I'm 53 and ride road and trails regularly, 3 or 4 times per week for 60-120 mins each ride in the hills of South Shropshire. For the last couple of years I've been having some low level problems with bad hip flexibility. This has prevented me from moving my body around on the bike when riding downhill singletrack and getting my Flow on. I am about 1 stone overweight and working on it (!). I also switch between stretching, strengthening and a foam roller each morning. If I don't do these exercises (especially the roller) the lack of flexibility gets worse. Today, I was out on an easy 15k ride for around an hour. Up to the top of our local hill on tarmac pedalling supereasy, then rolling down some great singletrack for 3 mins, and then cruise back home on a flat trail. On the downhill singletrack, my quads were burning and my lower back was sore, as I bent my knees and let the legs do their job. I couldn't relax and my whole body was tense. It didn't used to be like this 2 years ago, and at times I was heavier than I am now.
Up until this Xmas I worked standing up in a warehouse for 4 years - leaning, picking up 10kg max. boxes, squatting to put the boxes down. I now work in an office and am sitting down for 7 hrs per day.
Where has my leg strength gone? Do I need to do some different exercises? Lose more weight?
Any help much appreciated.
I now work in an office and am sitting down for 7 hrs per day.
This will be a big contributing factor. Try and get some movement in through the day, once an hour a quick walk about at the least, and a longer walk in your midday break if you can.
Yeah, I'm getting up from sitting every hour and going for a quick walk, and getting a good 25 mins walk in my 30 mins lunch break.
I wonder if I need to do some leg squats up against a wall? as well as rollering my ITB and hip stretches and strength work
Might be worth looking at a sit/stand desk in work to improve your posture
Also lots of sitting can leave your hamstrings tight, so your quads are fighting against them and they’re also pulling on your hips and upsetting your back.
I’ve been doing the standing desk thing lately (we’ve sort of run out of space in the office so I’m literally standing with the laptop on a shelf that happened to be at the right height - total happy accident) and I think it’s helping.
Improve flexibility and do some squats...won't be an instant fix but over a couple of weeks you'll start to see an improvement and the more you keep at it the more benefit.