eaglesandcycling

What would you say are the best, lets say 5 exercises, to strengthen my core and lower back for cycling (i seem to have a weaker lower back and core as I've increased my riding)? If you have any videos (from Youtube for ex.) to share that'd be great. Thx.

wolfchild

For me personally I use various kettlebell exercises. Every kettlebell exercise involves using your core, back and posterior chain...Some people like to use barbell deadlifts and barbell squats...The best thing to do, is to experiment with different exercises and see what you're comfortable with and then choose something that you enjoy, something that produces good results and something that is sustainable long term while minimizing the risk of injury. Be careful with youtube fitness channels because there is a lot of nonsense out there that is useless and may do more harm than good.

Iride01 

I can't stand threads that use "best" in their title. Sorry, it's just the way I am. Best to me is so subjective.

Carbonfiberboy 

I think you're on the right track, thinking of doing say 5 exercises. I like lat pull downs, back extension machine: https://www.sparkpeople.com/resource...p?exercise=222, dumbbell deadlifts, and stiff-legged deadlifts. After those, 50 reps of kettlebell swings are good. That said, right now try pushups, plank, and twisting side planks: All of those until you can't anymore.

Too many people injure themselves from jumping in to weights before they have the conditioning for it. It's too easy to up the weight too quickly. For weights, IME it's best to start with sets of 30, then gradually decreasing the reps over the period of a couple years.

canklecat

Check out Bowflex videos on YouTube. Best short, clear and well informed videos I've found for home conditioning and physical therapy.

Don't worry, you don't need a Bowflex and they don't spam viewers with endless ads. Many Bowflex channel videos use no apparatus at all.

There are plenty of videos trying to demonstrate basic conditioning and physical therapy approaches, but most of them are poorly done -- too long, with no evidence of the presenter preparing a script or even an outline, no editing other than some choppy cuts to eliminate dead space. They'll take 15-30 minutes to say what the Bowflex folks do in 2-3 minutes. (Kinda like my third paragraph here -- overwritten.)

Trakhak

Chances are you don't need to do anything other than riding your bike. At least, in over 50 years of racing (up until 20 years ago) and training, I've never felt the need for cycling-directed exercise other than riding the bike. The first 5 or so rides of increased mileage in the spring are often accompanied by a bit of lower-back discomfort, but that invariably goes away quickly.

ZHVelo

Squats and deadlifts. For strength so basically not 5 x 5 but 2 x 5. For squats ass to grass is not needed, in cycling your legs will never be angled that much.

Seattle Forrest

Renegade rows, squats, and deadlifts including single leg DLs.

eaglesandcycling

Interesting. Ive increased my riding significantly in the last month or 2 and yah, my lower back has its issues. Hopefully it'll strengthen on its own and it'll go away soon cuz I want to ride more but i need rest days after my back feeling this way. I'm a 47 year old guy btw and quite fit I'd say. I try and ride around 3 or 4 days a week, around 200km a week. Each ride consists of fairly significant climbs, which tends to put more strain on the lower back thing. I also ride a gravel bike so I'm on roads and off in the woods/forests as well.

eaglesandcycling

Great, thanx.. I'll check this out

eaglesandcycling

Thx for the info and tips..I'll check it out

richardwilson

The best exercise is keeping yourself fit by going to gym

roskobosko

Planks and pushups are always good

CyclingBK

This is a great body weight move. I do them with a weighted vest but you can do without.

Single leg deadlift. Hit your core and lower back, also hamstrings and glutes. It’s great for athlete as it improves single leg balance as well.

This guy explains how to do them extremely well as opposed to the way some people do them as a yoga stick pose.

CyclingBK

All great lifts and I agree, especially if new, to start with higher reps. Unless you are in your 20s, just going out and starting with a rep range of under 10 is not recommended.

The key is perfect form and getting a feel for handling the weight and tempo of the lifts. For strength training with resistance/weights, I like the 8-15 rep range with 3-5 sets as a solid range for building strength combined with some muscle mass as well as joint health.

Some type of regular strength training is a must as we age, I believe.
I think people should realize how much shoulder muscle strength and muscle mass they lose over time, for example, as we age. It happens slowly but surely and over time, the lost strength can really cause mobility issues and joint deterioration.

rubiksoval

I spent a few weeks increasing the amount of time I spent as aero as possible on the bike. First week I'd just do a few 2-3 min efforts with head/shoulders as low as possible. Progressively built that up. Very sore lower back and it bands and hamstrings. Got progressively better.

Last week eeked out almost two hours in that position. Very sore afterwards, but massive progress compared to the initial 2-3 minutes I was able to maintain.

Anyway, point being, if you're going for improved strength for cycling performance, you can likely build all the core strength necessary by just holding the position you want to achieve. Same for arm strength (climbing out of the saddle) and anything else.

Weights and impact activities can be good for all the off-the-bike/anti-osteoperosis stuff, though.

berner

For someone who would like to stay fit for life, a good understanding of what constitutes core muscles and what they do is helpful and for a pro athlete, crucial. The largest bone in the body is the pelvic girdle which can regarded as the foundation. Every other muscle in the body, if not directly connected to the pelvic girdle, is dependent on some structure that is. When the core is strong, core muscles provide support for the peripheral structures of the body, the arms, legs, head, neck and shoulders. This is easier to see from a good anatomy illustration. https://www.acefitness.org/fitness-c...s-of-the-core/ For example, the ability to hold your head up while cycling is dependent on stable shoulders and backbone because it is all connected. A bonus effect of a strong core is breathing is improved. Yoga exercises emphasize the breadth and core muscles are directly involved with breathing. A particularly good book is "Yoga Anatomy" with superb illustrations of the process breathing. https://poshmark.com/listing/Leslie-...rce=gdm_unpaid

wolfchild

Majority of people train their core the wrong way and they waste their time doing silly isolation exercises and then they wonder why they still have a belly and no abs. The best core building exercises are asymmetrical exercises using a kettlebell and doing various kettlebell movements. Asymmetrical movements forces each individual side of your body to work hard to stabilize and control the weight which you're holding in your hand. Do equal amount of volume for both left and right side of your body. Other effective core exercises involve doing rotational and anti-rotational movements. Don't waste your time doing isolation exercises for your core but instead train your core using full body movements.

Carbonfiberboy 

The best lower back exercise I've found so far is riding my bike. Nothing else fixes up my lower back like that. Posture is important. Pelvis rolled forward, back straight, lots of forward lean which means plenty of reach and low bars. Go out like that for 4 hours with 3-4K feet of climbing, fix your back right up. Can't do that, then start training so you can. This is the same thing rubiksoval is saying, different words.

I'm having a saddle sore disaster this summer, so I've substituted walking for riding. Walk a steady 4 mph for 1-2 hours, using a gait which rolls your pelvis. Each hip travels in a circle, lift up, reach out, push down, push back. Works good. My back'll be good when I start riding again in September, after our 10-day backpack in the Cascades.