The Trainer Knows Best

See how those muscles attaching to the lower back
actually wrap around from the front of the leg?
Duh! Those tight muscles are causing my pain.

Joy here...I wrote last week how I finally went to see both a physiotherapist and a massage therapist about the persistent lower back pain that has been showing up throughout the summer when I'm on a bike ride, annoyingly often when I'm on a bike ride that's being timed (ahem, like a race).  In that post, I  pointed out that both therapists were in agreement that the problem likely stemmed from me having some seriously tight quadricep and hip flexor muscles.

Well, The Trainer read that post and gave me heck, because she told me way back in July that my back pain was probably due to me needing to stretch more.  And, well, she's right.  So credit where credit is due:  The Trainer told me first where my problems may lie, and the physio and massage therapists just refined that insight.

So when I went for my weekly strength training session on Thursday, I replaced some of the more tiring leg activities with some serious stretching.  Now that my coach has me working my legs quite hard on some serious efforts on the bike, it seemed silly to tire myself out at the gym first!  So I'm now learning that in combination with the strength training that I do with The Trainer every Thursday, and the workouts that my new coach outlines for me on a week-by-week basis, I also need to make sure that I'm making time to stretch properly.

The above video was forwarded to me from my grad school friend aka half IronMan Triathlon beast (who I blogged about when he and his girlfriend took me and The Man on a great ride through the countryside around Oakville Ontario).  It's a quick, 5ish minute video outlining some important strength/stretching exercises that while focused on cyclists are actually rather helpful for anyone needing to make sure that they've got muscular balance in their core area.  So no matter what your sport, have a look at the video and see if it can help you out!

Over and out,
Joy

Friday's Ride Stats:                             Saturday's Ride Stats:
3X4mins efforts at 200++ watts          2X5mins efforts at 20sec on/40sec off (20 sec on at 200++ watts)
(max power = 258w)                          (max power = 324w)
Total Ride Time:  1hr6mins                Total Ride Time:  1hr