I’m trying to incorporate 2x week strength training into my winter training this year, and I’m trying to follow the “hard days hard, easy days easy” philosophy with 2 days/week intervals & strength (on the same day) and other days easy Z2. My strength workout is just this:
3 sets pull-ups
3 sets squats
3 sets bench press
3 sets deadlift
All 4-6 reps (except pull-ups), weight high enough to only have 1-2 RIR.
Typically, I have noticeable DOMS the day after I lift, and doing any activity more than walking doesn’t feel as productive as taking a rest day. Given that doing strength seems to necessitate a rest day for me, I’m not sure how to program a week. I’ve been attempting this schedule:
Monday: rest
Tuesday: endurance
Wednesday: threshold or VO2 intervals morning, strength afternoon
Thursday: rest
Friday: endurance
Saturday: endurance
Sunday: threshold or VO2 intervals morning, strength afternoon
What I’ve found so far is that my legs are not fresh enough for strong intervals. If strength training “requires” a rest day for me, I don’t see how I could do any intensity on fresh legs. Since it’s the winter, I’ve considered dropping 1 day of intensity to prioritize strength for now and picking up 2 days intensity when I drop strength to 1x/week in a month or two.
So should strength training always be followed by a rest day? Or are people doing easy days following strength and using different protocols that yield less DOMS?
I’ve been going through this. I’ve been lifting for 3 months. It took 2 months to not feel so smashed that if affected my cycling. For all this time, I’ve just been riding endurance and counting the lifting as my intensity.
My only conclusion is that two days of lifting certainly affects bike workouts. I may switch to once a week maintenance in April and then pick up two days a week again in the fall.
The other strategy is to lift less. Do 1 or 2 sets instead of 3. Try to not have DOMs the next day or extend more than 2 days.
I wonder how you’d do if you changed it up and rather than resting after lifting you do intervals after resting.
My n=1 is that I can do endurance hot on the heels of lifting, and I can lift they day after anything, but intervals go better after rest (or a recovery spin, or very easy endurance)
I have a similar schedule and am lifting heavy while doing obnoxiously hard MAP efforts. Recovery rides in place of one or both rest days help me shake out the DOMS. I also find that sometimes my legs are still sore, yet the power goes up anyway, so I’ve learned to ignore DOMS and just see what happens. When you say “not fresh enough” are you failing the workouts?
How long have you been doing the strength work? DOMS normally disappears after the first week for me and I do a pretty similar program to you. And I have no problem doing endurance rides the next day, harder rides usually ok as well although I try to avoid doing that and sometimes the legs can be a bit heavy.
Are you confident your nutrition and recovery are on point? Enough carbs to fuel and recover from the intervals and enough protein to adapt to the strength work? I personally also wouldn’t do both deadlifts and squats in one session, I don’t think it’s necessary, it’s hitting a lot of big muscles twice. And these days I don’t really do heavy squats at all as I lift at home, don’t have a spotter and don’t think it’s safe squatting heavy without one (and I have fairly decent technique). I’ll do deadlifts for my primary heavy lifts and then if I have time I’ll do some supplementary one legged exercises like weighted step ups or weighted Bulgarian split squats with maybe 7-8 reps and a real focus on quality and control.
Nice work with the strength training! It can definitely be tricky to integrate it into your plan.
I don’t think strength training should always necessitate a rest day. It can often be useful, but if you’re having trouble with scheduling everything, I’d say that doing Z2/Endurance workouts on tired legs from strength sessions should still be doable.
I think your main priority of keeping strength workouts lined up with harder interval sessions is key here. Try to set everything up so you can have the freshest legs possible for your intervals (assuming cycling is your top priority). Fill everything else in based on that. Again, Z2 may be a little harder than “normal” the day after intervals/strength, but you should still be able to get through those days without too much trouble.
As others mentioned, you may start to adapt more to the strength sessions as well as you continue lifting. Staying mindful of your protein intake and sleep could help, too. I’ve personally found that stretching and foam rolling often helps with DOMS, so that could be worth a shot.
I do endurance days after lifting no problem. I currently have 1-2 days of the bike/wk and one is always following an intense vo2 cycling/lifting session, and the other might be after a long ride (depending if I do it Saturday or Sunday).
What do your endurance sessions look like? The day after lifting an easy endurance session for me might be 90 minutes alternating between 55-65% FTP.
Doms go away but if I start adding weight or change the reps they come back the first couple days from the change in programming.
I’ve found I can do threshold and below the day after a strength workout. If it’s threshold or sweet spot I’ll usually pick an achievable amount of weight for lower body work . This way I’m not completely taxing my legs and can get the most out of the intervals.
Vo2 blocks I won’t do any lower body lifting and just focus of mobility and upper body.
I do 2 double days, one is a long endurance ride or long ride with intervals. Then lift later in the day.
The other day I’ll lift first then immediately after a short 60 minute ride.
I’m lucky right now and don’t have to have a hard workout the day after lifting. But I have in the past ….
Make sure you’re having snacks and eating properly throughout the day.
Honestly, I’m not sure that making hard days extra hard with adding lifting is a good advise and that it works for everyone.
I tried incorporating lifting to my training schedule over last year and by trial and error found that the opposite approach works waaaaaay better for me.
Here are a few things that worked well:
not sure about your strength training goals, but I would suggest not lift till failure or super heavy. 80% with 5-8 reps w 2-4 sets are generally good enough to create training stress.
Lifting days are paired with z2/endurance rides. Lifting sessions are before rides, not the opposite. It gives more time to recover till hard intervals days.
For lifting, there is no division into arm/legs days or push/pull days. All sessions are full body.
long term-periodization for lifting cycle is aligned with TR plans, e.g. 3 week on + 1 recovery week, during which all cycling and lifting is done super easy
recovery tools and short mobility routines make a lot of difference to prevent DOMS. I use foam roller and massage gun almost every day.
Hope this helps!
I am testing doing my strength training twice a week after my two interval workouts. This gives me two more rest days that are truly rest days. The hard days are really hard, but overall, I feel like my recovery is better for the whole week.
Yeah i dont get DOMS but was able to lift heavy enough to just ruin my legs for days regardless of my plan. I just found it better to lift for a shorter period (<60mins), lift less overall weight (i use more single leg stuff now opposed to heavy squats and deadlifts), and just do it twice a week. One day I gym then run, the other day I gym then do intervals.
Knowing ive got intervals coming up it helps me go a bit lighter in the gym too.
Legs have felt the best they have in ages by just doing less general gym work even though i ‘can’ do more.
