Core Exercises to Improve Power on the Bike

Your bulging quads and razor-cut calves are the envy of your cycling pack, and you start every ride strong. As the ride progresses, though, your hips seesaw in the saddle, your lower back aches, and you slow in corners. The problem? Your core cries uncle long before your legs wear out. Although a cyclist's legs provide the most tangible source of power, the core muscles--abs and lower back—are the vital foundation from which all movement, including the pedal stroke, stems.

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"You can have all the leg strength in the world, but without a stable core you won't be able to use it efficiently," says Graeme Street, founder of Cyclo-CORE, a DVD-based training program, and a personal trainer in Essex, Connecticut. "It's like having the body of a Ferrari with a Fiat chassis underneath."

What's more, a solid core will help eliminate unnecessary upper-body movement, so that all the energy you produce is delivered into asmooth pedal stroke.

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Sadly, cycling's tripod position, in which the saddle, pedals, and handlebar support your weight, relies on core strength but doesn't build it. To develop your high-performance chassis, try this intense routine, designed by Street. It takes only about 10 minutes to complete and focuses on the transverse abdominus, the innermost abdominal muscle, which acts as a stabilizing girdle around your torso, and also on your lower back, obliques, glutes, hamstrings and hip flexors, so your entire core—and then some—becomes strong and works as a unit. You'll notice that it skips the rectus abdominus, or six-pack muscle, because, says Street, "it's the least-functional muscle for cycling." Do this intense routine, in this order, three times a week to create a core that lets you ride faster, longer, more powerfully—and finish stronger than ever.

Read the original article published on Bicycling.com.

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