Hill climbing training gym exercises - please help
Girlonbike999
Posts: 4
I'd welcome help on my gym routine for building strrength for hill climbing.
Ditchling Beacon ate me alive today and so I figure I need to add to it.
So here's what I'm doing:
squats with a 5kg weight sets of 30, 40 and 60 seconds (up to 5mins)
Reverse lunges with 3kg weight 15 x 3 reps per leg
Presses - 40KG 10 x 6 reps
Steps x 100 with 3 KG weights in each hand
I do this 3 times a week
Is there anything else in the gym that I should be doing?
I'm also getting out and riding as much as possible too
Help appreciated and thank you!!!
Ditchling Beacon ate me alive today and so I figure I need to add to it.
So here's what I'm doing:
squats with a 5kg weight sets of 30, 40 and 60 seconds (up to 5mins)
Reverse lunges with 3kg weight 15 x 3 reps per leg
Presses - 40KG 10 x 6 reps
Steps x 100 with 3 KG weights in each hand
I do this 3 times a week
Is there anything else in the gym that I should be doing?
I'm also getting out and riding as much as possible too
Help appreciated and thank you!!!
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Comments
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I'd get on the exercise bike instead and do some hard aerobic efforts of several minutes each. Strength isn't the limiter for hill climbs. Your aerobic condition is.0
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A decent spin class or two would help.0
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+1 Just ride in the hills more. Or find one hill and do hill repeats. Work hardNapoleonD wrote:Ditch the weights for cycling
Also think about losing weight if you have some to spare0 -
your squats are pretty pointless in the way you are doing them.
doing forty reps with 5kg is less work than cycling a 8kg bike up a hill for 10 mins ..... Squats can really help with your power, but you need to lift heavy to initiate any response .. think more body weight on your back for 5-10 reps at a time.
So either, lift heavy, or don't bother and use the time on the bike instead0 -
Guess I'm the only person that does weights to compliment cycling then.
But then I do it for power so 3-6 reps of a super heavy (for me) weight.
I train for peak power though so different to hill climbing.0 -
Whatever you do in the gym is not going to benefit you more than the equivalent amount of cycling. If you want to climb better - less gym, more bike.0
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AK_jnr wrote:Guess I'm the only person that does weights to compliment cycling then.
Nope, I also do weights as a compliment, but like you I do them to increase power for sprinting and shortburst fast twitch stuff
so we are talking Squats 5 x 5 at 1.2x body weight (100kg), deadlifts 3 x 5 @ 1.6 x body weight (140kg), Bench 5 x 5 at 1x body weight (80kg), Over head press 5 x 5 @ 0.5 times body weight (40kg) ... and I cant be arsed with rows so stick to Weighted chin-ups and dips 10kg until I cant move any more.
And yes it doesn't help with spending hours in the saddle, but it works wonders for explosive movements off the lights or overtaking busses0 -
Personally think you would be better honing your skills on the bike going uphill than in the gym. You won't develop feel and technique on the squat rack.Trainer Road Blog: https://hitthesweetspot.home.blog/
Cycling blog: https://harderfasterlonger.wordpress.com/
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TCTP: https://supermurph.wordpress.com/0 -
Track cyclists use weights for explosive power.
OP wants to be a hill climber - not a sprinter.
Cycling more will help. Weights won't.0 -
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Imposter wrote:
No problem with searching. But, where is the validation in all of these threads? I've seen lots of opinions from both sides but who is correct?0 -
My suggestion would be to read the threads and make your own mind up. The fact that people are answering in the way they are should give you a clue though...0
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There's only one way to find out.... FIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhttttt !0
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Actually Smudgerii - if you read this thread carefully - you'll see everyone saying the same thing.
Weights aren't needed for the OP's hillclimbing.
The people on the thread that do use weights aren't doing that to get better at hillclimbing.
So there you go.0 -
I suppose I could use the benefit of heavy lifting and fast twitch growth to sprint up hills ...... hills cant be longer than 45 seconds though ... actually make that 30seconds ... or 20 if they are really steep0
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Yeah Ditchling is a bit longer than that I seem to recall....0
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I do have a friend who's build is that of a sprinter. He dies on the hills but always attacks the short hills at speed.
Inevitably he'll get a gap on me and grind to a halt 2/3 of the way up the hill. It doesn't seem to be working out this tactic.0 -
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I would go with the general consensus that weight training for hill climbs is not going to make much difference unless you are looking to put the hammer down for 20-30 seconds, which does not appear to be the case for the OP.
