Exercise bicycle for the press - pros and cons, technique and execution options

What muscles work in the bicycle exercise?

The lying bike exercise is a complex movement that focuses on the abs and lower body. The movement involves most muscle groups, although they are usually divided into primary (directly involved) and secondary (help stabilize the body or work partially).

The main burden falls on:

• Press – straight, external and internal oblique, transverse.
• Back – erector spinae, semispinalis, deep muscle group.
• Pelvis – straight femoral, iliopsoas, pectineal, sartorius.
• Legs – hamstrings, gluteals.

Even though the movement is performed to develop the abs, it is important to understand which muscles work in the bicycle exercise. This will allow you to correctly distribute the load and better think through recovery.

Auxiliary:

• Quadriceps femoris muscle.
• Calf.
• Soleus.
• Latissimus.
• Deltoid.
• Big round.
• Diamond-shaped.
• Trapezoidal.

Which muscles the bike works directly depends on the technique used. Some of the auxiliary groups are included only in cases where the exercise is performed with the pelvis lifted off the floor (hands supporting the lower back).

Analysis of the exercise

What muscles work

The exercise is an effective complex movement that engages all the abdominal and core muscles. This allows you to get rid of a flabby protruding belly and tighten your sides. The movement is performed both as part of strength training and as a general physical training exercise for a runner or representative of team sports.

The movement involves:

• Rectus abdominis muscle;
• Oblique;
• Transversus muscle

The latissimus muscles and also the gluteal muscles are involved in the movement as stabilizers. Additionally, the exercise may work the quadriceps and hamstrings, but they are not the target muscles.

Trainees should avoid straining the cervical spine, so hand pressure on the back of the head is not allowed.

Preparing for the exercise

It is worth doing a cardio warm-up, you can supplement it with slight bends to the sides or forward. The exercise is performed in 3-4 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

How to do an ab bike correctly

• The key point of this exercise is to constantly press your back to the floor. The exercise is performed by twisting the abs, and not by any additional movement of the shoulders or hips. They should just be avoided;
• You should not gain inertia and raise your legs and buttocks high, as well as with a sharp jerking movement go to the buttocks;
• For beginners, the movement is usually described as touching the elbow to the knee, but in reality the tension is more important;
• Ideally, you will need to tighten your abs and bring the lower ribs to the pelvic bones;

Errors

• Moving the body on the floor is not allowed;
• There is no need to tear off the lower back;
• You should also not put pressure on your head with your hands;
• Performing a movement with too short an amplitude is a technical error;
• If you have to work at speed and perform movements in a small amplitude, the working muscles are not pumped. Therefore, it is better to choose a slow pace.

Increased efficiency

• You can do this exercise with mini-bends, that is, additionally statically load the abs and activate the thigh muscles;
• Sometimes it is advised to put weights on your feet and take dumbbells in your hands, this also works;
• Finally, you can perform the exercise with a rubber expander;
• It’s better not to touch the floor with your spatulas
• Inclusion in the program
• The exercise can be performed at least every strength training session. It can be performed in 4-5 sets and 10-25 repetitions.
• More experienced athletes include it in the program, working to failure. It should be understood that the more exercises in the program that involve the core, for example, squats and deadlifts, the less additional isolating movements on the abs are needed.

The benefits and harms of exercise

Benefits of cycling exercise:

• Tones muscles, improves posture, strengthens core.
• Accelerates fat burning, improves muscle definition.
• Significantly increases endurance.
• Simultaneous training of the rectus and oblique abdominal muscles.
• Visual narrowing of the waist.

downside is how many calories cycling burns. Due to the difficulty of performing the movement, it can only be done for short sessions, so in terms of calorie loss it loses to running, cycling and other types of cardio (and is ideal for the HIIT method).

Number of approaches and repetitions

The number of approaches and repetitions depends on the level of physical development of the person. With a small number of repetitions, a beginner will pump up the abs well without causing harm to the body.

Training table:

How to do an ab bike while lying on your back

In the classic version, the movement is performed without lifting the pelvis from the floor. The benefits of the bicycle exercise lying on your back in this version are optimal, taking into account the complexity, efficiency and other criteria.

Execution technique (regular version):

1. Lie on the floor with your arms along your body to maintain balance (you can hold on to any support if you cannot stabilize your body).
2. Raise your legs at a 45 degree angle.
3. Perform alternate rotational movements (imitation of spinning pedals in the air).

The higher your legs rise, the harder the execution becomes. Therefore, before doing cycling exercises for the first time, check your physical capabilities. If you can easily perform 3-4 sets of 60 seconds, gradually increase the load.

What is this anyway?

“Bicycle” is an extremely simple movement that is done while lying down. Here is its description: it is done lying on your back, the limbs imitate the movements that a cyclist makes. The movement is aimed at working the hip flexors, legs, and abs. The movement is universal, suitable for almost everyone, its benefits are maximum, the technique is simple. In this case, you do not need any special physical training, no equipment, no suit and shoes, much less a trainer.

An important point: the muscles recover very quickly after this activity. Therefore, if desired and possible, it can be done every day for maximum and quick effect.

Technique for lying down bicycle with body elevation

This version is aimed at maximizing the inclusion of the oblique abdominal muscles. However, in order to properly do an ab bike in this version, you need to control the pace of rotation of the legs (synchronize with the work of the arms).

Technique:

1. Lie down on the floor. Place your hands at the back of your head, spread your elbows to the sides. Raise your legs up at an angle of 45 degrees.
2. Start slowly rotating your right leg. At the moment when the knee comes as close to the chest as possible, slightly rotate the body and try to bring the left elbow to the knee.
3. After this, do the same bringing your right elbow to your left knee.

