Strength Training

Strength training really does work…I started back in the gym 3 weeks ago, only 1 day a week doing 5x5. I hit the gym today in the morning, i have just finished Abbey.

I felt like my legs just kept wanting to go, then i looked on strava and noticed i went down a cog (in erg mode, i normally get 18.5 avg this time i got 19.5) and my legs were like meh…this is nothing what else can you throw at me! And I am at my highest ever FTP @ 270 / 3.9w/kg

In terms of what I have been following, a little bit of explosive work, light weight (high tempo) then an explosive movement to end the rep…and then on alternative weeks been using Chads benchmarks and those exercises.

I am sure you all know Strength training works…but i was mega surprised at how fresh i felt doing sweet spot after a hard gym session in the am

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Has anyone got experience incorporating strength work into the polarized plans?

I’ve always tried to get gym sessions in, usually 1 x leg, 1 x push 1 x pull a week but with the traditional plans fitting in the leg sessions has been difficult, almost impossible during build.

I’ve started the polarised plans (MV base) and have moved the Tuesday workout to Wednesday. and doing leg strength on the Monday. Im hoping the sunday session will have little impact on the strength session, and then i get a full day rest before the hard wednesday.

Will report back if this works out better than it did with traditional SSB and Build plans.

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I was hoping for some insight on PPL; Push, Pull, Legs… this came across me a few weeks ago and started putting a spreadsheet together… as I have been researching this I came across that this type of working out hits hypertrophy… I don’t know much about strength training or much about hypertrophy type workouts and how these play into cycling but is hypertrophy type work outs bad? All I know is that it will make you swole but I’m looking to gain strength Any thoughts?

You could go through a hypertrophy block at the beginning of base (it’s what I have been doing for years, 8-12 week block). It is a good basis before going into strength, especially if you’re new to strength training and your goal is to also lift heavier eventually.

You will get some neuromuscular adaptations that will make the heavier lifting safer and the added muscle will indirectly make you stronger.

Check out one of the recent podcasts (2-3 months ago) where Chad talked abiut benefits of hypertrophy.

(Search this thread for my username - In one post I gave an example of my typical yearly periodization for strength training - post 327 and 329)

No. Plus: You have to do so much lifting to make muscles bigger that 99.9% of cyclists will never have to concern themselves with this detail at all.

Getting stronger just comes down to lifting heavy things, starting easy getting progressively heavier over months, with passable technique and plenty of recovery.

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It depends on your body type. Some hard gainers can do whatever they want and stay thin like an asparagus. For me, even endurance training like cycling or swimming causes hypertrophy.
If you focus more on the low rep side (around 5 reps), you should be fine. (Nevertheless start with high reps and low weight and work slowly down, otherwise the injury risk is very high).

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Thank you… imma find a PT and have them work with me on form and help me set up a schedule… I’m rather lean at 5’4” at 135lbs my legs are strong but could be stronger. I have no upper body. I don’t do much weight training when I do I tend to hurt myself. I like the idea of the PPL well see I have some weights and bars at my house and would like to keep my work outs here. Thanks for the insight.

PPL is a training split, not necessarily a “hypertrophy” workout. When strength is your primary focus, it is more important to focus on rep range. 3-5 reps is a good range for building strength, whereas 8-12 is more for hypertrophy. With that being said, building strength is not mutually exclusive from building muscle.

As for getting swole, a lot more goes into it besides just lifting in the right rep range. A lot of people struggle to put on muscle because they simply do not eat enough-especially protein.

Before embarking on your lifting regimen and picking a workout split, what exactly are your goals, and how many days a week would you like to lift? I know you mentioned getting your legs stronger, but are you trying to also gain strength in your upper body?

You mentioned before that you tend to hurt yourself when weight training. If that is the case, start light and with higher reps. Get used to the movement pattern first. Feel the muscle working that you are supposed to be using as part of a lift first, before just trying to move as much weight as you can.

Finally, if you plan on working upper body, and have access to a pull up bar, you can’t go wrong with pullups. Pullups and pushups are a great place to start, and are an area where you can see a lot of improvement very quickly.

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@Minihack

This. Don’t feel like you need to start with a barbell or heavy weights to get a workout in. If you have little strength background then even bodyweight squats, lunges, pushups, pull ups, etc. will bring a benefit. Then slowly add weight. Like really slowly. As in, don’t use the bar but hold the 10lb plate in your hands and do the exercises that way. It might feel silly if you have done heavier stuff in the past but you have to remember that light weight lifting will be better then going too heavy too fast and hurting your self.

