With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving quickly approaching, most cyclists in the northern hemisphere are beginning to plan out their base period. For many, that will include some kind of strength training.
While strength training can add a lot to our training returns (if we show up consistently 2-3 days a week for 4+ months), there are a few preparations we can do that will significantly improve our weight room gains for riding power.
One easy, not-so-secret but often ignored piece is soft tissue work, such as rolling and releasing.
Yes, yes, pretty much everyone knows that foam rolling is important and can help us, but while a roller can be nice, there is actually another little piece of equipment that can help unlock our hips in ways that a roller just cannot.
Medicine Ball Releases
These days there are a whole host of soft-tissue tools available to us; from different density foam rollers and vibrating foam rollers to Gua Sha tools and The Stick, each tool has a role it can play.
However, many miss the fantastic returns that using a medicine ball can have, especially on the adductors (inner thigh) and glutes!
The medicine ball offers us a very unique ability to get into some of the tougher areas of the glutes and inner thighs, where meatier mig muscles sit alongside some smaller but very important muscles.
Using the apex of a 5- to 10-pound hard/bouncy medicine ball allows us the ability to get into the areas of the inner thigh and glutes that a broader foam roller or The Stick cannot, and where a lacrosse ball or tennis ball would be too small and dainty.
How to do it
For the glute max and medius complex, the medicine ball can be a wildly successful way to tune down our glutes and help us get better positioning of the upper leg bone (femur) in the hip socket.
Of course, just releasing the glutes will not do this alone; we'll need some strength exercises and breathing exercises (like those built into our winter group coaching program) to drive home the max benefits.
Here are two short videos on how to best and properly use the medicine ball to take out tension from your inner thighs and glutes.
For the glutes:
For the adductors:
The keys here, as with any soft-tissue work, are that it should be gentle and that we should not spend more than 2-3 rounds of 20-30 seconds on each spot. This is very important to stick to, as muscles carry tension on them for one of three important reasons:
To protect a joint from injury by limiting the range of motion that the joint is unable to use without exposing it to forces in ways that can cause catastrophic injury
To stabilize a joint, in this instance in a way that a joint can produce power on the bike with less effort (due to weakness of the total body muscular system to deal with the forces efficiently due to weakness elsewhere)
To protect smaller, weaker muscles that would be exposed to forces beyond their capabilities should the larger muscle not shut it down
The best approach to soft-tissue work is to do small, consistent doses three to four days a week, consistently, over a two-week time period.
If you are going to introduce these as a new tool in your kit, take notes on how you feel each day over the first month. Write down your daily answers (either on paper or in your TrainingPeaks workout notes) to the following three questions to help you quickly identify whether these two releases are having a positive impact:
How do you feel when you first get out of bed in the morning? Do you have tightness or discomfort in the hips, knees, or lower back?
How do you feel on the bike during your harder efforts, and immediately after the bike?
How do you feel when you're tired at the end of a long day?
While the vast majority of riders I've worked with over the last 18+ years have seen some great returns, there are a some who have not. And that is why it's important to track! For those who find these offer little to no benefit, we drop them and move on to other things with that time and energy that can or may help them out.
Give these a shot over the next few weeks and let me know how they go for you!
At BaseCamp, we believe that every cyclist has the potential to achieve greatness, no matter where they start. Our mission is to create a community-driven training environment where cyclists and triathletes of all levels can train together, support each other, and grow stronger, faster, and more confident in their abilities. Our cycling training programs are expert driven and tailored to your needs. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just getting started, BaseCamp is where you belong.
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