Category Archives: Cycling strength training

Response to facebook poll, “Do you strength train in the gym during the cycling season, to maintain offseason strength gains?”

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In regards to the Facebook poll  on strength maintenance training in the season.

I believe that correct use of weights in the gym that is converted into bike strength makes sense, esp. for guys like me that aren’t naturally strong but have lots of endurance,  i.e slow twitch muscle fiber or poor neuromuscular strength, and for people new to riding or getting back in shape. One of the first things Lance did in his comeback training was regaining muscular strength by weight lifting. Don’t believe me check this out

I was asking cycling friends in Facebook because I’m having trouble fitting in even one strength maintenance session a week, as it leaves me sore and interferes with my bike schedule it seems. I’m concerned about losing strength gains from the off-season if I don’t strength train to maintain it during the season.

My concern is that I would loose what I gained this winter if I don’t continue, but I think what I’m finding is that I’m riding  harder now and that riding itself when you’re hammering  at a new harder level is enough to maintain strength during the season, you’ll probably loose a some maximum strength, but that is probably good as you want to convert it into muscular endurance anyway for the most part, unless you’re track sprinter or something.

The authorities on training agree that you have to do at least some strength training in the season to maintain gains made in the off-season, but I think that if you’re racing and training hard enough, you can get by without it perhaps.

What I’ve been doing is reducing the volume and frequency of strength training in the gym, but I think I need to also reduce the intensity just enough so that I’m not sore the next day, the point is not to break down muscle to get stronger but to maintain it’s ability to generate force, and also to keep neuromuscular coordination efficiency. I think this can be done by doing a weight that lets me do about 15 reps,  and making sure I’m not going to muscle failure, and only doing the minim 3-4 sets and doing it only once per week. I think the critical thing to modulate is the intensity,  and I think it’s different for different people, so I might only need to do 15 reps of 50% 1RM (one rep max) where another person might need to do more or less to maintain. I would decide by how sore you are the next couple days and also when you do your training fitness progress tests, I would check your 1RM and see how much you’re losing, if you’re losing too much you might need to do more? But I think this also has to be taken with a grain of salt as it depends what type of physiology you have, what type of event you’re training for etc.

So someone that is a slowtwich fiber dominant person, training for an iron-man probably can get a away with doing less weight then someone that is a track sprinter. But I believe everyone should be training strength and endurance and maintain it through the season, regardless of their individual specality,  it’s just a matter of how much focus and time you’d put into one vs. the other that matters.

On bike strength training, get strong like Conan

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*Big note, keep in mind that the training I’m doing is specific to my strengths and weaknesses, If I was able to ride 25-30MPH for a few miles, but had trouble finishing a century ride, then my training would be very different.  But I have no trouble with endurance, it’s my strength and speed, acceleration etc. that have always been my weak point. I spend 80% of my time working on my weakness and 20% of my time improving and maintaining my endurance.

Having strong legs in cycling is an asset no matter the naysayers might preach. Of course strength isn’t everything, but I believe it is one of the main raw ingredients to improvement in most sports including cycling. Being stronger means that you can convert this new found strength into endurance so that you can ride fast for longer periods of time. Yes spinning is important, but if you’d try to “spin” the kind of gears the pros are spinning you’d quickly find out in a matter of seconds, that there certainly is an element of strength involved when you try to ride or “spin” the same gears.

I’ve been training strength and muscular endurance over the whole winter and it’s really amazing what it’s doing for my riding. I’ve been at if for 6 months now, and I’ve seen my 1 mile TT test I do on the stationary bike jump from 330watts to 500watts average. My longer ~12minute TT test I’ve also seen improve by over 100watts as well. And that was only after Base1 cycle, now I’m in Base2 cycle and the ME muscular endurance phase, which is where I last saw the biggest jump in my times and power and expect to set some new PB this month. I can hold over 500watts for about 3/4 of the distance on my short TT test course, and I’m sure once I do 2-3 weeks of ME muscular endurance training, I’ll be able to finish the last 30 seconds of the course over 500watts. And I’m sure the longer 10 minute TT should see some improvement also hopefully.

I think it makes sense to do both weight lifting and on bike training to build cycling strength.  I think starting the offseason by emphasizing weights, and then as spring draws near doing more on bike strength training so that your new found strength is specific and translates to real improvement on the bike.

