Hey all. I’ve an extreme case of short hamstrings (can bearly touch my knees) and shortened tendons/ligaments in the front of my hips (apparently from too much cycling and then sitting in front of a computer all day without moving). It gives me really bad backs when cycling and ends up with me having muscle spasms. I went to an NHS physio who gave me a set of exercises which seem to help mildly with the stretchyness, but end up making me massively more likely to pull something and often trigger the original problem, meaning it basically writes off cycling. I need to find some way of improving the situation fairly quickly as it’s starting to really cheese me off and I never get out. Do we have anyone qualified to give advice on the matter?

Email me if you want some advice.

Cheers, YGM

You have a reply.

I suspect my niggling knee is because of similier problems but hamstring specific exercises seem difficult to find.

Not a big fan of stretching because I find it difficult to believe it will help, and recent evidence shows it to be more damaging than helpful. Have started doing some squats but worry they will not help any quad imbalance because it seems to be making my quads stronger.

Tried some Romanian deadlifts dubious they were not actually targeting the glutes. But I only managed 2 sets before my hamstrings started to feel pumped and like they were cramping up.

Am only two weeks in no big changes but certainly not doing any harm. Would be interested in how people rate lunges, and how best to do them.

See before you start jumping in with lots and lots of weighted exercises get yourself on all fours and learn how to tilt your pelvis back and forwards. You need to learn how to make your muscles work individually. For example lie on your belly and lift your straight leg up off the ground. See if you can make your glutes fire first to initiate the action and then see if you can make hamstrings go first. Then stand up and clench both butt cheeks and learn to relax one at a time.

The vision of lots of people doing that last one amuses me greatly. Bet you cant do it though.

These have both been posted by other people recently.

Liam Killeen Core Training – Killeen has come back from a back problem, the video has a good explanation of why core training is important in cycling.

Bike James website – this guy trains some World Cup MTBers

http://www.bikejames.com/

There is loads of good advice in there. Weight and core training doesn’t have to be repetitive and if you get some guidance on technique and build up gradually it shouldn’t take up loads of time.

A bit of static stretching in the evening will definitely help.