I like the idea of squatting more than once a week. I feel like I get a lot from that movement. I get strength but also therapy.
I am curious how do you schedule your bike workouts around 3 squat days? Also, do you DL or Upper body at all too? If so–and this is not too much to ask-- how do you schedule that? What I am trying to say is, “I effing love squatting and want to do even more and you might have all the cheat codes”.
I usually lift, run and bike, which makes it hard to fit everything in. I’m taking a break from running to let my ankle heal so currently, I’m lifting MWFS, and then on the trainer T/Th/S. So doubling up on Saturday. MWF, I’m doing squat/bench and some core exercise. Saturday, I’ll do OHP and deadlift (and maybe toss in some accessories), so those are only done 1x week. I do purely strength training right now, not hypertrophy, so I don’t really get too sore in a way that interferes with my cycling. So I’m doing 3 week cycles where I’ll go 75% (of my training max), 85%, 90% (5x5, 4x5, 3x5), something like that. And I’m taking long rests (2-3 min) between sets.
This sounds a lot like what I have been trying to stay up with over this off season. It is so hard to squeeze it all in. Just last night I found myself squatting after dinner/ bedtime to stay on schedule. December was great but my Squat days were far apart. Your system seems well thought-out assuming its working for your goals.
What are your goals, if you dont mind me asking. I like racing XC in the spring/ Summer with 1 or 2 longer events in the summer/ early fall. I like to run (I know that reads like a typo but its true) I just never have tried to work towards a real running goal.
Thanks for the candor and the beta.
I’m relatively new to cycling (got my bike in May 2021) and I haven’t ridden all year, so for now I’m just trying to improve my cycling fitness in general, no specific goals. I’m hoping that with a winter of trainer road, by the time I’m riding outside again, I’ll be a lot more fit than where I was last year coming out of winter. My ramp tested FTP seems a bit low but I’m sticking with it for now and hoping to see a significant jump by spring.
For lifting I have some max goals, just for the hell of it. Pretty happy with my upper body lifts atm, but I would love to be able to squat 3 plates and deadlift 4 while maintaining current weight/body composition. But I’m generally happy with where my lifting numbers are at but my ultimate goal is the 1k club. I honestly don’t know if that’s possible with my current body composition but we’ll see. That’s more of a long-term goal.
Running, I want to resume at some point but honestly after 2 years of regular running, I’m not sure where I want to take it and how it fits in with my fitness. I like the idea of always being able to go out at anytime and run like 5 miles at X pace but I’m not training for anything right now. I did a 5k time trial a few months ago and that’s something I might train for eventually. I do a biannual “track meet” with friends where the mile is one of our events so that’s something I sort of train for at some point in the year, which usually consists of more tempo runs as I get closer to the event and track speed sessions for a month before the event. I will say that after taking 2 weeks off from running, my body (mostly lower body) feels fresher than ever. Clearly running takes a toll, even though I’m generally pretty durable relative to others my age.
Seeing that you’re relatively new to the bike and all the fun it can bring, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how nicely your strength will work with your biking. I came into lifting from the other direction. I was cycling a lot and wanted to get a little stronger overall. I have fallen in complete love with how I feel after sessions. YMMV.
I was skeptical to lose my hard earned ftp gains at first but after a coupe of seasons I became a believer in its efficacy to become stronger, more efficient, and durable on the bike. Lifting/ resistance training is also great for my mental well being and self image. I find that it helps in all aspects of relationship-life (
) too.
Running is the hardest thing for me to add to a full training schedule. Like you mentioned, it beats you up if done too soon or too harshly.
I will try your multi-day squat schedule by adding squats to my DL day and then again to a mid week upper body day I do.
Squat heavy 3 days, ride 3 other days.
Squat light to medium and you can do it same day, before the rides by my preference.
Whenever I do 3x bike rides I feel real self conscious about having to ride 4+ Hours on the weekend session. Easy during the summer months in the PNW, harder the rest of the year.
This brings up an idea I wanted to run by this group. On the days I lift I generally start by warming up on a stationary bike. I ride 20 minutes at an endurance/ recovery wattage. Is this enough to gain any cycling benefits from? Would bringing this amount up to 30 minutes be enough? TR says TSS for this effort is 10 (dont laugh).
It’s all stress on the body but it’s not all productive.
I would regard the warm up as a warm up, not a workout.
that was my concern: that I wanted more from it than it was actually giving me. I would likely just sleep in an extra 10 minutes and spin for 10 instead.
Well 10mins more sleep is probably the bigger gain, imo
Great video covering a wide set of topics
For me it’s the opposite: If I squat after a ride, I feel no difference in what I can lift (3x5), even if it’s a long ride or a Zwift race. Other way around does not work for me (squatting first and then cycling).
So I have dabbled with strength training last season for the first time from January for 4 months. I did 2 x 20min sessions a week doing only the core excercises that trainerroad has on its benchmarks.
My PRs at 65kg was 80kg squat, 100kg deadlift. But still could barely do 2-3 pull ups and bench was awful. At the time my FTP was around 4.6wkg at 6-8 hour training weeks.
This year I have less time to train as I am balancing university, girlfriend and job! I should still be able to get 6 hours a week MOST weeks.
I am thinking since I have less time to train I might up my strength training programme to 3 x 30min sessions a week of heavy lifts to make up for the lack of cycling I would be getting.
My calendar
M - Lift
Tues - 1hr Hard (Threshold/V02 etc)
W - Lift
Thurs - 1hr Hard/Mid (V02/SS)
Fri - Lift
Sat - REST
Sun - 4 hour MTB + Z2 ride
Could this be more beneficial than just cycling less? I can’t replace gym for bike work.
My Goal is to be competitive in my local XC league which is 35-40 minutes long
That must be one heavy book. How many reps?
Like developing metabolic fitness in the legs, just do 10 hours of week of ‘picking up’ that book. Plus some heavy lifts with weights 
That definitely describes me. And yea I can see that happening once the intensity of my TR workouts picks up. For now I’ve only had rides that feel easy or moderate and even at the moderate level, I can feel some quad fatigue, not a lot, but the fact that I feel any at that low intensity tells me it’s going to be a lot worse when intensity picks up. We’ll see. If that happens, I’ll probably change my lift programming.
Has anyone here ever looked into tactical barbell? it’s a series of lifting/conditioning programs aimed at “operators” but basically good for anyone that cares about strength and endurance. They have programs that are geared towards people who do a lot of endurance/conditioning work. One program I may switch to is one that still has lifting 3x week, but only one heavy lift per session. So for one week, you’d only have one heavy squat day, one heavy bench day, one heavy DL day (or whatever compound lift you choose). The other lifts on that day are your other compound lifts, but at much lighter weight (65%), just to maintain some volume there.
If anyone wants to take a look at the programming, link here
Has anyone tried double lift days in stead of lifting twice a week?
Yeah, thought so. Ta.
re quad fatigue while cycling: In my experience that gets much better, once you have lifted regularly for a longer amount of time (even if you still increase the weight).
I mean YMMV but I’ve been doing this for about 2 years now with very good results. I’ve done 2x week and 3x week and the added volume definitely helps (if you can handle it) in terms of achieving better gains. Also I’m not running right now so I feel like I have extra capacity.
Operator is just a name they give the template, I agree it’s kind of corny but it’s just a name for the template. Right now I’m on a low volume TR plan and I spend the winter trying to maximize strength gains so this combo works for me. When the TR training picks up, I’ll probably dial the lifting back a bit. This is definitely not cross-fit. It’s just a variation of your typical progressive overload lifting programs.