How my bike rides are improving my Pilates practice!

It’s summer and I’m finding my weekly long bike ride is really improving not only my overall health but also my movement patterns and the balance in my body!  The last few weeks I’ve noticed a few things going on in my body.  The first was that my left quad muscles were very very sore after my long bike ride(and not my right) and second was that my right side waist has been overly tight(maybe a combination of a tight psoas and  QL for those of you who love anatomy).

On my ride this week I realized when I got to one of my first hills that I was hiking up my right hip to try to get more power to get up the hill.  So I focused on anchoring my right sitting bone(ischial tuberosity) to my seat and immediately noticed a huge difference.  First of all my right quads and leg muscles had to work more and my right side felt lengthened.  It definitely took some concentration throughout my ride to keep my right sitting bone on the saddle- I obviously had created a habit of trying to pedal with my hip! It was amazing though how much more balanced I was and how much better my body felt during and after my ride.

Having discovered this pattern I have been paying close attention to my hip alignment in my Pilates practice and have felt some exciting changes just from shifting my focus and being aware of it! I definitely can feel that I am working more evenly and I haven’t had the soreness that was more predominant on one side versus the other.

Are you a cyclist or runner looking to cross train?  A regular Pilates practice can not only create more strength, flexibility and balance in your body, it will teach you how optimize your movement patterns so you can train most efficiently!!