Manageable strength training routines

1

was listening to latest podcast and some of was helpful. I always have to self-coach to sort out what’s achievable for me.

I thought it was interesting that for Jonathan it was suggested to work in a 30 minute routine BEFORE cycling because it’s been stated so much to try to separate strength and cycling workouts by like 6 hours. But I guess that’s another example of what’s workable in your life style may not be optimal.

I’m wondering if others here are squeezing in strength right before or right after your cycling workouts.

also, wondering, especially for master’s athletes how much strength work are you doing each week. I’m trying to fit in 2 strength workouts a week of at least 45 minutes.

I am wondering if any master’s athletes do something similar as below. I’ve thought about pushing the thursday strength to Saturday evening but feel like I might wear myself out with longer weekend rides AND strength training

Monday: Yoga
Tuesday: Hard Interval (1 hour) and strength training
Wednesday: Endurance ride (1 hour)
Thursday: Endurance ride (1.5) hours and strength workout
Friday: yoga or off
Saturday: Longer hard group ride or hard interval workout
Sunday: long endurance

This is what I did yesterday and took a solid 45 minutes. But I do think I need to add an additional leg exercise and shoulder press isn’t so critical. these are all with dumbbells. feel free to share any useful exercises routines you have.

Bulgarian split squats
Chest press
dumbbell rows
single leg RDLs
shoulder press
Core work at the end

2

Good topic. I’m not masters (38) however I follow a masters training program in TR (two days intensity/wk) and have had great success. I’ve been lifting weights heavily since I was 14 with very few, short breaks. I transitioned to more endurance sports around 7-8 years ago, and cycling around 2.5ish years ago.

Since cycling, I’ve mostly bounced between 2-3 days/wk - largely 2. I can share some splits I’ve used for those.

For the first time in… ever.. starting in the next week or two I’m going to drop to 1 day strength training per week and move from 4 days cycling, to 5. I plan to add in a 2 hr easier endurance ride. I’ll occasionally have to move things around, but my ideal week will look like this:

Monday Morning: 1.5 hr intervals (vo2 max or similar)

Monday afternoon: 1ish hr weight lifting session (see below)

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: 2 hr endurance ride (easy-ish)

Thursday: 1.5 hr intervals

Friday: 1.5-2 hr endurance ride (easy)

Saturday: Long ride, usually 4-5 hours around .65 IF, give or take

Sunday: Off

For my weight lifting sessions, I’m planning to alternate between these two workouts. My prior 2 day splits were similar, but a few more exercises and divided upper body/lower body into different days.

1 Day Split during Race Prep:

Workout 1:

(Exercises with 2 sets, go to failure)

Jump rope - 150x1

Deadlift - 3 sets

Box step ups or Bulgarian Split Squat - 3 sets

Pull Ups - 3 sets

Bench Press (BB or DB) - 3 sets

DB Lateral Raises - 2 sets

  • superset with banded side steps

DB or BB Curls - 2 sets

  • Superset with banded monster walks

OH Tricep ext. with band or DB - 2 sets

  • superset with calf raises

Hanging leg raises - 2 sets

Workout 2:

(Exercises with 2 sets, go to failure)

Jump rope - 150x1

Back or Front Squats - 3 sets

Single Leg RDL or Stiff Leg DL w/ DB - 3 sets

Chest Fly’s - 3 sets

Upright Rows or Landmine Press - 2 sets

  • superset with banded side steps

Concentration or Hammer Curls - 2 sets

  • superset with banded monster walks

Tricep pushdowns - 2 sets

  • superset with calf raises

Planks - 2 sets

3

It comes down to what is important to you. If you want to be the best biker you can be, but fragile you can do 1 strength training a week. If you want to maintain muscle mass as you get older which has same benefits like cycling if not more, than do 2 sessions. Try circuit training. You can do a lot for 30-40 minutes. I am not master athlete, but I am not giving up weight training just to get marginal gains in cycling. Man, having strength has help me much more in my day to day life.

4

I actually prefer circuit training. Maybe it’s my short attention span but when I’m doing more traditional strength work I find it annoying resting for a minute or two between sets.

I could also try one day my more traditional strength work up to 45 minutes on my Tuesday and then do a circuit strength workout on Thursday. There are a couple on YouTube I like including a shorter bodyweight one that I will do if I’m feeling fatigued.

Maybe it boils down to figuring out what I like which will allow me to be more consistent. I

5

Thanks. That is helpful. I am also trying to increase my volume on the bike a bit but of courses trying to do that and do a couple strength workouts is challenging for me from a recovery standpoint.

6

I would do your strength build whilst in bike base. Then move strength to maintenance during bike build. During bike build do strength maintenance on hard days.

7

This entirely depends on the quality of workouts and experience of the person performing them. How someone performs an exercise makes an infinite difference compared to just moving the weight.