I split my offseason training into two periodization cycles, the first was more general, building raw leg strength in the gym, cardio endurance, core strength etc. My periodization plan has been roughly a 15 week cycle as follows

  1. 1 x month of Hypertrophy
  2. 1x week unloading/rest preparing for the start of the next 4 weeks of hard training
  3. 1 x month of MS maximum strength training
  4. 1x week unloading/rest preparing for the start of the next 4 weeks of hard training
  5. 1x month of ME short/medium/long – Since road racing, requires not only endurance, but the ability to close gaps and sprint to the finish
  6. 1x week rest again

Now I’m on the second strength cycle and I’m alternating between working strength in the gym and on the bike.  I still like doing to the gym once a week or every other week, because I find that I can work on my main weakness which is strength more effectively in the gym, but I can’t do it all in the gym because it’s not specific enough to rely on by itself, that’s where on bike strength training kicks in.

I’m also starting to build up my base miles more around this time as well, but I try to keep my long 2-3 hr rides at an easy or moderate pace so it doesn’t interfere with my hard key training days of the week, but I find it’s difficult to have an easy to moderate day around here, because I live in a hilly terrian, and I’m at least 25lbs overweight from my ideal weight.  Plus it’s hard to ride slow on the roads, with cars flying by you. I find it easier to go for an low intensity mountain bike ride instead, just drop it into the granny gear and spin away for hours.

Depending on which of the 3 periods I’m in, I’ll adjust how I do my on bike training sessions.

  1. For Hypertrophy periods, I do on bike training by focusing on short efforts like short steep hill repeats, maybe for 1 minute or so and I try to keep the rest between short too, the idea is fatigue the muscle fibers and exhaust them, not necessarily push them as hard as possible. If I was in the gym, I’d be doing squats and leg presses aiming for 10-15 reps, with short 1 minute rests between sets. and doing enough sets to make sure the muscle is exhausted.
  2. For MS maximum strength periods, I’ll do very steep but short hill repeats with a long break between sets so that I each hill repeat is maximum effort. I the idea is not to tire out the energy reserves in your muscles like Hypertrophy, but to stress out the muscle fibers ability to maintain maximum tension. I drop the bike down into a low gear to where I’m barely able to pedal up the short steep hill, I get in maybe 20-30 pedal revolutions. It’s almost like weight lifting on the bike, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I snap another chain doing this lol. This is my first offseason training for cycling, so I’m just experimenting and trying different things. I still think that nothing beats weights to train strength, you’ll break your bike or hurt your knees or simply fall over if you really pushed hard enough I think ahhaa. The neat thing is that it’s gets so hard going up hills like this I start using my upper body and I get out of the saddle like I’m doing a sprint, pulling on the bars etc. I’m sure this is building core strength too, it looks really stupid, but I can’t image doing super hard hill repeats like this isn’t beneficial. If I was in the gym, I’d be doing really heavy squats and leg presses where I could only do the maximum 6 reps.  I’d take long breaks between sets, and possibly do a high number of sets.
  3. For ME Muscular Endurance short/medium/long – I do more cycling specific training as I think you want to be much more careful about translating ME strength to the specific motion of cycling then with Maximum strength, you can only really train MS in the gym. You can train ME in the gym also, but I focus mostly on the stationary bike, and single leg exercises. I do some high rep squats, with some sets having 50 reps or more, but I do this mostly to build endurance in my back muscles,  and pre-fatigue my legs for the real torture that’s to come.  On the stationary bike, I’ll do a few hard 2 minute all out efforts, for ME short/medium, then I’ll also do 1-2x 10 minute TT efforts on the expresso bike, these are basically all out efforts. I’ve read that some coaches say on bike strength training should have your heart rate in zones 1-3, but I don’t know what they’re talking about, because when I’m donig high reps in the gym with a moderately heavy weight, my heart rate is high, same thing when I’m on the bike. Also I think ME should be trained at a high intensity, each repetition should be preformed explosively and fluidly and without stopping, you should not be executing this reps slow or pausing and taking breaks, even though it’s very tempting as this training is some of the hardest I’ve done, but also the most rewarding as it forges together in a hot fire the raw ingredients of raw strength and cardio endurance you’ve been building, into one synergistic effort that resembles the most demanding aspects of cycling, charging up hills, closing gaps, Time Trialing turning yourself inside out.  Also it only makes sense that your big leg muscles being worked to the max are gonig to send your heart rate flying, as your heart is a muscle too that feeds those legs. Keep in mind that one of the most significant improvements to cardiovascular endurance is increased heart stroke volume, and doing really hard efforts in ME can only help this, I’m sure that your LT/AT will also go up as well.

Is it possible to increase cardiovascular fitness through strength training?

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An idea dawned on me a couple weeks ago about that has stayed in my head like a “thorn in the mind”.

My question is, “Could it be possible that having stronger legs will force the cardiovascular system to also get stronger?”.

