Cycling, Triathlon, Daily Life: The Benefits of Core Training

With the lockdown, there’s no valid excuse to skip core strengthening! An essential strengthening exercise for everyone, athletes and sedentary people of all ages, the “plank” is a weapon of mass performance and daily well-being. This exercise strengthens the entire abdominal belt and spinal column by maintaining isometric contractions on a simple floor mat or towel. Explanations.

By Pierre-Maxime BRANCHE – Photos: 3bikes.fr, Pixabay, PxHere.

Abdominals are not just for gym-goers. Neither is core strengthening. For all athletes as well as sedentary people, it strengthens the trunk muscles, especially the stabilizing muscles: rectus abdominis, transversus abdominis, obliques, back muscles, and lumbar muscles. This strengthening of the abdominal belt and supporting muscles leads to better movement coordination in any athlete, regardless of their discipline, thus optimizing force transmission. This is a significant advantage for cyclists and triathletes, especially when they are out of the saddle, in a time trial position, and when transitioning to running.

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Protect and strengthen the spinal column

Core strengthening consists of maintaining certain working positions immobility. In technical terms, we speak of isometric or static muscle contractions. In contrast to concentric and eccentric contractions where the muscle shortens or lengthens, here it remains the same length. Unlike abdominal exercises, there is no body movement or limb displacement. During contraction, only muscle tension increases. The external resistance is then equal to the tension provided by the muscle. These isometric exercises are particularly interesting for beginners because the holding times can be easily adapted to each level. During isometry, a trembling muscle reveals good intramuscular synchronization.

Practiced regularly, core strengthening leads to good back and abdominal tone, prevents back pain, and reduces the risk of injury because it builds robust protection for all the muscles surrounding the spinal column by forming a sheath around it. It can also correct an asymmetry induced by sports activity or poor posture at the office.

Respecting the curves

If we accept that a correctly performed exercise improves performance, we must also understand that the same exercise, poorly performed, diminishes it, or even causes injuries. From childhood, our brain develops a set of basic or complex movements called motor patterns. By analogy, these patterns can be compared to computer programs, their goal being to function as smoothly and efficiently as possible: if our spinal column is strengthened in a bad posture, the brain programs an inefficient motor pattern, as if you were installing a computer program infected with a virus. Very quickly, your computer will experience bugs.

We all have, to varying degrees, three curves in our spine. We must ensure that we maintain them as naturally as possible, without trying to accentuate or limit them, at the risk of creating compression zones on the vertebral discs.

In the human body, these bugs are replaced by back problems, inflammations, contractures, or tears due to excessive stress on certain areas. It is therefore essential to respect good working positions so as not to reinforce any existing compensation patterns. We all have, to varying degrees, three curves in our spine. We must ensure that we maintain them as naturally as possible, without trying to accentuate or limit them, at the risk of creating compression zones on the vertebral discs.

Regularity and progressivity

Generally, we spend a lot (too much) time sitting for work or rest, which has powerful repercussions on our posture and the muscles that support it. A few core strengthening sets here and there cannot compensate for hours and hours of bad positions, so include these exercises in your weekly routine, or even before each of your rides as a warm-up, as well as on non-training days. Daily practice will significantly improve your basic posture, i.e., how you hold yourself in everyday life, and your posture in your sports practice.

There are three muscle chains to work, each as important as the other: the anterior chain (rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis), the lateral chain (obliques), and the posterior chain (lumbar and back muscles). The goal is to stimulate all of them, maintaining the phases one after the other: start with the anterior face, move to the left (or right) lateral face, then to the posterior face, and finish with the right (or left) lateral face. Once this circuit is completed, repeat three to four rounds.

For ideal work, respect the principle of progressivity by starting with short holds (20 seconds for beginners) and moving towards longer holds (up to 90 seconds for the more experienced), including short recovery phases (15-20 seconds or even less) during position changes. Initially, and as long as the exercises are performed more or less daily, a heavy workload is not necessary. It is better to start with short contractions, but focusing on a near-perfect working posture.

In position!

For each phase, remember to push out your chest and pull in your stomach. Similarly, it is essential to respect the balance of the different phases: the working time for the front should be the same as the working time for the sides and back so that one chain does not become stronger than the other.

1. Anterior phase: facing forward, supported on your elbows at a right angle and on the tips of your toes, maintain the plank position, without rounding your back and without letting your lumbar region hollow. Try to push your elbows into the ground, which will help flatten your shoulder blades against your ribs.

2. Lateral phase: in profile, supported on one elbow placed in line with both shoulders, both legs are extended and supported on the foot against the ground. The chest is pushed out, the pelvis is pushed forward, and the entire body is well aligned. The upper arm is bent, pulled back, and placed against the torso.

3. Posterior phase: lying on your back, raise your torso to place your elbows at a right angle. Push with your glutes to lift your pelvis and maintain maximum glute contraction.

Over the days, to break the monotony of the sessions and depending on your progress, it is entirely possible to add difficulty. The variations of the exercises are numerous: for each muscle chain (anterior, posterior, lateral), one can distinguish, for example, global work from isolation of a body part, stable supports (chairs) or unstable supports (balls), disturbing movements or complete immobility, and finally, work with only body weight or with an additional load.

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