Cycling Weight Training

Thinking about cycling and lifting weights? Weight lifting for cyclists, or weight training for cycling, especially heavy lifting, does NOT have a measurable effect on aerobic fitness in trained athletes. It simply doesn’t improve the body’s Maximum ventilatory ability (VO2max) or the body’s ability to shuttle or consume lactic acid (lactate threshold). So why do cyclists need strength training?

When you think of the goals for your cycling training so that you can perform well at the next event or on race day, if you think about the big picture of this, you’ll realize that cycling is mostly an aerobic activity. So why would we strength train for cycling when the opening paragraph told us that weight training will not improve our aerobic ability??

Why would I want to do a non-aerobic activity like weigth lifting for cyclists when I could spend that time building my aerobic base, cross training with running, or something else?

This had us stumped for a while too, especially when we followed a cycling strength training program but did it half assed. We didn’t fully commit to it.

Once we did, and had athletes that followed suit, we kept hearing: “Wow, it’s like I have another gear out there!”

If you want to get faster and have your best spring racing campaign, read on and incorporate strength training into your overall cycling workout plan.

Cycling and Weight Lifting

Does Weight Training Add Too Much Bulk?

There is some confusion about the difference between strength training for cycling and muscle building lifting. Although both can be accomplished in the gym, the content of your training will look pretty different between the two.

Bodybuilders accomplish muscle growth by maximizing hypertrophy, or what the gym bros refer to as “the pump”. Bodybuilders look for a sweet spot of 10-15 repetitions with maximal muscle contraction - think 1 second up, 1 second paused at a given lift’s peak, and 1 full second down. This body building style of lifting causes a lot of muscle damage, resulting in faster increase in muscle size.

When you are lifting weights to bodybuild, you teach your body how to get bigger, not stronger. Basically, it’s great for hitting the beach, but offers less significant increases in strength and isn’t what cyclists need to focus on. Cyclists need a strength training program for lifting.

Lifting heavier weight for fewer reps (1-5 repetitions), builds strength and power without adding extra muscle mass that in most cases is not ideal for a cyclist. This is the perfect situation for weight training for cycling.

How many watts you can make per KG of body weight is a common way of assessing how you will stack up against your competition in a race, and weight lifting for cyclists will help you produce more watts without extra weight.

Improving strength to weight ratio would logically have an affect on your power output. So, by extension, by building our body’s ability to output maximal power efforts via major weightlifting movements (deadlift, squat, and overhead press), we build our body’s ability to push out maximal power at a moment’s notice.

If you don’t think pure watts matter, listen to Tyler William’s podcast, from Legion of Los Angeles.

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Weight Training For Cycling

Does Lifting Weights Make You a Stronger Cyclist?

Yes! Check out this study for all the details on weight training for cyclists, but to summarize, there was strong evidence showing improvement in 1RM, in previously TRAINED athletes, without any additional aerobic training outside of the lifting protocol, improved cycling economy, and time to exhaustion at a pretest level WITHOUT improving Vo2 max or wattage at lactate threshold. The authors suggest that:

“Human muscle fatigue is according to Gandevia (5) not only dependent on peripheral factors at the muscle level but also dependent on the central nervous systems’ ability to adequately drive the motor neurons. So, if fewer motor units need to be recruited at the same time at a given intensity, a longer time to onset of muscle fatigue and thus a longer time to exhaustion at that specific intensity may be expected”

Translation? Weight training for cycling builds power - your body’s ability to absolutely DRIVE and EXPLODE at a moment’s notice. Sound familiar to sprints? It is! I would advocate EVERY cyclist, from the 60 kg climber to the brawny track sprinter who can routinely put out 2000 watts, should be lifting in the off-season and year round.

When applied correctly, 2-3 trips the the gym per week through the winter base season, will have a pretty significant benefit to your ability to pedal harder, for both short sprints, AND 3 hour rides, with little to no weight gain. Still sound too good to be true? Read on, and I’ll give you my top 5 reasons every cyclist concerned with performance, should strength train.

Weight Training For Cyclists: Top 5 Reasons To Lift

IMPROVE CYCLING ECONOMY/TIME TO EXHAUSTION

This is the big one. Cycling economy and Time to Exhaustion are the two primary reasons weight lifting for cycling helps make riders faster without actually improving FTP or VO2 max. The Neuromuscular strain you can dose by lifting at your MAX WEIGHT can only happen in the weight room. In just 8 weeks of training, cycling economy improved an average of 5%. Essentially your body gets 5% more efficient at using the motor units(muscles) it already has because your nervous system will be able to send a strong signal for longer without fatiguing.

IMPROVE PMAX

Pmax, or the maximum force you can generate for a full revolution of the crank, is directly related to putting power through the pedals. By strengthening your kinetic chain through maximum strength lifts, you will be able to create more force, and deliver it more efficiently to the pedals= MORE SPEED! When you see that 1 lap to go in the crit, or the 1km banner in a road race if you aren’t by yourself, you are going to need to know how to kick HARD, or you will never find that top step!

PREVENT INJURY/TRAINING LONGEVITY

Cyclists spend hours in bent over to the bars and let’s be frank, it’s not the most ergonomic of positions! We might be able to pedal for hours and hours but there are all sorts of stabilizer muscles and tendons that need attention off the bike so we can maintain good form and avoid an overuse injury. Mastering the squat and the deadlift will force you to improve your flexibility, body awareness, and improve the strength of your posterior chain (Glutes, hammies, and erector muscles). Less injuries means more time training and more time you have to keep improving over the long haul.

HORMONE BENEFIT

Think Testosterone. When you do a cycling strength workout, you’re performing multi joint movements like squat and deadlift, and the body’s natural reaction muscle damage and nervous system stimulation is to produce a hormone response. More T, and natural growth hormone, means faster recovery, and better quality of training year round!

