Originally Posted by
merlinextraligh
Uhm, no. It's not a matter of opinion. That's why I SAID what I SAID. There's a ton of data regarding specific adaptation to imposed demands that says if you want to be fast on the bike, you gottat train fast on the bike.
Some core work is not going to get in the way of bike training, so not a bad idea, although Graeme Street be damned, there's not a lot of data that it will make you faster.
Other cross training, such as weight lifting and running, in season, is going to limit the training load you can hande on the bike and be counterproductive.
So the opinion element is really a priority issue. If your priorities are generalized fitness,health, fun, sure cross train.
If you want to be fast on the bike, train long, hard, and smart on the bike.
I heard that somewhere.
Originally Posted by
StanSeven
The only part of cycling where weights help, and that's marginal, is short duration sprints like track racing. If you do a search, you'll find lots of studies that support the finding.
It's also useful to understand why short track sprinters (events about a minute in duration or less) lift. In such short events there is a heavy emphasis on the standing start. It's useful to be able to recruit the entire body into moving the object at rest.