Also, don’t forget more cycling specific ‘pre-hab’ type stuff like glute, adductor, and upper back work. This stuff can be incorporated well into a warm up, cool down or even between sets of upper body work (i.e. superset pull ups and glute band work).

Also, also, do your best to build in even just 10min at the end of your workouts to do some light stretching. Lifting will tighten up your muscles a bit and just a little bit of stretching can do a lot to mitigate that.

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Woohoo - new bumper plates are scheduled for delivery today!!!

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Getting close to the ‘off-season’! Anyone have a good fall weight lifting plan? I’m trying to put something together myself.

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I bought and recommend two plans - Scientific Triathlon and FasCat. Happy customer, those plans worked well for me as someone without lifting experience having spent 30+ years as a desk jockey. There are differences between the plans, however both only requiring paying a one-time fee so you can use as a template over and over again.

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2nd the Fascat 10 week strength plan. They have 2 versions, one which for most people will require a gym membership and they also came up with a home version last year when gyms were closed. The plan is meant to be done before starting base training (e.g. November and December) but mixes in 3-4 days a week of bike workouts, yoga and a circuit type body weight workout along with weights. (the plan is 100% cycling focused so there is almost no upper body work. The plan is great for cycling but not for general fitness or developing a beach bod :wink:

I’ve never understood why TR does not put out an off season strength plan . . .

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Thats great, what do you have in mind? Think about where your weakness is on the bike first of all. Look at what position you are in, for legs for example, it’s a hip hinge for starters, build around that. Thing about pulling on the bars, replicate that with bands, kneeling or lunge position single arm pulls, the list is endless. Is it general or specific. Think about interference effect with strength/endurance too. Have fun, get these compound exercises done too, start with 2-3 weeks getting used to the movements first. Good luck planning it all out.

I struggle to see the benefit of anything supposedly specific, off season is supposed to be general imo so I will likely do StrongLifts 5x5 for the third time.

I was just shy of 100kg squats last time so I’ll see if I can hit that. Might try the Old Guy 3x5 version at some point. Never made progress with pull-ups either so another thing to work on.

So hard to commit to strength alone though. Need to have faith that my swim bike run won’t evaporate :laughing:

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Can I hijack this thread to ask my own question? Firstly some background, I was / am an elite XC MTB rider and have been for the past 8 years, the first 6 of that taking it very seriously but never doing strenth work. I am now winding things down a little and have cut my weekly training volume from 18 hours to 13ish.

Since June I have started to build up a home gym and experiment with adding around 4 - 5 days of gym work with sessions varying from 30 mins to 1 hour and I am really enjoying it. However I have really started to add some muscle mass and of course weight.

My concern is that I am still racing albeit less seriously (but it’s nice to do well when I can) and therefore how much additional weight can i add until this is going to start to slow me down. At the moment I am still training on the bike and recent CX races i haven’t felt the weight slow me down, if anything i actually feel better, but i feel there will be a tipping point.

Any body have similar experiences they can share?

If power to weight ratio decreases for relevant time domains, performance on hilly courses will be the first place you take a hit.

You may be faster even with a power to weight ratio decrease, if a course is relatively flat. But if they require loads of accelerations (lots of hairpin turns) that can be another place where power to weight impacts will first be felt.

In my wife’s experience, adding 2kg of muscle from when she was purely an amateur triathlete to now as a pro triathlete and pro cyclist: she has gotten faster on all courses, no matter the hilly or technical nature. There are a dozen confounding variables, of course.

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Thank you for this answer to dbf; I’ve had the same question for a long time. Your video got me doing pistol squats and other body-weight exercises as I don’t have space for proper weights at home.

Edit: just realized that was from 2018, LOL. Thanks all the same.

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How much lean muscle mass do you think you have gained so far?

The honest answer is I don’t know. I purposely am staying away from scales after having a rough time with that when racing was a big thing to me. I was / still am mostly very lean.

I have realised I must be gaining muscle as I had 4 people pass comment during this weekend alone.

I’m currently racing purely CX and I think the additional strength helps there. Might need to look at stopping strength work if I want to get back to some XC and Marathon racing later next summer. Just would be a shame as I really enjoy it.

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