I’ve noticed a big improvement in my cycling from working on my main weakness which is strength. When I used to do my threshold efforts before it would be my legs that where burning and failing that slowed me down. Granted my heart rate was sky high as I was riding at threshold, I felt like when it came down to it, I could have kept pushing harder, but my legs just wouldn’t do it, they where spent.  Another big clue was that after doing a short time trial and riding until failure then recovering my legs felt like butter, they where done, even riding slow my legs would feel weak for the rest of the training session. It’s like once I pushed my leg muscles past a certain point, that was it, there was not coming back, the muscle had failed not my cardio system.

The biggest thing to improve with cardiovascular improvement is your heart muscle and it’s stroke volume. But you can’t lift weight with your heart muscle, you can’t make your heart muscle do squats or bench presses. So what is the best way to work the heart muscle? Is it through riding miles and miles of  riding? Or riding intervals? Almost everyone that I asked in a recent survey I did agrees that intervals are one the best known ways to get faster, but why? Did you every stop to wonder how intervals change your body?

  1. they make your leg muscles stronger
  2. they make your heart muscle stronger
  3. they also cause other adaptions but I think the first two are the main improvements

Now it would seem to me that the heart and your legs would have to be somewhat balance to match each other’s ability. It would seem strange to me that someone with skinny little legs that can barely sustain 15mph pace would need or have, or be able to develop a big strong heart with a large stroke volume. You’re body’s muscles don’t have the ability to build up enough demand to stress out your heart enough to make it burn and want to grow bigger and stronger.

I guess it would be possible with a lot of effort, maybe by running or doing something that used more then just your legs muscles, maybe like running or swimming or cross country skiing, to force your “fuel pump” to work overtime and get stronger. But from what I’ve experienced in cycling training is that it’s easier to blow your leg muscles out before your cardio system is exhausted. I think running is “better” for cardio then cycling for a lot of people because the muscular strength demand is less and spread across the whole body, both the legs and the upper body, so the demand for the heart to feed all the those muscles and to feed your legs which are moving fast but with little resistance cause you’re heart to work hard. I think to get an equally hard cardio workout on the bike requires leg muscles that are fairly strong, but more importantly have strength endurance, the ability to pedal hard for long periods of time.

Another thought too is that spinning at a faster RPM can also help target the heart muscle and cardio system better. But when riding for maximum speed I find that the effort is balanced over the cardio and leg muscles for the most part, and depending on the rider they may be riding at a faster RPM easier gear and using more cardio, or using more muscular strength by riding a lower rpm harder gear. 

I guess the counter arguments would be that

  1. because of your weak cardio system, it’s making your legs fail prematurely, if you had a stronger cardio system it would be able to feed your legs more fuel and oxygen and not cause you to go anaerobic.
    I was a fast runner at one point, and got into racing MTB, it wasn’t until I increased my intensity and started doing hard hill climbs and put on some leg muscle did my riding improve greatly, also my running improved a lot as well.
    We use to do intervals running etc, but nothing seemed to push me to the puke level like charging up steep hills on my bike, esp. when my legs got stronger and I could ride harder longer, this I think really forced my heart to catch up in strength as well.
  2. Strength training doesn’t help cycling it’s not specific
    If you train wrong that could be possible, but I’ve seen with my very own eyes what a huge improvement strength can make in cycling and other sports. I’m a strong advocate of strength training for cycling, and almost any sport, and in life in general. I also believe in doing cardiovascular training as well of course. I think for athletes with a lot of natural strength, it might be possible that they don’t get as much benfit. But I am very suspcious of any serious athletic coach that doesn’t recommend at least some strength training for their athletes. I’m not alone on this either, there’s a reason why Lance’s coach has him hitting the weights in the winter.
  3. You can still push your heart muscle hard by doing full body aerobic sports, even if your leg muscles are failing to push you to the limit in cycling.
    This I could see as a valid point and perhaps why two of the greatest cyclists Eddie Merckx and Greg Lemond both did cross country skiining in the offseason.
    But for many cyclists, they don’t do much cross training, so I question their ability to train their cardio system hard enough if they’re riding with legs that aren’t very strong.

These are all my crazy theories, but I just wanted to write them down so I dont’ forget what I’m thinking.

Why good form and lifting technique BURNS!!!!

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I learned today that using the correct technique for box step ups makes this exercise much much harder and really gets the quads fired up like nothing else! The trick is to do this exercise with proper form and technique by

1. lifting the opposite leg into the air at the top of the position and NOT resting it at the top of the bench or chair etc.
2. coming back down with control, so that you get more out of the down part of the motion and it makes it harder
3. focus on blasting up with power and speed, then coming back down with control
4. basically it’s one fluid motion from start to finish
5. don’t alternate legs either, you blast one leg at a time.
6. Don’t rest to long when you come back down, pop right back up

If you do this right, your quads will be on fire! I could only do about ½ the reps this way compared to when cheating. And doing this after having done squats and leg presses, my quads where on fried lol I could only do one working set. I think it made it even harder by saving this one for last after having already done 10 sets of squats and leg presses.

