Maintain Bike Gains while Strength Training

I’m thinking I’d like to take a break from bike training and work on my strength. After reading about strength suggestions - I’d like to work on my deadlift and squat which are very weak. I’d like to get to a point where I’m not sore for a week after doing a deadlift workout.

Completed SSB 1 and 2. What’s a good way to sort of take a break from intense bike workouts without losing the fitness/ftp gains I’ve made over the past year? Anyone else tried this? I’ve found it difficult to make gains in both strength and bike at the same time. I really don’t think it’s a good idea to double up on same day for me (ie do a workout in morning and deadlift at night).

Take a look at the Maintenance plans:
https://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/plans/category/23-enthusiast

Although those have a lot of intensity IIRC and 3x per week so not sure how to schedule leg day if it’s not in the afternoon after some bike maintenance in the morning.

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If your strength has a lot of room for improvement, you don’t need to take a break from cycling. You’ll make quick, easy gains with low volume strength training.

If you are sore a week after a strength session then you are doing too much, too soon. Don’t afraid to leave the gym feeling like you can do more.

For each session, doing as little as 3x5 on two exercises (deadlift or squat + press or pull ups), plus 10-15 minutes of core and prehab exercises should take less than 45 minutes. Two days per week is enough.

I’m in the middle of CX season. For weeks that I’m racing, I do 1 gym day, 1-2 skills days, 1-2 hard TR workouts and 1-2 days of racing. Effectively strength maintenance and bike gains.

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Assuming the soreness is DOMS… You might be closer than you think to getting to that point. If you can, take a listen to

DOMS is unpredictable, but usually “the way out is through.” Some people suffer from DOMS every time, but as far as I can tell that’s pretty uncommon. More typically, the first 2-4 weeks of regular strength training is the worst for DOMS; and yes suffering through DOMS for 2-4 weeks sucks. It’s hard to suffer through for that long and have anything but complete skepticism that DOMS will go away, but for most people it really does!

As I understand it, the keys to breaking past DOMS are 1- consistency and 2- consistency. But it’s important to be consistent about applying those two rules. :wink: Sticking with 2-3 days per week, getting 1-2 days of rest between each workout, and keeping the weights pretty consistent (even if it seems easy for the routine you’re practicing, I’d still encourage consistent incremental increases over the matter of a couple of weeks vs. immediately adding another 20kgs/45lbs).

For deadlift specifically, you don’t say what exactly is sore or how. For example, if your back is sore: it’s probably not DOMS, and you need to look at your form possibly with a trainer.

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