WHY EVERY RIDER NEEDS A STRONG CORE

A strong core is vital for maintaining position on the bike, preventing injury and laying down watts. Here’s what you should know

about middle management

If you’re serious about cycling fitness, you’ll know that ‘core’ is not simply what you say when you take in the scenery from a glorious Alpine summit. It’s the group of muscles in your midsection that surrounds your lower spine and, together with the external muscles that form the classic six-pack, protects and controls your movements and posture. The core is fundamental to standing up straight, sitting on a saddle and giving you a stable base from which to pedal. The stronger your core is, the more power you can deploy.

‘The core muscles are essential for daily activities and sport,’ says cycling coach and personal trainer Paul Butler (pbcyclecoaching.co.uk). ‘These often smaller muscles provide a stable base for the larger, stronger muscles to function efficiently, safely – to avoid injury – and to produce the maximum amount of force they can.’

The pros have known for some time that these muscles are essential for performing at their best, as we witnessed on the Tinkoff-saxo training camp in Cyclist issue 32, where Alberto Contador and pals were put through twice-daily routines to improve posture and flexibility, ‘to create more efficient movement and reduce stress on tissues and muscles’, in the words of their coach, Riccardo Colucci.

‘Your core helps your body remain in an ideal riding posture,’ says Myles Hopper, personal trainer at Fitness First. ‘A strong core will also minimise discomfort during long rides. The core works on a reflex basis, which means it’s engaged in response to your actions and reactions. So as you push on the pedals, you engage your core to stabilise the handlebars and the rest of your body – more specifically the spine – to enable more efficient movement patterns.’

And core training isn’t just for the professionals. ‘The recreational rider is just as happy setting a new personal

best or beating his or her mate up a hill as a pro is winning a race, and just as devastated if an injury leads to them having to stop cycling,’ says Butler.

‘Core training can be defined as conditioning the body to control and stabilise the forces produced by the arms and legs,’ says personal trainer Jason Anderson (jasonanderson.co.uk). ‘If you want to improve performance, you should be incorporating some form of core training into your schedule.’

Core training

Trunk calls

If you’re still not entirely sure which bits of you comprise your core, Anderson can help: ‘To easily define the core, you basically imagine what’s left without the arms and the legs.’

There are two elements. ‘The inner core creates stability for the spine and pelvic girdle, which provides a stable foundation for the arms and legs during movement,’ says Butler. ‘Stability of the core is also essential to prevent lower back and peripheral joint injuries. An “engaged core” is like a support belt.’

The outer core comprises muscles whose primary role is movement.

‘Stability of the core is essential to prevent lower back and peripheral joint injuries’

Imbalances in these and lack of strength in the inner core muscles can cause injuries and pain. ‘If our pelvis rocks around, a lot of the power we produce is lost as we pedal,’ says Butler. ‘If we’re strong enough to keep completely still we can generate significantly more force. Add to this the fact that by having well balanced, strong, flexible muscles and a strong core you’ll be much less likely to get injuries.’

That’s something every rider can benefit from, but to understand how to train the core it’s important to know how it actually helps on the bike. ‘A strong core allows you to maximise the power in your legs because you will be well balanced,’ says Hopper. ‘Your core helps your body to maintain proper posture. When you cycle, you need to be able to create a force from your legs, and transfer that force through your trunk and through to your upper body. Having a strong core will allow this to be done efficiently without the loss of power or momentum as you transition power.’

Planes of movement

Bicycles don’t come with a reverse gear, and it’s rare that you’ll find yourself rotating from side to side when

you’re sitting in the saddle. It seems logical that, because you’re relatively static on the bike, cycling works your core in one direction only. Of course, it’s not that straightforward.

‘Any movement is broken down into three planes,’ says Anderson. These are forwards and backwards, referred to as the sagital plane; sideways motion, or the frontal plane; and rotation, known as the transverse plane. So, for example, flexion [crunching forward] and extension [leaning back] are movements in the sagital plane, while side bends are in the frontal plane and spinal rotations are in the transverse plane.’

There is a point to this. ‘No movement will ever only be in a single plane, but will always have contributions from all three,’ says Anderson. ‘So when you’re sitting on the bike in a flexed position you’re clearly using the sagital plane, but as soon as you lift one knee, while extending the other, you’re also side flexing [frontal plane] and rotating [transverse] to that side.’

This basically means you shouldn’t simply concentrate on banging out endless crunches if you want to strengthen your core in a way that’s relevant for cycling. ‘It’s almost impossible to predict every movement of the core during movement, so challenging your body in a variety of directions is the key,’ Anderson concludes.

Butler suggests the following on-bike exercises to engage your core: ‘Next time you ride, keep your torso still as you push on the pedals, then keep your elbows flexed and visualise your glutes engaging when you pedal. When you’re out of the saddle on the bike, pull on the handlebars as you apply pressure to the pedals and see what difference it makes.’