I also learned today that the 45 degree leg press sled might not be the best thing for muscular endurance high rep sets as.

My heels where coming off and my feet moving around when I don’t have a bunch of weight loaded on it, probably because I’m not the flexible either.

Since your legs are basically in the air, I think this interferes with the blood flow, I think it’s easier and more natural to get the blood circulating when you’re upright. But on the other hand maybe not having enough blood flow and get a wicked burn because of that will teach the leg muscles to deal with working in a fuel starved, high lactate environment better?

An old dog and his new tricks

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I’ve been riding bikes on and off my whole life and through the years I “trained” as best as I could, but I think since the last time I was seriously biking about 9 years ago I have learned the most about training and my own body and how it reacts and what works best for me. I might not be 20 years old and have the suborn strength and endurance of someone that age, but I think I have learned a lot more in recent years that’s really helping me now, things that I wish I had known then, I really wish I would have had a really good coach when I was younger.

Here’s a highlight of some of the things I’ve learned over the years

  1. Strength: I’ve learned that my body is built for endurance but at the sacrifice of strength, I have above average endurance esp. for someone of my size, but I have average or below average strength.  I think for every sport a person most become technically good at the sport, but there comes a point where speed, strength, agility, flexibility etc. are the things that need to be improved on to reach high levels in most sports. I’ve found this to be very true with rock climbing and in cycling, but of which I’ve trained for very hard and specifically to improve strength. My climbing improved by 1/3 and I was climbing at an elite level after spending an off season of strength training. My body seems to respond well to strength training,  and training in general. I’m not sure if other people would see such an improvement, I imagine they would but I don’t know other people’s bodies like I know mine. Now I’m employ the things I learned from strength training for rock climbing, and just general strength training and body building and apply that to my cycling.  And from what I’ve seen over the last 3 months of strength training I’ve been doing for my legs and core and even my heart muscle which I’m “strength training” as well, the improvement in my power output on the bike has been dramatic for me. And I’m excited as I’ve never been in such good cycling shape and I know that I’m only scratching the surface since I still have weight to lose and there’s no way that in only 3 months of strength training I’ve reached my genetic potential in my leg strength.
  2. Natural diet: I’ve learned about how critical a healthy diet is, how important fresh raw organic vegetables and fruits are for our bodies. How some foods make us weak and tired, and other foods make us feel strong, energetic, light and fast.
  3. Periodized diet:  I’ve learned that you should eat differently depending on what your body needs, what type of training or stress you have going on at the moment, the climate you live in, and your body type etc.
  4. Strength to weight ratio: I’ve learned that when I was running a lot and was very light, I was able to rock climb much more gracefully and efficiently, with little forearm strength training I was able to jump on what where hard climbs and actually climb them.
  5. Cardio stregth and how it helps rock climbing: I noticed also when rock climbing that not only was it easier when I was light from running a lot and being very thin, but also that my new found cardio endurance helped feed my arm muscles fuel, and also most importantly my climbing technique was very good even things got tuff because I was able to breath through it and have oxygen going to my brain so I could think clearly and have cordination. Usually when you climb at your limit your often start holding your breath and becoming stiff, when that starts it’s only seconds before you pop off.
  6. Rest: I learned from bodybuilding that if I was patient and waited 5-6 days to let my muscles fully recover that I grew more muscle and got stronger, and when I did train that muscle again, I could really tear it up and train savagely. This was after having been bodbuilding for a year though, and going to the gym and not feeling sore anymore after training. Once I started resting fully and training more intestly I started to progress again. Lesson learned, Train really hard, but rest really hard too. If you rest half way then train again you won’t be able to truely train hard.
