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Become A Bike Handling Master With Pilates!

10/06/2020

Whilst most of us learned to ride a bike as a child not so many of us have spent much time riding one since. Until, of course, many years later when we get the bug, buy a bike and go off exploring! As a result we have often missed the opportunity to develop the key skills we need to handle our bike well. Practising these skills whilst out on a ride is essential but there are also ways you can improve these skills off the bike, Pilates is one of these ways.

First, let’s think about how we rest on our handlebars. A bike’s handlebars are highly sensitive to changes in body weight transmitted through the hands in order to steer the front wheel. When we sit heavily in our hands even small shifts in our body can be transmitted to our handlebars and result in us wobbling all over the road, or track. Staying light in our hands can help us keep those handlebars under control but this requires a lot of core strength to support our upper body. Regular Pilates training is a great tool for developing this kind of core strength.

Next, let’s think about some of the essential skills you need on your bike; being able to twist to look behind you, ride one handed or no handed, ride slowly and of course being able to ride in a straight line. As we’ve already explored, good core strength means we can hold our body up rather than relying on our hands to support our weight. Core strength is one proficiency we need to keep control of our bike but we also need to be able to stabilise both our pelvis and shoulders whilst riding so that the movement of our legs or upper body doesn’t make us wobble around with every pedal stroke. Throughout the Pilates repertoire there are exercises that develop the skills to stabilise the pelvis and, or, shoulders so that we can move our legs freely without them pulling around on our pelvis or lower back.

The ability to stabilise the shoulders and pelvis is also crucial for riding one handed or no-handed, which are both pretty important skills to master to avoid taking multiple pit stops to drink or eat whilst out for a ride. Pilates exercises such as the Push Up series, Single Leg Circles and Double Leg Stretches, amongst others, all help teach these skills.

With Pilates we also learn how to twist our upper body whilst keeping our hips square. This can help with all those moments on the bike when you want to look back over your shoulder without drifting into the middle of the road.

So, in addition to building the strength that can help you prevent the kind of repetitive use injuries that cycling can bring, Pilates also has huge benefits to offer for becoming better at handling your bike like a pro!

Thanks to GCN for inspiring this post with their video "5 Ways To Improve Your Bike Handling" check out the video below.

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