There are other things you can do on the bike to help. ‘By using specific training drills – like riding in the hardest gear you can handle or doing interval sessions – you’re working so many different muscles in a broad range of ways, and this will improve overall performance,’ says Hopper.

While you can do those exercises on the bike, targeting your core is best done in the gym (see panel, right), and it’s something the pros work on during the off-season so they can concentrate on actually riding once the season starts.

‘Core training has always been included in the conditioning of professional athletes – it’s just that now we’re more aware of the core’s importance and have therefore become more scientific in our approach,’ says Anderson. ‘For example, clean and jerks are seen mainly as a power exercise, yet the core has to be inherently strong

‘Remember you’re going in for weight training, not weight lifting. Most gym bunnies don’t understand endurance sport’

and well conditioned to perform this kind of movement efficiently. Intelligent core training will address the often subtle weaknesses that can affect overall performance.’

You are probably not a pro, so rather than simply train your core during the winter you can incorporate it into your fitness training at any time. ‘Do it two to three times a week at times when you’re riding less,’ says Butler. ‘That includes the winter, but you can still do one session a week even when you’re riding more regularly.’

And you can do exactly what the pros do – it’s not some sort of black art. ‘Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton was a huge fan of pilates to help strengthen her core, and she incorporates those routines into her workouts,’ says Hopper.

‘I see it as non-bike work to improve strength in areas the body isn’t good at,’ adds ABCC senior coach Ian Goodhew. ‘The gym is important, but remember you’re going in for weight training, not weight lifting. You need to do high reps with big mobility, not low reps with heavy weights and small movements. You’re not trying to build muscle. You need a sensible regime of, say, three sets of 10-15 reps with reasonable, not big, weights. And you need to focus on your technique. You see so many people in the gym who don’t know what they’re doing – and most gym bunnies don’t understand endurance sport.’

Assume the position

You might think that core strength becomes more important in certain circumstances – for example when you’re going uphill or trying to maintain a time-trial position. But the coaches don’t necessarily agree.

‘Your core strength contributes to your posture during any ride where stability, balance and security is crucial,’ says Hopper. ‘That means it’s always one of the biggest

factors in cycling regardless of whether you’re sprinting, going uphill or riding in normal conditions.’

‘Out the saddle the core is holding you still while your arms and legs are working,’ Butler adds. ‘In the saddle, the harder you work, the more your form is likely to suffer. To begin with therefore you need to practise at a moderate intensity so that you develop “good form”. A pro looks good because he or she has good, smooth technique, as well as a tan and no protruding stomach.’

‘Each position has its own challenges, whether you’re sitting upright or in a TT position,’ says Anderson. ‘This is where your conditioning comes into its own. For example, during the early parts of a race when the core is strong, the athlete’s movements are controlled and fluid. Once fatigued, their movements become exaggerated as the driving force from the core is reduced. This is displayed in an exaggerated lateral movement during a sprint or climb. The winner is always going to be the athlete who can maintain their technique the longest, and this usually equates to the most conditioned.’

‘The core strength needed to hold the TT position is similar to casual upright pedalling,’ adds Hopper. ‘It’s always going to be more beneficial to have a stronger core. It’s more important though to ensure good hip flexibility as the demands of this are far greater while riding in the TT position.’

‘Does a TT position require more strength?’ muses Goodhew. ‘I’d argue it’s about what’s going on in your head. Time-triallists have massive mental strength, and that’s the difference between winning and losing. Bernard Hinault suffered as much as anyone, but dealt with it better. Take Liège-bastogne-liège in 1980 [see p67] – Hinault trounced everyone in the snow to win by over nine minutes, and that wasn’t down to whether he had greater core strength than his rivals or not. The greats learn to suffer in training.’

‘Core stability is present in whatever motion we are performing, in whatever position, and is subconscious,’ adds Anderson. ‘There are numerous movements of the core that relate to balance and strength that we just cannot be aware of, and trying to activate the core artificially to control this is impossible. Imagine the split second timing that’s involved in that clean and jerk –

the spine has to be stable and supple.’

‘The winner is always the athlete who can maintain their technique the longest. This usually equates to the most

conditioned’

Do it yourself

‘To establish your core training priorities you’ll need to address your weaknesses,’ says Anderson. ‘This can be achieved by “listening” to your body while cycling. You may experience back pain after long periods in the saddle, or unusually tight muscles, such as your quads or calves. These niggles can be compared to the warning lights on the dashboard in your car. They’re trying to warn you that something isn’t working as it should. You should perform some key stretches – hip flexors, hamstrings, quads, glutes – to relieve tension and decompress your body prior to challenging your core in a variety of directions. This approach is by far the most intelligent way of “bulletproofing” your body and transferring improvements in the gym to your performance on the road.’

‘Finally, don’t turn core training into the latest fad,’ says Goodhew. ‘It’s great, but it doesn’t work in isolation.’

Michael Donlevy maintains his midsection with a dedicated routine of 50 Crunchies a day