  7. Patience: I gave up MTB racing after my first season because I had no patience and I was unrealistic about how fast I could progress. I have to really laugh at myself now, but my first MTB race I did, I entered as “elite” class, I was fast, but not that fast, and of course got left in the dust.  It was a very humbling experince and I trained hard and did more races that season and had one problem after another, besides getting dropped all the time, I kept breakign my bike and crashing from riding at my cardio limits and having nothing left for cordination. I honestly expected of myself to be winning elite class MTB races my first summer of racing. I didn’t understand that it takes at least a couple years training summer winter summer winter long to start to get really fast for most people, and then even longer to reach your genetic potential.
  8. Not taking one training session or week or even one season of biking performance too seriously. I would make judgments about my potential and talent as a cyclist on a daily basis always re-evaluting myself and trying to figure out if I’ve become a pro today, or if I am kidding myself that I could be great one day. I would let one bad race, one bad training sessesion descourage me from riding, sometimes leaving riding all together for the whole season or years.
  9. Periodization in training:  I’ve learned about periodation in training, training different aspects of athletic performance at different times of the year then brining them together and trying to be in “peak” form at the time of your target events.
  10. Peaking: I’ve learned that when you’re peaking you’ll be breaking new records on a daily basis, feeling as strong and powerful and fast as ever, then as quick as that comes, a week or two later, you’re feeling like you’re at 50% riding is really off etc.
  11. Tapering and doing it properly: I’ve learned that tapering before breakthrough training sessions and before competition is important, better to be under trained and over rested then over trained when starting a race. But I’ve learned too that tappering and taking it too easy can leave you feeling stiff and slow in a race esp. during the begining part while you’re warming up.
  12. Warming up is crtical before races for me.
  13. Cross training and avoiding staleness: It’s good to avoid riding or running or doing any sport too much, it’s good to maybe run one day instead of riding etc.  so you don’t get stale.
  14. Training your weakness and racing your strengths: We all are born with certain body types, and respond to training differently, and have different weaknesses we have to train. It’s important to be honest with yourself and identify exactly the things you need to work on to reach your goals. It’s also important to race in events or courses that are suited for your body type if you plan on winning. If you’re a light rider, then climbing will generally be easier for you and hilly courses. If you’re a big powerful rider, then maybe shorter, flatter events suit you, or sprinting etc.
  15. I use to think that training on a stationary bike was silly, and artificial and not as good as a real bike. But what I have learned is that on a stationary bike you have many advantages. You can train any time of day, in any weather condition, there’s no excuse to cut a training session short because of rain or hot weather either. You don’t have to worry about getting run over by cars or smashing into rock and trees, so you are able to focus on the pure physical effort of cycling and put all your focus into it. Coasting feels really silly on the stationary bike, I avoid doing it. I am able to focus on my pedaling technique better as I’m not distracted. I am able to focus on my bike position, breathing etc as well. Also doing one legged pedaling drills is much easier on the stationary bike. And there is always, water, fuel, bathroom, towel, music etc. on the stationary. Granted riding out on the open road is very exciting and fun and what this sport is all about, the stationary training, rollers etc should not be overlooked as one of the tools in your arsenal. Just make sure to take enough rest days and do a little cross training to avoid getting stale or over trained on the trainer as it’s easy to do when weather and darkness don’t slow you down.
  16. And most importantly have fun! What good is winning or reaching your goals if you’re not happy? Just chill out and be patient train hard, rest even harder, have fun and don’t pressure yourself so much

