Bike Fitting Mobility & Strength Training Recommendations 

If you haven’t already, I’d suggest taking the time to read our Strength Training Overview and Position vs Posture blog posts before reading this article. Below, I’ve linked two documents, one with movements you can do at home and another for the gym.

If you have limited experience with strength training then these can be followed as a session plan (though I’d include some kind of aerobic warm-up first). For those of you with more experience that want to continue with their current session structure, these movements can be added in to a dynamic warm-up or as part of preparation to lift heavier weights later in your session.

Mobility Self-Assessment

Current research shows that there are a multitude of valid ways to improve mobility: static or dynamic stretching, foam rolling or flossing, sports massage or percussion therapy. With so many options for mobility practise, it can be easy to lose sight of what’s most important: consistency.

If cycling is your main pastime then meaningful long-term improvements in mobility will likely require daily consistency - unsurprisingly, spending hours a week tucked up in the fetal position doesn’t do our mobility any favours. The good news is that for most of us, ten minutes of mobility practise can go a really long way and I’d wager that even the busiest among us can find ten minutes on their worst days. If you’re struggling to get started then try committing to a bout of stretching so small that it sounds pathetic. Chances are, after 30 seconds on the floor you’ll realise that you do, in fact, have the time or energy to commit ten minutes to improving your mobility.

Once you’ve started to see results, it’s likely that those ten minutes will seem like less of a burden.

If you’re not currently pursuing any kind of regular mobility practise, or have the feeling that your mobility might be hindering your comfort on the bike, then I’d suggest prioritising a single goal based on the outcome of the following assessment.

Standing tall with both feet together, lift one knee as high as you can manage - without changing pelvic tilt - and hold for five seconds. If you can’t lift the underside of your knee above 90’ or often experience frontal knee pain when riding your bike then I’d start with the following plan.

If you pass the above assessment but you often experience back pain or pedal with a toe down posture and can’t touch your toes then I’d suggest prioritising the following routine.

If you’re pretty sure that neither of these descriptions apply to you but still feel like you could benefit from regular mobility work then I’d start with a more general routine (like the one below) and pay close attention to any patterns that appear across these exercises, such as differences left to right or consistent discomfort in a specific area.