Billy1111

Ever since I started cycling my weight lifting has gone to crap. I can't make any good gains anymore. I assume Im just doing to much cardio....I was wondering if any of you have encountered this or have any recommendations. Im not gonna cut back on the cycling so if the lifting is going to suffer then so be it. But was wondering if there is anything I can do to have them both??

Maelochs

Depends on your goals.

I used to lift mostly for maintenance and a little growth, but I don't have the time or energy after riding. I assume you might be in the same boat--you cannot commit full power to two physical exercise modes--the human body has limited resources.

The only thing I could suggest would be to lift first ... so your cycling would suffer. As I see it, one or the other will be your priority and the other will get less and give less back. Possibly at some point you will develop sufficient stamina to do as much riding as you like and still have enough left for lifting.

Do you try to do both on the same day? Recovery regimen might make a big difference if you alternate days ... but you really cannot give full power to two disciplines without extraordinary effort and a lot of sacrifice elsewhere--IMO

mcours2006

Making gains is hard if you're cycling a lot. It's certainly not optimal. You have to lift pretty heavy and eat enough calories.

Maintaining a bit easier. I do lift and have been for the past 25 years. I'm not making much gains anymore, but am maintaining the lean mass that I have built up over the years. If you're lifting for purely aesthetic reasons, some muscle mass on a frame with fairly low body fat (<10%) can do wonders.

dcsix

Someone pointed out in a thread here a couple of months back that some weight lifting is a good idea for cyclists, since cycling is not a weight bearing/resistance exercise by itself, or words to that effect. I had thought then that it would be good to incorporate some weights, most opinion I have heard over the years says you need some weight resistance exercise for bone strength as you age. I surely could not entertain the idea of doing both at the same output level-do most cyclists train with weights, or is this an odd combination for most of them? Apologies if I'm OT a bit, but it all seems related.

Maelochs

Over 40 Everyone should do some resistance training. My "exercise schedule" (which I never follow but I Really need to) has me doing a combination of push-ups, crunches, and dumbbell lifts on days I ride little or not at all, and a little bit every morning ... but as I age and get even more lazy I find it harder to find the motivation. I still hit the gym on occasional non-riding or light-riding days, but not often enough to do much good sadly.

Once you hit 40, I am told, your body slows down its production of muscle and bone by about ten percent per decade, so just to maintain you need to be working out.

OnyxTiger

I've personally gained nearly about the optimal amount of muscle for myself over years of football program training. Now I'm 33 and got the dadbods.

So the new plan is to implement boxing (shadowboxing, weighted shadowboxing, heavy bag eventually in garage), then plyometrics, and compound weight lifts (pull ups, pushups/bench, and squats on the rack) and yoga to supplement into cycling.

Personally, I'm no longer interested in lifting heavy or bulking up. My top priorities now is functional strength, anaerobic capacity, explosiveness, and aerobic. There's ways around the gym while still keeping strength and flexibility levels optimal.

12strings

I believe it was reported that Michael Jordan did weight lifting early in the morning, them went to his regular basketball practice...

I think most fitness guys would say lift when you are fresh, then do cardio.

colnago62

Riding and lifting focus on different muscle fibers. By virtue of training one, you are not adequately training the other. Match sprinters and kilo riders do a lot of weight work, however, their events only require 1 minute or less of full gas.

chasm54

This. The track sprinters do squats - low reps, huge weights - at the start of the session, then get on the bike.

dcsix

So..weights then bike, one right after the other? Are they "compatible" in the sense of it makes sense in that order, or might it be better to do weights on days one is not riding?

Bunyanderman

I couldn't keep up with 100+ miles/week, and 5 days in the gym. I am not really racing anymore, so I am lifting 5x a week, mileage has severely dropped. Maybe 2-3 rides a week now, I could really only find the energy to lift 2x a week with 100+ miles.

Carbonfiberboy 

Here's what we found to work during last winter:
https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...l#post17865790

We are doing the exact same thing this year because we had very good results, my best results in 20 years of messing with combining cycling and weights.

We were putting in 10-15 hours/week total while on this program so no, as long as you keep the volume in the gym down, it won't hurt your cycling. Quite the opposite. We also lost weight, losing waist measurement and increasing arms and thighs a little.

I strongly advise riding before lifting. If you are in good cycling form, doing an hour of moderate on the bike before lifting will have a positive effect on your lifting, definitely not a negative one.

This program is not intended to make you big. It's intended to make you strong, hence it's good for endurance athletes, though maybe not as good for pure sprinters.

StanSeven

If you are serious about cycling, you can't do serious lifting. It's just too much. A decent cycling session should leave you tired. But that doesn't mean someone can't lift hard over the winter.

