Ride Strong

by Jo McRae

  The essential core exercises in this chapter are somewhat isolated, targeting several key muscle areas at a time in a focused way, working the deeper and more superficial muscles in three dimensions. They have been chosen because they help to correct for the postural tendencies of cyclists, bringing your body into better alignment while at the same time strengthening weakened muscles for injury prevention and optimal performance. They have also been chosen because I believe you will be able to do them effectively without any assistance from an exercise professional.

  Problems associated with a weak core and the benefits of focused work

  Most cyclists will be unaware they have a weakness in their core until they experience an injury. In practice, many injuries result from a combination of weak muscles and corresponding tight muscles, and often both need to be addressed to get to the root of the problem. For some riders, tightness may be an issue more than weakness, and for others it will be vice versa, but it’s likely both will be implicated.

  Often injuries are the result of both problems collaborating together. For example, lower back pain caused by lifting something is often caused by a combination of short and tight hamstrings pulling on the back of the pelvis together with weakened abdominal muscles that fail to engage properly upon bending forwards. The tight hamstrings and weak abdominal muscles together alter the biomechanics of the bend movement, leading to injury.

  Cycling-specific issues that relate to the same imbalance would include lower back pain when pushing harder, such as when climbing in the saddle or pushing hard on the flats. This would be particularly noticeable if the saddle is set slightly too high, where the pull of tight hamstrings will cause excessive flattening of the lower back, coupled with the abdominal muscles being unable to stabilize the spine against the increased load. Lifting injuries and lower back pain on the bike both have at their root a muscle imbalance that leads to injury.

  ‘Instability’ is a term sometimes used in connection with your core to describe an erratic pattern of problems. For some people, a core weakness will manifest itself in a consistent injury or type of injury that recurs as a result of a similar movement or type of training. Others may experience a number of injuries with seemingly varied causes and symptoms that move around and seem unconnected, but at their root have a weak core.

  It’s common for a weak core to inhibit your progress only when you start to push yourself harder, either by doing some conditioning work off the bike or by having a more focused approach to your cycling training. A sudden increase in the intensity of exercise, such as when introducing hill repeats or sprints, or by launching into some weight training without adequate preparation, will likely lead to discomfort, pain or simply poor performance as a result.

  The harder you push on the pedals with your legs (and pull with your arms, particularly when out of the saddle), the stronger your core needs to be to stabilize against the force you are generating. A stable and strong core will transfer these forces through your centre to the pedals without any problems. A weak core will cause a change in your cycling position at the hips and sometimes the knees too, causing an increased likelihood of pain and injury here.

  Cyclists who go to the mountains of Europe for a cycling holiday for the first time may experience these core-related problems, as will those who take part in hilly sportives or harder races without adequate progression in training. Suddenly your back aches on the bike, and sometimes off it too, when you otherwise have been able to cycle for hours at your own pace without any problems. These issues may seem to come out of the blue but in fact the underlying weakness has been there all along, unchallenged by the type of riding that you are doing.

  Symptoms of a weak core

  •Recurrent pain or injury to your back or knees in particular

  •Increased pain and problems with harder efforts such as hills and sprints

  •Increased pain and problems with longer rides

  •Poor posture, technique and style at higher intensities in particular (as indicated by nodding, shoving or rocking and rolling in the saddle)

  •Poor performance at higher intensities – such as lack of power on the flats or uphill

  •Increased risk of injury off the bike, particularly when lifting, carrying and moving heavy objects

  Benefits associated with strengthening your core

  •No pain or problems at higher intensities or for longer durations

  •A sense of solidity through your core when pushing harder on the pedals

  •Good posture, technique and style on the bike at all intensities

  •Improved potential for optimal performance with hard training

  Remembering the success formula

  If you recognize your own pattern of injury and issues in the discussion here, or have not done any conditioning off the bike before, you will definitely benefit from 3–6 months of focused work on the exercises in this section. If you are not sure if your problems are caused predominantly by tightness or core weakness, then take the essential stretches from Chapter 2 that you found the hardest and use them in conjunction with some of the core exercises here. I will explain how to combine the various elements of essential conditioning for maximum effect in Chapter 6 on periodization and programme design.

  If you found that in working through the essential stretches in Chapter 2 you seemed fairly flexible, a focused core programme may be the best place to start with your conditioning plan. For a small minority of cyclists (more often women), hypermobility can be the cause of recurrent injuries, issues and poor performance. If you know that you have tendencies towards hypermobility, including some of the core exercises in this chapter all year round will help you avoid any of the associated problems. The more hypermobile you are, the more stable you need to become to avoid injury and to maximize your performance.

