No starting Strong Lifts from zero. Squats are only 135lbs at the moment. SO should I decrease Riding volume, currently at 5 days per week to 3 days and alternate days with strength. Right now I ride in the am and Lift in the PM 3 day per week during harder TR sessions-- doing SSMV Base 1.
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If you are new to strength training and that is your current focus then I probably wouldnāt do SSB for now and drop most riding intensity thatās above tempo. At least until you feel like you arenāt getting extraordinarily sore/fatigued from the lifting. Idk when your key events are but this early in the year I would probably do mostly endurance, maybe with some tempo thrown in if you feel good. And if you can I would keep your normal riding volume.
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Yepp. Iāve started lifting weights a couple of weeks now while also trying to follow the polarized hv plan.
The first two weeks everything went fine, but last week the wheels fall of the wagon. I cannot work at threshold anymore. Legs are fried after a couple of minutes.
Decided to stop the pol plan for now and just focus on lifting while maintaining Z2 volume. In about 8 weeks i will maintain the lifting and switch focus back to the bike.
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This was my experience last summer where I was running a HV POL-ish plan and lifting 2x a week with 5/3/1. Just did not work, even though I was in great shape. Just felt like it was not sustainable. Had to back off the gym entirely for a couple months. Iām doing almost a pure Z2 plan the first few weeks of my base this fall while gradually adding more weight training. I obviously donāt feel as strong but I think easing into it will be better in the long run while still maintaining a HV plan.
Were you doing 5/3/1 as prescribed with the AMRAPs? If so I would cut those and maybe add some 3x5 at the end for some more volume. But doing that and 2-3 days of hard workouts is going to be tough. I would probably count at least one of the lifting days as a hard workout (for the POL structure) and do max 1 hard day/week while youāre running something with a lifting focus like 5/3/1. Iād probably also drop your training max by a couple percent to start out.
No AMRAPs. I was doing FSL 5x5. But as the weight started piling on, it got harder and harder. Backed down to 3x5 FSL and then just got rid of it. I probably should have deloaded some more as I plateaued.
Iām doing starting strength now just trying to get back into it. Definitely dropped the training max. Been doing 1x a week and will ease into 2x next week while still doing base. Iād like to get back into 5/3/1 later this season as it was working well with POL.
A couple of recent studies mentioned in VeloNews today suggest you should do strength training year round unless you are focused on mountainous fondos or alpine tours:
Quoting from the article:
Key takeaways
The first study in this article proves to us that strength training isnāt bad for cyclists and it wonāt make you heavier; in fact, it actually does the opposite.
In the second study, we learned that you can include both strength training and cycling in your program, and simultaneously make performance gains in both. This is especially important for sprinters, crit riders, and puncheurs, whose absolute power matters much more than their power-to-weight ratio.
Lastly, we learned that strength training can have a direct and positive effect on your cycling performance. With just one to two sessions per week, you can increase your overall strength and absolute power output, while still completing your weekly training on the bike.
@chad - whatās your reaction to these studies?
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FYI, here are the study links
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Does anyone know what this indicates:
āMean study quality was 9/15 (range 6-15). ā
This seems counterintuitive:
āTraining volume and training components were not associated with effect size. ā
Sounds like fueling to me.
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When are you trying to do these over unders in relation to the lifting sessions? Heavy lifting can really deplete you glycogen stores and they can take a couple days to fully come back.
Also, how recently did you start the stronglifts? It might just be too soon and/or too much volume to properly mix with a threshold heavy block.
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I tried to incorporate Strong Lifts with SSMV Base 1 Squatting 3x per week my muscle felt tight the whole time. I tried to include a stretching routine but still felt weak when doing the over unders. I recently switched to 5/3/1 plan and lift 2x per week- combining squats/deadlift and bench/ overhead press on separate days. This seems to working for me now.
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Hey guys, wanted to ask a question that I havenāt figured out the answer to for several years now. I come from a strength training and boxing background, started cycling 5-6 years ago and quickly moved in to long and middle distance triathlonā¦ Do all my biking Monday/Wednesday/Friday and 3-5 runs through the week. 2-3 strength and core sessions and probably swim minimally. (This is the low volume plan tragically)ā¦ The question I want to ask isā¦ WHEN TO SCHEDULE LEG DAY?
They get pretty smoked through the cycling and running but think thereās an important S&C component that i dont want to lose because my ālegs are tiredā. But i also dont want to compromise any of the bikes and runs
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I do LV TR plan on Tuesday, Thurs and Friday. I then ride MTB Sunday.
I decided on leg work on the Tuesday afternoon/evening. That way it has least impact on TR and no impact on MTB (which is my priority).
Iām waning on the strength training front, itās my ābuild phaseā and Iām just not feeling the love so much. My attention is on running despite planning that for January.
Only squatting 60kg at the moment.
Itās tricky, Iāve tried for a couple of years and end up dropping strength completely one way or another as the season progresses.
Itās always going to depend on how hard/heavy your session is.
If this is off season, 3 days strength I think is fine, leg day can be whenever you want, in base phase you already have three hard days in your week. I would try putting it after a sprint/VO2 bike or interval run and see how much you can take.
By build phase, I would want to be down to two all round sessions max, and at a maintenance level no progressive overload, no rep maxes.
In speciality just one per week, all round session.
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Like you I also come from a strength training background, and in the past have had difficulties figuring out when to schedule legs. Iāve tried a couple of different things, and I find that riding in the morning, then lifting later on in the day is the best time. Typically that means lifting legs on my lunch break, which gives me about 5 hours in between sessions. For sure I still have some residual soreness in my legs, but I have found this is the best way to program for me. Also, by lifting at lunch it limits the amount of time and exercises I do for legs so I donāt overdo it.
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Same here, and this season Iām trying an approach used by Ronnestad in several studies:
along with some other non-leg work.
Brennus mentioned these studies in another thread. A couple links if you are interested:
and
and a more readable article here:
https://pezcyclingnews.com/toolbox/does-strength-training-improve-cycling-power/
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Recently I have gone to a full body split 2-3 days/week which seems to be working well for this problem. I only do 1-2 leg exercises per workout so I am not (as) trashed the next two days. Day 1 I do deadlifts, day 2 is squats and GHD raises, day three is split squats and some olympic lifts. Each day also has some pressing and pulling exercises. It also really helps if I need to drop a strength day for some reason so I donāt neglect a body part entirely that week. Recent studies have also shown full body splits to be as effective or more effective than training individual body parts 1x/week.
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Really interesting, id never considered a full body split but it makes so much sense because
a. you are covered if you need to drop one or more sessions, no need to feel like you have neglected anything
b. Limits the damage to the muscle groups from each individual strength session.
Good shout, ill give it a try for a couple of months and see how it goes 
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