Abdominal Fatigue Impairs Anaerobic, but not Aerobic,Cycling Performance in Untrained Adults

Abstract

Relevance. Coaches and athletes across a variety of sports commonly perform abdominal exercises to promote core strength and endurance. However, the precise influence of abdominal strength and endurance on cycling performance remains elusive. Purpose. Determine whether abdominal fatigue affects anaerobic sprint and aerobic time- trial (TT) cycling performance. Methods. Twenty-three untrained young adults (age: 19,2 ± 1,0 years, height: 170,4 ± 7,5 cm, and weight: 74,5 ± 14,1 kg) participated in this study. Twelve of the participants completed two Wingate anaerobic power tests on a Monark 834 E ergometer set at 7,5 % of body mass and the remaining 11 participants completed two 3,2 km cycling TTs on an Expresso S3U virtual reality bike; tests were separated by 96 hours. All participants performed abdominal crunches to fatigue prior to the second test. Dependent t-tests were used to assess differences between the cycling trials for the two groups. Results. Abdominal muscle fatigue decreased mean anaerobic power (Pre: 486,75 vs. Post: 408,83 Watts (W, p < 0,001), increased the rate of fatigue (Pre: 42,01 vs. Post: 50,32 %, p = 0,004), and tended to decrease peak anaerobic power (Pre: 643,17 vs. Post: 607,27 W, p = 0,088). However, abdominal muscle fatigue did not affect TT mean power (Pre: 228,18 vs. Post: 220,09 W, p = 0,127) or TT performance (Pre: 382,7 vs. Post: 388,0 seconds, p = 0,222). Conclusion. Abdominal fatigue negatively affects anaerobic cycling performance in untrained young adults. Future studies should evaluate the impact of abdominal fatigue on cycling performance in trained cyclists.