In the interest making a less skewed argument you’d be better off referring someone to check the google results page itself: http://www.google.com/search?q=Dihydrogen+Monoxide
Edit: Core muscles… 36er, with water in tube, figure 8’s
Agreed and I tell my patients all the time, “… I’m going to build you a butt…” 
Always a welcome idea…
That is the crux of the biscuit. I am into BMX and Muni so uni doesn’t work the core as much for me. After a tough Muni ride I may feel like I have done gobs of sit ups.
Dihydrogen Monoxide - Don’t believe the hype. I’ve been giving it to my cat for some time and so far nothing bad has happened.
I had some during a long ride today, that stuff is great
and about core strength, I don’t think unicycling is a super workout for the core. Are the lower back muscles part of the core? Because those get sore but my abs don’t. I used to do martial arts and alot of ab exercises on topog unicycling everyday and my abs/core were really strong, but now I’ve been only unicycling for a few months and my abs are not very good anymore and my core feels weaker.
Unicycling + another activity is probably best to build core strength
Core strength, smore strength. Chiro shmiro . . .
I want to know what we did before we figured out that frozen peas make a great ice pack!!!
Im heading out to buy two more bags right now (and pint of ice cream to celebrate LA Lakers victory!)
From a female perspective. I think those above mentioned and are right, I find that riding on dirt trails especially up hills, works the abs a bit more than street riding in fact one hill today I was riding up and I started to think about this thread, duh, because my abs were burning.
I also find that my lower back (side of back, not middle) tends to get a bit sore after some rides.
I probably ride more pavement riding than trails so when I did the trails today I was thinking about this a bit.
If strengthening my glutes might help then I’m willing to work on it. I continue to find my lower back gets fatigued on serious muni rides.
What’s are a few good exercises?
I myself ride probably 95% Muni and find that this never works my abbs. How ever I do have a small gut and am wondering if this will be more of a core workout when I lose more weight. When I started riding I was around 220 to 230 now I’m at 155ish give or take. This is do to Muni, eating better, and weight lifting. Its usually my thighs right above the knee that hurt some times scream if the ride is hard enough. And taking a drop the wrong way will tweak my back out I’m guessing because of my gut.
(Sorry, I haven’t bothered to read any of the posts past the first page)
I broke my back 11 years ago skiing and am now mostly paralysed below the knees also quite a bit in my hips and glutes. My left side is worse. For me unicycling is all thigh and balance. Learning to ride was REALLY hard for me and there are some basic things I still can’t do, like free mounting, and hopping.
Riding does seem to work my core a bit more than other activities, especially my low back on hills and rough terrain. But overall riding itself, for me doesn’t seem to exercise the core as much as it REQUIRES a strong core. Increasing the strength and endurance of my core muscles (especially hip flexors) significantly smoothed out my riding, as well as reduced the frequency and severity of UPD’s.
If I haven’t been riding technical stuff or exercising my back all week then go for a Muni ride on the weekend my back will be sore the next day from being over worked.
Since my accident I can’t tell the difference in feel between it being sore form tired muscles, or being overly stressed. Because of this I try to keep it from ever happening by working my back for a few days before a Muni ride and not doing any movements that make it sore. Keeping my hamstrings flexible does seem to help.
Holy cow! I’ve got ton’s of respect for you doing this given those limitations. I wish I could get more of my patients to look past their injuries to see all the things they can do. Keep working hard at this and everything else that you can. It will preserve your ability to function.
Right on Man!!
Life is good.
Thanks.
It’s nice to get acknowledged once in a while, but now looking back at my post it looks like bragging which was not my intent.
It was mainly to explain how it may be different for me, since some things seem to go very strongly one way where as other riders are indifferent or even take an opposite position. So, I guess, take those comments about the core and riding w/ a grain of salt.
Anyone else have sore abs after hopping a lot? I’ve been doing more and more just trying to build my control and hop over a 2x4" or down a step and such. My abs are aching now. Just an observation…
Yes, I had this when I first started out, but after a while, you become stronger and barely feel this at all.
Yeah, I agree with Austin. You start to feel it much less as you do it more.
His signature is interesting though… if the chihuahua is blind, what would the strobe light do?
Hey, someone actually go it!
Interesting.
My own observation is increased strength in the lower abs and back. I’ve also noticed increased leg strength in all areas. I also walk a lot too… But these are just that, personal observations. Could there be some kind of statistical useful study that we could create in this thread to prove or disprove the question?
I think this leads back to what my cycling coach said, any exercise is better then no exercise when it comes to disease prevention and personal endurance. This also can be said for all the stupid statements that come out about potential “groin” injuries. You are better off riding a unicycle, bicycle, horse etc. then not exercising. (There were a lot of those comments made when I was an avid road cyclist too. Usually from overweight individuals sitting in a van smoking a something while cramming down a jelly donut - okay that specific example only happened twice).
Anyway, here we have a forum of several hundred unicyclists. It could be interesting to come up with a useful study. Even if the data was deemed “preliminary” based on sample size.
Well, considering that most people here already know how to ride it can be assumed that they may have gotten all the core strength benefit out of unicycling that is possible already. You’d really need some new riders to do baseline and post-uni strength testing on. I think an even more important observation would be rider-oriented outcomes, like weight loss and fall risk reduction. My guess, after riding for 4 months after asking the initial question, is that the most benefit will be from the introduction of any exercise into a sedentary life and possibly the proprioceptive/balance improvements. The core strengthening aspect really does seem to plateau after skill improves unless you consistently increase the complexity and difficulty of the courses you ride.
Nevermind trying to make it a double-blinded placebo controlled trial. 
On second thought, maybe one of these motorized unicycles could be the placebo.
Well, an overly offical study may take more work theny anyone’s interested in, but I wonder if there’s a basic survery on “core strength” that could be created for unicyclists and non unicyclists to fill out. In essence we’d end up with a bunch of averages. It’s a thought.