Warming up before exercising should be second nature to diligent riders; preparing your muscles for the hard work of anything from a pro competition to a Sunday sportive or even the daily commute will invariably help your body work harder and, crucially perhaps, suffer less post-saddle. Warming your legs through stretching or by starting at a slow pace for the first mile or two (less of an option on a pro race Cyclo grants you) will go a long way towards increasing the temperature around your muscles, but better still – or at least additionally – is the application of pre-ride muscle rub which has the added benefit of rapidly stimulating blood flow. Always happy to put on a little oil for the enlightenment of our readers, Cyclo took the plunge with the Elite O3one Pre-Comp Warm-Up Oil.
Available in 150ml at around £15.00; what we can say with some certainty is that it’s not unpleasant smelling, fairly non-greasy, rubs in well and leaves very little residue – the result being that your muscles are nice and warm when you hop on the bike. Where things become more complex is in trying to accurately measure the oils more specific claims – namely that this is an “Ozonized oil” (hence the “O3one” name, see what they did with the ‘3’ there? Cute) and as such it will ‘help to convert lactic acid (in part) to sugars that can be used by the muscles.’ Hmmm, even if you accept the less-than-proven ‘lactic acid is bad’ theory let’s just say that Cyclo can’t see Dr Ben Goldacre and his Bad Science buddies reaching for a bottle on the strength of that claim any time soon.
There are huge benefits to be had from making sure you don’t ride out with cold muscles and there are equally clear advantages to what amounts to a little gentle massage as it delivers the twin-joys of both warming you up and stimulating blood flow. Do you really need to spend £15.00 on an oil to do that? Well if you accept the ozone-therapy angle then sure and either way it will be less greasy than the much cheaper baby oil option. As for Cyclo, think we may look for some middle ground on this one…
