Strength training or extra volume?

I’m currently managing 5-6 hours a week on a low volume plan. 4w/kg, FTP has been about the same for last couple of years. Feels like I’ve reached a plateau.

One morning a week I go to the gym. Started doing this about 18 months ago to prevent injury on the bike + overall health.

Could swap this for an extra three or four hours on the bike.

WWYD?

3 hours on the bike and 1 hour (20 mins / day x3 per week) doing some bodyweight exercises at home

Adding 50+% to your weekly cycling volume is more likely to improve your cycling than one morning per week in the gym, isn’t it?

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I don’t understand how a morning at the gym equates to 3-4 hrs on the bike in terms of time consumption.

Suggest a third option - buy a set of adjustable dumbbells, resistance bands, and a few other rudimentary exercise items for the house, and do (2) 1 hr strength training sessions and 2 additional hrs on the bike. 4 hrs total.

I’m 100% on board the strength training train, but I’d struggle to justify 1 session being more valuable than 4 hrs on the bike.

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I took a quick look at your account and it looks like you have been making steady progress on the Low Volume Training Plan, and your FTP is the highest it has been in recent years!

This is awesome, well done!

Your steady progress suggests your cycling training stimulus is enough to make progress at the moment. Could you make even greater progress if you were able to dedicate more time to cycling? If that increased volume was still within your recovery capabilities, perhaps.

But there are many direct and indirect benefits that come from Strength Training that I think make the time investment worth it. If you’re able to split your time into two individual sessions spread throughout the week, it would likely give you more return for your time investment!

I suggest you listen to this podcast episode with Derek Teel from DialedHealth, where Jonathan and himself discuss how and why cyclists should fit Strength Training into a Training Plan/ schedule.

Give it a listen, and let me know if you have any questions after!

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I’m just jealous that you have 4wt/kg on 5 hours a week.

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Appreciate the response!

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I’m not that inclined to help them either :joy:

But… I agree with @ivegotabike

For your goals I think “little and often” bodyweight or kettlebells at home will be more benficial than 1x big gym session a week and it wont effect your cycling as much.

If it means you also have more time for cycling then thats even better.

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Appreciate the reply. Are there any YouTube videos or similar you’d recommend to structure an at-home strength session?

Cycling Weekly had a feature about it earlier in the year

and there is a GCN video

Loads more if you search something like “bodyweight exercises cycling”

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What’s your goal?

Get faster: ride your bike.

Overall wellness/injury prevention: strength train.

My question is: why not both?

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If you want better overall health do be gym, we all will need muscles when we get older, not just good cardio fitness.

How can giving up one gym session free up 3 or 4 hours on the bike? I can do a set of pullups, bench press, back rows, dips, shoulder flies, upright rows, military press, curls, dumbbell dead lifts, Bulgarian split squats, and goblet squats in 30 minutes. Do that twice a week, say on a Monday and Friday, and you are good to go for strength training for longevity and daily life. If you are spending 3 or 4 hours in the gym in one session you are training like a bodybuilder which isn’t needed for cycling.

My wife is a gym rat. It takes her 45–60 minutes one-way. She has to get changed, do her thing (90–120 minutes), shower, get dressed, etc. She leaves home at 9 am and returns 2 pm. I have a gym a few buildings over at work, and even then I reckon it’d take me 45 minutes to change, shower, walk over, etc.

This is the reason why indoor training is so time efficient: I hop on the bike and go. I take the shower Id take anyway, so prep time is minimal.

I’m all for strength training, but I struggle with double days. I’m trying to alternate now, at the cost of one rest day.

That’s wild. Until I built a home gym a few years ago, I went to commercial gyms 3-5x a week for 15+ years. I also lived in over a dozen cities in 8 states in that period, so my situation wasn’t just a circumstance of one place. Other than one instance where I lived in the middle of nowhere Alabama, it was usually go to work > drive to gym after (added maybe 10-15 minutes of overall commute) lift for an hour, drive home and take the shower I’d take anyways. Hanging from work clothes to gym clothes takes maybe 3-5 minutes.

My wife doesn’t work so she’d put on her gym clothes at home, drive 10-20 mins to gym, lift with me, drive home, take the shower she would take anyways. Her overall expenditure would be about an hour 45 mins.

Riding the trainer for me is way more time consuming at home than lifting at home. Aside from rides generally being longer than my 1 hr weight training sessions, there’s way more prep, plus handwashing my bibs after. Not terribly, but a 1 hr session on the bike probably takes 15 mins more before & after compared to lifting weights.

Not the OP but it isn’t hard to imagine…

30 min drive to the gym, 15 min in the lock-room, chat with the guys, 60-75 min gym workout, 15 min back in the locker room to change & maybe shower? Then 30 min back home.

Are there really people driving 30 minutes to go to the gym? Wow.

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Yeah, just to be clear….i hate you. :wink:

You didn’t mention how long you have been in the sport. If you are a relative newbie, the answer is almost always “more volume”. You still have room to grow your aerobic engine.

If you have been at it for 10+ years with some of those year including higher volume, you may be better off with some strength training….but even then, I would still think more volume will give you a more direct benefit to your riding.

If you are suffering from some issues like back pain or fatigue due to lack of core strength on the bike, then I would defer to strength training.

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By the time you gather your gym bag, walk out the door, get to the car, drive, park, walk in the gym, go to the locker room 30 minutes is probably standard unless you live near by.

But as for 30 min drive time… in America with urban sprawl? Absolutely!

I’d be happy if I were in your situation. But if I wanted to go to the gym near my work place, I’d have to most likely do this during lunch. Not having to shower immediately is a huge time saver (as is taking a shower you’d take anyway).

Another factor is school/day care: I have a strict schedule, which makes things hard. Anyway, scheduling is a game of Tetris for parents.

Feel like I need to step in and explain how one gym sesh = three hours on the bike. Lots of debate!

The entire gym session takes 1.5 hours. That’s get there, change, warm up, work out (1 hour), get home. Everything.

But as it’s Saturday morning I’m not rushing around, cramming this in around work etc. I have plenty of free time.

Enough free time that if I ditch the gym, I could easily get three hours in on the bike.

Which - based on the advice in this thread - I am going to do. Replacing with 2 x 20-30 min strength / core sessions throughout the week.

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