  ‘Hypermobility’ or ‘hypermobility syndrome’ is a term given to people whose joints are inherently ‘loose’ or unstable. People who tend towards hypermobility often seem quite flexible in their muscles, but don’t necessarily have the inherent normal level of stiffness in their joints to protect them from injury. Laxity or looseness in the connective tissue of joints can make you vulnerable to ligament sprains, minor joint subluxations (where a joint is pulled slightly out of alignment) and even complete dislocations of joints (for example, in the shoulders). If you are hypermobile you will do well with an essential conditioning programme that includes some of the essential core exercises here together with some more integrated strength exercises from Chapter 3 as you develop your programme year on year.

  Remember the success formula:

  FLEXIBILITY + CORE STABILITY + STRENGTH = POWER POTENTIAL

  Remember the success formula dictates that you prioritize each stage progressively in order to maximize your progress, so if you have a weak core, you will do well to focus on the essential core exercises here before introducing some more integrated strength work by adding some of the essential strength exercises in Chapter 3.

  Weakness caused by the cycling position – the upper and lower back

  The cycling position itself is one of the main reasons for core weakness. Physically we are designed to function upright, so prolonged periods spent bent over the bike can lead to some muscles becoming weak. Compared to our upright biomechanical norm, the forwards bend of the body on the bike can weaken the muscles of the lower back, those along the length of the spine and across the shoulder blades. Sitting in the saddle and bending forwards to reach the bars for hours at a time, the muscles along the back of the body are in a lengthened position and are relatively inactive at the low to moderate intensities which are typical for the bulk of a cyclist’s training.

  The cycling position itself can lead to weak core muscles if no balancing movements are included in a conditioning programme to help correct for the position. Some of the essential core exercises in this section focus on strengthening the back muscles that can become weak because of the cycling position. These inclu
de the muscles of the lower and upper back, as well as the muscles across the mid-back between the shoulder blades.

  Weakness caused by the cycling action – the gluteals and upper hamstrings

  The movement limitations of the pedalling action discussed further in Chapter 2 on essential stretching also lead to some persistently weak areas that need some attention with focused core work. While the quadriceps (at the front of the thigh) can often become dominant, the gluteals (buttock muscles) and upper hamstrings can become relatively weak. Although the glutes can significantly contribute to power output and ground speed when you work harder, particular when climbing or sprinting at speed, for most of the time they do not make a significant contribution to the cycling movement relative to the muscles at the front of the thighs. This will be particularly true for a cyclist who has not been athletic or ‘sporty’ prior to taking up cycling, as the glutes are most developed with multidirectional running games, sprinting or strength training.

  ‘Quadriceps dominance’ is a term used to describe when the quads at the front of the thigh become overdeveloped and overactive relative to the posterior muscles, namely the gluteals (or buttocks) and often the upper hamstrings. Characteristically, the quads will be strong and will try to do all the work, while the gluteals which are often weaker, will need some encouragement to become active. Cyclists with this pattern of muscle recruitment will often be more likely to experience cramp in the thighs, and in particular suffer problems in the ITB, or knee pain because of the subsequent mal-tracking of the knee cap that can result. In practice, the best way to tackle the problem is to combine pre-stretching of the tight areas of the quads (as explained in Chapter 2) followed immediately by strengthening of the gluteals and upper hamstrings, using some of hip extension exercises described here.

  The relatively low-level recruitment of the glute muscles in cyclists is a perfectly natural way for the body to adapt to lower to moderate intensity cycling. In a sense it’s testament to your body’s efficiency that it will only use the muscles it needs to produce the speed or power necessary at any given time. As powerful explosive muscles, the glutes are generally not suited to working for really long periods at moderate intensities as is characteristic of most cycling. Furthermore, in the cycling movement they are working in a lengthened range and never fully shorten as they would in sprint running, for example, where the leg drives behind the line of the torso for maximum hip extension as the sprinter gets out of the blocks and into full stride. Instead, both in and out of the saddle on the bike, the range of movement for the glutes is limited. This is one of the strongest arguments for including off-the-bike conditioning work for you to develop the glute strength you need for those times on the bike when you really need these most powerful hip muscles.

  ‘Pre-stretching’ the short/tight muscles (highlighted here in red) using the stretching exercises in Chapter 2 will help you to effectively strengthen your core

  My essential core exercises for the hips and back focus on the areas that tend to weaken at low and moderate intensities on the bike, or that work in a lengthened range at various stages in the cycling pedal stroke. In particular, some of the exercises here will target the glutes and upper hamstrings. Isolating these muscle areas off the bike maintains the strength and tone needed for optimal performance at higher intensities on the bike, when these muscle groups are more likely to be recruited.

  It’s fairly broadly understood that weak glute muscles can contribute to lack of strength on the bike and also pain and problems, particularly in the knees. In my view, because of the biomechanical disadvantage that the glute muscles have when on the bike, this strengthening has to be done off the bike, but can be supported by cycling-specific elements that help to integrate your new-found strength as your core muscle balance improves. With all the will in the world, just thinking about engaging your glutes as you ride your bike will not do it.

