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2008: Year of the Core

And any number of other things I can add to the list. Found a few decent looking exercises on Trifuel. I’ll add these to the routine and post again about their effectiveness later.

1) Brick Walls
This is a strategy I will use during a long hilly ride or a hill
interval workout, and can be performed on your indoor trainer or during
an outdoor ride. Climb an entire hill in the standing position. As you
climb, try to breathe from deep in your core, just behind the
bellybutton. At the same time, visualize your abdomen as a “brick
wall”, and maintain a tight core, especially as you drive your knees up
to your chest. If you do this properly, then every the leg comes past
the top tube you’ll feel your abdominal muscles contract. For added
effect, avoid bouncing on the handlebars.

2) Mountain Climbers
Your focus during this exercise is very similar to the aforementioned
Brick Wall, except now you should be off the bike, in a push-up
position, driving your right knee up towards the left elbow and vice
versa. Again maintain focus on a tight abdomen and deep stomach
breathing. You will also need to focus on maintaining a straight line
from the shoulders to the wrist, and hips that are close to the ground.
Below is a link to a video of me performing the exercise. These can be
performed slowly, as in the video, or quickly, mimicking a rate closer
to a cycling cadence:

http://www.pacificfit.net/members/Workouts/exercises/MountainClimbers.ht…

3) Cable Torso Twists
This exercise requires core force production against a cable
resistance. It is important in your core conditioning program to
include an exercise that introduces external resistance. What is the
external resistance that a triathlete’s core experiences while cycling?
The bike! You have to steer and navigate your bike against the friction
of the road, and for an Ironman triathlete especially, this can lead to
fatigue over the course of 112 miles. Force transmission from the
pelvis to the lower extremities is important, but functional strength
and endurance is also required for the upper body force transmission
from the core. The cable torso twists is also a great exercise for
swimmers who need to focus on hip rotation. Here is a link to the
exercise video:

http://www.pacificfit.net/members/Workouts/exercises/CableTorsoTwists.ht…

Core Training for Cyclists | Trifuel

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