I know a lot of you guys have been cycling for a while and I was wondering if u guys see the need of doing legs at the gym? I’m gonna start doing the local Duluth Cycleworks group ride on Monday’s (22 miles) and Wed’s (33 miles), also gonna do my own little ride on Saturdays if I’m not at the track! Thinking a good 25 miles + I go to the Gym M-F and don’t know if doing a Leg day at the gym on top of the rides will hurt me instead of help me? What do u guys do? thanks in advance
It sounds like you can easily time your leg days to be opposite your ride days. That would be better. If you do a leg day at the gym, make your cycling day a shorter, flatter one just to spin out the lactic acid and such while still training your muscles to hold more aminos. My $0.02
dont do legs during the cycling season, you won't have time to recover for long rides or you won't get as much out of them. I would do legs but something very basic and not serious weight, something to strengthen the muscles you don't use while cycling to preven injury if anything. Cycling is great, I do a ton, but certain muscles overpower other muscles and then you become injury prone.
K thats what I was thinking! still do legs but light weight :up: Also what are the main muscles we use when we pedal?
Exactly. I would only do weight exercises that will balance out your leg muscles. cyclist tend to have weak outer glutes which can leave you susceptible to hip and knee pain. outside of that.....if you ride fast enough or do enough climbing you'll have more than enough leg workout.
oh, you will also see that cyclists tend to develop their rectus femoris a lot more than the vastus medialis. Both get a workout but one of the first things somebody will check if you have knee problems is the balance of those muscles.
Any tips on a workout routine? like which machines to use and not to use? Yeah, I ask a lot of question lol
LOL - you'll get lot's of opinions on this. I say absolutely do legs during cycling/riding season... mostly b/c my trainer (who's also a mtb and cyclocross racer) tells me to and b/c he (and his pro mtb/cross racing wife) both lift *during* their race seasons. I lift legs once a week - right now I'm in a power phase, but that rotates every 4-6 weeks. I also ride ~3-4x/week. My leg workout is tailored on both strength and stability on the bike - with Leg Press, Single leg stability ball lunges, lateral lunges & deadlifts being the core of this phase. All with heavy weight and low (6-8) reps. Of course this phase followed a longer base phase of lighter weight/higher reps. It improves both my cycling and my racing. Your legs shouldn't have any trouble recovering.
Unweighted squats, lunges, etc if you're going to do anything. But I wouldn't. The off-season is the time for building muscle strength. What you lose during the season is power you weren't using. It's all about efficiency so there is no use carrying around weight that isn't giving you power on the bike. If this is your first season cycling then you're going to see alot of gains no matter what you do. Just don't burn out piling on too much. The 8-10 month riding season is plenty without adding cross training. This winter do an off-season plan and you'll enter next year a whole new rider.
Guys, thank you so much! yeah I figured I was gonna get different opinions hahaha My Trainer doesn't want me to stop doing legs at the Gym for several reasons but I was wondering what most of u guys were doing so I had a better understanding Anyone in the Duluth area wanna join the group ride tonight? Mr. Lee fields thats like a mile from ur house
The one thing not mentioned here is if you are doing more and more cycling, is STRETCH often! But do NOT stretch cold. Every time you finish your ride, stretch quads, hip flexors, calves etc. These muscles tend to get very tight with lots of cycling and stretching after your ride will make your body much happier the next day.
Not a big fan of weight training with regards to cycling. Hard core pro cyclists do not lift weights. There is a reason you don't see muscle bound cyclists. The last thing I want to do after spending 2 to 4 hours on a bike is to walk let alone push some weights. Weight training is fine for recreational cyclists. Just make sure you have rest days in between riding & working out your legs.
no weights for me or any other cyclist i know.. just determines ur goals.. but any muscle that you don't use cycling is pretty much a waste of weight
Being a former pro cyclist i did heavy weights but only in the winter. the small rides you do are more than enough. Remember you get dual benefits from these rides. muscle development and cardio development which will help you with those 12 lap sprint races or 5-6 session trackdays. At least it helped me! cheers
I agree I had to stopped lifting when I did endurance in 08, did nothing but running, didn't have a bike then after only a few months of training I found myself doing two 1hr stints at Jennings and felt fine even at 100+ Degrees Now I wanna try to fine a good balance between lifting and Cycling, I dont wanna get into Cycling that bad just wanna do it for fun, it took me a year too put on close to 20lbs of lean muscle and I dont wanna lose that! I'm at 155 and will try to bring that down to 150 but not less 5lbs should help some
YES! a good friend that's also a personal trainer showed me how to use one and I thought it was pretty cool :up:
it can depend on the track(s) you ride. at a track like auto club speedway, you will want to have upper body strength for t1-t2. if you know ahead of time you will be riding there, i would do some MaxOT type upperbody stuff. get the shoulder, chest and tricep strength up, along with forearms of course. if it's a track that doesn't require much input and has high speeds, then you may want to just get your weight down and be more fluid on the bike. some combination of strength, flexibility, and cardio training is better than only doing one of them. Also, don't forget the nutrition part of the equation.
Thanks, yeah I've been on a good diet for the past year. so at least I can say that I'm good in that department