Leg press vs. squatting vs. one legged exercises

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I’ve been weight training my legs a lot more seriously this off season more then I ever have before even when I was bodybuilding. I’m becoming a student of leg training lately trying lots of different leg exercises and thinking about the pros and cons of each exercise. I’ve learned a coupled things recently like

  1. I’m absolutely convinced at the effectiveness of leg strength training as part of well balanced training plan especially for riders not blessed with natural leg strength, I wont’ even waste my time debating with the cycling geniuses out there that say it doesn’t help. Only if your bike touring perhaps would I say the reward might not be the effort, but even for bike touring you could cycling with more comfort and be injury free, so it still has a place even in that example.  It’s pretty neat to be able to hold the same wattage for 45 minutes at a lower heart rate then which you struggled to hold for 10 minutes at your threshold only a couple months ago. Strength training is the missing link, at least  for me.
  2. Single leg exercises seem to put more stress on the knee with the exception of perhaps the box setup.
  3. But on the other hand single exercises seem to be great for muscular endurance phase as it reduces the chance that your cardio system fails before your leg muscles do. When you’re doing sets of 50 or 60+ reps and using both legs like in squats or leg presses etc. the demand of both legs needing oxygen and fuel can easily set you in the red zone and put your heart rate through the rough. I don’t do these sets with baby weights, these are very challenging sets that push your leg muscles to failure and beyond. When doing these challenging endurance sets I’m finding I prefer single leg exercises in particular box setups. Single leg lunges, or single leg smith machine squats all feel like they’re bad for the knee. I don’t like doing leg extensions either as that is not a sport specific motion and puts too much shear stress on the knee.  But I do appreciate the burn that leg extensions are good at inducing.
  4. I haven’t done box setups heavy yet, but I don’t think this exercise would be suited for doing it heavy.
  5. When I do go heavy as in the hypertrophy and strength phases of my off-season training I prefer doing heavy squats and very heavy leg presses. I feel much more secure and stable when going heavy with these exercises.
  6. I like the smith machine squats because I can get my legs more underneath me as I would be when pedaling a bike, I can also get my legs closer together as well as when riding on the bike. Trying to put my feet like this doing a normal free weight squat would having my falling forward.
  7. I also like the smith machine squats because you dont’ have to worry as much about balancing yourself and you can put all your effort into pushing, this is good and bad. Your core muscles and balancing muscles don’t get the same workout, but I’m trying to bike faster by pedaling harder, not winning a strong man competition rolling tires over hahaa.
  8. I find that super slow reps can be especially good during the strength phase as it seems to really dig into your muscle and trigger more motor units. If you’re going heavy and doing reps until failure then your last 1-2 reps will probably be super slow anyway, if they’re too easy then you need to put more weight on. For strength you don’t want to be doing more then 6 reps. If you get to 6 reps then put more weight on.
  9. I bet 80% of your strength improvement happens during the last 1-2 reps where you can barely push the weight and it’s slowly moving, I bet that is when your muscles learn to fire off more nerves and more muscle fiber is challenged. It’s almost like the first couple reps are to exhaust the strong muscle fibers and the last couple reps are to punish the weak that are still standing ahahhaa. This is probably why I had such great success with my rock climbing training when I did negatives and static strength positions, eventually I was able to do multiple one arm pull ups.
  10. I think you can and should incorporate some of your resistance and strength training on the bike itself. I think this works good more for muscular endurance and building up power and sport specific strength. I like doing sprints on the bike trainer, power starts, over gear work pedaling at really hard gears at low cadence. Hills, hills in low cadence gears.
  11. Single leg exercises are great, they are really good for helping to strengthen the shin muscle to prevent shin splints I noticed. As well as help with eliminating dead spots in your pedal stroke.
  12. The days after a really hard leg workout when your legs feel pumped but not necessarily stronger is usually because they’re swollen and healing from training, I like when they feel like this because it feels like they’re growing which they might be, but until that feeling of puffiness goes away I would rest before doing any hard leg session, swelling=microscopic damage=growth, if you train hard too soon then you’re just breaking yourself down again, remember training is the stimulus to improvement, real improvement happens during rest. If you’re not improving anymore instead of first trying to just ride more miles, think of ways you can increase the intensity of the miles you are already riding, this will increase the quality of the stimulus. Make your rests between intervals shorter, ride harder, ride faster, pedal faster, there are lots of things you can do to make your works more intense.
  13. I’m really starting to like doing heavy leg presses, we have two machines one  machine you’re basically lying flat on your back pushing up against the shoulder pads, the other leg press is a sled where you are sitting upright 45 degrees pushing up. They seem to be very different, even though at first glance you’d think they’d be the same.  Since we bike bent over and not standing straight up, I think the leg press sled at 45 degrees is superior, plus you don’t get those nasty shoulder hickeys from going heavy with weight o the shoulders. After doing a couple heavy sets with the 45 degree machine I was left with the impression that this is more sport specific to cycling. Also my legs where finally sore again the next day just like when I first started working my legs 3 months ago.
  14. I still like doing squats and smith machine squats, but I think I’ll be putting more attention to the 45 degree sled from now on. From what I read Lance only does leg presses as his coaches are worried about him hurting his back by doing squats, maybe he had a back exercise before I’m not sure, either that or they realize that his upper body and back muscles are not strong enough to handle his leg strength and the chance of injury is higher?
  15. I think that single exercises can be more sport specific to cycling then double leg motions since when we pedal we don’t push down on both pedals at the same time. That’s also another reason why I like single leg exercises. I think that it helps strengthen the core and balancing muscles that have to be strong when we pedal hard. I noticed that when I keep my upper body quite when riding and hold the trainer handle bars hard to keep my upper body as rigid as possible while pedaling that I notice that my wattage output usually goes up as more power is transmitted to the pedals and not lost in upper body motion and flexing. I think this also proves to myself that having strong core muscles is really important in riding faster especially when you start riding really fast and you’re pedaling with a lot more force and longer. Strong core muscles will help stabilize your body and let you have a none moving object to push off of when you push down on the pedals, as oppose to having something that bends and flexes when pressed hard that absorbs some of the pealing effort. I probably would not have learned this had it not been for training on the stationary trainer while having
  16. It’s important not to hold your breath when lifting weights especially when doing muscular endurance training when you have sets  with a high number of reps, you need that oxygen.

Off season training I can believe in.

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Until this year I’ve never trained much for cycling in the off season, but this year is different and I am training straight through the winter and setting goals and meeting them. I’m really happy with my progress so far and I think a lot of it has to do with me doing having clear goals and also studying my weaknesses in depth and then making a plan to target them like a laser beam.

