Should I be doing core training?
A stronger middle could make for faster times
Core training for cycling is important but not that important. You could win the Tour de France and never do core training. The lower back and triceps are the key to holding your body up on the bike, and you’ll notice in many photos that a cyclist’s abdominals hang down in a relaxed way to improve breathing. If you hold your core tight while riding it’s hard to breathe or ride.
All that being said, a strong core does help to translate the strength in the upper body to the lower body. Imagine a pencil with the eraser in the middle instead of on the end. If you hold it in two hands and move one side, the eraser would bend and not translate all the forces to the other end. This is similar to how a weak core works on the bicycle. Sprinting and climbing are the two aspects that really require a strong core. But let’s go back to the beginning. Your ‘core’ is essentially the area between your pelvis and your chest, primarily your abdominal muscles. Back in the day, core training was just doing situps, ab crunches and leg lifts. But these days it is a ‘thing’ and there are hundreds of exercises. The idea is to increase the strength and fatigue resistance of the muscles in the frontal abdominal area and in the lower back.
As well as translating your upper body strength to your lower body, a strong core will stabilise your upper body on the bike and support your lower back. Many cyclists have a ‘humpback’ and don’t correctly lengthen their spine to keep their back flat and neutral on the bike. This has to do with bike fit and making sure you’re ‘rolling’ your pelvis forward and then lengthening your spine, instead of rounding your back.
A strong core can help you create this long and neutral spine on the bike. This helps to keep the discs between the vertebrae in a neutral position, thus preventing a bulging disc. So a strong core is important. It’s not like you’re going to improve your FTP by 20 watts if you do core work every day, but it could prevent injury down the road.
It’s also important for ‘functional fitness’ – that is, being able to go about day-to-day life rather than simply riding a bike and then collapsing on the sofa for the rest of the day. Cyclists develop very strange and unusual muscles, which can lead to imbalances that could create longer-term issues.
I personally think simple is better here with core work, and these are great exercises that will help you no matter what: the bicycle crunch, plank, side plank, bear crawl, bird dog and good old-fashioned abdominal crunches. Do a mix at least three times a week for about 20 minutes per session.
From a weight training perspective, think in terms of periodisation. Each week has a different number of sets, reps and intensity. A ‘strength’ week may be five sets of eight reps at 90% intensity, whereas a rest week will be three sets of 20 reps at 70% intensity. One week of endurance (high reps, low weight), two weeks of strength (low reps, heavy weights) and one week of rest (very low weights and 10-12 reps) is a good ratio to start out with.