How Cyclists Should Approach Strength Training

A cyclist looking for an introduction to strength training could easily head to the magazine rack and look for the body builder with giant biceps and a neck the size of a tree trunk gracing the cover.

But it won't help you on the bike. For starters, if you're that massive, you're hindering your power because you have to lug all that braun in the saddle with you.

"They're coming from a body builder's perspective. They focus on moderate resistance with high-volume training," says Dan Kehlenbach. "For athletic-type training, you want to do the opposite. You want to minimize some of the volume and keep the intensity high."

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Kehlenbach is a USA Cycling Level 2 coach and a certified strength and conditioning specialist. He co-wrote Distance Cycling: Your Complete Guide for Long-Distance Rides and has worked alongside many cyclists looking for new ways to improve their performance on the bike. Strength training is a great way to do it—provided you're going about it the right way.

Here are some tips Kehlenbach offers for strength-training newbies:

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Keep It Simple

Machine weights serve a purpose, but nothing is more practical for your body than your own body weight.

"I find that people using foundation-level strength exercises can develop much more functional strength as a whole," Kehlenbach said. "Exercises that require you to support and stabilize your body as opposed to a machine doing it."

That includes the simple exercises like squats, lunges and step-ups. And as a bonus, you don't need a gym membership to do any of those.

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Isolate

Think about how your muscles work on the bike. Your legs are coordinating, but working individually on producing power.

Use that mindset when strength training, too.

"A lot of exercises are bilateral," Kehlenbach said. "But you're only putting pressure down on one pedal at a time. Focus on the principle—with cycling, you're pushing down one at a time, so think about that with the exercises."

The aforementioned lunges and step-ups are great unilateral exercises. Split squats work, too.

"You can also turn a non-functional exercise into a more functional exercise," Kehlenbach said. "If you take something as simple as leg presses and do it one leg at a time, that will make a big difference."

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Don't Ignore Your Core

The legs need plenty of love, for obvious reasons, and your upper body benefits from strength training, too. But core strength may be a cyclist's most valuable weapon.

"Your core links your upper body and lower body," Kehlenbach said. "When you look at your positioning on a bike, you're sitting on a seat, you're grabbing the handlebars and you're turning the pedals. There needs to be optimal force transformation to the pedals. So upper body is important but your core muscles need to be stable for optimal force transformation to occur."

Your typical core workouts will suffice, and the benefits are numerous:

• Overuse injuries are minimized because "you have that strong stable base of support."
• You're more efficient when pedaling, because "there's no energy being wasted because all that force is going directly down to the pedals."

In short: work your upper body, work your lower body—and work hard at giving them a strong link through your core.

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How Often?

Due to the amount of mileage that's required when training for events like a century ride, there's not a ton of time on a rider's calendar to do strength work. So how much is enough?

"It's going to vary on the type of riding that people do, but as a general rule of thumb I usually recommend twice a week," Kehlenbach said. "You start going more, you may get a marginal benefit increase, but many people just don't have the time to commit to three days a week. If you do it Tuesday and Thursday, or Wednesday and Saturday, I think it's a lot easier to manage into your schedule."

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Keep Track

The power meter and the heart-rate monitor will give you an idea of how much you're improving, but you don't have to be that high-tech. Start a journal that not only details all of your strength training, but also your cycling and other factors in your life like nutrition, sleep, stress and more.

"Basically, you're going to start writing a training manual for yourself," Kehlenbach said. "You can follow all the basic training principles, but individuality really goes into account. It can help you with future training or preventing injuries. Some kind of record—keeping track of your day-to-day activity and how it relates to your performance—is invaluable."

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