Also this is the first time I’ve employed periodization training methodology into my cycling training , so in the last 4 months meso-cycle 1 month adaptation, 1 month hypertrophy, 1 month strength, and now 1 month muscular endurance training.  I was seeing a big jump in strength and speed towards the end of last month. But now that I’m working on muscular endurance I’m seeing big improvements on my longer tempo training session TT tests that I do. So in the hypertrophy and maximum strength phase I saw a big improvement on my 1 mile TT, but not so much on my 5 mile TT. But now since I’m making big jumps in the number of reps I’m doing per set and focusing on muscular endurance I’m seeing big improvements in both my 1 mile and 5 mile TT, in the last couple weeks I keep setting PB records which is exciting. I’m going to take it easy next week and have an unloading week to regenerate and prepare for another off-season meso-cycle of weight training which will take me up to April. So next month is hypertrophy for 3-weeks, then another full month of strength training, then another month of muscular endurance training, but with a more on bike specialized twist as I want to make sure the gains and improvements convert most efficiently into on bike performance. I have to make sure to listen to my body and not do too much quantity of high end work as that’s a sure way to be burnt out before the season starts.

I’m still deciding on how I’m going to train and maintain during the main season. I think since I’m not worried about being that competitive this season since I need to lose more weight and build up more power this year, I’m probably going to continue my “off season” training over the main season and only compete in a couple races and only do 1x group ride per week where last year I was riding 3-4 times a week with the group and doing weekend races and events. I figure if I pay now by missing out on some group rides and events and races and focus on my individual training goals and needs then in 2010 I should be in much better condition then if I would only just maintain strength gains over the summer and riding lots. I find that excessive group riding just interferes with my training schedule, I try to work it in, but if I have an easy day and ride with the group and they get a wild hair and start doing one hill climb after another my whole week’s plan is screwed up. I think the whole summer I was on the verge of over training from doing to much group rides and hammering all the time, I don’t plan on making that mistake this year. My goals are to keep reaching new levels of performance and speed, not just to be in group riding shape. As much as I love group rides I know I have to make a choice in how fast or slow I want to reach my potential.

Anyway just wanted to say that I am seeing the results of my off-season training big time, esp the on and off bike strength training I’ve been working hard on. It’s very satisfying to see the rewards of hard work paying off, it’s motivating me now to set yet higher goals to reach for then I thought possible.

Strength training for cycling, Rambo biker vs. Bill Gates biker

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rambo VS. images

There seems to be much debate in the forums, books and studies about the effectiveness of lifting weights and strength training for cyclists or endurance athletes in general. I think one key point that is always ignored is that we are all built differently and everyone has unique strengths and weaknesses that we’re born with and we should  train in a way that is unique to the way we’re built. Also the length of the event we are intending on competing in should have a bearing on how much and what types of strength training you do as well. So both the type and length of events and also your genetics both should play a role in how your unique training plan. It seems like most people want to make things simple black and white, should I lift or should I not lift weights? But the truth is much more complex then that, but yet I see the same question asked over and over online in the forums etc. Do you think that Chris Carmichael would have Lance doing all the strength training they do in the off season if it didn’t work? And I can tell you from documented first hand experience that for me it has made a huge difference in my riding, weight loss, and overall fitness and well being! You have to make an honest assessment of your strengths and weakness and train to improve your weaknesses and further improve your strengths.

Extreme examples of two possible types of riders Rambo rider, and Gates rider and some things to think about

  1. If you’re naturally strong and have powerful muscles, then making them stronger probably won’t help much with cycling unless your focus is short distance events where you can never have enough leg strength. Now on the other hand if you’re built like a sprinter, but want to race in long events like centuries etc. you’ll probably want to focus more on endurance training to help build up your ability to ride for many hours at a time. But I still think that everyone no matter how they’re built should strength train for cycling, you’ll just need to do less of it. Think of the 80/20 rule, you should be riding lots of easy to moderate miles but still having a day or two a week dedicated to intervals and or weight training etc.
  2. A skinny weak legged cyclist that may have plenty of endurance but not much strength or power will want to do the opposite and spend 80% of his time building up the raw strength and power in his or her legs to meet the demands of riding fast, esp. if you’re intending on riding fast for shorter distances where emphasis is on the muscular system.

It’s very surprising that so many “experts” bad mouth strength training for cycling saying it’s not effective, or even that it will slow you down or injury etc. Lifting weights is discredited by many, probably because the “research” that was done was only conducted on trained athletes for a couple months, which is too short a time span to see any major improvement in fact negative improvement probably is what happens in the first weeks of any weight training program as your body is adjusting and you feel sore most of the time. I found that for myself that I was slightly stronger the first month and a bit more a month later, but after a good rest over the Christmas week I was fully recovered and was stronger then ever, and now after another month, now 3 months later I hardly feel sore anymore after lifting weights and I’ve added about 160watts average to my previous average on my 10 minute TT test I do at the beginning and end of each monthly cycle. That’s a huge improvement, but I think that for me having weak legs and realizing it and making it a key point in my training focus is paying off big.

