4 Post-Ride Exercises for Mountain Bikers

May 4, 2018

Today’s guest post is from  Matt at evo.

Moun­tain bik­ing is so much fun that it can make you for­get how hard you’re work­ing out on the trails. Once you get back home, how­ev­er, you’ll be sure to feel the sore­ness and tight spots that are the fruits of your labor (along­side that smile and sense of accom­plish­ment). We’ve part­nered with a Seat­tle-based Kinet­ic Sports Rehab to bring you stretch­es and exer­cis­es to help you work through that sore­ness, get­ting you ready to get back out there on your moun­tain bike.

1. Hip Flexors

The motion of ped­al­ing can put a lot of wear and tear on your hip flex­ors and cause tight­ness that affects oth­er areas of your body, name­ly your low­er back. So, stretch­ing out your hip flex­ors after a ride will not only feel great but can also help relieve oth­er pain and tight­ness. This exer­cise can even be done on the trail, grab­bing your moun­tain bike sad­dle and han­dle­bars for sta­bil­i­ty, then drop­ping into a deep squat posi­tion. A poor­ly fit­ting bike can also cause back pain, so if prob­lems per­sist make sure that you’re start­ing off with the cor­rect moun­tain bike siz­ing.

2. Quads

The most obvi­ous place you’ll feel sore and tired after a bike ride is your quads. Active recov­ery, name­ly foam rolling, can help release quad tight­ness, and can also help relieve back pain. Improp­er tech­nique can hurt, rather than help your recov­ery, so pay close atten­tion to your tech­nique. Rolling should feel good, not painful, even if you’re a fan of that “hurt so good” feeling.

3. Forearms

Sore fore­arms may be a sign that you’re hang­ing onto your bike han­dle­bars too hard, or sim­ply that you’ve just been rid­ing a lot of rough ter­rain. Fol­low­ing a ride, it might even feel like you’ve been rock climb­ing rather than bik­ing, with “pumped out” fore­arms. This is like­ly to trans­late into sore­ness the next day. You can use a lacrosse ball… or a beer bot­tle as a mini foam roller to help work through your mus­cles. If fore­arm sore­ness is a big issue for you, first look at your tech­nique. If that’s not the prob­lem, it might be time to think about a full sus­pen­sion moun­tain bike with more sus­pen­sion to suck up the bumps for you, so your arms and legs don’t have to work so hard. Moun­tain bike gloves or new han­dle­bar grips can also help take some of the bur­den off your fore­arm muscles. 

4. Hamstrings

Your ham­strings aren’t the first mus­cle group to come to mind when you think of moun­tain bik­ing. How­ev­er, if you’re rip­ping big descents or tak­ing laps in the bike park, you’ll def­i­nite­ly feel sore­ness in your ham­mys. A lacrosse ball is also good for work­ing sore spots on your ham­strings. “Pin down” knots and work them out to feel fresh and ready to ride.

Check out our oth­er moun­tain bike per­for­mance and recov­ery guides:

Train­ing for Moun­tain Bik­ing — Low­er Body

Train­ing for Moun­tain Bik­ing — Arms

Train­ing for Moun­tain Bik­ing — Core & Shoulders

We are evo — a ski, snow­board, moun­tain bike, surf, wake, and skate retail­er based in Seat­tle, Wash­ing­ton, USA, with stores locat­ed in Seat­tle, Port­land, and Den­ver. We also offer trips to remote loca­tions across the globe in search of world-class pow­der turns, epic waves, and leg­endary moun­tain bik­ing through our evoTrip Adven­ture Trav­el Vaca­tions.