Article 1
Here's a novel approach to clearing the lactate from your legs after training, engage your core stabilising muscles. Navalta and Hrncir looked into whether standard core body exercises would speed up recovery (through lactate metabolism) after an intense 30 s sprint on an exercise bike.1 They found that when compared to quiet resting, lactate removal was significantly quickened by five minutes of simple core body exercises. We can't show you the images of the three exercises from the article, so here are some we're allowed* to use, demonstrating 2 of the exercises.
2 seconds up, 2 seconds hold, 4 seconds down
Hold for 8 seconds
A proposed reason for this is that the exercises encourage blood flow to the core muscles, these muscles are mostly slow-twitch fibres and thus have a good ability to do aerobic respiration. Aerobic respiration is the process that is able to re-use the lactate in our blood to get energy. Therefore, the exercises send blood high in lactate to muscles that can do a good job of removing it quickly.
So there you go, I now expect to see riders doing bridging exercises after each race to improve their recovery between races ;-)
Article 2
Our second report today focuses on what sort of resistance training is best for generating the most lower-limb power improvements. Participants were tested in 20, 40 and 60 yard running sprints, vertical jump, standing broad jump and agility (T-Agility test). They then completed 4 weeks of either heavy-resistance training, plyometrics, or complex training. With the exception of vertical jump (where plyometrics alone was best), all measures were improved the most by complex training.2 The results of the study are likely to hold true over the long term, but what's great is that we know that if you only have a short time to improve your power, the combined approach of heavy-resistance and plyometrics is really valuable.
1. Navalta, J., & Hrncir, S Jnr. (2007). Core stabilization exercises enhance lactate clearance following high-intensity exercise. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(4), 1305-1309.
2. Dodd, D., & Alvar, B. (2007). Analysis of acute explosive training modalities to improve lower-body power in baseball players. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 21(4), 1177-1182.
* Lehman, G., Hoda, W., & Oliver, S. (2005). Trunk muscle activity during bridging exercises on and off a swissball. Chiropractic and Osteopathy, 13(14), pages no. unknown. Licensed under Creative Commons 2 License .
