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Anyone got any recommendations?
My main core exercises are L-sits, dragon flags and windscreen wipers...
Dragon flag - pretty good workout for all the Abs, arms, lats, shoulders etc.
Press ups - planks with purpose
Pretty much the whole of the Pilates repertoire:
Curl up, reverse curl up, teaser (1,2,3 &4), criss cross, scissors, hundred, boomerang and lots of other names you will probably not heard of. The dragon flag above is done in pilates as well (Jackknife) but you use your arms in a low V on the floor. Best bet is to go to a class to find out how to do some of this and once you know the moves you can do it wherever you want. Alternatively there is YouTube, but that will not correct your little cheats that make some of the harder exercises easier and make you work the core harder.
The trick is to make sure that you exercise all off the core, including all of the obliques to enable you to stabilise the whole body.
Spider-Man push ups.
Allsorts of things involving a swiss ball seem to be helping me. I used to eschew them as a fad, but then read a few things about using them and my opinion has changed.
Too many to mention, but favourites are
Sitting on it and passing a small-medium kettlebell held in both hands from hip to hip across your knees.
Lie back on it and under a bar (squat machine or similar)! With bar about 4inches above you chest. Legs out straight and roll back and forth. Adjust the position of the ball in the small of you back.
Remove seatpost from the bike and go for a ride.
Or take up sailing and get a hiking bench, smile optional after about the first 10 seconds.
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Lie on your back arms out so you look like a T.
Raise both legs to point to the ceiling.
Lower your feet to your left hand so they are an inch off the floor.
Sweep your feet round in an arc to your right hand, keeping them an inch off the floor.
Raise your feet back to the vertical.
Repeat on the other side.
Snowboarding.
i need to follow some of these exercises!
Hanging leg raise
Roll out
Squat (yes it's a core exercise too).
Deadlift
Back raise
There are variations of all of these
I don't like "core" exercises that excessively and repeatedly flex the vertebrae
Shagging, full tension in thighs and butt cheeks, go at it like a jack russell on a mop head
Some reasonable suggestions above (well, maybe not the mophead 🙂 ), but can't really go wrong with pilates...done properly, ideally with a decent instructor to correct you (I see all manner of nonsense being done by individuals in my local gym..well, it's movement, but not pilates) - and at the appropriate level/modification). Pilates isn't just 'core' but assorted stabilising muscles, and incorporates stretching/mobility too.
I'm a bit puzzled by the dragon flag=jacknife comment (unless there's some loopy calisthenics version) - the only point at which they're similar is with the legs vertical and weight on shoulders or when lying horizontal (both of which which are the easiest point anyway), the jacknife is as much hip and lumbar flexion for much of the movement, and often fairly fluid tho' you can slow it down. 'Course, you could just keep the legs vertical and flex from the lumbar region, but that's a reverse ab curl (not that there's anything wrong with those either...choice of leg position can made them harder/easier).
Dragon flags..all very good for bragging rights ;)....but I'd suggest they're a bit like pull-ups, all very well if you can do one, but if you can't..then you can't, and need a modified version - or something else - to get you there (eg athlean-x, tapp bros, bh bars progressions on youtube..and don't forget to start with the eccentric/negative portion if you need to). Plus if you start vertical and can't control it when legs are entended, you could be in danger of hyperextending your lumbar spine (same goes for roll-outs if you don't control them - an alternative is walking your hands out, rather than using a wheel.)
Not sure what's meant by 'excessive' flexing - the spine's intended to flex/extend/rotate and you retain mobility by doing so, certainly 'folding' or putting most of the movement into one spot (typically lumbar/thoracic/cervical junctions) isn't a good idea, you want to encourage movement between individual vertebra. Note that the thoracic area's good at rotation, lumbar good at flexion/extension so you also want to encourage the opposite - lumbar rotation and thoracic flexion and esp. extension to keep everying moving in addition to their normal patterns of use.
Nothing wrong with planks and all their variations (prone or side), but the core's more than just resisting flexion (simplistically, flexion = curling into fetal posn, extension is opposite). Eg pilates leg pull back, shoulder bridge variations, much of the lying prone stuff - swimming, cobra, swan dive/variations etc, plus mobility (and side-lying stuff). Some things look innocuous but can be surprisingly hard to execute well, and you can often find unexpected weaknesses or imbalances between sides of the body.
Turkish get ups. End of thread. 😉
Check out Abi's stuff on Pinkbike.
Hanging leg raises, front and side to side. Jack knife press ups with an exercise ball are a good one.
go at it like a jack russell on a mop head
I need to find a way to use that phrase today! 😆
Why do exercise when core maintenance can be a by-product of pleasant activities?
I've read through the list and the only standouts are:
1: Shagging as suggested by cheekyboy. For optimum benefit may need a harem or a wives co-operative, but is as good as a beginning exercise as it is for the fit. Disadvantage - older riders may find that after multiple exercise sessions in the day one starts to wilt which leads to to partner disinterest.
2: Removing seatpost from the bike and go for a ride, suggested by thisisnotaspoon. This is a bit dire as a beginning exercise because it is relentless.
I'll add:
3: paddle a surf kayak
4: Best of all though, is ride a singlespeed because as Charliethebikemonger stickers attest, No1 comes as a peripheral benefit. 🙂
Dragon flags..all very good for bragging rights ;)....but I'd suggest they're a bit like pull-ups, all very well if you can do one, but if you can't..then you can't, and need a modified version
They scale very easily, if a podgy middle age IT professional can master them, anyone can 🙂
Start with negatives (down only) and in a tuck. Then go to one leg extended, then work up to two legs extended. Then slow down the negative to 10 second descent.
Once you have a 10 second negative, start going down say 30 degrees and then back up. As you get stronger, you can lower the turn around point.
Turning around at horizontal is flippin hard, but you can get there if you just put enough time in.
I just followed [url= https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/ ]Gymnastics Bodies programming[/url] to get there.
Hoovering when going for a number 2 instead of sitting will work both leg and core muscles...
Or the two I favour are the Russian twist with kettle bell, you balance on your bum with back and feet off the floor and then go to place the kettle bell on the floor on each side of you but dont actually put it down. The other one is where you lie on your back and pretend to ride bike with your legs and then bring your elbow in and across to your opposite knee, no idea what is called, both of these cause me lots of suffering when doing!
no idea what is called
Sounds like a variant of a "Dead Bug".
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^There are pretty exercises in that book, no matter what you might think of the man.
Hoovering when going for a number 2 instead of sitting will work both leg and core muscles...
plus it keeps your toilet free dust free, and the noise covers up embarrassing plops.
go at it like a jack russell on a mop head
Actual genuine lol, thank you!
The Bridge, then try one leg version with other leg extended and parralel with body.