Yesterday, leg strength session and added jumping - 2 sets of 10 reps each leg. I use a 12 inch step and put my right leg on the bench with my left on the floor. I jump by pushing off with the right leg to get airborne and then land with my left leg on the bench and right on the floor. Now keep repeating. I got gassed almost immediately. For those of us that have, ahem, less than perfect disc and cartilage material, it is the landing that compresses the nerves and joints so I land like a cat. Of course, if one has the hot sauce
, one can jump up on a box from the floor with one leg and land on the top. The elite guys can do this. How do I feel this AM? About the same as any other morning after a strength session. Ok.
One of the potential problems of heavy / strength training is that although one gets much stronger, the muscle contracts forcefully it may not relax fast enough. Plyometrics fires the muscle explosively and relaxes it quickly to prepare for another movement. So for sprinting on the bike, plyometrics of some kind is beneficial in addition to building bone density. And explosive power is an asset in daily life. YMMV.
I find it somewhat annoying at the gym that I struggle with setting up the Olympic lifting bars and weights. The straight Olympic bar and deadlift trap bar each weighs 45 pounds. The Olympic bar is long and awkward when it is not on the stand. So first I have to adjust the rack to my height. Then I have to power clean the bar to shoulder level and put it on the rack. How hard is that? Not that hard but not trivial. Then I start the progression of adding weight to the bar and building up to my final 6 rep back squat set. And since the Olympic bar is long, one has to get in the middle of the bar and balance / control the weight when standing upright as well as during the squat and move forward and backward from the rack with the weight on ones back. So this exercise builds core muscles to the max as well as balance.
The trap bar is vertical in a rack. So I have to lift it out of the rack and carry it to the station. Then bending over, I have to lift one end of the 45 pound bar and load weights. Then I have to load weight to the bar as I begin the deadlift session. And of course rerack the bars and weights to their original position for the next user.
Contrast all that overhead to for two lifts to siting down at a leg press machine and setting a pin for the correct weight and adjusting the seat. That is a dream.
The upshot of all this is not many people and close to zero except me old guys use the Olympic station setup and we have 5 stations. And once one is in a station, one is there for some period of time lifting, resting and loading and unloading weight. The trainers at the gym typically avoid the setup and I think it is due to taking too much time. They use kettlebells and dumbbells and other machines and etc to work the same muscles and move clients from exercise to exercise quickly. No one wants to pay a trainer $X per hour while resting 2 to 3 minutes between deadlifts and backsquats.
Having done the multi joint Olympic style lifts, I find them extremely beneficial for cycling and general health and worth the overhead of setup and tear down and rest between sets.
Just some miscellaneous musing this AM.