INCREASE CORE STRENGTH

Simply put, lifting heavy things is hard! You can really challenge your body’s core and spinal erector muscles when lifting weights that you just can’t do on a bike. Better core strength, means you will be able to hold that low aero position longer, SNAP harder in a sprint, and your body will fatigue slower in all out efforts too.

A stronger core your body will continue to work optimally when you start to fatigue. Remember the last time you tried to go on a long endurance ride and in the 3rd hour you start getting a little squirmy in the saddle. You find yourself standing more, rocking more, feeling the need to stretch out a bit? That’s because even if your legs aren’t yet fatigued, all of the other supporting muscles of your torso can’t keep up with your lower body, and you should probably be addressing this issue off the bike.

Weight Training for Cyclists

With weight training for cyclists, It is highly recommended you work with a lifting coach, or personal trainer if you have never done a cycling strength training plan. YouTube has a lot of information out there as well. The point of weight lifting for cyclists is to get stronger, not get injured. If you spend 6-8 sessions doing focusing on the quality of your posture when performing the deadlift and squat you should be ready to go.

Cycling Strength Training Plan

For my athletes, if it is their first time doing a cycling strength training plan or they haven’t lifted in a long time, I stick to about a month of adaptation workouts, to help them get used to working in the gym again and from there, these are two resources I really like:

https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs

https://saynotobroscience.com/gzclp-infographic/

Both of these Schema are great getting used to handling heavier weights will allow you to safely learn the movements and add weight gradually.

Best Cycling Exercises

What are the best cycling exercises in the gym? Here are a few of my favorites

Back Squat — Is squatting good for cycling? The back squat is the ultimate exercise for cycling. It increases leg strength, but also enhances core engagement and posture. However, it’s not for everyone— if you have pre-existing injuries or feel uncomfortable with this exercise, there are plenty of alternatives
Bulgarian Split Squat — This is a great unilateral movement and very cycling specific. I have found this to be very beneficial for increasing glute strength and activation. It’s also a very safe exercise
Trap Bar Deadlift — This is a full body exercise and great for cycling. It works you core, arms, back and legs in a very cycling specific movement. Once again, this exercise is more for experienced lifters and you will need to work up to it if you are new to the gym.
Bent-Over Row — This upper body exercise is great for strengthening your arms. A lot of cyclists neglect their upper body and seemingly forget that you also use your arms to ride your bike. This exercise is great for improving grip strength and I find it to be helpful for out of the saddle riding.

Weight Lifting for Cycling FAQ

There are a lot of questions about how to do strength training for cycling the right way. Below are some common questions about cycling strength training.

Can You Do Weight Training and Cycling on the Same Day?

Yes! In fact, this can be a very effective training method if programmed properly. It is important however to make sure you don’t sacrifice key training sessions by doing cycling gym workouts on the wrong days. For example, you wouldn’t want to lift too hard in the morning before a VO2max interval session or roast your legs the day before a big group ride.

Can I Do Cycling in the Morning and Gym in the Evening?

Yes! This is a good way to program your training. For example, you can do an interval session in the morning when your legs are fresh, take some time to recover and then lift weights in the evening. However, make sure you don’t do too difficult of a bike ride before lifting, otherwise you may be too worn out to get in a quality lifting session.

Is It Better to Lift Weights Before or After Cycling?

This is very individual and there’s no one correct answer for when to do cycling gym workouts. A lot of it can sometimes depend on what is most convenient for the athlete. For me, lifting weights first thing in the morning and riding in the afternoon is more time efficient. From a performance standpoint, I’ve hear people advocate for both. The advantage of riding first is that your legs will be fresh for cycling, but you might compromise your lifting if the ride is too taxing. The opposite is true if you lift before cycling. At the end of the day, whatever is the highest priority is probably what you should do first. In the winter if you’re really trying to max out strength, it might be better to lift first and do an easy bike ride after. During the season when you want to be fresh for your cycling training, it might be better to lift after riding.

How Often Should a Cyclist Do Strength Training?

In general, two days per week is plenty if you are cycling and lifting weights. Research has shown that two days per week is enough to elicit strength gains. A third session will likely leave you more fatigued and not give you any added benefit. Since we are also spending time training on the bike, we don’t want to spend any more time in the gym than necessary.

How To Combine Strength Training and Cycling?

Combining cycling and weight training can be very tricky. If you’re getting serious about strength training and cycling, we recommend hiring a qualified cycling coach who is well-versed in cycling strength training. When building strength in the winter, it’s important to keep intensity on the bike low. Your strength training will provide your primary intensity during this phase.

The other major key is proper periodization of your cycling strength training. As masochistic cyclists, we often think more is better in the gym. Many over-zealous cyclists end up overcooked from doing too much in the gym. Read our post here so you don’t make these mistakes.

Is Squatting Good For Cycling?

Yes! If you were to pick one exercise to do in the gym, the squat would be the first one we would go to. The squat doesn’t only work your legs, but also strengthens your back and core muscles. Having a strong core will help you stabilize your body while riding and improve your ability to generate power. Strengthening your back will help prevent back pain while cycling.

What Muscles Should I Strengthen for Cycling?

All of them! Cycling (believe it or not) is a full body exercise. It requires leg strength, yes, but you must also have a strong core and upper body to generate power while cycling. In the gym, we recommend picking one or two lower body and upper body exercises for every lift. One area that is often neglected for cycling is the glutes— these are a powerful muscle that needs to be trained. Check out our article on glute activation exercises for cycling to learn more about that topic.

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Best Weight Training & Lifting Regimen for Cyclists