Monday, January 26, 2009

Learning About Core Strength: Both the Easy Way and the Hard Way

Learning About Core Strength: The Easy Way

I read an article in the latest issue of Bicycling Magazine called "Get Power Abs". It talks about how cyclists who work full time sitting in a cubicle and ride only on the weekends tend to have issues with their lower back, amongst other things. It was a pretty good article and I wish they had an online version I could link to. The article pretty much described me to a "T".

O.K., this week I will try to incorporate some Core Strength training into my routine.

Learning About Core Strength: The Hard Way

Within and hour of reading that article, I went to lift up my youngest daughter and the muscles in my lower back gave out. I was lying flat on my back in the hallway for about an hour.

That sucked!

Like I said, it took about an hour before I was able to pull myself back up. Not an easy thing to do without using you lower back muscles. Luckily I was able to make creative use of my upper body and leg muscles and a door frame to pull myself up.

Needless to say, I did not get up early and get on my bike trainer this morning. However that doesn't mean I am giving up on training this winter. If anything, it is telling me I need to do more training and not just on my bike trainer.

More on Lower Back Pain

Low back pain can affect the back anywhere below the ribs and above the legs. The lower back is the connection between the upper and lower body, and it bears most of the body’s weight. Because of these roles, it is easily injured when you lift, reach, or twist.

Low Back Pain - WebMD.com

2 comments:

Glenn_in_MA said...

I read the Bicycling article on the train today...my thought was that I could be the Poster Child for Sitting Disease...I've been dealing with ITB friction syndrome since 1998 and stretching helps a lot to control it.

Bummer about your back...hope it heals quickly.

Martinator said...

@Glenn_in_MA

Thanks. I am pretty sure I just strained my lower back muscles. I feel about ~90% better.

I am going to make an effort to try and do some of the exercises in that Bicycling article.

I've already made it a point to take more walks around the office.