Anyone doing weight training over the winter?

Pokerface

Due to injury (can't SIT on a bike), I am unable to cycle for a while. So instead of sitting around (pardon the pun) for the next few months, I am going to hit the gym.

Stairclimber to keep my legs moving and keep so cardio fitness - but am also going to do legs weights. Need to improve my track sprinting power so will be doing squats and a few other leg weights. It may put on mass, but hopefully will pay off come track season.

Without getting into the whole debate over whether weights are beneficial to cycling or not - is anyone else incorporating weights into their routine over the winter?


What are you doing....?

shockedsoshocked

Tried it last year. Squats, deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, single legs lunges etc and some core work.

Worked to an extent, but it would smash my legs to peices for a few days, meaning i'd have no inclination to ride the bike, so not going to do it this year.

Buckled_Rims

I've always done a moderate amount of weight training. Usually in my local community gym, I'll do a quick circuit training regime. I've stopped any heavyish weights and prefer a lighter high rep intense workout to prevent to much muscle build up.

For example and it depends on how busy the gym is so it's either free weights or machine:

Monday:
After a a warm up.
20 bicep curls (either free weights or machine),
20 tricep push downs - machine
15 leg curls machine
25 leg presses machine
15 leg extensions machine.
Calf raises to a good burn
repeat this 2 more times - now take about 30 minutes in total

Thursday:
warm up
20 Bench presses Machine or free weight
15 rows - machine or free weight (sometimes dumb bells)
Shoulder presses machine or free weight (sometimes with dumb bells)
15 lat machine
back raise to a good burn.
stomach crunches to a good burn
repeat 2 more times - about 45 minutes in total

Too much leg work seems to make running and cycling crap for days afterwards for me, so it's just a brief workout there. I find a good upper body work out much better as I can feel my shoulders and arms forcing the bikes pace - if you understand what I mean :?

warrior4life

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

Tried it last year. Squats, deadlifts, romanian deadlifts, single legs lunges etc and some core work.

Worked to an extent, but it would smash my legs to peices for a few days, meaning i'd have no inclination to ride the bike, so not going to do it this year.

I agree with this!

I was a trainer at david lloyd and cannons and a few other gyms for years, the articles they give in magazines RE cycling weight training aren't the best.

I think the hardest thing for cyclists to do is get the rights mind set for weights, to many people are worried about gaining weight when its very tough to seriously gain weigh, the most a drug free genetically gifted person who is living a clean bodybuilder diet can gain is 10lbs in a year.

This year ive just bought the iron gym for upper body work, its a fantastic bit of kit and it worksmany muscle groups together http://www.jmldirect.com/The-Original-Iron-Gym-PI8700/
For legs i try to keep it interesting, i run up hills with my girlfriend on my back, I fill 2 oil cans with water and walk up stairs..It kills the traps and i stay up on my toes to blast calfs.
I have about 90kg of free weights but i hate training legs with free weights when cycling as it usually stops me cycling.... might do some jump squats but they leave me struggling to walk let alone cycle.

warrior4life

Also doing the 100 pushup challenge, when im by myself i can do 40-50 max but when im pumped up training with others i can get 60-70
http://hundredpushups.com/

phil s

Having not done weigts last off-season I am doing them again this time around - started this week just gone. I don't use any heavy weights but I really, really concentrate on form. I also do a lot of Swiss ball work. I find I can get leaner in the long term by doing some weights.

d87heaven

Would it be possible to use the recumbent style bike in the gym?
Although I run more than bike I have been suffering from a pelvis injury so had a few months of trying to keep my fitness up. Keeping the cardio up is the key.
When doing weights for rehab I found variety is good as its easy to become bored in a gym.
IMHO........Think about what muscles you use and how you use them when cycling.
For example you push down with one leg ata time to pedal - a one legged squat would possibly replicate that except you are pushing your body up rather than a pedal down.
Pulling up on a handlebar could be replicated by dumb bell rows.
One legged toe raises for the calfs.
One legged stuff is good for helping with balance too.
Try plyometrics for explosive power tuck jumps and the like.
Core strength exercises would also be very beneficial. And lots of stretching for flexability.
Or go see a physio with experience in cycling, they should be able to sort out specific exercises.

