Why not have a go at incorporating some yoga poses into your next cycling cool down session? The poses featured in this article are great for cyclists, aiming to give a gentle full body stretch; they are ideal if you’ve spent a long time in the saddle! These poses are suitable for beginners - those that are new to practising yoga.

It’s always highly recommend to seek the advice from professionals, if you’re interested in practising yoga properly why not join a yoga class where a qualified yoga practitioner can teach you how to perform the poses correctly under supervision.

Please remember never to strain yourself when trying to position yourself correctly into yoga poses, you should only ever feel a gentle stretch, if you find a pose difficult to do, don’t worry just keep working at the easier poses to improve your strength before advancing further.

Background on Yoga:

Here’s a brush up on the basics of yoga practice: Yoga is discipline that requires the focus and connection between mind and body, and this is played out through the execution of various poses combined with the controlled use of breathing techniques within each pose. Yoga itself has been around for centuries and has developed into many different fractions or types, but all have the yoga pose at their heart of their practice.

Yoga poses, or Asanas as they are also known, once mastered are performed seamlessly and flow one after the other. Proper breathing during the practice is also another essential discipline to performing the poses correctly and gaining the most benefit from performing each pose. Breathing correctly for yoga is simple to learn and there’s a great article available on BellaOnline’s Yoga site that tells you how simple it is to breathe correctly during yoga practice here.

Yoga Poses great for Cyclists

The Downward Facing Dog

The downward facing dog is a great full body pose. It aims to stretch out and strengthen the whole body and is often also used in yoga practice as a transitional pose, (to aid moving into the next set of poses) and a relaxation pose as well.

1. Start with your hands and knees on the ground, hands in line with your shoulders and knees in line with your hips. This position is also known as the table pose, a good starting position to move into further poses.

2. Lift your knees off from the mat and extend each of your legs straight behind you, with the balls of your feet on the mat (this transitional position is another pose in yoga called the plank and is similar position as if you were about to do a push-up) now you’re ready to move into the downward dog…

3. Next, lift your lower body (bottom) into the air, straightening your legs in the process and moving your upper body back away from you’re your hands, back straight, and head nice and relaxed behind your arms. Example of the completed pose & further instructions

	Kaye Barnett BellaOnline's Cycling Editor

Further Reading