
Why do you recommend cyclists to to train like weight lifters (few reps)? Wouldn’t be better to train for strength endurance with 8, 12 or more reps?
Maintaining a low body weight is essential in both road cycling and mountain bike (Watts per Kilogram), since carrying extra pounds (dead weight) decrease your performance. That is same situation for a weight lifter competing in a weight class. If the weight class is
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 getting stronger.
If you decide to strength train this winter, I will highly recommend you to read my series about how you can get stronger without adding additional muscle mass.
Ps. It’s not certain that cyclists have to lift weights at all. Most riders will benefit more from extra bike training.