misterwaterfall

Thanks for the reply. Twice because I like riding my bike and can't handle a couple hard days on the bike plus 3 in the gym. I seem to do best when one day is strength and the second is higher volume, and by best I mean I can recover adequately. I use the variations as assistance work with more volume as when I try to use traditional deadlifts as assistance work my form seems to break down quicker and I get gassed quicker as well.

Maybe the answer here is 2 ME type gym days, one squat one dead lift.

Baby Puke

I do something like this as my time is extremely limited. I do a volume day (which I would not class as hypertrophy) and an intensity day. This is copied off of the Texas Method that Quinn told me about, but dropping the light day which was meant to go between the other two.

Volume day is
5 sets of 5 LBBS
5 sets of 5 press
2 sets of 3 DL
3 set of whatever (right now 7) pull up

Intensity day is
3 sets of 4 box jumps
1 set of 5 LBBS (110% of above's weight)
1 set of 5 press (ditto)
1 set of 3 rack pull
1 set to failure pull up

Volume day takes about an hour and a half of gym time, intensity day takes about an hour.

I would drop the support exercises and do the DL. The rack pull is my support exercise - for the dead lift.

VanceMac

That was my general strategy during the race season this year. I know Texas Method proper is a program for intermediate/advanced lifters (which I am not), but I found that it was beneficial for working into a cycling workload because the lower volume at the end of the week (intensity day on Friday) jived well with bike work on the weekend. I kept the light day (Wednesday), but only because I work from home and have a home gym. I don't think you lose much by dropping that one.

Baby Puke

Agree VanceMac. I found the regular beginner program too tiring leading into the weekend. And when I was doing this more consistently, the Texas method allowed me to make some breakthrough PB's, even though I'm pushing pretty puny weights compared to many on this board.

misterwaterfall

I'll give that a try and see what happens. I'm also a fan of making one weight day a double meaning a z2/z3 ride in the morning with weights in the afternoon so I'll play with that strategy and see how it goes. Part of my affinity for getting back in the weight room is the overall change from solely doing bike work, so it's nice from that regard if nothing else.

Budi93

Hey everybody,

i'm a road cyclist and i want to do Strength Training to improve my power, strength and explosivness. The last months i've done Starting Strength. So i have weight lifting experiences and a solid base. Currently the most important thing for me is to become more explosive but the other skills are also important.
So which Strength/Powerlifting Program coul you recommend? Are there any resources you like that you could point me towards geared towards combining strength training and cycling?

Thanks

carleton

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Are you looking to improve your sprint on the road or on the track?

Budi93

Thanks man

I want to improve my sprints on the road. I know this is the track forum but i've heard a lot of good things about you @carleton. So I hope that you want to help me anyway.

carleton

Hahaha, thanks for the kind words!

Unfortunately, even though they share the same word, Road Sprinting and Track Sprinting are very different. Different like the sprint at the end of a 2,000M foot race and a 100M foot race.

I'm fond of weightlifting and I think it would help you. I'm just not sure as to what type of program to suggest being that I'm highly allergic to road rides that last over 1 hour . There are guys here that race both road and track as well as lift. Maybe they can chime in.

Poke your head in the Road Racing forum. A lot of those guys over there lift, too.

Budi93

Thanks man

If you have any ideas about that, I would be very pleased if you tell it to me.

queerpunk

Road sprinting is a lot like sprinting as a track enduro, and yeah, like Carleton says, it's really nothing like track sprinting. Our sprints are not maximal efforts.

When I felt as though strength was my limiter, I basically did a 3x5 variation on SS, focusing on squat, dead, and overhead press to shake things up and work my core/upper. The thing is, though, that I think I made more progress by doing committed power work on the bike in the offseason - and, there was a certain point pretty soon when trying to make linear progression in my lifts was definitely detrimental to an ambitious on-the-bike program. I improved my sprint a little bit, but I think what improved more was my 30sec power.

The most important thing to improve your sprint is specificity: figuring out what is wrong with your spring right now. That's what's necessary to figure out if lifting will even improve what's wrong with you. What makes you think your explosiveness is your limiter?

Baby Puke

If you wanna do explosiveness, power clean and box jumps might be helpful.

Budi93

Thanks

The Roadies suggests similar things as yours. They recommend SS, 5/3/1 and this https://www.ridethetrack.com/pdf/train_paulrogers.pdf. I want to combine Cycling And Powerlifting.

I think explosivness is my limiter, because i'm fast and strong but at the sprint start or if i want to breakaway, it feels slowly and very hard for me. Like a truck who starts

So @carleton what's you opinion and thought's about the Programs?

carleton

I'm not going to coach via a forum.

Budi93

That is really too bad. How can i get your coaching?

carleton

I'm not much of a coach. Just an internet know-it-all.

6 years worth of gibberish here: https://www.bikeforums.net/track-cycl...-carleton.html

That's much as you'll get from me. Plus there are many folks here that know 10x what I do.

VanceMac

Here's my program: Mongo lift bar, Mongo put bar down. Deadlifting especially is so simple and primal... reminds me when I first got on the the track, then zen compared to the complexities of riding road.

carleton

Yup.

carleton

A note for all of you who "need to go to the gym...but cant for X reason": When you go back, the first workout feels really, really good. Lots of endorphins. There are immediate results. Your posture improves, your muscles "stand up", you feel stronger all immediately.

The soreness of re-acclimating doesn't kick in till 2 days later...by that time it's time to lift again and it goes away during warmups. That soreness will go away after a week or so of regular lifting.

Soon you'll have that "gym strut" and you'll be sneaking pics of yourself in the gym mirror and sending them to your hunny bunny



Go do it. Now.

Banchad

Have managed to move past my plateau of 100Kg for 5 after realising I wasn't eating enough. In 4 weeks of simply eating about 500 calories more and another 30g protein a day I've added another 12.5kg to my 6 rep squat weight.
Does anyone else do a 1 rep max squat at the end of their squat routine to assess your progression? I've found that I can predict if I'm going to plateau if I can't do it.

misterwaterfall

Maxing every workout like that is unnecessary and counter-productive(as well as dangerous)

Are you on any type of legit routine? Are your working set weights/reps going up? If the answer to any one of those is yes, that should be validation enough to not max out at every chance. If the answer is no, fix it

Banchad

How is it dangerous?
Yes initially started on 5x5 but with an extra rep because it seems to work better for me and is another factor which helped me get past my plateau, Yes.

misterwaterfall

Max efforts take a lot out of you mentally and physically, and put you at a pretty big risk for injury. On deads/squats your form will naturally break down as you get close to your max, and doing that all the time is reckless, especially when it is counter productive from a weight/strength building focus.

If you want to max out, go for a rep max but don't be too proud to stop going if your form gets sloppy. This is a long game, and squeezing out an extra rep with crap form will bite you sooner rather than later.

Banchad

You automatically assumed that I do it with crap form. I do not. If I feel I will not be able to complete the lift safely/without good form I drop onto my safeties and finish my squat routine there.
I have to respectfully disagree with you that I am being 'reckless'

misterwaterfall

I didn't assume anything, I answered your question. Goodluck