LJAR

I have just bought myself some free weights. I am planning to do 2 sessions per week. I am also trying to build up slowly to avoid the inevitable pain of recovery.

My Plan is to follow the weight training regimen in Joe Friel's Training bible; so I am starting lifting quite low weights (20kg) at 15-20 reps per set. for 4 weeks.

I am then going to build up my strength with sets of 8-12 reps on Dead lifts, Step ups, Squats etc until I can lift slightly more than my body weight (I weigh 76kg).

After Xmas I will finish off with some sets of 4-6 reps using weights from 95kg-105kg on the legs for 6-8 weeks.

After that I will start a strength maintenance routine lifting about my body weight to maintain the strength and doing some plyometrics to convert it into bike specific explosive power. (Hopefully this will improve my attacks up hills and my sprint)

After my first A priority races of the season I will return to 4 weeks of Heavy weights to build the strength again.

I have never done weights as comprehensively as this before, but we'll see how well it goes!

At the same time I am doing plenty of upper body and core work to keep myself stable on the bike.
So I do sit ups, sit ups with a twist, sideways sit ups, Press Ups, high pulls, standing rows and chin ups.


Given you can't cycle, I would try to get in as much cross training as possible, like running, rowing (if you can sit like that maybe a recumbent bike?), cross trainers etc

How long are you incapacitated?

Pokerface

d87heaven wrote:

Would it be possible to use the recumbent style bike in the gym?

Brilliant. That's exactly what I need to find. Excellent suggestion.

Garz

As with warrior4life I find an intense weights workout wouldnt be that beneficial as if you train hard enough to feel proper DOMS then it would hinder a bike ride for the next day or two.

I too have the iron gym bar and the perfect pushup discs but only use them when I'm working away in a hotel room to do something fitness related with running.

Over winter however as you have put it I cannot see it being a bad thing at all as long as your able to get some cycling in. I would incorporate as much stretching/flexibility training as your weights though to maintain a good level of suppleness.

warrior4life

Garz wrote:

As with warrior4life I find an intense weights workout wouldnt be that beneficial as if you train hard enough to feel proper DOMS then it would hinder a bike ride for the next day or two.

I too have the iron gym bar and the perfect pushup discs but only use them when I'm working away in a hotel room to do something fitness related with running.

Over winter however as you have put it I cannot see it being a bad thing at all as long as your able to get some cycling in. I would incorporate as much stretching/flexibility training as your weights though to maintain a good level of suppleness.

I totally agree on the stretching flexability side of things..

I was never big on some of the core stability work on the swiss ball.
I used to take a core fitness class at David lloyds and some of the biggest women you've ever seen would be great on the swiss ball and pretty good at lots of core balance work.
I'd occasionally drag some bodybuilders into the core class and they would really struggle with balance work on the ball, but in real world situation the bodybuilders had great core strength and the women had not much... Deadlifts, squats win out on this one.

Cycling is such a strange one as far as core work goes, there are really no exercises that work the core when your in the position you would be on the bike, the only ones i felt similar was when i did rear delt flyes sat on the end of a bench or bent over barbell rows.
There are times when i've spent months hammering my core and times when i havent done any core work and its not changed my cycling performance either way, I have however felt a lot better at sprinting and getting up shorter climbs when ive done upper body work.

Anything is better than nothing, I was interested to hear Dean Downing on the tour of britain say that in the winter Griepel hardly touches the bike and does lots of weight training, specifically saying he does lots of bench pressing.

Homer J

I used to do weights but this year i'll stick to cycling, come to the conclusion that weights did bugger all for my cycling. Although if i was in your predicament Pokerface I'd probably be in the gym