HazeT

I would think that serious strength training with squats, deadlifts and whatnot could fit very well during the winter base miles training... you will be mostly doing zone 2 anyways during those times so it won't be too hard but you would ideally switch to some lower intensity core exercises after that.
Build strong muscles with base training, turn them into powerful engines after that.

johnyguy

I agree with you I used to go to the gym but now I work out at home and just started to do cycling and either you do cycling or lifting weights I don't think it's goes together I mean look at the people who do cycling they very slim almost skiny I don't really see very muscular cyclist . I mean I like to be slim loose weight I used to be slimmer that's why I started ride a bike.

I guess I still can lift weights to keep my arms in shape etc but all the cardio comes with the cycling it burns some muscles too.

Doctor Morbius

Emphasize weights over the winter months and cycling during the summer. Problem solved.

TCR Rider

For many years I was primarily a runner but I did a good amount of weight training during that time. I balanced it by doing weights in the morning before work and ran in the evening depending on the workout I had scheduled. It may have compromised my running to an extent but I still managed to maintain 50 miles a week and raced regularly.
Various orthopedic issues, shoulder, achilles and hip, forced me to modify my training. Biggest transition was from running to cycling but I also pretty much cut out weight training. These days I do mostly body weight exercises to focus on functional strength and flexibility and some yoga. I have discovered that I get a lot of bang for the buck with a Kettlebell circuit I do twice a week. Kettlebells do a great job of strengthening the glutes, hips and entire pelvic area.
At my age, 63, I'm not going to add any muscle so I watch my diet and try to maintain what I can. I have a Tanita Iron Man scale and while the reading may not be entirely accurate my bodyfat is consistently 5%. Riding 180 - 200 miles a week goes a long way to keeping the BF down.

Carbonfiberboy 

It seems that everyone has their own opinion and doesn't read the posts of others. The studies linked to in post 12 clearly show that adding appropriate weight training to an endurance training program increases leg muscle cross sectional area (CSA) and increases power compared to endurance training only. These gains can be maintained, though not increased, during the competition season by continued weight training. Stopping weight training during the competition period reverses the gains. One might notice that this is the opposite of what is being claimed by every other poster in this thread. I would lay that to the fact that they haven't tried it. I encourage anyone interested in trying to get faster to read the studies and to follow the procedures in one of them. We used the methods discussed in the third link.

My experience bears out the findings of the study we followed. My leg CSA increased and also my power. During my 70th summer, my "competition period," I was squatting more than when I was 21, in the Army, and with free access to a well-equipped gym. I weigh the same as when I was 21, but I'm stronger now since I have more contiguous years of training. It works if done correctly.

I am of course not faster on the bike at 70 than I was at 21. Age does take a toll on aerobic ability, but strength can be maintained or even increased. My wife and I both got faster on the bike and increased our endurance compared to our previous year.

OBoile

Alex Viada is someone who lifts at an elite level while competing (not at an elite level) at a lot of endurance events. His website is here: Complete Human Performance - The Leader in Hybrid Training and Multisport Coaching which may be worth a look.

f4rrest

Here's what the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Australian National Sprint Cycling Team has to say.

AIS power training for sprinters ? aboc Cycle Coaching

They're going for pure sprint speed, so very low rep, lots of rest. Only 2x/wk in season.

PaulRivers

How much are you cycling?

If you're not doing to much cycling, you can compensate by eating more calories. And of course getting enough protein is big to.

Might get more thorough answers on a weightlifting forum if you can ignore all the "you should never do anything but lift" comments. I know they did studies when everyone was claiming that any cardio would hurt your gains, and found that moderate cardio was not actually a problem at all.

chasm54

Well, I'm no sprinter, but that's my understanding. They'd squat first and then move to the on-bike sessions.

Carbonfibreboy is giving good advice, here. There's nothing incompatible about cycling and weight training. Competitive road cyclists do tend to back off the strength training during the season, but in my opinion that's to do with the difficulty of managing one's training load and proritizing event-specific training.

roadwarrior

Exactly.

OBoile

Yes. In addition to the Alex Viada link I posted above, Greg Nukols has some good articles on doing cardio while lifting (from a predominantly lifting perspective). Moderate cardio definitely won't hurt your gains.

series1811

The quickest way to erase weight lifting gains is to do a lot of endurance training (running or cycling). I lift 3 times a week. If I am not doing cardio and eat right, I start getting bigger. I enjoy cycling immensely though, so I just deal with the fact that I am not going to have 18" biceps. During the winter months I usually cut back on the cardio and just maintain. From November - March I will see modest gains lifting, then they pretty much go away once riding/running season starts up again. While I am focused on cycling, I lift mainly to keep my core strong as well as to keep my legs stronger. The squat rack has definitely helped my hill climbing.