core stability work

Yawn.......
Another interesting topic has descended into point scoring over "You said... where is your proof" These picky arguments really bore me (in terms of endurance cycling performance).

I'm off, see ya.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Bugno
Yawn.......
Another interesting topic has descended into point scoring over "You said... where is your proof" These picky arguments really bore me (in terms of endurance cycling performance).

I'm off, see ya.

Sorry, if we've bored you Bugno, but the original poster wanted to know how core strengthening exercise help at sprinting and climbing. A couple of us have gone through the pertinent points clearly stating that there's little or no benefit (except under certain circumstances) to these exercises and they'd be better off just cycling.

i'm not sure how or why that bores you? previously, riders have spent some portion of their time doing these exercises (which often they don't enjoy unlike cycling). by explaining that they don't need to do these exercises they can (if they wish) devote their exercise time to cycling.

i used to get very bored doing core stuff. now i don't ymmv

ric

i used to get a very sore lower back at the end of races
(mountain and road) started doing core work, and the following
season no back problems.i thought of it as a weak lower back, but i guess i had what ric would term a Functional disability. wow.
tarv

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by tarvy
i used to get a very sore lower back at the end of races
(mountain and road) started doing core work, and the following
season no back problems.i thought of it as a weak lower back, but i guess i had what ric would term a Functional disability. wow.
tarv

or you got fitter, rode the bike more frequently, spent more time on the bike etc. perhaps you changed bikes, tyres, or something else? lots of variables....

what happened to your race results?

ric

I do 15 min of core work twice a week,

I have a back pain problem hits at approximately 3 hours on the road. This is a result of a couple of conditions, scoliosis right at the base of the spine and loss of natural lordosis, from too many incorrectly performed sit ups, Whole thing came to a head at a training camp where we were doing “cleans” I couldn’t move for three days.

Now I hardly do any sit ups at all ( about 1 set of 30 twice a week) I do more static work with the obliques and transverse abdominals and endurance squats.

When I am on the stationary trainer I suck my transverse abs right in and hold them hard for 30 seconds, then relax - but not entirely relax, I do about six to ten sets of these.

I used to do loads of crunches but this really didn't help my back pain when cycling. Then I came across a website called www.coretrainingforsport.com where I downloaded 9 free workouts with some exercises I had never seen before and they were exactly the opposite of crunch type exercises, all based around planks and glute work. Now my back pain has gone!

You can download them here.

www.coretrainingforsport.com

I'm 65, been riding 35 years, 10 years ago, out of the blue, I got really bad lower back pain after an hour and bit in the saddle. Had this assessed as not enough strength/endurance in the glute-meads and went on for the next 5 years doing lots of stuff on the floor to build/fix the problem, it got a bit better, pain after 3 hours. Now to cut through all the personal [censored] about being a personal trainer and doing courses etc. The thing is: It is not always about the muscle condition, sometimes it's about teaching your body to recruit the needed muscle in any given action. Keeping it short, I'm simply going to say "Kettle Bells" and the silliest of all the KB exercises works absolute wonders ! see warm up exercise:

Quoted post said:

Originally Posted by ric_stern/RST

i can't possibly see how doing "core strengthening exercises" can possibly improve your bike performance for endurance cycling performance or anyone that doesn't have some form of functional disability.

as Andrew rightly points out, if your 'core' muscles ached or weren't strong enough they'd adapt to the required level simply through riding a bike. in fact, i'm pretty sure this happens to most peopl and very quickly, i.e. you start cycling a few upper body muscles ache and after a few rides they don't - you've adapted.

the forces that are required to hold the body during cycling, are very low (even lower than the very small forces required at the pedals to propel your bike). it's the ability to hold that position for many hours (i.e. endurance) which is distinctly different to strength.

if everyone stopped wasting time lifting weights and did more on the bike training they'd have less soreness and would get fitter quicker. basically, except for a few circumstances, weights and core strengthening are a complete waste of time (in terms of endurance cycling performance)

Ric

I pretty much agree with everything you say, but this time you are wrong - you assume that everyone has a good stable core to begin with and that is not always the case. After 30 years of pain free riding all of a sudden I developed back pain after an hour or so in the saddle. I'm not alone in this. However if there is nothing wrong, there is no need to fix it.