I expect to lose very little moving to 1 faster paced slightly longer workout as opposed to 2 separate workouts. For reference, at 155 lbs I can deadlift 275x5 with the hex bar, bench press 165x10, and do 15 wide grip pull ups.

ETA - 2+ is ideal for a lot of people, but would Hardly consider someone doing the “right” 1 day program “frail.” YMMV

8

I really like the muscular endurance approach taken by Scott Johnston. His sports background is endurance sports that go up mountains. But it seems broadly applicable to cycling. And some of his podcast appearances have discussed examples using cycling for muscular endurance training.

I should probably read his book one of these days, rather than just listening to his podcast appearances.

Link to his strength workouts and progression. Intended to be used alongside primarily aerobic training plans. Scroll down for the plan.

How Do You Train Muscular Endurance at Home Without Hills? | Uphill Athlete

9

The printable version is a pdf you can download.

10

It. Depends.

Right now I’m lifting once a month. Other years, I’ve been 5x5 three times a week.

My best years, as it happens.

11

Trying to do 2x a week a habit. I generally do my strength workout in the morning and ride later afternoon. Technically separated by 6’ish hours.

12

That “do your strength workout right before cycling” suggestion was a revelation for me, because I had been finding it super hard to schedule a strength workout 6h distant from my hard bike workouts. And I felt like my strength workouts were hurting my hard biking workouts.

So with (1) “permission” to prioritize some strength workout over the perfect strength workout and (2) a hypothesis that training strength will get me better criterium results than traditional Base/Build/Specialty blocks over winter-- I’m going to try a long base phase that focuses on (A) hard strength workouts and (B) increasing Z2 volume week-over-week.

The idea is that my base goes from September to Feb. 2 hard strength workouts per week. 6 days of Z2 rides totally 7.5h/week up to 13.5h/week by the end. I’m throwing in a couple 20h shock weeks (and recovery weeks afterwards) in Jan and Feb because it sounds “fun” and there’s a notion that this might lead to some supercompensation over just continuing to do 13.5h weeks.

13

(53M) This is very close to what I do. I have an additional strength training session on Saturday along with my hard ride.

In general I would recommend against skipping the overhead press. You may not think you need those muscles for cycling but you need them to balance your overall strength. It will throw your body mechanics out of whack if you are doing pulls but not the corollary push motion. Always pair opposing movements and in ideal circumstances simply train the whole body. What you have programmed almost does it as is. I would recommend considering adding Squat and Deadlift for comprehensive coverage of the whole chain.

I think your overall approach is an excellent strategy though.

14

Could anyone recommend a strength program I can do alongside 10 to 20 hours a week on the bike?

I’m not trying to become Arnold, I just want to maintain a basic level of strength. I used to do 5/3/1 and liked it quite a bit.

15

Squat, bench, row, dead lift, overhead press

Choose weight and reps that suits the rest of your training, taken from 5x5 which is the basics of lifting

16

This right here :up_arrow::up_arrow: :up_arrow:

Build a routine around these 5 compound exercises, filling in sessions with single leg and upper/lower isolation exercises like reverse lunges, split squats, curls, and tricep extensions.

Use whatever weights you have available, lift as heavy as you can safely maintain, stay consistent, don’t overthink it, and enjoy becoming a stronger human :flexed_biceps:

17

You’d be a terrible influencer :winking_face_with_tongue:

18

I use the 5 lifts that JoeX laid out though I also add Bulgarian Split Squats to give my legs another stimulus as well as to improve stability with a unilateral exercise.

Just 3 working sets once a week within a rep or two of failure. I do the leg workouts on hard bike days. Hard days hard, easy days easy.

I start with 3 sets of 5 and stay at that weight until I can safely do 3 sets of 7. Add 5lb and start back at 3 sets of 5.

Rest 3 min between sets. Seems like a lot but trust me. You want to be FULLY RECOVERED for the next set otherwise you’re training endurance not strength. Most of lifting is sitting around waiting. You are not doing crossfit.

That’s it! Doesn’t seem like a lot of volume but I repeatedly hit PRs as long as I stay CONSISTENT. Fortunately this strategy has you in and out of the gym quickly. I do two exercises three days a week on my harder ride days and that’s it. Barely takes me half an hour each day.

19

Why would we be avoiding shorter rest to make things more endurance focused? The entire reason I’m interested in strength work these days is to complement my endurance training.

20

If training muscular endurance is your goal then sure, short rest, high reps, knock em out and feel the burn! But you’re only speaking about your own preferences here. Some of us want to get stronger.

If you want to get STRONGER you should be doing each set as heavy as safely possible. For that you need to be COMPLETELY rested and ready to go for each set. If your rest periods are too short and you’re carrying fatigue from the previous set you’ll lift less weight. Lifting less weight equals less adaptation and higher probably of injury. Form is usually the first thing to go when you’re fatigued.