Cycling Fitness

[madpensioner]

I do lower body during the winter - mainly squats - heavy weights low reps 2/3 sets - and because of icy weather I use a turbo trainer - I would like to point out I do have my own gym at the bottom of the garden ( wife calls it the dog house ) - your comments are very interesting

 

[Speedywheelsjeans]

I think there's no right or wrong answer. If you find it works for you and genuinely improves your cycling then why stop. I train at home too, I see the gym as a place for people with big egos, you go in and if your not picking up huge weight you get judged for being weak, even though the people who are judging you have no idea how to train their bodies properly.
Weights are great for getting you body fat percentage right down too, I dont find cycling does this because of the carbohydrates you need to consume while training, when you hit weights and do interval training you only need enough carbs to fuel your workout for a short period of time, then for 24 hours afterwards your body is still burning body fat as fuel to recover your muscles.
Some people hate weights and would rather just cycle, the one thing that most certainly helps your cycling... is cycling.

 

[brockers]

Surely it's a good thing to occasionally lift big weights for your all round health? Especially as you get older and lose muscle mass. Isn't it's a good thing to perodically stress your entire system in unfamiliar ways? It's not as if anybody on here earns a living from racing and needs to have the body make-up of a grand tour rider - or if you think you do then that's just as vain as the poseurs at the gym, but just a different flavour. I run occasionally to load my joints and promote bone growth, and have a set of dumb bells which I use to exercise my arms, shoulders and chest with, doing 3 x 8-12s to prevent my upper body from getting too wasted.

I think there's evidence that doing low reps of the heavy stuff promotes production of growth hormone which becomes testosterone somewhere down the line. Both of these hormones decline as we age, and maintaining reasonable levels is beneficial in lots of ways. Muscle mass, metabolism, drive, and all round energy levels. That sort of stuff.

 

[al-fresco]

I do a bit of work in the gym - maybe 3 hours a week, perhaps more in the winter. Going during the daytime means that most of the people there are old and fat like me. I found it helped enormously with my cycling - but then I'm riding for fun, not to cover long distances in the fastest time.

I recently injured my arm when I took a trip over the handlebars on my MTB and found that using light weights helped to speed up the healing process.

 

[mog35]

I lift weights several times a week too, for about 30-40 minutes per session. I've got a bench and a squat rack at home, in addition to about 200kg in plates, so I don't feel the need to go to the gym. I just do basic compound exercises, nothing fancy, lifting heavy for lowish reps. I do it because I enjoy it and for variety, rather than to assist with cycling.


It is good to help with weight loss, if that's what your goal is - muscle is more metabolically active than fat, so you're burning more calories even at rest. Also I believe it enhances bone density and helps avoid osteoporosis.

On mondays I do chest exercises - bench pressing mainly. Wednesdays I concentrate on the back - deadlifts, rows. Friday I do a quick session for shoulders - some overhead presses, upright rows, shrugs. And on saturdays it's legs - squats, hamstring exercises. At the moment I do 3 sets of 10 reps for each exercise, but occasionally change this when I feel things are getting stagnant.