Strength Training Principles for the Cyclist

From The Cycling Addiction

Over 25 years of weight and strength training experience as well as 10 years competing in the NPC Bodybuilding organization. Below are some of the highlights through the years.

NPC Georgia Bodybuilding Championship 1st Lightweight Class (pictured above before competition)
NPC Coastal USA 1st Lightweight Class
AAU Southern Kentucky Bodybuilding Championship 1st & Overall winner

TOPIC: PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD

First, let me be clear to say that strength training is not necessary for the competitive cyclist and this has been proven by many top sports physiologist and coaches. Look at the most successful professional cyclists and you will see a physique that looks fit, but somewhat frail and anemic in comparison to strength related athletes. Having a reduced frontal area and less body mass will help in the overall scheme of tour racing, where sprinters are typically a little more muscular than the lighter weight climbers they are still not as massive as most pure strength athletes. I don't not profess to know enough about the specifics of training for cycling events, but I do know that in most sporting events training with specificity is crucial to success. In other words there is the old phrase, "If you want to be a better cyclist than ride your bike." That seems like such a simple phrase and yet it is the nature of a competitor and some coaches to experiment with other types of training in order to gain an edge over the competition.

Is strength in the sense of strength like a power lifter crucial to a cyclist? The answer is no, but do not confuse strength with power. Cyclists need to be powerful and those that work on pushing their threshold are working on improving power, which is why using a power meter can be such a useful tool to the cyclist in measuring improvements and training within certain zones.

If you are like me and maybe you see yourself as a recreational cyclist or if you are a competitive cyclist that would still like to train for strength despite what is stated above concerning training specificity, then I will include over a period of time a few general principles that may be helpful. I will not go into specific details like describe a training routine because even then the goals are specific to the goals of that person. For example among strength athletes, power lifters do not train like Olympic lifters and bodybuilders do not train like football players. Each has a specific program that include some form of strength training for that specific goal.

The first principle of strength training is compared to most other types of training in a sense that it is progressive. If you are a cyclist and you are familiar with threshold training you will know about the different training zones. Use that knowledge and apply it to strength training. You know that training in different power zones equates to a certain percentage of the functional threshold. A power lifter getting ready for a power meet may train 80 to 90% of their maximum lift during their last few weeks of preparation. If you are not familiar with that type of training I use the simple phrase, "If you keep doing what you are doing, you will keep getting what you are getting."

For example if a guy tells me he is going to start strength training at home and he has a set of 25 pound dumbbells and plans to set up a program centered around those dumbbells will he be successful. Only if he is starting from an untrained state will he be successful until his body has adapted to those dumbbells. After that he will not progress without adding more resistance (progressive overload). Another example of progressive training using cycling would be a guy who has been sedentary most of his life and just started cycling and wants to ride with his friends on an organized century so he rides once a week and no greater than 15 miles. Will he be ready to ride 100 miles with his friends who are all veteran cyclist that train over a 100 miles a week? You know that guy will probably not be successful without being a little more progressive each week with incremental expanded training miles. For true strength one will set up a training program that will be progressive in nature by adding more repetitions and more resistance.

Adding repetitions alone will not work. If the guy above wanting to increase his bench press by 100 pounds can he do it with just adding more repetitions using the 25 pound dumbbells? The answer again is no. More likely he will just increase his endurance level with adding more repetitions, but it would be unlikely he would be able to step up to the rack and successfully use those 100 pound dumbbells. If the guy were incrementally going up the rack over a period of weeks or months and were then able to handle the 100 pound dumbbells for 3 reps his strength now has increased enough to the point his warm up weight will no longer be the 25 pound dumbbells, but perhaps his starting warm up weight may be 50 pound dumbbells. This is the obvious measure of gained strength over a period of time, much in the manner a cyclist will use a power meter to determine if he or she has improved their functional threshold.

This first blog entry was based on my experience with those asking my advice in the manner described above. I have had more than a handful tell me they are going to add strength training to their off season and then describe their plan. Just because you pick up some weights now and then doesn't mean that you are going to gain strength. For those that train in that manner it would be better to say I am weight training and not say I am strength training unless the goal is to be incrementally progressive with adding more resistance as the body adapts over a period of time.

One mistake I have seen in general among the majority of people starting to train with weights is the assumption they will look like a very muscular bodybuilder. Muscular size does not necessarily equate to muscular strength. I have witnessed power lifters that looked as skinny as some cyclist and be pound for pound the strongest guy in their weight class. Getting muscular like a bodybuilder takes a lot of dedicated effort, proper nutrition and good genetics. So do not be too scared of becoming overly muscular. If you feel as if you are gaining too much size you can either stop lifting or stay with the same or less resistance and your body will sieze in gaining size.