Originally Posted by
Lawrence08648
You didn't say but don't confuse ab exercises with core and back problems. Both your abs and your back are your core, many think only abs are. Then you have your side muscles, latissimus dorsi.
And if you are carrying belly fat, that needs to be gotten rid of because it causes back problems.
Some twisting stretching exercises lying on the floor are a help.
My favorite back exercise is lie face down on a picnic table or a bench with your waist at the edge of the table and feet on the table and your upper body hanging over. Lower yourself and bring yourself back level to the tube. This is a great back stretching exercise.
You're right on! People forget the back when doing core workouts and they wonder why their back hurts! You should be doing at least 50% back exercises and even more to make up for all the years beforehand where you forgot about the back. Not to mention that the back muscles are strained much more in cycling than the stomach. When you pull on the bars, the back muscles have to balance the force of your legs, that's a lot of force.
I like the roman-chair back-lift. Typically in the 8-weeks I'm in the gym over the winter, I'll start out that way and get up to 25-reps with holding a 25-lb weight behind my neck.
