Yoga and Cycling

I have been teaching indoor cycling nonstop for 7 months now, I have six permanent classes per week and countless number of covers to step in for as needed. This has given me very tight hamstring, glute and quad muscles which I never bothered to take care of until I started feeling a strain in my lower back. 

A part of the reason why I decided to take the yoga teacher training during this period was because I wanted to know how to take care of my body through yoga before I hit the extreme. 

Ever since I began yoga, my cycling performance have improved and class participants have been asking me how I manage to ride smoothly with a big power output number, to which I respond, “I started doing yoga (asanas).”

That got me thinking. When I go to a typical yoga class where some teachers take participants through asanas after a minimum of 4 sun salutations, I feel that I’m not warmed up enough because my leg muscles are super tight compared to others. I feel that I need 12 rounds of sun salutations before I go into the asanas. And since the class doesn’t focus mainly on legs but goes through a wide range of poses (supine, prone, standing, sitting, and inversion), it got me thinking that there should be a yoga class specifically designed for cyclists/runners here in Singapore. I believe that will draw in a lot of people as there are loads of cyclists and runners in Singapore who don’t do yoga but go to physiotherapy. And believe me, there are so many cyclists who are always searching for ways to improve their performance.

It also has to do with naming the classes to attract and inform people that it is catered for them. For example, when you go to a “beginner yoga”, it’s never really for beginners but more for advanced beginners or intermediate practitioners. I hope someone creates and offers a class called “yoga for cyclists/runners” with smart sequencing that focuses on specific muscles for cyclists/runners. Or someone hire me so I can have a venue to teach that class, please?