TO LOWER BACK PAIN WITH TREE HUGGING POSE AND ASIAN SQUAT

If prolonged bike rides give you lower back pain, it is a sign of a tilted pelvis. Corrective exercise specialists Steve Zhou is an expert with lots of helpful workouts. He explains “the biggest problem in cycling is that by default, cyclists ride with their pelvises tilted which further compromises their knees and feet.” Cyclists with tilted pelvises ride unevenly that they twist their lumbar to go straight. They over compensate by shifting their thoracic vertebrae to maintain balance which leads to painful lower backs.

The brain has to be involved before athletes remember movements clearly. Zhou gives specific directions to cyclists to correct their postures, this includes aligning your sit bones, tuck in your stomach, align your knees, exert 80% power on your left leg, relax your hands and put your weight on the saddle. Cyclists should practice aligning their pelvis on stationary bikes first. After cyclists align their sit bones, the pelvis becomes straight followed by the alignment of their knees. In the beginning, cyclists need to check visually if their knees are aligned. Eventually, their knees should be aligned at all times with the help of muscle memory.

As most people are right-handed and thusly right legs are the dominant legs, the non-dominant left legs have always been passive. It is natural for most cyclists to push harder with their right legs when they need to speed up or are exhausted. Hence, the right knee tends to push forward and the pelvis becomes tilted. Cyclists must remind themselves to exert more force on their left leg to balance their power output. In addition to reducing lower back pain, correct posture results in higher performance.

For those who suffer from lower back pain, the following two corrective exercises help to alleviate the pain caused by cycling.

Corrective Exercise Specialist: Steven Zhou

1. Tree hugging

Either sitting, standing or lying on the bed, raise and stretch out your arms forward, shoulder high with your palms open. Inhale deeply and imagine you are hugging a huge California redwood. With a long exhale, tuck in your abs. Relax your rib cage and waist. If the abdominal muscles are over-stretched, then the pelvis will tilt forward.

Zhou strongly suggests making this exercise your daily bedtime ritual for it will align your vertebrae and reduce the over-arching waist. Even if you toss and turn at night, the gap between your waist and the bed is not too big. Lay your body weight on the bed evenly with your waist as close to the bed as possible is the secret to avoiding a kink in the neck. Jokingly, Zhou concludes, “Befriend the earth! Only when you stop resisting the earth can you be really relaxed.”

2. Asian Squat (Taiwanese Squat)

Zhou explains “Do this exercise as lazy as possible is the key!” Stand with your feet shoulder width apart with your toes pointing forward and outward. Slowly lower yourself into a deep squatting position with your arms between your legs or on your knees. Relax your waist and shift your weight to the lower back. Exhale deeply and further relax your lumbar and lower back until your body weight is at your bottom.

Note: If you feel unbalanced squatting this way, try it next to something that you can hold on to. If your ankles feel tight, make them more comfortable by using padding underneath.

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Since October 3rd, 2022, a newly established Velo facility in Tinh Binh Duong, Vietnam has been operational. The factory spans 28,000 square meters and is equipped with the latest technology, allowing for an annual production capacity of 3.6-4 billion saddles.

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