I’ll toss in my experience. My warmup routine starts with this:
which claims
“Foundation Training is a simple solution that gives you the means to change the way you move and correct the imbalances caused by our modern habits. Through a series of body-weight exercises, Foundation Training activates your posterior muscle chain, anchors the hips, decompresses the spine, and teaches you to take the burden of supporting the body out of your joints and put it where it belongs; in your muscles.”
FasCat has you do that with Hydrant
and Skate
And my coach is a fan of other stuff like 7 way hips, lateral banded walk, standing banded hip flexion, dead bug, pallof press, etc., etc. I’m a fan now too.
IMHO thats really all the hip activation work needed for a desk jockey.
The foundation routine is also good as an opener before kettlebell (swings, Romanian deadlift, goblet squat, TGU) and dumbbell work in my home gym. Going straight to heavy weights is a mistake, work on a good opener and activation routine that you can use with or without a weight routine.
Some leg press machines have a large pressure plate, that enables multiple foot positions that each accentuate a particular muscle group. My understanding is horizontally central but wide apart focuses on Hip flexors.
Don’t worry about hip flexor strength. Worry about hip mobility. Take care of it every day. Foundation Training suggested above is good. A ten minute prehab routine every ride that activates glutes and warms/opens the hips is awesome sauce.
hip flexors are “weak” hip external rotators - but changing foot positions might change what fibers of glutes you bias by internally or externally rotating the foot - but don’t believe those graphics on machines - they’re mostly BS. Like 95% of social media exercises for weight lifting - the basics still work and are the best - changing hand positions to bias different parts of your chest, etc… B/S
I am a sports/orthopedic physical therapist. Our profession studies anatomy, biomechanics, and movement based on force application. Exercise physiologists are mostly used in cardiac rehab for exercise (aerobic prescription). They might also dole out rehab or strengthening exercise, but I would argue are not the profession of choice to do so.
This problem may not originate on the bike despite symptoms showing up after riding.
Many people, especially desk workers in the US (which is a decent portion of the people in this forum, I believe), have hip and core issues due to so much time sitting.
I am one of them. My life outside of cycling is very sedentary. My hips and quadratus lomborum (QL) muscles bother me a lot and wake me up with pain for days after an intense ride. But it’s not the intended ride that’s to blame. I am already in a bad state and 90% primed for pain. The extra demand to stabilize my torso against my naturally strong quads on the bike gets me over the threshold.
So I work on stretching and strengthening in various ways. It makes a lot of difference in my quality of life.
Another voice to check the bike fit. I had sore hip flexors, didn’t like higher cadence on higher watts and had tendency to overuse one leg on threshold intervals and above. It’s all gone since my fitter moved me to shorter cranks - it’s a night and day difference.
90/90s are great when done well. Something he doesn’t emphasize well is that your spine should be straight, even when you lean forward towards the knee.
@huges84 Kelly Starrett has good videos on this issue. Basically sitting lengthens the quad and shortens the hamstring - sort of like being in an all day stretch that isn’t good for anyone.
I agree. I think you would be wasting precious time and energy that you could spend doing your usual strength training , and end up with sore hip flexors.
In my experience ,working on improving your high cadence pedalling within an endurance workout on here will help . If you can’t pedal a high cadence , it’s just about training your legs to build endurance at that higher cadence.
What size cranks did you switch to? And from what size?
I’ve been struggling with bike fit issues? Lower back, hip flexor. Especially at harder efforts. Had a bike fit 3 years ago then this year when ramping up for unbound back started killing me on long rides. Started doing stretching. Had another bike fit which he just made minor adjustments as overall he felt like my position was still good. Especially since I didn’t have an aggressive position to begin with. He did mention shorter cranks as an option but he didn’t seem to think there was a huge need. But now I’m thinking of giving shorter cranks a try
For me it was quite radical, from 172.5 to 160 mm being 180 cm tall and 65 cm inseam. During the bike fit we found I have one leg a bit shorter cos my pelvis is not perfectly leveled (as i understood it) and he fitted me to my shorter side.
Again, night and day change, i generate high power on higher cadences with more ease and balance, my hip flexors no longer feel hammered after threshold, by back is more flat (was rounded before) so less strain on lower back. To name a few
My hip flexors were a minor problem before I had a hip replacement, and now they have become a more troublesome issue. Stretching them is harder when I’m faced with the possibility of dislocating the hip joint. It’s been nearly 2 years post-op, but the chance is frightening enough. I’ve tried squats, and can handle them well. Some of the stretches I used to do pre-op are on the naughty list now.
Has anyone post-op found an allowed stretching regimen that avoids dislocation pain?
The above Fire Hydrant and Skate routines look doable for helping achieve more balanced musculature as I’m sure I am dealing with some muscle strength imbalance. (Part of it is the mild scoliosis I have too. I’m such a mess )
I’m just a bit taller than you. My current bike same with came with 175 cranks so I was considering 170. I do have a wahoo Kickr bike that I can adjust the crank length on. But that’s not really a true test
What i learned it’s not that straightforward as being function of height etc. It could be influenced by “hidden” factors as in my case, and only experienced fitter could catch this and find a remedy.
Kettlebell swings. Works hip extensors rather than flexors, but an all around great strength exercise and really helps balance out the cycling muscles.
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