If we went back 10 years you’d see that I NEVER stretched before riding. I always thought that I needed my legs fresh for the ride and all stretching ever did was make my legs tired. I heard it from Lady P and other folks that stretching will help prevent injuries and yada yada yada. Did I listen? Nope. In fact when I started DH racing, I never would stretch and would always poke fun of my team mate, Dan Burdett because I’d often see the dude in fancy Yoga poses where the bottom of his feet would be touching his head. Heck I’ve even seen his wife take his foot, pull it behind him and then she’d grab his arms and put her foot into his back just to “stretch” out his quads and pecs…
But now that I’m a bit older, 35. I’m starting to notice that my muscles aren’t as strong or quick to move as they used to be. I’ve found that I often will need to stretch before and after ride. Man what sucks about this whole business of getting older is that I developed Tennis Elbow just from doing bunny hops and that if I don’t stretch my calves out, they’ll ache like crazy!
So if any of you readers are around 25, start stretching now because you’ll end up like me at 35, all messed up because I didn’t stretch and because of it, I’ve got some messed up muscles…
