I have seen a lot of strength training programs for cyclists on the internet, but most of them are of inferior quality. It is evident that many coaches are good at endurance training but lack experience and knowledge about strength training.
Many of these coaches do not know how the neuromuscular system works and how it adapts to weight lifting.
As it turns out, weight lifting gyms are full of potential dangers for cyclists. From the risk of injuries to the temptation to overtrain, there are plenty of things that can go wrong. Here are five of the biggest mistakes that road cyclists make in the weight lifting gym—and how to avoid them
1. Non-functional exercise
It is essential to know that neuromuscular adaptations are closely related to specific exercises. It would be best to try to do activities that have a movement similar to pedal strokes. Avoid leg extensions and do some quality squats instead.
If you are not injured, it is a waste of time to do leg extensions.
2. Too many exercises
You can train the whole body with only a few different lifts if you do the right exercises.
When you get familiar with strength training, I recommend you start learning the techniques for lifting free weights. I want you to lift free weights because you train more balance and more explosive.
My favorite exercise for cyclists is squat. I agree when other cyclists tell me that squat is king. That exercise will make a difference in your view of strength training.
Before doing some heavy squats, you need supervision to achieve the correct technique. Please be supervised by an instructor or training buddy in the first couple of training sessions.
3. Too few sets
When you were four years old and tried to ride your bike for the first time, you did not try only once to master the discipline. Instead, you tried over and over again. What you did was learn your neuromuscular system how to ride a bike.
You want to adapt your neuromuscular system to lift heavy iron when you lift weights. So, just as you need many attempts to manage your bike, you will take advantage of many sets in the weight lifting gym.
4. Too many reps
When you are a cyclist, you are interested in strength gains, not weight gains. Therefore, I recommend you use a rep range of 3-6. With this rep range, you will develop strength without gaining extra body weight. However, I have seen a lot of programs that would be better for bodybuilders training for hypertrophy, using a rep range of 8-15.
Some coaches believe that building strength endurance in the gym is possible. They recommend sets of up to 100 reps. I’m afraid I have to disagree with these coaches.
If you want to train for strength endurance, you should do it on your bike. Again we are talking about specificity.
5. Train to failure too often
Many cyclists believe in the ‘No Pain, No Gain’ attitude. I like the spirit too, but it is not the best way to increase performance in strength training. Your neuromuscular system does not like failure training, and if you keep doing it, your strength gains will end at a plateau.
I recommend you finish your sets at least 1 or 2 reps from failure. That way, you can stay focused and push yourself further in your next set. You will get more out of your workout this way and make sure to keep your form correct – it will prevent injury and maximize the effectiveness of each exercise.
It’s easy to get caught up in the moment when you’re lifting weights and end up doing too much too soon. This is a recipe for disaster, mainly if you’re not used to lifting weights regularly. When you overtrain, you risk injuring yourself or burning out completely—neither of which is good for your cycling performance.
Rest days are just as important as training days—maybe even more so. When you don’t give your body time to recover from workouts, you increase your risk of injuries and impair your ability to make gains in strength and endurance.
Working out in the weight lifting gym can be a great way to improve your cycling performance—but only if you do it right. Avoid making these five common mistakes so you can lift safely and effectively without jeopardizing your health or hindering your riding ability.
You can find more inspiration for weight lifting for road cyclists here.
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I just read your article with great interest but there was some things that fellt really wrong for me.
I'm a Personal trainer, mainly working on streangth improvement. I agree with you on many points but not when you talked about reps.
To say that 3-6 reps puts on streangth but not weight is just not true in my world. The debate around reps in fitness world is big and controversal. But in general 3-6 reps is great for putting on wheight and streangth. There is an old idea that that you can build up streangth without putting on weight. That idea is old that we have thrown in the trash.
You can build up streangth without gaining weight for a while but eventually youre muscles are going to gain wheight. This is going too happen regardless of what your reps.
As a side note, 3-6 reps is somthing people in powersports uses a lot.
Hi Patrick,
Thanks for commenting.
Maintaining low body weight is essential in both road cycling and mountain biking, since carrying extra pounds (deadweight) decrease your performance. That is the same situation for a weight lifter competing in a weight class. If the weight class is <82.5kg, then he will have to work hard for neural adaptations instead of hypertrophy, because additional bodyweight will make hime compete in a heavier weight class (<90kg).
It is correct that the rep range is often used in powersports, but the people who are really interested in additional body mass (body builders) work much more in the rep range from 5 to 12.
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. By avoiding this protein degradation we can minimize the stimulus to hypertrophy. Also, there is a couple of other ways to minimize or completely avoid additional body mass but still get stronger.
