put the muscle into a plasticity state. Think of the taffy. If the muscle is stretched to an elongated state, would that be very useful when it comes time to do an activity.

One more part of our anatomy should be taken into account and that is our joints. The younger crowd may not worry to much about these right now, but us that have inhabited the planet a little longer know what these are every morning when we get out of bed. Joints, for the most part, contain synovial fluid. When this fluid has sat for a while it gets a little bit like a stick of butter. Static stretching does nothing good for joints. If anything, it places stress upon them and that can lead to problems. A Dynamic warm up will basically melt the butter and that is what we want our synovial fluid to be when we go on a run, a bike ride, a swim or any other physical activity.

Here is a list of basic Dynamic movements that you can use to find your optimalwarmed up state. Give it a try. There are plenty of examples on you tube to see how these and many more are done.

light jog 50 or so meters
heel walks
walking knee hugs
walking lunges with a twist to the knee side
butt kickers
carioca
frog squats
slide and stretch
skips and lateral skips
back pedal jog
inch worms
Bear crawls

A Dynamic warmup is just what it sounds like...a warm up. You will be breathing hard and will have a sweat going. It should be factored into a workout in terms of ten minutes. Proper form should be used at all times and sufficient time to be taken to do the wamup with proper technique instead of just getting through it.


Static stretching does have its place and that is at the end of a workout. That is where plasticity should take place. Stretching the muscle will help it to become more flexible and enable recovery to happen faster.

Thank You and have a healthy day!