Your core muscles are the key muscles that enable you to achieve an ‘A” Ridng position and maintain this position through out the duration of the ride.

So what is Core Strength? Core refers to our centre, like the core of an apple, Our core is our mid region, the region that links our arms and legs. When we talk of core strength, core control or core stability we are referring to the strength/control/stability of this mid region. Being able to keep this region in a good position over a period of time.

As a rider it means having control of your mid region so you can achieve and maintain the “A” riding position.

Your spine with collapse (slightly forward or backwards) causing increased load and compression on tissues and structures that are not designed to take this load. Over time this is likely to result in discomfort.

The importance and benefits of core control goes well beyond the bike. Core control is essential when moving your body.  It doesn’t matter what the task is, we need core control to be able to complete the task with ease, efficiency and without causing discomfort.

On the bike having good core control;

• Will help ease general discomfort and more specifically lower back/pelvic discomfort. We have big powerful muscles in our legs that drive our pedaling (our pedal stroke) and this stroke will only work efficiently if we have good core control. In fact these big muscles will cause all sorts of horrible shearing forces on your low back and pelvis if you are asking them to work really hard or over a long period of time without good core control.
• Allows both your upper limbs (arms) as well as your lower limbs (legs) to be relaxed and not carry any tension when you ride. However, having relaxed limbs doesn’t automatically happen because of good core control, it only provides the platform. There are two elements here engage your core and relax your limbs, let them be loose. In Tai Chi they talk about having empty hands, both your hands and your feet need to be light and empty. What? But I need to have contact with the bike; my hands on my handlebars and my feet on the pedals. Yes, but we are saying you can still have contact and not carry tension.
• Relaxing your limbs allows you to move them freely and transfer different proportions of weight through your arms or a single arm or your legs or a single leg, when you ride. This ability to transfer your weight between your limbs as well as move them freely is essential for balance. It allows you to manouvere and change the position of your body and/or your bike so that you can maintain balance when you ride. This may mean simply transferring your weight forward following braking to dismount your bike or leaning the bike when cornering on the trail. Whatever the riding task, balance is the primary skill required to be able to ride your bike. Having good core control and loose limbs will help keep us on our bikes as we start to challenge ourselves in different riding environments.
• It will help you achieve bike seat comfort by encouraging the correct parts of your body to bear the sustained weight of your body when sitting on your bike seat – structures and tissues that are designed to be better at taking this weight.
• Improved riding efficiency as core strength allows your big powerful muscles in your legs, that drive your pedalling, to work better.