Originally Posted by
Toespeas
yes if you loose weight , but direct muscle use i highly doubt it , maybe it increases your ability to absorb the pain and move the lactic acid around , i do think that pull ups will allow you to create a more solid upper body position on the bike allowing you to loose less watts when you are thrashing the bike during high efforts !
I didn't lose weight, but I think you hit the nail on the head with regards to lactate. I think biking has improved my ability to convert lactate back to glucose:
I believe when muscle failure happens, it's not because of the build up of lactic acid. It's because it's run out of ATP. But if the liver with biking has increased the biochemical machinery to convert serum lactate back to glucose, this glucose can then be readily available for more pull ups. So when I get to 14-15, my biceps, traps, and lats fatigue. I can hold on and rest in between each of the last 8 till my grip can no longer be maintained. I'm convinced this is due to biking. Before the biking, I did similar reps(plus more climbing) which did not move the needle on the max#.