One thing that seems tricky about combining cycling and strength training is keeping both schedules consistent.
Say you have booked a lower-body strength session for Thursday. But your hard TrainerRoad interval workout gets pushed from Tuesday to Wednesday because of work.
Now you have two demanding sessions close together, and you are unsure whether to lift, reduce the intensity, or move the gym session.
Even when gym software makes it easy to reschedule a class, figuring out where the strength session fits into the training week is a different challenge.
I am curious how other cyclists approach this.
Do you prioritize your cycling workouts and move strength sessions around them?
Do you reduce your lifting intensity when you’ve had a demanding ride the day before?
How much recovery time do you usually leave between hard intervals and heavy leg training?
I’d be interested to hear what has worked for people who regularly combine structured cycling with gym workouts.
Is having a fixed strength training schedule better, or does flexibility make it easier to stay consistent?
I find it doesn’t matter if the rest day between intervals and lifting disappears as in your scenario, as long as recovery in between is good (carbs + protein + sleep)
Sometimes I’ll be most sore the day after lifting. Sometimes two days after. Or three days after if I’ve done, say, stiff-legged deadlifts for the first time in a while. However, soreness doesn’t seem to be closely correlated with fatigue, so none of that really matters.
Depends on the season I suppose for priority of Lift/Cycle - but since I only have two hard intervals on bike a week, I try to avoid leg work the day before (maybe just calf raises and abbduction/abduction machine[but not 3x to fail sets] ). In your example I would hit the bike intervals hard… then go to the gym the next day and do the workout as well as you can. Still gives good stimulus for maintenance or gains. If the workouts were reversed, I would keep it upper body, core and minor leg work. From someone who lifts 1-2x per week year round - fairly minimal fatigue or DOMS at play. If coming back from time away , would have to give a couple weeks of ‘hold’ to bike work…maintain a bit… then hit the gym hard eventually it isn’t as impactful (at least in a ‘noticable’ way). {
Once you have a strength routine - it becomes a bit of a new fatigue bar in your training. A bit related to how you shouldn’t treat an FTP test as a race… tapering, weird supplements, all the placebos, bi-carb, etc lol …it just sets a non-standard bar that makes training zones not quite achievable day to day.
If you take a week off the bike… you’ll maybe notice 10-20# increase in leg lifts… I would imagine reversed, if you are continuing lifting legs, you are giving up some top end watts on the bike day to day in workouts. RPE scale overall likely shifts up 1 of 10. (sweetspot you’ll feel residual burn maybe that usually wouldn’t linger if biking only…etc)
With a busy bike/run/lift routine - makes it tricky for me - so hard to answer that… but lifting just once or twice a week (sometimes 3), mainly prioritize upper/core & calf/abductor stuff since legs are often fragile or toast from running and cycling stuff. The ability to shift strength is nice, can get away with just one quick session a week to maintain it seems to me (at least for a week or two).
If your priority is cycling, then with the strength sessions you are aiming not to impact the quality of your cycling sessions. What does Friday and Saturday look like?
I lift 1–2 times a week, mainly during winter. My general rule is that strength training should support cycling, not compromise it.
If a key bike interval session gets rescheduled, I recommend prioritising the bike workout and adjusting the strength session instead. I generally avoid heavy leg training the day before hard intervals. I prefer placing strength training after a demanding bike session or the following day, depending on recovery.
I focus on a few basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, split squats and calf raises. Closer to important races, I reduce strength training to maintenance.
I would also consider your overall training load. After poor sleep or a stressful week, reducing the weights or skipping a session is perfectly fine.
Consistency matters more than forcing every workout into the schedule.
As others have said, if you are primarily focused on cycling then prioritise your harder intervals over lifting; ensuring the lifting doesn’t compromise your recovery.
I strive to do leg exercise in gym on my hard interval days usually 5hrs+ after completing the boke session. Simple exercise focussing on 1 or two movements like trap-bar deadlifts, single leg squats etc. I then supplement these with 1-3 upper body exercises and a core exercise.
In the week of an event I would skip the leg exercise completely to prioritise recovery. Any rescheduled bike workouts (hard) should take priority if you have to chose between one or the other.
Ensure you fuel the repair and adaptations with good quality protein and fatty acids. Keeping things simple in the gym is the best way to maintain consistency - which is king when it comes to all things training.