muscle training?

[weely]

Hi guys,

Well yesterday I had my hardest commute of 8 miles,(16 round trip) which I do 3-4 times a week.
From the minute I left home the wind battered me to the point where if you stop peddling you stopped, even going down hill! The slightly uphill journey took me 50 mins apposed to 35mins.

This got me thinking, apart from the legs, what other muscle groups does cycling benefit from?

Oh by the way, I 'flew' home in 25mins!!

 

[RedBike]

After pushing hard in a race I often find that my lower back and stomach muscles ache. So I guess your core muscles must get some benefit if you're pushing hard.

(After a long MTB ride, even if I haven't fallen off for a change, it's quite normal for just about everything to hurt. Espeshially my arms and wrists.)

Annoyingly cycling only seems to significantly improve the muscles specific to cycling. It doesn't even help the legs with running (other than cardiovascularly) !!

 

[weely]

Oh I agree! cant run far.. but can cycle for hours

 

[alp1950]

Cycling can help build cardiovascular fitness and probably results in aerobic and anaerobic conditioning for the quadriceps- beneficial in skiing. However once a certain level of fitness is achieved most sports probably require targeted exercise specific for the particular sport for further benefits to be achieved.
http://www.skinet.com/action/2008-05/saddle-mountain-bike-your-way-better-turns-next-season