Building strength/sore from cycling?

[sundial]

Planks it is--and so cost effective in this crazy economy.

[tulip]

My problem with planks (and Pilates and yoga for that matter) is that if you do them incorrectly, either on your own or with an uninformed instructor, you can really hurt your back. Be sure to at least get started with a good instructor, and if you can, go to classes/instruction regularly in addition to doing the exercises at home.

[silver]

Planks are great. IN addition you may want to do the 100 pushups program.

It's awesome! I think that yellow introduced us to it. I'll try to get links.

I teach spin class and after every class we do abs and pushups for core and upper body strengthening.

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...hlight=pushups

I started with about 5 to 7 for each set and have been consistently doing 5 sets of 20 (2 or 3 times a week) since Thanksgiving.

[Miranda]

I have a modified criss-cross crunch I call it I learned from pilates class I do. Plus, I pull my abs in tight any time I think about it during the day. Even sitting here right now. Those little things add up.

The thing that got SO tired for me when I first started that I did not expect was holding my head up. I told my doc (sports med guy and rides) about it. He specifically gave me a bent over single lat row to do. It works the muscles in the upper/back effort to hold up your neck/head.

All my upper body weight training is single hand held free weight dumb bells. Otherwise, one side tends to cheat the other.

Lastly, remember rest in weight training is important in gaining strength. When you are lifting, you are stressing and sorta tearing (for lack of better word) your muscles. During the "off day" is when they heal and grow bigger/stronger actually. One to two days inbetween is good. Over three days off and you start losing some strength gained.

It will get better... about 6 weeks is what I find is the breaking point to notice results... just keep at it!

[GraysonKelly]

Hi there,
I have no idea if this is really working or if it's just me, but I kind of made up my own activity specific exercise for my core. Since I get so bored on the trainer, I practice sitting up and then gradually curling my upper body with my arms out reaching for the handle bars. Kind of a crunch on the bike while I'm pedaling. I don't know if it's really working but I'm almost to the point where I can control myself all the way down before my hand touch the handle bars. I do some crunches and upper body stuff (mainly push ups and dips since I hate going to the gym). But it's worked pretty good for me.
Hope that helps. Have a great day!
Gray

[Tuckervill]

I started hundredpushups.com about 3 weeks ago. I'm doing them at an incline, and will probably work up to 100 on an incline before I start over on the floor. I can't believe how muscular my arms are getting just in 3 short weeks!

Karen

[OakLeaf]

Just do 'em with your hands close in and be sure to keep your scapulae retracted, shoulders in their socket. I learned all that the hard way and I'm still nursing rotator cuff trouble from those pushups (and I only got to 69...)

I don't understand how you could hurt your back doing something isometric like planks? Yeah, if you add hip dips or leg raises, but just plain planks? Care to elaborate?


I'll add another thing that I referenced in another thread - how important it is to maintain the lumbar curve. Cycling and Pilates really tend to accentuate the loss of lumbar lordosis that comes with age. Yoga (for me, with an EXCELLENT Anusara Yoga instructor) is helping me restore that curve.