Advice on Choosing TrainerRoad Plan for General Fitness

Training
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Hi everyone, I’m seeking advice on selecting a TrainerRoad custom plan and integrating strength and flexibility training, given my physically demanding job and low back pain. Here’s my background:

About Me

  • Profile: 36, male, 194cm, 103kg (down from 135kg in 2017), non-smoker, social drinker, married
  • Jobs: Full-time warehouse (8h standing, causes low back pain), part-time car electronics repair (sitting)
  • Fitness Background: Occasional running/cycling, spine pain with running, TrainerRoad user for a year but inconsistent
  • Gear: Carbon road bike, powermeter, Garmin HRM PRO, Tacx NEO 2T
  • Location: North West UK (mountainous)

Training Context

  • Focus: Road cycling (minimal running due to spine pain)
  • Goals: Increase FTP, improve climbing (hilly area), build endurance (love long rides), general fitness, support weight loss (via nutrition)
  • Additional Focus: Strength training, flexibility, and balance to manage low back pain and enhance fitness
  • Constraints: Limited time due to physical job, need a sustainable plan
  • Mindset: Committed to long-term training, no races planned

Questions

  1. Goal: Using TrainerRoad’s “Create My Custom Plan > General Fitness > Discipline: Road,” which goal best combines FTP, climbing, endurance, and fitness while supporting strength, flexibility, and balance? Options include “Improve FTP,” “Climbing,” “General Endurance,” etc.
  2. Term: Should I choose a 1-month, 2-month, 3-month, or other duration to ensure steady progress without stopping?
  3. Balancing Workouts: How can I integrate strength training and flexibility workouts with my TrainerRoad plan, considering my warehouse job and low back pain?
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Welcome to the forum. The key to any successful plan is consistency. You say you have used TR for about a year inconsistently which might be a sign you are trying to accomplish too much too quickly and burn out. Reading between the lines it appears you are after overall better general fitness rather then training for a specific event. So i would use that as a guide setting up your custom plan parameters. General Fitness >Road>General Fitness. Remember all the other stuff will follow when you develop your general fitness. Increase in FTP, your endurance and ability to climb better all come from better overall fitness. Since you are not training for an event i would then set your duration 6 months to a year. This would give you plenty of time to adjust things as you get more fit or better able to handle more training stress. Since you have been inconsistent in the past and have a stressful job I would lean toward a more conservative or balanced side of the spectrum to the training approach. This will allow you to better handle the added stress of weight training and the other stress in your life. Remember the body doesn’t know the difference between hustling for 8 hours on your feet, weight lifting, running, or cycling. it just sees it all as stress being applied and it needs to handle it. I may suggest searching this forum about weight training to get suggestions on how other people using TR have incorporated it into their overall training. Once you get going you can modify your plan by using the train now feature to modify the plan and increase or decrease your training load to help you to be more consistent.

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