Posted on August 17, 2010 by Dave W

Do you cycle to get fit or do you get fit to cycle?

The reason I ask, is that until recently, I thought it best to cycle my way to fitness.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t fell out of love with my passion, I have just confirmed what I always thought and that is that to get an overall fitness you have to cross train, and do some core exercises.

Apparently, even top professional cyclists are embarking on cross training regimes. So I will give it a go, increase my off bike training and report back here soon.

But I digress. This post was not supposed to be about cross training and core exercises; it was supposed to be about stretching.

I like to keep up to date with what is happening in the fitness world and now it appears that stretching may not be as beneficial as first thought.

What next, I thought; maybe they will tell us that drinking copious amounts of alcohol is good for you. Just in case this happens I shall start stockpiling a few crates and await eagerly the breaking news.

So, they tell us stretching might even reduce our performance.

I know that if I don’t stretch before I play Badminton I usually get some form of irritation somewhere.

When I am cycling I don’t usually do much stretching as I find a warm-up on the bike is sufficient.

Maybe there is something in it, and as long as you warm up sufficiently you will be ok.

I certainly wouldn’t want to dive straight into an activity with no warm up whatsoever, now that would be stretching it to the limit.

To stretch or not to stretch, what is YOUR answer?

Keep Moving

Dave W

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