Strength training without additional body mass - 3

I often hear that cyclists skip strength training because they are afraid they will gain additional body weight. In this series I will try to explain how cyclists can strength train without gaining extra body weight. This article is a part of the ‘Strength training without additional body mass series’. You can read the rest of this series here: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4

3. Training tips to avoid hypertrophy

When you start to strength train you will make progress in the beginning with little effort. This is not due to hypertrophy, but rather neural adaptations. Maintaining a low body weight is essential in both road cycling and mountain bike, since carrying extra pounds (dead weight) decrease your performance.

I have a couple of training tips that can help you to avoid hypertrophy of your muscles when you strength train:

Short sets of 1 to 5 reps
Sets of few reps apply very little damage to the muscle fibres (protein degradation). This damage is normally one of the parameters responsible for stimulating the muscle fibres to grow.

Long recovery periods between sets
When you train for neural strength you are interested in a full or almost full recovery between each set. This little move, which is a very social and comfortable time of the training session, makes it possible to keep protein degradation at minimum. It also makes you able to perform lifts at higher level, which in the final end makes you stronger. I recommend you to take a break of at least 2 minutes between sets.

Avoid failure training
This training type is a big mistake when you train for neural adaptations. It might also be a big mistake if you train for hypertrophy, but that is another story. The point is that failure training might trigger your muscles to grow and also there is a risk that your strength gains will reach a plateau too early.

Avoid forced reps
This training type is not made for strength gains. It is from 80’s where people believed in ‘No pain, no gain’. Again, if you focus on strength gains, forced reps are not a topic.

Be explosive
Well, this advice does not exactly protects your muscles from growth, but I think that it is an important advice for serious cyclists or other people interested in neural strength gains. In the concentric phase of the lift, you should try to barbell as fast as possible.