What is the off-season? Is there really even an off-season anymore? I really don’t believe we as athletes have this so called off-season these days. I look at this time of year as a restorative, and rebuilding time. We run, bike, swim, and play hard all summer long, almost to the point of exhaustion. During this high activity time, we really don’t take the time to rebuild and repair and we start to breakdown a little here and there. Most of us are working hard, running errand, kids, basically burning the candles at both ends. Now is the time to slow down and fix whatever got broken or out of whack from this past season.
For me personally, I need to back off on the sports I was concentrating on so much and stretch, more specifically, yoga. I believe yoga can restore any of those nagging tight muscle, tendons or improper biomechanics that tend to pile up when not taking care of ourselves like we should. Think about the sports you do. If it’s cycling, think about the muscle movement, the repetitive muscle movement that happens every day. The tightness that occurs in your hip flexors and soaz, your piriformis (glute area) and rotated shoulders. These things really add up to bad posture and limited performance after awhile. When these areas are overly tight, they aren’t mobile like they once were, or like they should be.
The next three to four months are a perfect time to focus on restoring. My suggestion is to find a local yoga class to take part in. Do a drop in class and find out if you think it could be beneficial. There are different types of yoga. I personally like the Vinyasa style yoga. The instructors aren’t forceful. The classes I’ve taken part in, are balanced in the way they address stretching with core strengthening. I really feel like I’m more of a well- rounded athlete when I’m doing yoga. I like evening classes as they also help me unwind from a long days work. This is my advice to my fellow team53x11Coffee riders.
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