by Jo McRae
Kneeling press-up
Preparation
Adopt the kneeling plank position as described here, with your hands positioned a little wider than your shoulders and your abdominals and glutes actively engaged.
Movement
Lower your body directly to the floor with control, maintaining a straight line through your knees, hips and shoulders, until your hips and chest are touching the ground. Your elbows should move backwards slightly behind your shoulders as you move down and back up from the floor. Pause briefly as your hips touch the floor and then, pushing firmly with your arms and keeping your shoulders pulled down away from your ears, press up to the kneeling plank start position. Your hips and chest should come up off the floor at the same time if you are doing a good job of the press-up.
How many reps and sets?
Perform 8–12 repetitions for 2–4 sets, with 1 minute’s rest in between sets. If you find you cannot do 8 repetitions with good form, just do as many as you can do well until you are able to do 8 in one set. You should be working hard to maintain your position and technique for the last two or three repetitions. If you find that you can do more than 12 good kneeling press-ups you should progress to the full press-up described here.
Full press-up
Preparation
Adopt the full plank position as described here, with your hands positioned a little wider than your shoulders and your abdominals and glutes actively engaged.
Movement
Lower your body directly to the floor with control, maintaining a straight line through your knees, hips and shoulders, until your hips and chest are hovering above the ground. Your elbows should move backwards slightly behind your shoulders as you move down and back up from the floor. Pause briefly as your hips reach the floor. Then push firmly with your arms, keeping your shoulders pulled down away from your ears, press up to the full plank start position. Your hips and chest should move at the same time if you are doing a good job of the press-up.
How many reps and sets?
Perform 8–12 repetitions for 2–4 sets, with 1 minute’s rest in between sets. If you find you cannot do 8 repetitions with good form, just do as many full press-ups as you can do well and then complete the set by dropping to your knees for the kneeling press-up. You should be working hard to maintain your position and technique for the last two or three repetitions. If you find that you can do more than 12 good press-ups, you can progress the exercise by doing more repetitions or finding more challenging variations of the exercise. However, for most cyclists 10–12 good full press-ups is reasonable.
Swiss ball dumbbell chest press (push)
The Swiss ball chest press is an excellent option for cyclists, taking the more traditional bench press and moving it onto the ball for greater core engagement, and for ease of use at home without a bench. The bridge position that forms the basis for this pushing movement helps to strengthen the glutes, upper hamstrings and back, and the instability of the ball helps to stimulate and ‘wake up’ the core muscles while you are working at the push with your upper body. Getting into and out of position can take a bit of practice and it’s important that you master this with only light (or no) load before adding significant weight to the exercise.
This chest press is a good option if you want to emphasize glute and back strength together with pushing strength. It is the safest option if you have a weak core and/or stiff upper back, and struggle with maintaining neutral alignment in the press-up. To ensure your back is safe, practise moving into and out of position first before adding load.
Preparation
Hold your dumbbells at your hips while seated on the ball. From this seated position, walk your feet forwards and keep your weight over the ball until you are in a bridge position with your upper back and head supported by the ball, your chest and hips lifted, and your arms to the sides of your body. When moving into and out of position for this exercise, have faith in the ball and keep your weight firmly over it. The start position for the chest press is with the dumbbells held directly over your elbow as shown in the picture. Your knees should be over your ankles, and your knees, hips and shoulders should make one straight line to form your bridge foundation.
Movement
From this start position, push upwards against the dumbbells, bringing them together at the top of the movement in the centre of your chest, and then lowering them back to the start position by retracing the same pathway. The dumbbells should come up and together and then out and down in a smooth arc.
Keep your chest and hips lifted throughout the movement, with the dumbbells level with your chest (not your shoulders) and your shoulders pulled down away from your ears.
How many reps and sets?
Perform 8–12 repetitions for 2–4 sets, with 1 minute’s rest in between sets. You should be able to do between 8 and 12 repetitions with good form and you should be working hard to maintain your position and technique for the last two or three repetitions. You should start to fail between 8 and 12. If you find that you can do more than 12 repetitions well, you need to progress by adding more weight to the dumbbells.
Swiss ball seated dumbbell shoulder press (push)
The seated shoulder press is a pushing option that emphasizes shoulder strength more than chest strength. As the dumbbells are pressed overhead, it also depends on good flexibility in the upper back in order to achieve good alignment and good form. In order to choose and include this pushing option, you should first ensure that your upper back extends (or bends backwards) well. Using the rib expansion test and the horizontal foam roller exercise from the essential stretching section in Chapter 2 will give you an idea of how flexible you are in this area. If you are unable to perform this exercise as described here, choose one of the other pushing options and come back to the shoulder press later.
