Core training?
 

Im Fat..

I want to look less fat.. The majority of my fat is in my manboobs and Stomach.. I wish to remedy this situation..

Alot of the pics of you guys racing and even riding.. You look ripped not only in the Guads but throughout..


Do you guys/gals do core building? If so.. what type of regiments are you doing?

Ive started doing 25 push ups every morning, and 25 in the evening before bed.
throw in a couple min of leg lifts and well thats all Ive got right now.

Core workouts won't get you cut\ripped. It's all in the diet or whatever makes you lose weight. You can't lose weight in any area by working that area, for instance you won't necessarily lose fat from your biceps from doing bicep curls. Your body will burn the fat when and how it wants to.

Anyway, Power yoga is good, google core workouts for more, there's ****loads. http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...+workouts&meta=

Most of my core workouts are static. I've got a very strong core I think from my youthier youth as a footballer. You know, doing all the exercises they now tell you not to do.

I do 3 sets of 50 crunches and the same for bicycle crunches. I have a washboard stomach but still have a load of laundry (small) in front of it. My calories in is still greater than out I guess.

Aye, diet and cardiovascular exercise burns stored fat. Common misconception you can burn say mid section fat by doing exercises that target the abdominals. Doesn't really work that way.

That being said, core strength is very important for pain free cycling as well as good posture and general health.

I like isometrics myself... planks are one of my favorite things to target the abs and back. Lots of variations as well... planks on the foam roller, side planks, arms further out front for a real challenge.

+ everything above!

I started focussing on core this winter, plus upped the riding intensity!

I'm to the point where I workout fro 45 mins in the morning before work, core and legs/upperbody alternating days. Then I ride/train/race/recover in the evening for roughly 90-120 minutes.

I can feel the six pack down there, but it's still covered by a nice little layer of 42 year old fat! I look better then last year, but not ripped like some of the young guys. To get there would take more concentrated workouts and a definite change in my diet.

Isometrics and yoga are killer. Those P90X infomercials that you see are the real deal, and worth checking out. It's not any kind of gimmick routine. They combine all kinds of yoga and isometrics and they work.

And if you're looking for dietary information, I recommend at least flipping through Michael Pollan's book, In Defense of Food.

At the very least, start following the advice in the subtitle- Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

Damn straight, I used to think yoga was for the 50+ long haired goatee totting hooch smoking hippy. Then I tried some(yoga, not hooch) and got a dose of reality.

diet and a simple at home core workout program done two to three times a week can get you "tight" and looking hawt. later.

As others have said, core work won't shrink the belly fat. But it will make you a better/stronger rider.

My routine is 3x a week:

4 sets of 50 situps (not crunches, but situps).

10 planks, held for 60 seconds each. 30 seconds rest between each plank.

10 side-planks, held for 30 seconds each, 30 seconds rest between each one. Both sides.

I've been thinking of adding pull-ups into the routine to strengthen my back/traps.

During the "off season" (end of October through end of December) I'll do Bikram Yoga ~2 times a week as well. And from the end of July through January I'll do weights.

I do maybe 5 min of Sun Salutation yoga a day.

Getting that ripped look is more about loosing fat than core exercises. You can do all sit ups you want but if there is an inch of fat over them, your still going to look fat.

my simple at home routine that has given me decent results is this:

tri dips - 4 sets 10 each
crunches - 300 total, various style including bicycle
pushups - 4 sets 10 each
the plank - 2 sets 60 seconds each
side plank - each side 60 seconds
pedal planks - 60 total
bird dog - 30 total
scissor kicks - 3 sets 25 each

later.

Eat well (reduce sugars, white flour, etc), do high intensity intervals on the bike (go hard 30 sec. to 3 min., recover and equal amount, repeat), and do some core work a couple times per week. Here are some good ones: http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6...5681-1,00.html.

Great routine :thumb:

But I would not call that simple.

a lot of good advice above. here's mine.
-diet plays a huge part. try eating more whole foods and less processed food. try incorporating some good fat into your diet.
-don't over eat. it's better to eat more small meals than cram as much food as you can fit in fewer sittings.
-core exercise is very important for bike riding, and you can almost never over work your core. try adding core exercise to every day things like watching tv. during commercial breaks do sit ups or plank for the duration of one commercial. as you get comfortable, do them for another commercial. keep in mind that if you get to the point that you can hold plank for an entire commercial break, you're a disgusting freak of nature and people wont want to talk to you.
-my final bit of advice is to listen to Peyton Manning and accept that unless you're in your early 20's and a professional athlete, you don't need six pack abs. i'm a human stick figure, so i had a defined stomach up until my mid 20's. i'm 29 now, and while my stomach is still flat, i've got a nice layer of blub covering what is still a pretty strong core. it's just life, and having some body fat isn't so bad. I can produce ear wax now, and i couldn't when i was 3% body fat. that led to a ton of ear infections. bet you never thought about that, huh?

i don't know much about your diet or age, so all of that up there is generalized and what works for me.

When working your core, focus on intensity and form more than anything else. You could do 300 sit-ups just like you could walk 300 steps; neither would have any real fitness benefit. I like doing supersets; putting on ankle weights to do bicycle crunches (makes it harder, cant do as many, makes it quicker!) and without rest going on a balance ball (or whatever they are called) and doing sit-ups on that. Do three sets of each, only takes ten minutes. Works for me.

If you want to lose weight, skip the sit-ups and spend the extra time doing intervals on the bike. According to my Powertap, I burn off 1000-2000 calories per day riding the bike. It would hard to do this and be overweight. Most of the well built cyclists I ride with never do any other exercise except hard riding.

Honestly, I've seen huge increases in core strength just from being out on the bike more! Looking ripped, unfortunately, is going to require sacrificing quite a bit more body fat...

like a good custom bike fit tailored for you, a good trainer/dietician will get you pointed in the right direction on a regime tailored to your wants and needs.

Trust me, been there, done that.

Everybody calm down he didn't say he wants to be less fat. He said he wants to look less fat. That is easy enough. All you have to do is go to a tanning salon and get them to spray tan on some abs and pecs. Problem solved.

On a serious not though if you really want to be less fat you have to consume less calories than you expend. Core training can be part of that but you also should eat less/eat cleaner and through in some HIIT. As for me in terms of core I do plyo-pushups, one arm pushups, pushups, crunches, v-ups, l-sits, and glute ham raises.

Thanks for all the input! Going to put some of it into practice and see how this summer turns out :D

[QUOTE=aham23;9075331]my simple at home routine that has given me decent results is this:

tri dips - 4 sets 10 each
crunches - 300 total, various style including bicycle
pushups - 4 sets 10 each
the plank - 2 sets 60 seconds each
side plank - each side 60 seconds
pedal planks - 60 totalbird dog - 30 total
scissor kicks - 3 sets 25 each

later.[/QUOTE]


Forgive my ignorance. What is a "bird dog"?

Diet is the only way to loose the fat.
I know many people that ride and excersize but only get ripped with the correct diet...

[QUOTE=Gluteus;9076971]http://z.about.com/d/weighttraining/...-/bird_dog.jpg

Much harder than it looks.

http://weighttraining.about.com/od/e.../a/birddog.htm

^^^^ what he said. world class marathoner Ryan Hall does them as part of his core workouts. not that it matters. later.