I wouldn’t do legs focused weight lifting on TR rest days, but would doing upper body lifting, such as bicep curls and core (planks), on those rest days also cause too much fatigue compromising the TR workout days? Or should I do everything in a TR workout day = TR workout, weight lifting on legs, core and upper body?
As long as you’re not completely emptying the tank during these weight training sessions then you’re probably fine. Give it a go and listen to your body.
Every strength session I do is balanced across upper, lower, front, back of body.
This is because of a somewhat unpredictable schedule - where I don’t what to get “out of balance” because of a missed strength session.
That said, I use this approach for maintenance of strength. Back in my rugby days, some sessions were clearly more focused on one muscle group than another to build strength.
I’m on MV and I do upper body/core strength Monday and Friday. This is pure strength and my HR remains low. TR has recommended in the past to do strength same day after your ride and keep your rest days restful. However, that doesn’t work for my schedule. As long as your strength doesn’t compromise your on the bike workouts, you should be fine.
This is the key takeaway if your priority is cycling improvements.
Core and upper body work can basically be done any day including riding days as they shouldn’t take away from your TR rides. Heavy leg days (squats, DL, etc.) should be structured in a way that they don’t compromise your rides, but also don’t compromise your recovery.
What I do to manage the above is “make my hard days hard and easy days easy”. I structure my sessions so I do my TR workout, and then do my compound lifts after a small break. Legs are toast by the end of both sessions, but I get a full 24hrs of proper recovery before I have to look at the bike again.
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Iirc @chad recommends lifting the same day as TR sessions in the podcasts
“ Try to pair your weight training within 12 hours of your intervals and preceding a rest/easy day.”
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I do Crossfit on Tuesday and Wednesday and TR workouts on Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
It is hard but certainly doeable.
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This season I’ve inserted a fairly strenuous full body strength workout on Sundays. Thus far my FTP has been growing like it never has previously. It’s not necessarily the strength training but I’m just going to keep on doing what I’m doing.
The toughest thing is that I’ll arrive at my Tuesday work with DOMS in various muscles in my legs. It’s not ideal but it hasn’t prevented me from completing my workouts.
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I do TR Tuesdays and Thursdays, Sundays is either 4 hours MTB or a 1.5 hour TR session, I go to gym Wednesdays and Fridays. This is the only schedule I can fit in. I certainly can’t do more than one session a day and it has to be early (0530).
On gym days I do deadlifts and upper body on Tuesdays and Squats and upper body on Fridays. I mix it all up.
I guess it really does depend on your overall goals as to how you’ll need to prioritise.
I have found that a large does of HTFU goes a long way 
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That’s indeed my recommendation, but it comes with several caveats.
One, there has to be a balance of intensity between the 2 workouts because if both workouts are highly demanding in similar ways, that second workout will likely suffer as a consequence.
Two, consider the cumulative strain. Even though you could make the bike workout about taxing very different muscle fibers than the strength workout, they both impose strain on the body’s shared resources, e.g., heart, lungs, endocrine/hormonal systems, CNS, ANS, etc.
Three, be clear on what you’re trying to achieve: higher performance on the bike, body composition changes, better beach body, etc., because these goals don’t always align with one another.
There are other concerns, but it really boils down to the simple fact that concurrent training is almost its own sport and each athlete will have to strike the right balance based on specifically what s/he is looking to achieve.
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I’m on the low volume plan so I’m on the trainer Tues/Thurs/Sat. I go to the gym Weds and Fri at work and do upper body, core, and 10 or so minutes of light spin on the spin bike. I find that if I lift legs, they’re tired for the trainer workouts. So, while I love squats and deadlifts and so forth, I don’t do them. Definitely feel you on saving the legs for trainer workouts!
-Hugh
(my blog: ex-prosays.blogspot.com)
Thank you!
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Resurrecting this chat because none of us can head out to the gym. What do you guys do to maintain upper body strength at home? I have been doing push-ups and various core exercises on my gym ball but I’m getting bored.
Pull up bar in a door frame, 3 sets of ‘Pull ups’ with palms facing away, wide grip. Mix that with press ups, planks and kettle bell squats.