Yoga for Cyclists, part 12: Abdominals

We've been banging on for weeks now about how yoga can help your core, those deep structural muscles that hold it all together when you're on (or off) the bike. The abs are the muscle group you'll most likely think of when you're trying to improve your core, but we'd urge you to look after them in tandem with the other muscles in your trunk, or you'll end up with an inbalance.

With that warning out of the way, on to the exercises.

Road.cc's resident yoga expert Karen Burt demonstrates the 'boat pose' - an exercise that can be adapted for all abilities, and poor inflexible Tony only gets to stage 1.

But the beauty of yoga is the speed at which you'll find yourself improving, and you can take it further as you feel ready and your core muscles strengthen. Karen goes on to show the further stages, which you can move onto.

You'll find you shake when you do the exercises, and that'll show you where the weakness is in your core, and you can work on that by moving in and out of the posture.

Once you've mastered this exercise, try building it in with the other road.cc Yoga for Cyclists videos to build your own personalised yoga regime to keep you fit and flexible through the new season.

>>Read more: Our full Yoga for Cyclists series.