uncrx2003

After riding for the past couple years, I've really neglected working out. Well, I just started working about a month ago. I just could not believe how weak my upper body strength is. I'm starting to feel stronger again after working out and bulking up a bit. I got to mix muscle training with riding from now on. It was embarrassing in the gym.

ls01

You are doing it wrong. Working out the upper body adds bulky muscles that add weight. This extra bulk does nothing for cycling. You should stop this activity immediately and pray to Eddie Merckx for forgiveness.

BillyD

But girls like muscles.

RoadMike

You need to cut that upper body workout stuff out stat. And remember, carry those milk jugs into the house one at a time hoss.

lazerzxr

If you can pump your tires over 100psi with a mini pump you are already too bulky. Why do you need more strength than that? When you get home top em up with a floor pump.

coasting 

they like fat.

BillyD

They like money.

justkeepedaling

I don't know, I need the upper body strength to crank my 42x23 out of the saddle up 13% grades. Just enough that my arms don't fatigue before my legs, but yeah, ditch the weights

bobonker

I was a gym rat before a cycling and like you, I've found that a lot of time on the bike with no time in the gym absolutely kills my upper body strength. Strips muscle off extremely fast, too. Good news is that it comes back quickly and once a week in the gym is about all it takes for me.

Bob

uncrx2003

I'm hitting it 3x a week now. Mostly upper body workout. I'm going to do lower body during the off season.

Cue

I can do that, but I also would at least like to clean and jerk my own weight, and bench my own weight as well. Wafer-thin model-like cyclists with twiggy arms are ghastly.

Will Goes Boing

Assuming you're not being sarcastic....

You can work out and gain strength and muscle without gaining any weight. If your level of cycling is up there the upper body actually plays a huge role in putting power down. Pro cyclists have an insane amount of power to weight ratio. If all it takes is to be light weight to be fast on a bike then any skinny guy can technically be a fast rider.

aramis

I bet he totally lifts!

Cue

How many posters on this forum are professional cyclists seeking that additional 10 watt advantage?

dralways

He probably actually does, fairly often too. If not I'm sure he'd look bonier than those girls who never eat and throw up what they do. I know for a fact that Peter Sagan spends a helluva lot of time in the gym. These guys just put up so much mileage the definition never seriously pronounces itself.

Check out Froome's arms in youtube interviews and you'll notice he and his teammates have little baby anthills for biceps.

And then you have guys like this guy..

abstractform20

the vast majority of recreational cyclists i see are either: skinny-fat, chubby/fat, skinny. the common thread among them is weakness

the fact is, if you want to improve general health, weight lifting is the best way to do so. most people do cardio at slow, non-taxing levels, and throw in some random, half-assed machine exercises (and curls, bro).

completely abstaining from weight resistance exercise is foolish because it develops stronger and more dense bones, muscles, and tendons. do it once a week, or in the off season if you are competitive. i cant imagine how being able to press 1/2 one's bodyweight for 3x5 could have a detrimental effect on cycling performance.

i think a good marker for adequate fitness is the ability to squat, deadlift, and bench bodyweight. you can add in some condition 1-2 times a week.

cerealkilla

Muscle weighs more than fat, forget doing heavy weights. I've been quite big in the past, used to bench 30 reps at around 100Kgs on a good day. I was 14 stone and 5'9" with a low BMI. I'm actually still a little too heavy for serious cycling at 12.5 stone, looking to get down to 11 max. Best thing IMHO, is to concentrate on core exercising with light weights and high reps. its a better way of getting older too. I've seen too many of my 40ish year old friends who I've been training with for 20+ years turn into out of shape guys who can not loose the mass.

RollCNY

I was kind of with your post until here: adequate fitness is based upon bench pressing your weight. I can tell you from personal experience, at 6'3", bench pressing my weight was a significant effort, took months to work toward, and would fade quickly with any lapse in training. For that to be the benchmark of "adequate" is obtuse.

DaveWC

For me cycling is a sport, a hobby and an obsession that I do every day. But M-W-F I also run a couple of miles so when I'm on vacation without my bike I can still get a workout, plus it's good to do some weight bearing cardio. And on T-T I work out with some weights. Core exercises are done every weekday. Bone density & overall general health are things to consider beyond a new PB on the bike. And I've managed to have a number of PBs this year too.

BillyD

Strength is a definite benefit. But you can have strength without bulking up, all it takes is moderation . . . it takes a hell of a lot of weight training to bulk up unnecessarily.

Keep in mind as well, for long term health you need to cross-train to include weight-bearing exercise. Those of you who do nothing but ride, ride, ride are setting yourselves up for bone and joint ailments later in life. You may be carefree now while you're young, but you may wind up in a wheel chair 30 or 40 years from now. Nothing is worth that.

puckett129

Funny that it appears Andre Greipel is right behind him and is probably bigger than half black Peter Sagan. That said, he's definitely an outlier in professional cycling.

therhodeo

Bench is about as worthless of an activity to gauge ones fitness as there could possibly be.

uncrx2003

Since I've been working out for about 6wks, I have put on 7lbs of muscle. Diet hasn't changed much so most of the weight has been muscle weight so far. Now if I can trim a bit more fat off, I'll be stoked.

merlinextraligh

Adding resistance training to your workout is going to be good for your overall health. Most notably cyclists have poor bone density, and lifting will help for that.

Stretching, and exercises aimed at core strength will be of some benefit cycling.

Lifting for your lower legs, the data is pretty limited as to whether it offers any cycling performance benefit, other than for track sprinters. And heavy lifting for your legs in season may limit the workload you can handle on the bike.

Any advantage that upper body work could have cycling can be acheived with a short workout focusing on low resistance high repetition, and won't add siginificant bulk. Beyond that, doing siginificant lifting for your upper body is for reasons other than cycling performance.

Thus, IMHO, a reasonable prescription for amatuer cyclists, who want to be fast on the bike, have good overall fitness, and not look like flabby sticks, would be resistance training focused on core strength year round, with stretching, and a short upper body workout with low resistance, high reps. And you can supplement with lifting for your legs off season if you're so inclined.

bonz50

everything I've read about exercising to help bone density is something that requires higher impact activities, such as jogging/etc. don't get me wrong, I'm all for weight training for recreational cyclists, it will improve your overall health and weight lifting is a well proven method of reducing body fat for the average joe. unless you are planning to be a competitive racer (even at local races), imho, weight lifting is a good thing overall even for cyclists.