6 Reasons Cyclists Should Start Strength Training

Once the domain of bodybuilders and athletes involved in strength and power sports, resistance training is now universally accepted as a vital training component for endurance athletes and essential to overall health and well-being.

In addition to improving your riding, a resistance-training program done on a regular basis can go a long way in improving your quality of life. Here are a few ways that resistance training can keep you healthy and riding strong:

More: 3 Ways to Improve Your Cycling Away From the Bike

Improves Bone Density

This is a big one for us riders—there are several studies that investigate bone density in competitive cyclists and have found that some elite-level riders have less bone density than sedentary controls.

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Cycling is a non-weight-bearing activity, and while this may be great for people with orthopedic concerns or previous injuries, it contributes very little to bone health. Further research is warranted as to determine the precise mechanisms behind this bone loss, but resistance training can help strengthen your bones and combat the threat of osteopenia and osteoporosis.

More: 10 Training Fundamentals for Cyclists

Helps Minimize Muscular Imbalances

Let's say you're training for a century and have just come back from a 4-hour ride averaging 85 revolutions-per-minute. During that ride, you completed 20,400 pedal strokes! Over time, this can create a muscle imbalance in which your hip and knee extensors (quadriceps and glutes, the muscles responsible for pushing downwards on the pedals) can become quite strong while the other muscles in your lower extremity (hamstrings and hip stabilizers) can lag behind. A well-designed resistance-training program can take this into account and help minimize the possibility of muscular imbalances.

More: Improve Your Sprint Finish With a Strength Workout

Power

Sprinting up a hill, enjoying a pick-up game of basketball, or playing with your kids involves a certain element of muscular power. Cycling does wonders for your aerobic system, but does very little to enhance your muscular power (unless you are training as a track cyclist). Specific forms of resistance training (hops, jumps, and other types of plyometric exercises) can enhance the natural elastic capabilities of your muscles and tendons to make you a more powerful rider and also help with other sports and activities you may enjoy.

More: 4 Strength-Training Exercises to Boost Power

Balance and Coordination

No doubt about it, riding a bike takes a decent amount of balance and coordination. However, once we learn these basic skills (usually when the training wheels come off), the simple act of riding no longer challenges our neuromuscular systems to improve. Resistance training, especially with free weights and various balance implements (physioballs, BOSUs, foam rollers, etc.) can help improve your balance and coordination to make you a safer rider and stronger person.

This is particularly important as we age and the risk of falls becomes a real concern. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), among older adults (those 65 or older), falls are the leading cause of injury death. They are also the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma.

In addition to strengthening your muscles, resistance training has a positive effect on your nervous system. Muscles can't act by themselves—they need signals from the brain via nerves to function optimally, and resistance training enhances this communication, which can improve balance and coordination.

More: 8 Core Exercises for Cyclists

May Help Minimize Overuse Injuries

It's impossible to completely prevent injuries, but strengthening your muscles and connective tissues with resistance training may help prevent some of cycling's common overuse injuries (tendinosis, ITB syndrome, neck pain, low back pain). Resistance training cannot only help make you a stronger rider, it can make you stronger for life's other demands.

More: 3 Leg-Strengthening Exercises for Cyclists

Optimal Muscular Function and Posture

Sitting—whether in front of a computer or TV, behind the wheel or at a coffee shop, wrecks havoc on posture and causes important muscles to shut down. Think about it like this—what would happen if you sit on your hand for 30 minutes? It'll probably "go to sleep". Well, when we sit on our butts, the same thing can happen to our Gluteus Maximus, a very powerful and important hip muscle.

Sitting for long periods of time causes "Gluteal Amnesia", a term used by Stuart McGill, PhD., a professor of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, ON, Canada) in which your glute muscles lose their ability to function properly.

Cycling is not the best activity to promote good posture. When riding, you're typically locked into relatively few positions for long periods of time. Combine that with long periods of sitting, and you may eventually develop some problems such as forward head posture and rounded shoulders. Fortunately, a simple resistance training program and some corrective exercises can help improve your posture and muscular activation. With better posture and muscles working the way they should, you'll move better, feel better and look better!

There is no one magic bullet to designing resistance-training programs. Get a room full of strength coaches or personal trainers together to design a program for somebody, and you're likely to get many different options. Program design should take into account goals, limitations, available resources and fundamental training principles.

More: How Cyclists Should Approach Strength Training

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