SemperFi87

Hello all, I have recently gotten back into cycling after about a two year break. In that time, I have gotten pretty serious about crossfit training, which incorporates lots of Olympic and power lifting. We focus on dead lifts, power cleans, hang cleans, push press, push jerks, and front and back squats. My weights have consistently gone up over the past 6 months, which is the time that I have gotten really serious about the lifting. I have followed a good diet with this program, so my overall weight has gone down over this period of time.

I have now been back on the bike for about 2 and 1/2 weeks, and I have ridden about 200-250 miles, including quite a few hard climbs. When I was riding 2 years ago, I was riding that much a week and a Cat 4 racer. I have been doing several of the rides I used to do and have noticed a few things.

1) My climbing has gotten significantly better, and I am a big guy (190)

2) On the rolling hilles, I am able to get up them at several gears higher than before I was lifting

3) My top end sprint speed, on the same stretch, with no wind, has gone up almost 4 mph!

The point of this post is just to show that weight lifting can work if you follow a proper program. There are so many threads about whether or not to start lifting, so I wanted to give an example of a success story. I am not saying that O and Power lifting is for everyone, but if you are trying to increase your overall strength, look into hitting the weights!