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Cycling Physiotherapy Centre Newsletter - Jul 2010
July 1, 2010
The 2010 Tour de France is set to start and most of you are no doubt preparing for some late night training on the couch – or perhaps on an indoor trainer. It is wonderful to see that at this stage there will be 11 Australians lining up in Rotterdam, so we will all have plenty to cheer about.
The riders will have spent the last week or two tapering for the event, offering an ideal opportunity for some fine tuning of their physical conditioning. Cadel Evans posted a picture online just a couple of days ago of him during a core stability workout, something that he credits with enabling him to achieve his famously extreme time-trial position and to tolerate the rigoursof a racing season.
As most of you would be aware, core stability has been the flavour of the decade in the field of sports science, and yet most people are not truly aware of what core stability training is aiming to achieve.
In essence, joints can be stabilised by contractile or non-contractile body tissues. Muscles are the most obvious contractile elements, and joints are most effectively stabilised by muscles that are attached closest to the joint. The resultant stability optimises the ability of the joint to tolerate static or dynamic forces.
Based on this principle, ‘core’ stability is usually used to refer to stability of the spine, and the pelvic and shoulder regions, which are considered to be the regions of the body that are central to all movement patterns and postures.
Our primary movement patterns develop in childhood as we learn to roll over, sit up, crawl, stand and walk, and all of these movements require the development of joint stability before effective force generation can occur at that joint.
During childhood development our movement patterns are refined, but certainly not perfected, and everyone has postural and movement asymmetries throughout their life, the most obvious being right or left hand dominance.
As well as these developmental imperfections, habitual postures and activities and any previous or existing injuries all combine to create our unique patterns of joint and core stability or instability. Therefore, everyone can benefit from applying the principles of core stability.
The core stability programs that are developed at Cycling Physiotherapy Centre are specific to the demands of your cycling involvement, and focus upon the activation and integration of deep postural muscle activity during all postures and movements, including cycling, in combination with an effective breathing pattern – but more on the breathing next time.
Until then, Vive Le Tour. Go Aussies!
Best Regards,
Lucas Owen
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