  To maximize the benefit of the core exercises in this chapter, integrating the bike drills that help to stimulate and refine the timing and recruitment of your core muscles through the cycling action at higher intensities is recommended. A detailed discussion of what these might be is outside the scope of this book, but will get a mention later in Chapter 6 on periodization and planning.

  Straight-line cycling and lack of abdominal stimulation

  In addition to the weakening of certain muscles along the back of the body, the abdominal muscles of a cyclist’s core are relatively unchallenged by most cycling. More typically stimulated and tested by ground forces with walking and running, and with multidimensional strength movements such as lunging, pushing, pulling and twisting, a cyclist’s abdominals can become relatively inactive. Only coming into play more significantly at higher intensities, or when you stand out of the saddle to more actively push and pull on the bars, relative to other sports and to our primal template, the cycling position can lead to weakness in the abdominal muscles. When cycling, it’s possible to rest your body on the bars and drive hard with the legs with very little involvement of the abdominal muscles, save for their movement in allowing for deep breathing. Again, this can lead to problems at the point at which you want to ramp up the intensity of your riding or add more explosive elements that need your abs to be alert and working in the way they should.

  Lack of abdominal strength may lead to changes in your pedalling style at higher intensities, such as your knees rolling inwards towards the top tube or your hips and lower back rocking and rolling in the saddle. You may experience pain or discomfort in your back or knees with hard, out of the saddle efforts, or you may just feel unable to produce the power you want on the flat during hard efforts, disproportionate to how efficient you feel at a constant and steadier cycling speed.

  Balance, as a separate skill to ‘core balance’, should be distinguished here. Some people believe that someone with good balance must have a great core but this is not technically correct. Balance is for the most part a proprioceptive movement skill that can be developed independent of an optimally functioning core. When I talk about ‘core balance’ here, I am referring to the muscles around the core being well balanced in their tension, length and ability to contract at the right time and in the right way with any given movement. It’s true that having well-balanced core muscles may help you learn to balance on the bike as a cycling skill, but it’s not a given. Equally, some cyclists who have exceptional balance skills on their bike may not have well-balanced core muscles.

  ‘Inner’ and ‘outer’ abdominals

  The functional anatomy of the abdominal muscles and how they relate and connect with the other muscles that cross the core is quite complex, allowing for both stability and movement in three dimensions. The deepest abdominal muscle, the transversus abdominus, or ‘TVA’ as it is sometimes called, has had some publicity – because of its stabilizing function, a weak TVA is often blamed for back injuries. This belt-like muscle engages as you draw your navel in, and works together with the muscles of the pelvic floor and diaphragm (which sits under your ribs), as an ‘inner unit’ team of stabilizers. Layered on top of these muscles are the internal and external obliques, and the rectus abdominus muscle (the most superficial ‘six-pack’ muscle), which have a role in moving and generating force through your core. These more superficial muscles might be called an ‘outer unit’, as they predominantly work as movers rather than stabilizers, although there are exceptions to that general rule.

  In referring to ‘inner’ or ‘outer’ abdominal muscles here I am using the terms to help you understand broadly their complex role in both stability and movement.

  For some people, getting a sense of how to engage the inner unit of muscles can be difficult. Often, if these muscles have become weak or relatively ‘shut off’ for some time, re-establishing a neuromuscular connection with them can be difficult. You might find you are concentrating hard on engaging them the way you are told, but can’t actually feel anything happening. Pilates-style exercises and those prescribed by phy
siotherapists are often targeting the deeper ‘inner’ abdominals and may make you feel like you are not actually doing anything. I have not overemphasized highly technical ‘inner unit’ exercises here, as they are often difficult to grasp without one-to-one coaching from someone trained in clinical exercise, like a physiotherapist or a specialist Pilates instructor.

  The abdominal exercises in this chapter are focused on getting the abdominal group of muscles to work well as a whole, working both the ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ muscles. If you struggle with your alignment or position with these exercises, or can’t tell what you are supposed to be doing to get your abdominal muscles to engage, I recommend you seek one-to-one help from a physiotherapist, a corrective exercise specialist like myself, or a Pilates instructor trained in clinical or rehab-type exercise.

  As is the case with activating the glute muscles, I believe that focused abdominal exercises are essential off the bike to restore some of the normal multidimensional stability that you don’t get on the bike or seated at your desk. You should not have to think about engaging your core when you ride, it should just happen naturally, but ensuring that your muscles are working as they should may take some time and effort. There have been some ideas in cycling circles that ‘thinking about’ engaging your glutes or your abdominals when cycling will help you to develop a stronger core, but in my experience this is not the case. If you want to develop a functional core on the bike, you have to work it off the bike first, and then integrate that strength and control on the bike later.