If you already have good mobility in your upper back, this overhead press is an excellent option for maintaining flexibility in the upper back while at the same time developing pushing strength overhead. Sitting on the ball to perform the push also allows you to develop seated postural awareness and endurance.
Preparation
Start by sitting upright on the ball, with your feet a little wider than shoulder width and your knees in line with your ankles so that your lower leg is perpendicular. Lift the dumbbells to the start position so that they are just outside and slightly forwards of your shoulders, as shown here. When you look straight ahead you should just be able to see them in the corners of your eyes.
Movement
Keeping your chest lifted and your abdominals engaged, push the dumbbells directly upward, and then bring them together to touch overhead. To achieve this position you will need to extend your upper back by lifting your chest. From this top position, lower the dumbbells back to the start by retracing the same pathway they have just taken. The dumbbells should come up and together overhead, then out and down in a smooth arc, similar to that made with the dumbbell chest press.
How many reps and sets?
Perform 8–12 repetitions for 2–4 sets, with 1 minute’s rest in between sets. You should be able to do between 8 and 12 repetitions with good form and you should be working hard to maintain your position and technique for the last two or three repetitions. You should start to fail between 8 and 12. If you find that you can do more than 12 repetitions well, you need to progress by adding more weight to the dumbbells.
The importance of pulling exercises
For those reasons explained earlier, my first choice of pulling exercises for cyclists would be cable machine exercises where pulling can be combined with squatting, lunging, twisting and bending movements to develop functional upper-body strength together with the legs. However, more ‘isolated’ pull variations that focus specifically on the upper-back muscles can be an important corrective and balancing exercise for cyclists who tend to have weak upper-back muscles together with poor posture and a stiff thoracic spine.
Often cyclists will experience neck problems o
n the bike when the biomechanics of their spine have been altered due to long-standing muscle imbalances and subsequent changes in the bone structure. Stiffness in the upper back transfers excessive strain to the neck, which must bend backwards more so the rider can look forwards at the road ahead.
Mobilizing the thoracic spine together with strengthening the upper back with pulling movements can help maintain a healthy upper back and neck, as well as improving the aesthetic and aerodynamic shape of the back on the bike that every cyclist is looking for.
The bent-over row variations included here, performed with dumbbells, are a good example of somewhat ‘isolated’ pulling exercises that develop the strength of the upper back together with enhancing postural endurance of the lower back by holding the position. The ‘prone cobra’ exercise included in Chapter 4 is even more isolated still, forcing extension of the upper back by lifting the chest off the floor.
Taken together, the prone cobra and these rowing exercises are the most important exercises you can include for strengthening the upper back to improve your cycling position or ‘flat back’ posture, as well as to prevent neck problems.
In terms of cycling performance, in a seated climb where the load is heavy and the pedalling cadence is slow, there should be a natural pulling action on the arm on the same side as the downwards pushing leg. This ‘stabilizing’ force assists by avoiding any movement at the bars while generating as much power as possible through the legs. As the force increases further and the power demands go beyond what is possible seated, when you stand out of the saddle the pulling action through the arms contributes more dynamically to the power and ground speed, moving the bike laterally from left to right and adding precision and power to the ‘stepping’ action on the pedal.
Pulling exercises are not only important for your posture both on and off the bike, but will also help you develop the strength you need in your upper body for improved efficiency when climbing seated in the saddle under heavier load, and in particular when you stand up out of the saddle. Pulling strength is also an important element of sprinting technique, allowing you the strength you need to develop an arm action that complements your leg speed and power.
The bent-over row (pull)
The bent-over row is an essential strengthening exercise that actually ticks two primal pattern boxes in one go, strengthening the upper back with a pulling movement, while strengthening the lower back as you hold the ‘bend’.
You will see some overlap here with the instructions for the dead lift earlier and in fact the first technique drill is exactly the same for both. As always, correct alignment is important in order for the exercise to have maximum impact, so it is worth taking your time to work through the progressions here, starting with getting the basic position right before you add any weight.
Short-stop position (bent-over row preparation)
This short-stop position exercise is an entry level exercise to help you learn to move into the dead-lift position correctly and engage your core muscles in the way that you should to support your back. It is a body weight exercise, and unlike the other dead-lift exercises it is more about developing the correct posture in the movement first, before looking to lift any weight. You will see this same exercise as preparation for the bent-over row too.
Preparation
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider, with your feet turned out a little. Lift your chest and lengthen your spine so that you are as tall as possible.
Movement
Resting your hands on your thighs, tip forwards from your hips so that you maintain a neutral spine, and at the same time bend your knees slightly. Keep tipping forwards in this way until your hands are just above your knees and your body is in a diagonal, as shown in the picture. Your thumb should be resting inside your knee and the rest of your fingers outside. Using a mirror to one side can be particularly helpful in checking that your body looks the way it should if you’re not used to this kind of movement.