Here are the improvements I’ve noticed for myself from weight and strength training, I say “strength training” as you can strength your legs with body movements and on bike exercises etc.

  1. My recovery time is much faster now, before I’d have sore muscles for days after a hard ride, now I only get sore only if I have a particularly grueling weight session with heavy weights and or high reps or a new exercise.
  2. My running speed is faster, I feel like I have a much stronger stride now when I run, and that I can run faster.
  3. My endurance has improved I don’t tired as easy, and most important my power endurance has improved.
  4. My metabolism is higher, I’m losing weight faster now then just cycling or running alone.
  5. I feel stronger, esp. from squats as they make your whole support system feel strong you can hold yourself up easier you feel more athletic
  6. I also ski in the off season and I’ve noticed that I feel much stronger and have better muscular endurance and don’t have to stop in the middle of the run now, my legs don’t burn as bad.
  7. Injury prevention, by having strong muscles, tendons and ligaments it helps reduce your change of injury
  8. I think that by having legs that are strong and match the strength of your cardio system, your legs can drive your cardio system even harder so that your cardio system can improve even more. If your legs are weak and fail before your cardio system does then you won’t get as good a cardio workout. I notice now that I can feel my heart muscle really working where before it was more like my legs just burned up and I’d have burning legs and an overall feeling of fatigue but not really out of breath, it just seemed to start with the legs and then my whole body was in distress. Now with my stronger legs I can pedal big gears for much longer times and I get the intuition that my cardio system is getting stronger too in an effort to match what my legs can dish out.
  9. They do say that your legs act as a second heart helping blood move around during the contraction of your legs. If that’s the case that would also reinforce perhaps the theoretical advantage of having a high RPM pedaling style of a rider like Lance Armstrong. Perhaps having stronger legs helps push the blood out of your legs better?
  10. I think that from strength training my legs are more powerful meaning the motor units i.e the nerves can fire more synchronize and deliver more force in a shorter time.
  11. I also think that from strength training I’m able to know spin much faster then before, I can get up to 150RPM now where 130RPM was about limit, I felt like my legs where going to just fly off if I went any faster.
  12. I’m sure my sprint has improved now, we’ll see once I start riding outside.

Anyway, it just blows my mind that so many cycling “coaches” tell their riders to avoid weights, here are some common myths I hear

  1. Weight training will make you get huge muscles and add extra weight then that will cause you slow down.
  2. Studies have proven that strength training has no benefit in endurance tests.
  3. Look how skinny pro rider John Doe is
  4. It will make you’re pedaling stroke bad
  5. It will make you rider slower and weaker
  6. There is no benefit from strength training
  7. I’m sure there’s more I haven’ heard or I forget about too

Box step-ups for strong cycling legs!

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It’s not often I see someone doing box step-ups in the gym, but I think they’re an excellent exercise in certain training situations. I’m finding them to be really be effective in my muscular endurance phases where I’m doing high reps of 50 reps per set or more,

  1. The focus of strength training in the gym is not to work your cardio system but to inflict as much hurt and burn on your leg’s muscle fibers so they get stronger and bigger and can tolerate more lactic acid etc.  Since the goal in the endurance phase is to do high reps with light or moderate weight, I noticed that with a single leg exercise like box step ups I can work on one leg at a time and put more focus and intensity on it then when squatting or leg press. I also notice that my heart rate goes through the roof when doing high rep sets with dual leg exercises like squats. I felt like the limiting factor in doing more reps is not muscle failure but cardio exhaustion, which isn’t my goal when training my leg muscles. With box step-ups my heart rate still gets up plenty high, but it’s manageable at 85% MHR, and I can do many more reps and get more of a focused burn on my legs. I’m able to do it for a while to the point where the 30lbs dumbbells start getting hard to hold onto.
  2. I can isolate one leg at a time and get it to really burn more then any other way.
  3. I think the movement is much more sports specific training. I think that is important in the endurance phase and during the early and main season that any muscular endurance work tat is done
  4. It feels much less stressful on my knees then lunges, lunges feel weird to do right now, also leg extensions are often times bad for you knees.

As much as I like this excellent single leg exercise, I find that I like using squats and dual leg multi-joint exercises for the hypertrophy and strength phases of my leg training, because it feels safer and more stable with both legs, and I can push more weight all together with both legs then with leg alone. I don’t think it would be smart or safe to do heavy weights with single leg exercises.