Despite the fact that the speed of rotation of the legs in the exercise is much slower, this technique is considered quite difficult. By 40-50 seconds, a strong burning sensation will be felt in the abdominal muscles, which indicates that the abs are receiving sufficient load. It is best to perform this option in short but intense sessions (30-60 seconds each).

Execution technique

Exercise cycling is not as easy as it might seem at first glance. Therefore, we will consider two options for its implementation (from simple to complex).

Rotate the pedals

For beginners, a gradual increase in load is suitable. Therefore, first you should learn to simply “turn the pedals.” Let's take the starting position:

1. Lie down on the floor (you can use a yoga mat or similar for more comfort). Press your lower back to the floor, place your hands behind your head and spread your elbows to the sides.
2. Tightening your abdominal muscles (without arching your lower back), raise your legs so that your thighs are perpendicular to the floor surface, and your shins, in turn, are parallel. It's like you're sitting on an invisible chair.
3. Keeping your lower back in mind, begin to rotate your legs as if you were pedaling. Try to feel and fully control the work of the abdominal muscles.

Take your time, proper technique is more important than speed. The number of approaches depends on your preparation.

The lower back does not come off the floor.
To start, you can perform two sets of ten repetitions. Then build up to three to five sets of twenty reps. Then try to move from a simplified version to a full-fledged technique.

Doing the exercise correctly

The technique is as follows:

1. The starting position is similar - lie down on the floor, put your hands behind your head, spread your elbows.
2. Tighten your abdominal muscles and raise your legs to a small height. Legs should be straight.
3. As you exhale, pull one leg toward your body while simultaneously lifting your head and shoulder blades from the floor. Perform a twist by touching the elbow of the opposite arm to the knee of the leg. That is, if you pulled up your right leg, touch your knee with the elbow of your left hand.
4. Return to the starting position while inhaling. Continue to pull your legs up one at a time, touching your knees with your elbows as you twist.

Try to make all movements as smoothly as possible, avoid sudden jerks. Only in this case the effect will be maximum.

How to do a standing bike

The standing bicycle exercise is not the most popular option. But it can be shown to beginners to strengthen the muscle corset and gradually move on to more complex versions.

Technique:

1. Stand up straight, back straight, feet shoulder-width apart. Hands are brought together at the back of the head, elbows to the side.
2. Begin to raise your right leg (bending at the knee) as high as possible. Closer to the peak point, tilt your body so that your left elbow is as close to your knee as possible.
3. Return your leg to the floor and repeat the movement on the other side.

It is important that when trying to bring the elbow to the knee, the back remains straight. This will strengthen the obliques and improve performance.

The effectiveness of abdominal exercises[edit | edit code]

Numerous studies agree that bicycle crunches are the most effective exercise for the rectus abdominis and building a 6-pack. EMG data (researcher Dr. Peter Francis, Biomechanics Lab, San Diego State University) of muscle activity during various abdominal exercises showed the following values:

• bicycle (248%);
• hanging knee lifts on uneven bars (212%);
• crunches on a fitball (139%);
• reverse crunches (109%);
• straight crunches lying on the floor (100%).

Common Mistakes

Despite the simple technique, athletes often make a number of mistakes. They not only reduce the efficiency of movement, but can also have a detrimental effect on the condition of the spine.

Main mistakes:

• Raising your head - if your hands are not behind the back of your head (as in the usual version), it is correct to do the movement with your head firmly pressed to the floor. This will ensure the natural position of the spine and avoid injuries to the cervical region.
• Pulling the head with your hands - in variants when the hands are brought together at the back of the head, it is necessary to completely relax them. Athletes often pull their body with their arms, trying to bring their head closer to their legs. This not only reduces the benefit of the entire work, but is also guaranteed to lead to problems in the cervical spine.
• Lack of concentration and tension - a large number of muscles work in movement. If you do not focus on the abdomen, maintaining tension, the load will be distributed to other areas.
• Fidgeting body - your back should be close to the floor. A destabilized body significantly reduces efficiency and reduces stress on the press.

Basic errors during execution

Performing the exercise using the muscles of the legs and buttocks

Many athletes do not quite correctly understand the essence of performing the bicycle exercise. They focus on bringing their elbows together with their knees, completely forgetting to include the abs in the process. But our main task is to load the abdominal muscles as much as possible. To do this, we must exhale, pull in the stomach a little and try to bring the lower ribs to the pelvis. This moment will allow us to tighten our abs. This is why there is an option for beginners. So that we can learn to tense the muscle groups that we want to load.

Hand twisting

That is, at the moment when the athlete, performing an exercise, begins to put pressure on his head with his hands. Thus trying to bring the upper body closer to the pelvis. This approach can lead to injury to the cervical vertebrae. To avoid this, it is best to place your palms next to your ears. This way we will completely eliminate the possibility of helping ourselves with our hands. And we can only rely on the abdominal muscles.

Lifting the lower back off the floor

When we lift our lower back off the floor, we create additional stress on the spine. Also, transferring weight to the pelvis will affect balance. And instead of concentrating on the work of the press. We will put a lot of effort into stabilizing the body. Of course, we are not talking about the option where we raise the pelvis and hold the lower back with our hands in weight.

What is the best thing not to do for proper training?

There are many common mistakes that anyone can make when training at home.

Gradually increase your practice time

Here are some of them:

1. One of the most common mistakes is helping yourself with your hands when you start to raise your body or bring your elbows together. But this is completely the wrong way, the back muscles should not work, because in this way the load also falls on the neck, which has a very negative effect on the body. The press should be used exclusively.
2. When you start working and changing legs, you don't need to rock your pelvis. This is how you completely eliminate any stress on the abs, and all your efforts will be in vain and ineffective.
3. You should never rush: your main goal is excellent abs, not endurance. If you think only about speed and the number of times you do it, your muscles will work much less.