So aside from the 5k I did yesterday, I’ve been a mega-blob the past few days.
Why? I have horrible pain in the side of my neck, to the point where I can’t sleep and I’ve been taking pain meds every few hours in an attempt to dull the pain. I even spent most of today sleeping.
Go see a doctor, you say!
I agree, I respond!
I got laid off in May, and instead of going with “first born child” expensive COBRA, I signed up with Blue Cross CA. I called them today to find out what the hell the status is with my freakin’ insurance and it’s being held up by the doctor that performed surgery on me in April. His office is closed today, but I’m going to his office tomorrow at 10 am and getting this straightened out.
Don't worry, I can't always touch my toes either
So the only thing I can attribute the neck pain to is maybe my new uptick in jogging for triathlon training. A close friend of mine did the 5k with me yesterday and now is complaining of leg soreness – turns out he didn’t stretch after the 5k, and doesn’t know WHAT type of stretches to do!
Therefore, this post is dedicated to informing ya’ll on some stretches for jogging and/or cycling.
As there is a ton of information on the interwebz, I won’t regurgitate the content on my post but link to it for you to click through on.
- You stretch AFTER exercise, when your muscles are warm, not before!
- If cycling long distances, you can do some stretches on your bike, or hop off while at a stop and stretch.
- TotalBike.com has a great page, complete with pictures of all the stretches you should do as a cyclist.
- The pictures are goobery, but here are some basic stretches for runners
Any stretches/advice on how to prevent/reduce sports related injuries?]
According to my old JKD instructors, you stretch before and after exercise, but do different types. Before exercise, do stretches that increase your heart-rate. We would do slower, extend-and-hold versions of whatever exercises we were planning to do, multiple reps. After, do more of the warm-down, long static stretches.
When I first started cycling I had neck pain. I found out it was the uber cool aero bars that I put on my bike so I had to ditch them. Now a couple years later I was just introduced to yoga and that seems to have helped keep me somewhat limber. I have only been doing it for 2 weeks not but I can feel a difference. Another thing that helped was getting my bike fitted properly. It is amazing what a bike fit can do for you.
According to the doctor, I pulled a muscle in the side of my neck. Bike fittings are definitely the best! I will post about my bike fitting experience. I started using aero bars about a month ago – i'm not a huge fan.