As previously highlighted by others, having a good aerobic base is a useful starting point. From there I have always found working on my anaerobic capacity to be good for shorter/steep climbs (looking at the profile of DB I am guessing you are out of the saddle a fair bit and struggling for breath?).
A few of the crude (i.e. not scientifically based!) sessions I use are:
- 20- 30 second sprints up a hill (something with at least a 4% gradient). Go as hard as possible in the biggest gear you can manage. I try and do 8-10 in a 2 hour ride but start off with a lower number if this is building too much lactic in your legs.
- 3 minute efforts at anaerobic capacity. I have a 1km long hill at 5% gradient I use. I basically ride this at the top end of AC (about 320-340 watts for me) back to back until I am knackered which is usually 6-7 times.
-5-10 minute efforts at Threshold (more aerobic than anaerobic, I know). I use a 3.5km hill at 2-3% average gradient and ride it around FTP, usually a big gear effort at about 30kmh. Again, I repeat until I can't maintain the same pace/wattage.
Might be some things in there you could use, but as most have said just get out there and ride more hills as often as you can, that's the best way to adapt to the demands of climbing.
Good luck.0 -
still only seeing opinions but no validation on the opinions being given...
How is a person to learn if all they are given is opinions? The OP isn't exactly 'hitting' the weights, his workout is basically a cardio / core strength program with the exception of the presses, which at that weight are adding nothing.0 -
Smudgerii wrote:still only seeing opinions but no validation on the opinions being given...
I don't know where you have been looking, but these two links are generally useful:
http://autobus.cyclingnews.com/fitness/ ... engthstern
viewtopic.php?f=40011&t=12753875Smudgerii wrote:How is a person to learn if all they are given is opinions? The OP isn't exactly 'hitting' the weights, his workout is basically a cardio / core strength program with the exception of the presses, which at that weight are adding nothing.
This is an advice forum - and it's only as good as the advice which is given. Which means it is only as good as the people giving the advice. There have been, over the years, several contributions from cycling coaches and sports scientists on this topic, but I don't recall any of them ever advocating weights to improve climbing.0 -
Smudgerii wrote:still only seeing opinions but no validation on the opinions being given...
How is a person to learn if all they are given is opinions? The OP isn't exactly 'hitting' the weights, his workout is basically a cardio / core strength program with the exception of the presses, which at that weight are adding nothing.
Pay attention at the back - the OP is called 'girlonbike999' - I deduce from this she's a girl...
I guess most of us aren't sports scientists or have studied this in any detail - but I bet a fair few of us are pretty decent at climbing.
What goes first for you smudgerii when you're climbing flat out - your legs or your cardio system ? So what would you work on most ?0 -
I got very generally fit when I was going to a gym and using a personal trainer a few years ago. Core work, interval training, lots of circuits, some heavy weights but even then compound sets.
The few times I cycled during that period I found my strength and recovery from sharp efforts was good but I couldn't keep a constant pace. Not much use for any sort of hill much bigger than a bridge over a motorway.0 -
Just a general comment when I see statements like this.fat daddy wrote:Squats can really help with your power,
One needs to qualify such statements by specifying over what duration it will help with your power. There may be benefit for neuromuscular power and to some extent anaerobic capacity which are very short duration energy supply capabilities (measured in seconds), but for dominantly aerobic efforts over longer durations, i.e. much more than about a minute or so, then what really matters most is aerobic condition - maximal aerobic power and sustainable aerobic power or threshold power.
The influence of such training on maximal aerobic and sustainable aerobic power is weak at best, and counterproductive at worst (the body of evidence on this is fairly equivocal) but more importantly, it's not nearly as effective as doing some decent on the bike training.
That's not to say one shouldn't do such training, there may well be good reasons for it, however gaining improvement in sustainable aerobic power isn't one of them.0 -
Out of interest what gains do you think can be made from heavy lifting for peak power? Not worried about aerobic durations, just 5 seconds as an example.0
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The things that helped me most with hill climbing were:
Lots of hill climbing - not as easy round here as it is in the Pennines, but I still found it possible to plot some routes with lots of smaller climbs...
Losing 18 pounds.
That second one helped quite a lot. To think I was carrying the equivalent of 8 bags of sugar around with me all the time. How in God's name did I let that happen??0 -
keef66 wrote:That second one helped quite a lot. To think I was carrying the equivalent of 8 bags of sugar around with me all the time. How in God's name did I let that happen??
It's also the rough equivalent of carrying another complete bike...0 -
or a 3 y/o child0
