Resistance training to supplement Cycling: Poll
pinno
Posts: 50,589
Have you used any of the following exercises to assist your training? Some of these may include:
Squats
Elastic (power bands)
The Plank
Core and abdominal work
Weights including dumbbells, barbells
Machine weight - leg press, squat machine, leg curl etc
Roman Frame - abs, pull ups, dips etc
...or any sort of resistance training specific to cycling.
I am not looking for answers from Track riders. Road, CX and MTB only.
Whilst this is not going to be empirical in any shape or form, I think the results will be interesting. Perception of whether something is giving you benefit or not may also come into play.
Squats
Elastic (power bands)
The Plank
Core and abdominal work
Weights including dumbbells, barbells
Machine weight - leg press, squat machine, leg curl etc
Roman Frame - abs, pull ups, dips etc
...or any sort of resistance training specific to cycling.
I am not looking for answers from Track riders. Road, CX and MTB only.
Whilst this is not going to be empirical in any shape or form, I think the results will be interesting. Perception of whether something is giving you benefit or not may also come into play.
seanoconn - gruagach craic!
Your experience and benefits of resistive training (RT): 95 votes
I didn't do it for long enough to comment
6%
6 votes
I have done RT and it did benefit me a little
6%
6 votes
I have but I don't think it benefited me at all
7%
7 votes
I have and it benefited me greatly
20%
19 votes
I have never considered it
22%
21 votes
I would like to but do not know the possible benefits
5%
5 votes
I do RT regularly
11%
11 votes
I only do RT it in winter
10%
10 votes
I wish I had more time to do more of it
6%
6 votes
I have only done it after an injury
4%
4 votes
0
Posts
Wait until at least 1 other person has answered and then he'll never work it out
De Sisti wrote:
This is one of the silliest threads I've come across.
Recognition at last Matthew, well done!, a justified honour
Yep, that's about right. It will be interesting to see how many use some form of RT.
Cycling is itself a form of resistance training. I wonder how many of us do that?
Now you're just splitting hairs. We can agree to disagree. I don't think the usual protagonists have bothered their arises, else this would have been quite interesting.
Straight question: Have you (Imposter of the BR forum) ever used resistance training other than cycling as supplementary/complementary exercise to cycling?
We are only 'spltting hairs' because your questions are poorly defined. Which kind of highlights the issue in both this and the other thread.
And to answer your question - no I haven't. Although I do occasionally walk up stairs when the need arises.
When your stair lift has broken down?
My 'questions are poorly defined' - please elaborate.
If you haven't ever done any resistive training, then how can you comment on any perceived or actual benefits of supplementary exercise?
I really can't be arsed to explain, except to say that the results won't show anything that none of us here doesn't already know. Hence my earlier comment.
By reading (and attempting to understand) the work of others who have studied the area professionally - and with slightly more serious intent than you. My own experience would be nothing more than n=1 anecdote, same as anyone else's.
I don't use a power meter so objective measurement is difficult, but I was keeping up at the local Cat 4 races with the training. I think I would struggle now, but part of that is likely to be I was doing a higher volume of training last year, which is possibly more important for the level of fitness.
I think doing weights made me faster in a flat out sprint, but were less useful for ordinary riding. Maybe doing lighter weights and more repititions would have been more useful.
Rowing machine use is essentially sustained light weight training for the whole body. With a rate of about 18-20 I felt that it was helping develop my peak power for a sustained period (climbing etc)
Finally I think doing alternative training allowed me to have a more definite plan. Rather than going out and riding, I would have a day focussing on sprint power and recovery on the rowing machine so I'd do 30 seconds hard, 30 seconds light for a number of repeats. The next session I'd focus on TT power and so do a half hour test.
Pinnorology - join in the fun.
Anecdotal evidence is great isn't it?
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I would agree with you - although some might not.
I found it disproportionally beneficial compared to plain pedalling for rehabilitation purposes. Then other weaknesses surfaced which was dealt with by RT.
On advice of my physiotherapist to build muscle on my knee which had depleted despite lots of cycling. Got rid of the knee pain.
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Sometimes I do weights as well.
It is usually a case of committing to it a few days a week when not riding, but it soon gets forgotten about.
I'm intending to drop the mileage out on the road in the autumn/winter to one or two long rides at the weekend, sign up to a gym next to work for a few months and complement those sessions with turbo training and cyclocross racing. Not sure what effect it will have on my performance but I feel it's worth a try.
recovery improved, bike handling improved, running out of skill and having to wrestle the bike past obstacles instead of gracefully riding over them and endurance improved.
I stopped MTB'ing and lifting when my kiddy came along ... recently started to Commute to work, my bike fitness returned pretty quickly but in the last 3 months gone back to lifting again ..... as my squat strength has gone up, so has my sprinting power, .... other than asthetics, I haven't noticed any benefit from doing upper body resistance training though ... guess there is only so much Pectorial mass you need to hold on to a bar whilst your legs go full on nuts !
the important bit to notice though was the weight he was lifting .... none of this namby pamby 5kg for a zillion reps, there is no point. You achieve much more volume than that by cycling.
He was building muscle, big arsed Fast Twitch, powerful muscle .... muscle designed for 4km of high output before dying, muscle that pumps out high but short lived wattage.
Tear the fibres apart in the gym, Feed them a censored load of protien and good quality carbs in the kitchen, grow them at night whilst you sleep
Except that muscle size over 4km is largely irrelevant. A 4k effort is almost exclusively aerobic.
At the end of the day, endurance roadies, need to be underweight to perform well and growing some guns isn't helping that. Having said that - how many here have <15% bf, so a few kg of extra muscle could easily be balanced off with fat reduction.
Having said high weight low rep wont help..
my gym recently installed one of these:
and I found it has helped strengthen my lower back muscles as well as helping me climb better (MTB not road).
Stretching & Workout Vids
when I started lifting my weights went up 20kg over 12 weeks .... with absolutely no increase in size or weight, I was cutting I lost size ... the reason for this is you CNS learns how to use the muscle, it learns to recruit more muscle to do the task at hand ... and when it comes to down right full on power, having the muscle react instantly and be able to recruit more of the muscle it needs is a marked difference in performance. ..... In a sprint application whether it be running, cycling, jumping or whatever, Atheletes benefit massively from heavy lifting. that side of things isn't debatable, there isn't a single Competative Pro athlete that wont train in the gym for that very reason.
Endurance atheletes have different requirements from sprinters though, and having the body of a 12 year old boy is clearly the way to win .... so I expect spending a few hours a week in the gym to be no major benefit
BUT ... there are more disciplines in cycling than just 6 hour rides and cake stops .... namely 30 minute commutes and protein bars RAAAAAAGH !!!!!!!!!!!!!
Since January I have been doing more circuit training and recently heavy lifting in the gym.
In January I hit 1000 watts for the first time with a 270 watt FTP. I did pretty well in races with those numbers.
My FTP is now 310 at 70kg (same as before) and yesterday I hit a new peak PB of 1300 watts.
I'm definitely looking forward to some late season races.
Also bear in mind I only ride about 2 hours a week with running/football/gym on top.
I did 3000 miles early in the year though when I was exclusively riding.
Which begs the question why Wiggins was in the gym lifting weights with the goal, in his own words, of building muscle ?