Hello everyone, I would like to know when would be the best day to do strength exercises in the gym … At the moment I train Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. After these exercises what program could I do? If it’s right to do it … Thanks
Joe blow with no actual citations behind it here:
Lifting, moving and replacing heavy objects is good for people health-wise but not inherently from a cycling performance basis.
What is your focus and how taxing will the lifting be? Which on-bike workout is the most important workout of the week? When does your real life permit the weightlifting to occur?
I’m fortunate enough to have a gym at the office and I can lift at lunch, so I lift when/as-much-as work permits it, knowing that its December (relative off-season) and if I blow up an interval because I squatted or did lunges, its not a big deal.
How much soreness do you expect from your planned lifting?
My considerations are
- Don’t [significantly?] detract from the goal race or most important workout
2.Lift as often as I can, because work and family life can throw a wrench into routine at any time. (this goes for riding, too)
- Keep new movements low rep and low weight until I have a good idea how the muscles will react and recover.
For you, if Wednesday is the focus-point workout, I’d say start a light, low-rep routine Thursday morning. Go through the motions, check your range of motion, and check your recovery on Saturday during that workout. Do something similar, if even lighter, on Sunday after your ride. Then you have all of Monday to recover from your lifting, and Tuesday workout can be cut short a hair if you feel that Wednesday would otherwise suffer. Progress should be particularly slow in the weight-room if you’re pre/in-season for cycling/racing, but if its the offseason, I see no reason not to push hard for gains.
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I ride Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday and I lift on Tuesday and Thursdays. I like it because it maximizes my off days.
I do yoga one day a week but it’s not a priority so I skip it if I want an extra day. And I just added a mobility day where I do a mobility routine and foam roll for an hour and then take a steam. So
I consider Monday, Wednesday, and Friday as flex days where I can add in either yoga or mobility or just take it off if my legs need a day. But I always make sure to have at least one day completely off.
Hope this helps
@Andrefra When you lift is highly dependent on where you are in your cycling training, the seriousness as to which you take your strength training, and the type of lifting you are doing (legs, core, upper body). To be a bit more specific:
I am a relatively experienced lifter and am a huge believer in the value of a robust strength training program, particularly during the base phase (i.e. I’ve experienced the cycling fitness gains). The stresses of such a program, particularly the legs portion, are significant and can be equal to, and even greater than, many base phase workouts. As such, I space out my hard leg days, whether at the gym or on the bike, to give adequate recovery.
However, if I have an upper body day, I can do that workout on either the day subsequent to a TR high intensity day or on a TR workout day of moderate intensity. btw: I do core every day that I do a leg or upper body workout.
If you are new to lifting on a regular basis or generally a light lifter (i.e. strength training stress is small relative to your TR HIT sessions), you have a lot more flexibility and probably can just experiment to see what is right for you) and you may already be where you need to be.
Note: I use Training Peaks Premium along side of TrainerRoad as it allows me to enter the stress incurred by all of my workouts, including my strength training program. And using its PMC (performance management chart), along with the session’s TSS, I can see the short term load (ATL), my long term fitness (CTL) and my fatigue level (TSB). By having these metrics, I can more effectively schedule my HIT sessions, whether they be on the bike or in the gym.
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Two general rules:
- If you want to combine strength and cardio exercise try to do them at least 12hrs apart.
- Do the one you are mainly focused on first if you do both in the same day.
If you train in the mornings you could double up and gym that night (although careful if you are on the bike consecutive days). Best times I would take from your schedule would be weds (pm), thursday (any time), friday (am) or sunday (pm).
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Ok thanks to everyone for the advice … Having 1 hour and 1 30 hours on the training days I would do Monday core and straching, tuesday trainer road program, Wednesday, strength gym legs, Thursday program of road trainer, Friday rest or stretching and Saturday bike in agility and Sunday exit group lungs by bike … Could it be okay?