I’m about to start the TB HV plan and have been lifting for the last 4 months following the strongman 5x5 plan (not riding much at all due to some life changes).
If you’re not familiar with strongman, it entails squatting three times a week. I’ve had some amazing progress the last few months and have a goal in mind for squat/deadlift based on Chads strength goals. I’m hoping to reach these goals in the next month or so.
Once I reach those strength goals, I plan to maintain my strength and slowly drop weight.
My question is, should I lift on my off days or should I try to ride and lift on the same day giving myself whole days to recover? Keep in mind this is the beginning of TB so I won’t be doing any hard efforts (just long ones).
Think that’s the way to go. They’ve had a number of podcast eps and forum threads talking about strength. I believe the general consensus is work on your work days and rest on your rest days. To reap the most benefit from your lifting AND cycling, it’s also recommended to space them out. I typically lift in the morning and then ride after work.
With Traditional Base HV having 2h 30 min rides 4x a week I would have problems finding another hour on the weekdays for lifting, especially if wanting to separate the aerobic efforts from the strength training.
I’ve done 5x5 with medium volume training and while it was quite OK to squat 5x5 3x/week in the early phases where it was more about adaptation than strength, it was much harder for me once the bar was approaching the 1xBW for squat and 1.5xBW for deadlifts. But since I had reached my goal for lifting I reduced to 3 sets squat per workout which made the legs feel much better in following workout on the bike.
I’m currently in SSB MV where the plan has harder workouts Mo/We/Fr + easier Tu/Sa and I have tried both between lifting same day as the hard workouts and on the easy/rest days (Tu/Th/Sa). So far I feel that the latter approach gives me fresher legs for the plan (which I have as priority).
I’m at the 1xBW squat and 1.5xBW deadlift now. When I started, 0.5BW squat felt near impossible so I’m pretty pleased with the results.
My goal is 1.25BW squat but I really want to get going with my cycling plan. Not sure delaying that in order to hit this squat goal would be worth it.
What do you think would be the least amount I could squat in a week and still make progress? I don’t mind slowing the progress down considerably as long as I’m slowly going up.
Age, nutrition, recovery are all unknown factors. But I think one should be able to increase also with 3x5 sets of squats per workout and even with 2x/week albeit slower (like increase every 3rd workout). Also, lifting technique is important besides the pure strength for improvements.
BTW - while I’m only doing 3x5 squats twice a week I’ve managed to increase from 100% BW to 115% BW in little more than 2 weeks while doing SSB MV (AT-mode w 9+ PL for Sweetspot and 7+ PL for threshold).
Main change was to increase the weights with 2.5 kg between sets (like 75/77.5/80) and then start next workout 2.5 kg higher (77.5/80/82.5) This seems to have had enough neuromuscular stimulation w/o bringing too much (muscle) fatigue for the aerobic interval work on the bike.
Long before I started cycling, I powerlifted for a number of years.
A 1.25 BW squat is not crazy, and well within most peoples abilities with some time. I personally got up to a 2.5BW DL by deadlifting 3x3 to 3x5 once a week.
Doing squats 3x5 even once a week is likely more than enough to let you reach a 1.25 BW squat, as long as you are eating enough.
For a strength athlete 5 RM numbers like 1.25 x BW for squat and 1.5 x BW for deadlift are obviously not impressive by any means.
But for an endurance athlete the situation is different as the strength training should support and not interfere with progression of aerobic capabilities goals.
As you say @cnidos squatting 3x5 twice a week while will likely be enough to reach Level 3 in Coach Chad's Strength Training Benchmarks for Cyclists - TrainerRoad Blog Progression might be slower (and platue will come sooner) than if focusing on strength training only. The problem is usually that (some) people want to be good at everything and don’t understand when they need to prioritize/sacrifice one goal over another.
Thanks everyone. Just a little update, I’ve continued to lift twice a week and so far have been able to maintain 5x5 on the squats while still upping the weight by 5lbs each time. The last one proved quite tough but I’m now only 10lbs from my goal.
I’ve been lifting on non-riding days. With traditional base, I’ve found that neither my riding nor my lifting has suffered too much. I have one day where I do nothing.
