Is muscle mass a limiter for lighter rider?

Not according to science.

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Idk.
Last time I push for more power the limiting factor was how hard could i push the pedals.
Its not 100% Cardiac and is not 100% legs.
there is so much the cardiac fitness can get you, at some point you need legs to push the pedals…

:man_shrugging:

Is your sprinting power greater than your FTP?

Is so, your muscle power isn’t the limiting factor.

I thought he was born in 1890. I always have such a hard time seeing him as 30!

They all age terribly. I thought Alaphilippe was pushing 40 when I first saw him

That is true about Julian too.

We are obviously reading different science.

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I don’t know what you’re reading, but I’m reading things like this:

Congratulations :tada:

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I’m currently 54kg and have an ftp at 303w. I measure my thighs (weird i know), and I notice my ftp goes up whenever my thighs get bigger and when I weigh more. Correlation does not mean causation? I think OP is not limited by muscle mass, but more muscle = higher ftp for the same stress IME. I think if OP gained muscle while keeping the same stress with his plan he would increase his FTP more than if he stayed the same weight. Weight training is hugely beneficial, especially for little guys so keep that up.

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Are you 5’6" too?

That study’s baseline for lower intensity training is someone on a treadmill 3 times a week for 30 minutes ramping to a whopping 50 minutes by week 14 :rofl:. Some would say 3 hours of Z2 a week is barely enough to meet the minimum guidelines for health levels of activity.

If you only got 3 hours a week obviously higher intensity is going to yield more.

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There is a limit to the trainability of VO2max, which plateaus rather early in an athlete’s career. The only way to detect differences is therefore to study initially untrained subjects.

Here’s my take as a “big but almost lean” rider (6-3" 188lbs):

  1. You are lean. You gained 10% “performance” in about 6 months. Don’t be ashamed of that.
    I gained about 12-15% of “Performance” during an overlapping time frame. There are more performance gains to be found just through development and consistency.

  2. I live in the flat lands, and have practically no reason to minimize the body mass part of the watts/kg calculation. I’ll always be faster on my daily rides with more watts rather than even thinking about shedding KG.

  3. Unless you live in the foothills or in real mountains, you’ll probably benefit from more total watts, more than lighter body mass. That calculation can be extrapolated from neutral mass to, “as long as you actually gain watts with any mass, you’re going in the right direction.”

  4. It’s probably not rare to find your first plateau after about 6-8 months of structured training. Don’t lose heart, you’ll find a breakthrough at some point, for some reason. Take a real break at some point, and get back into it.

  5. Start with off-bike strength exercises that aren’t terribly likely to add mass (current belief is high weight, low rep) and see if you can manage the training load and see new improvements. If that doesn’t work after 6 months THEN look at some of the lower body weight gain plans you could find on the interwebs.

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My experience as a pretty light 5ft6 rider… Made a conscious effort from mid 2019 onwards to fuel all my workouts. I’ve gone from 59 to 64kg but am still wearing the same t-shirt size. This year I did my best 1min by 50w and 20min by 10w but haven’t really been testing or racing… More importantly (for me) my climbing performance has improved as well as flat.

I think I was chronically under fueling the riding I was doing (approx 500 hours a year the last 4 years) rather than not having ‘big enough’ muscles and if you’re doing the same it might be having an impact. I wouldn’t target a heavier weight, but rather just make sure you’re fuelling the work and doing the work.

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Isn’t this about mitochondria rather than muscle mass? The more mitochondria, the more energy you can generate and the more power you can put through the peddles. So, wouldn’t longer zone 2 rides accomplish this?

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Im 5’7.

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Yes, but it’s both the number of mitochondria and how well they function. So both long zone2 and HIIT efforts. More polarized than long slow distance.

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