I wrote a series about it here:
https://www.training4cyclists.com/strength-training-without-additional-body-mass-1/
https://www.training4cyclists.com/strength-training-without-additional-body-mass-2/
https://www.training4cyclists.com/strength-training-without-additional-body-mass-3/
https://www.training4cyclists.com/strength-training-without-additional-body-mass-4/
/Jesper
I read your articles. I did not see anything that supported your few rep theory.
I am not sayin that it is wrong for cyclists to train like that. I'm from the world of bodybuilding and I'm here to learn how you train in different sports.
What studies have you read to support the theory of few reps, no hypertrophy?
The reason for my reaction is that, I grow up in the gym and has worked a lot with different reps and set and filosofies. I did my greatest gains working with low reps and I'm not alone, I have seen a lot of people, grow with that sort of training.
Hi, after reading the comment banter, I came across this site (Below) which seems to support the few reps approach-
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/wotw57.htm
-as a serious cyclist (climber) looking to increase power without extra muscle weight this info was a lot of help so thanks, I was doing way too many reps!
Guys - for the recreational reader/lifter I think it is important to add that low rep/high weight execises should only come after a substantive adaptation/endurance period - the potential for tissue damage is significant and early lifters who "go heavy" to try and increase "strength" (which is a bit of a non-starter term to begin with) may increase their injury risk. Additionally - for cyclists especially, it isn't so much the low rep count that relates to performance - it is the plyometric/speed-strenght element. That is to say that for a cyclist to see true gain from lifting they must focus on the explosive movement rather than the amount of weight lifted. Consider- how often do you pedal as slowly as that 3-5 rep sequence? It's about muscle fiber recruitment - move faster recruit more type II muscle mass...
Matt,
It seems like you don't know that much about how the central nervous system adapts to heavy weights referring to your last comment about 'pedalling as slowly as in a 3-5 rep sequence'. This indicates to me that you really doesn't know what you are talking about since the whole idea of training with heavy weights is to increase the 1rep maximum - not to simulate pedalling frequency. If we can increase 1rm in a relevant exercise like squats we can also pedal harder in sprints and accelerations.
Yes, explosiveness is important, but making explosive movements with light weights will not activate all motor neurons, thus you will not generate the neural adaptations needed for development of maximal force. Example: Who will make the fastest squat with 100kg?
Rider A: 1RM 100kg
Rider B: 1RM 200kg
It is obvious that Rider B will make that squat faster than rider A even though rider A might be more explosive. Thus, absolute force is very important. Who of these riders can generate the highest power in a sprint? Well, who would you put your money on..? :-)
What I recommend is lifting the weights as fast as possible in the concentric phase, thus recruiting every single motor neuron. But lifting heavy weights (above 80% of 1RM) will naturally develop explosive force (and absolute strength).
High rep strength training is a waste of time since it doesn't improve your 1RM and if you was interested in strength endurance, you should not do it in the gym, but on your bike (better neural adaptations).
""There is an old idea that that you can build up streangth without putting on weight. That idea is old that we have thrown in the trash.""
That comment is 100% WRONG! Powerlifter George Halbert (to name only one) has increased his max bench in the past 1 1/2 years from 628 to 702 while maintaining 8% body fat & a 198 body weight. I have been an avid powerlifter for years & have increased my Deadlift from 390 to 505 while maintaining a 225lb bodyweight. Powerlifters regularly increase their totals while maintaining body weight. Muscles CAN get stronger without getting larger (to a point). An example is to armwrestle a farmer or contruction worker with smaller arms against a bodybuilder with larger arms. Unless we're talking a pro bodybuilder......My money is on the farmer/contruction worker. I cycle to increase my hip/leg strength & to help recover from my Max-rep cycles. A cyclists diet will help keep the Strongman build away.So please...Go ahead & (once acclimated to it) GO HEAVY!!!
im a 17 year old who has just started time trialing. through out the winter in engaged in an extreamly intense weight session aim at increasing my lower body strength. i did this workout 2 days a week and the gains were phonominal. it completely transformed my riding and made me a great climber and really helped my time trialing. however, now the racing season is upon me i want to concertrate on threshold intervals and proper riding but i also want to keep all of my strength.
any tips on how i can maintain my strength with only doing 1 strength session a week
cheers for any replies.
I think you shall focus more on your performance on your bike especially when you are new into time trialing. Having a good position on the bike and a solid aerobic engine is far more important than the benefits you will get from strength training.
thanks jesper, i will bear that in mind and work more on my aerobic capacity and anerrobic threshold as well as the technical aspects of riding
cheers again.