Weight Lifting for Performance as a Time Crunched Cyclist
Fast Dad Friday’s- Weight Lifting
My Fast Dad Fridays tip this week was to make the time to hit they gym, and start Lifting Weights! I took a much deeper look at the benefits of weight lifting for cyclists last year after getting into the gym for the first time in a serious way in 2018. Check out that article for a deeper look at WHY lifting works! If you are doing Masters Cycling, weight lifting is NON-NEGOTIABLE if you want to ride strong for years to come.
The research I have consumed, and the way myself and the athletes I coach have felt since making lifting a primary piece of the training plan, make it undeniable that lifting does indeed make you significantly stronger on the bike.
I’m Time Crunched: Shouldn’t I prioritize riding?
You have to make a decision here: would you rather prioritize performance, or time riding? If you only have 7-9 hours a week to exercise, no doubt it’s going to be a bit harder to add time in the gym to the schedule, but doing it at the right time of the cycling season helps. You are going to be hurting from the gym for the first few weeks as your body adapts to this new kind of load, but the improvements are going to be staggering and nearly instantaneous. “Noob gains” are a real thing!
If you would rather get more time in the saddle, that’s a very fair argument I have made for myself in the past. As I get a older and since having a lot less time to lift, I find that I’m more concerned with my on bike performance than logging an extra couple hours a week pedaling. When I combine my gym work with neuromuscular training on the bike, I can also get a lot of bang-for-my-buck.
Bottom line for me here is that if lifting is going to improve my performance, that’s what I care about most right now, so it’s going to remain a priority to me. How fast can I be while still being a Dad to a 4 month old!
See Also: The Best Glute Activation Exercise For Cycling
Progressive Loading
It’s important to be really diligent to learn how to safely lift, because we are talking about working up to big weight with Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, and Overhead press. There are a lot of great free resources online, my personal favorite is Dr. Aaron Horschig’s website and Instagram Pages, Squat University. He has a wealth of great knowledge on both pages about maintaining form.
The next thing to determine is how you want to go about adding weight. After reading the research, I knew as cyclists we need to get better at lifting low reps, and high weight. Per the recommendation of my very strong brothers, I followed the GSCLP Program it was really straightforward and it has built in strategies for getting over the inevitable plateau that happens after you get your lifting legs underneath you.
What If I Can’t Go to the Gym?
Covid-19 has me steering clear of gyms for a while. That’s just my personal choice, and I don’t have 300 pounds of weight at home, let along a squat rack or olympic weights, so I’ve been maintaining strength however I can.
I have a kettle bell, a weight vest, and a few free weights, and that’s enough for me to get in a serious leg and core workout. Bulgarian Split Squat, single leg Romanian Deadlift, Kettle bell swings are all really great way to get the legs worked. For me personally, nothing can replace loading a bar with weight and moving it, but during these unprecedented times, it’s important to be fluid with how you make personal decisions regarding the health of yourself and of others and right now this is working for me!
Related Post: Cycling Training Through Coronavirus
Figuring out a Home Gym on a Budget
Admittedly, to get strong and stay strong at home is going to take more than 5 minutes, and depending on the time of year and your goals in the short term, lifting might not be the right choice for you to jump into if you are in the throws of a racing campaign. However with the current health crisis and racing all but canceled, I can’t see a good reason NOT to start trying to improve your strength off the bike, and you can even do this pretty effectively at home. Get a Kettle bell, a few free weights, and for extra credit consider purchasing a Weight vest. Instead of doing the really big lifts, Squad and Deadlift, break these moves into single leg exercises. By hitting one leg at a time you are going to be helping your stability and you wont require as much weight to get a really effective workout.
Core Strength- 5 Minutes a Day Principle
Having a strong and stable core is crucial to lifting safely, and it’s also huge for getting the power into the pedals on the bike. Brendan and I have been recommending our athletes do 5 minutes of core/strength a day.
Why 5 minutes? It’s not that much time but it’s a way to create a new habit on only 35 minutes per week, and if performing these stability exercises with intention, it’s all you need. Intention and effort are more important than reps when it comes to core and spinal stablity.
Doing 1000000 crunches sit-ups or twists for an excessively long session is great for those beach abs, but it’s not really what we are trying to work when we do Core work as cyclists. Core=Stability. To enhance stability as cyclists we actually need to become more rigid.
Dr Stuart Mcgill has done a TON of research on stiffness as it relates to power lifting and low back pain, and the crossover to cycling is pretty important. The “Mcgill Big 3” and the 8 Point Foundation Plank are my pics on how to build this strength. To summarize what is happening: when you do these type of core exercises with MAXIMUM activation, you get an enhanced level of muscular activity after they are performed. This makes for a great warmup when lifting, or getting ready for some hard intervals, and can be done in 5 minutes!
Think of core work like a Tabata interval. Tabata intervals success lie partly in the ability to focus/commit to an effort for shorter duration, allowing you to push harder for longer. There are some physiological things going on as well, but I believe the mental focus component is a huge part of it too.
You want to fully commit to every second of any static core hold, then take a short break until you are ready to really focus and dig into the move again. Doing core moves without intention, just going through the motions, isn’t going to cut it! You can absolutely crush your core with minimal time IF, and ONLY IF, you are giving it 100% effort every time.
Related Post: The Essential Core Exercises for Cyclists
Wrapping it Up
Lifting Helps Performance. Period. If you can’t get to a gym or don’t have one available to you, split your power moves into single leg moves, you don’t need to have that much weight on hand at home to still get the right kind of stimulus for improving maximal strength without doing a super long, high rep workout.
Make sure you keep your spin safe and strong by using Tabata style core workouts. It doesn’t take but 5 minutes a day to create the habit and get your core stronger than ever!
If you want to hear what I would recommend for your training plan, tailored to your personal needs, shoot me an email at Patrick@EVOQ.BIKE. Or, contact us online to learn more about EVOQ’s training programs for cycling.
Thanks for checking out Fast Dad Friday’s
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