Cycling and running are brilliant exercises to do, especially for cardiovascular and fat burning benefits. As an added bonus you can try some Yoga too as cycling and running can overuse major muscles such as your hip flexors and hamstrings.
Yoga stretches have the benefits of keeping the muscles around the joints strong and aligned which in turn protects the joints when participating in any high impact exercise.
Cycling and running or anything that gets your heart rate up is fab for quick fat burning and the great release of endorphins which gives you that feel good factor. However, it isn’t always good for your posture long term and as the body ages. If you mix it up with Yoga or Pilates this will help your posture and keep you standing tall with shoulders back and down and abs pulled in. Yoga and Pilates also helps to strengthen the weaker and smaller muscles that get left out in any exercise that focuses on the major muscles. This can cause large muscles pull on smaller ones causing misalignment and bad posture as unfortunately the muscles are really good at helping each other out!
The core muscles can also get forgotten which are vital to support the lower back and especially important to help avoid issues when doing high impact exercise. Yoga and Pilates are both excellent at strengthening and improving flexibility, especially in your core.
These are some exercises that are worth a try but remember before a ride / run is not the best time to stretch as your muscles are cold making them more susceptible to injury. Instead, include some ‘dynamic’ stretching in your warm-up to prepare your muscles i.e. taking your joints through movements that replicate the range of motion you’ll be using.