Once in this position, straighten your arms, pushing them into your legs so that you are actively using your upper body to brace yourself in the position. Draw your navel in so that you are engaging your deep abdominal muscles, and hold the position. To come out of position, maintain the neutral spine in your back and the sensation of drawing in, and push through your feet and stand upright again, sliding your hands up your thighs as you go.
How many reps and sets?
This exercise is unlike all the other dead lift variations because you are looking to develop postural endurance in the position, rather than strength in the movement. It works well with progressively longer holds within each set, and 1–2 sets of each progression is enough. In the set descriptions below, ‘on’ means that you are in the position, and ‘off’ means that you come out of the position.
10 seconds on, 10 seconds off × 6
20 seconds on, 10 seconds off × 3
30 seconds on, 15 seconds off × 3
45 seconds on, 15 seconds off × 3
Once you can effectively complete the final progression maintaining good form, you can be confident that you can progress to one of the lifting and moving dead lift variations that follow here.
Dumbbell bent-over row
Preparation
Stand tall with good posture with the dumbbells resting on your upper thighs. From here, tip forwards from the hips, lengthening your lower back and bending your knees slightly. As you tip forward, allow the dumbbells to slide down your thighs until they are hanging just above and slightly forwards of your knee.
Movement
From this hanging position, pull the dumbbells upwards and into your body in a rowing action, leading with your elbows so that they come out and wide of your body. At the end of the pulling movement, make sure that your shoulder blades squeeze together. For this exercise I recommend a brief pause in this ‘squeeze’ position to emphasize the work in the mid-back muscles and make sure your neck is relaxed. Then, lower the dumbbells back to the start position, retracing the vertical line that they followed on the way up.
How many reps and sets?
Perform 8–12 repetitions for 2–4 sets, with 1 minute’s rest in between sets. You should be able to do between 8 and 12 repetitions with good form and you should be working hard to maintain your position and technique for the last two or three repetitions. You should start to fail between 8 and 12. If you find that you can do more than 12 repetitions well, you need to progress by adding more weight to the dumbbells.
Swiss ball prone row
This Swiss ball prone row is a good variation if you struggle with the position and alignment of the ‘bend’ part of the bent-over row, allowing you to work the muscles of the upper back (and lower back) without needing to hold the sometimes difficult bent-over position. It’s more isolated than the standing bent-over row and therefore is a crossover exercise between strength and core.
Here I am working with Jake to get him in a good short-stop/bent-over row/dead-lift position. For some cyclists, this will remain a struggle without anyone helping you to get the position right. If you have tried to get into position for the dead lift and bent-over row, and struggled, this next exercise is a good option for you to try.
Preparation
For this exercise you need to rest your feet against a wall or solid piece of furniture. Lying over the ball on your front, position your feet wide against the wall so that the balls of your feet are in contact with the ground and your heels are up the wall. Position the ball so that it’s underneath your hips and pelvis, not too far forwards or back. You should place the dumbbells slightly in front of the ball and to the sides, so that you can reach them easily as you prepare for the rowing movement.
Next, take hold of the dumbbells and push your hips firmly into the ball, thrusting your hips forwards and tucking your tail bone down at the back. Actively engage your core as you then lift your upper back off the ball into the ready position.
Movement
Maintaini
ng the extended position throughout the rowing exercise, pull the dumbbells upwards and outwards in a rowing action, leading with your elbows so that they come out and wide of the ball. At the end of the pulling movement, make sure that your shoulder blades squeeze together. For this exercise I recommend a brief pause in this ‘squeeze’ position to emphasize the work in the mid-back muscles. Then, lower the dumbbells back to the start position, retracing the line that they followed on the way up. It’s important with this variation that you keep your body still as you move your arms in the rowing action. You may find that your legs and back are working quite hard just to hold the position, but this is part of the exercise, so persevere and you will find you get stronger.
How many reps and sets?
Perform 8–12 repetitions for 2–4 sets, with 1 minute’s rest in between sets, relaxing forwards over the ball. You should be able to do between 8 and 12 repetitions with good form and you should be working hard to maintain your position and technique for the last two or three repetitions. You should start to fail between 8 and 12. If you find that you can do more than 12 repetitions well, you need to progress by adding more weight to the dumbbells.
Twisting options
The classic standing twisting movements are variations of the ‘chop’, in which the prime movers are the abdominal obliques that rotate the core, together with the associated ‘anterior sling’ muscles from the adductor of the inner thigh, to the opposite shoulder. In the ‘reverse chop’ (its opposing movement), the prime movers are those that rotate the core from behind – the ‘posterior sling’ from the glute on the driving leg to the opposite latissimus dorsi.