Which combo - Strength, Bike or Bike, Strength

(I know Chad has mentioned it’s best to spread Strength and Bike work at opposite ends of the day)

But …

Does anyone know how much of an impact pairing strength and bike work next to each other has - on the adaptations from either?

At the moment this is my only real option, and I’m wondering how ineffective it is. If you have to do this, is there a good option for which to do first?

How many times a week do you plan to do these combo workouts? How many times a week do you plan to do bike only workouts? Or strength only workouts?

This might be an interesting read. Most of the facts in this article have been mentioned on the forum and podcast

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It would be paired with upper body work around x3 a week. So for example pushups, pullups, dips, rows etc.

Squats and Deadlifts wouldn’t be paired with any bike work.

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I’m going to disagree here.

Make your rest days for your legs actual rest days. Do your squats / DL / Lunges on the same day as you do harder rides. It hurts like hell, but the thing is you then get time to actually recover which is important.

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Hi Jacemo,

I agree with you. i think it’s better to add the gyn^m the same day as your cycling workout. but I think it’s better to do the gym before. you must have fresh legs to do muscular work. are you ok with this too?
the best is to wait minimum 3 hours before the second training on bike.
Michael

The article above suggested there were benefits to doing it ‘correctly’. But TBH, after reading it, I came to the conclusion that ‘just getting it done’ is #1 :slight_smile:

It depends on whats your priority I think.

If its strength or size, lift first, or if its aerobic, bike first.

Definitely separate the two if you can ( I don’t have the time to, so I suffer twice).

I find though that the fatigue from strength efforts definitely wreck me harder than a hard spin session. YMMV

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I’m a cyclist, not a weight lifter, and I have limited time.

I end up lifting within an hour of when I’ve finished a tempo or aerobic ride. My lift days are Thurs and Sun; Thurs is usually 1:45-2:00 zone 2. Sunday is two hours with a good 60-90min SST chunk thrown in.

Lifting after riding the bike will make you look like a weakling on squats and dead lifts, but, the AMPK pathway is still active, and the weight training will act as further stimulus to that pathway, giving a general endurance benefit, while still building some strength and mass – enough to help with overall health, hip hinging, overall body strength, and bone density, but not enough to get “real,” i.e. the adaptations most gym goers seek, benefits from kicking in the MTOR pathway and getting all swole.

Ideally, 3 hours between cycling and lifting. But 30min works all right, too, if that’s your life context. Better to live with some conditioning compromises than not lift at all.

sports-06-00127.pdf (1.0 MB)

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