cedricbosch

I was thinking of picking up this book- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193..._luc_sim_01_02



Any other recommendations?

invwnut

Joe Friel-The Cyclist Training Bible????

cedricbosch

I have that one and it's a great training aid for on-the-bike activity, but its really limited for weight training advice.

J.W.

I dont really think you need the book. Just do a needs analysis for yourself (what do you want to improve? strength, endurance, power???, what are some sport specific things you can mimic in weight training,) Once you know that you can start building a workout plan (lifts, sets, reps, ect..)

You can go to the NSCA's (national strength and conditioning ass.) website and look through their performance journals for FREE. check it out.

joeprim

Go find RBR website. They Have ebooks pretty cheep writen by impressive coaches and docs.

Joe

Thunder Dan

Having come from a performance training background, I can say the most vital element in any strength training repertoire for an athlete of any type is developing a strong posterior chain. The two most critical exercises for developing posterior chain strength are the deadlift and squat (no, not leg press). Take the time to perfect your form before just throwing a ton of weight on or else you won't see maximal gains and, more importantly, you might get hurt. I suggest Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe, it's worth its weight in gold.

The book is broken into four main sections: the dead lift, the squat, the bench press, and assistance exercises. You may want to curtail the upper body workouts if cycling is your only sport as they'll add unnecessary upper body mass. You may also want to check out Mountain Athlete's Cycling page in order to keep your workouts fresh.

Thunder Dan

I should also add that sports science research has demonstrated that variation in workouts with the addition of new and radical exercises generally does not enhance performance in athletes and, in some cases, can actually hurt it. Although exercises like the squat and deadlift may seem archaic, performance trainers are constantly falling back on them for the simple reason of them working. These exercises engage multiple critical muscle groups simultaneously, and best replicate real life workloads. Do yourself a favor, don't get caught up in the glitz and glam of fad exercises like the bosu ball and all that nonsense…they’re a waste of time and a direct path to injury.

PoopinFresh

Please stay away from the NSCA crap and do as Thunder Dan is telling you. Starting Strength is worth its weight in gold to anyone new to weight training, and will save you so much time and effort if done correctly.

Strength is an enduring characteristic that has a wide range of applicability; getting stronger on the squat and deadlift will have a direct carryover to your cycling- and your life- in general.

I can't quite express to you how much better off you'll be for avoiding most of the crap books out there that have no idea about strength training, and going to the source with a guy who learned from one of the fathers of modern strength training himself, Bill Starr.

Rippetoe knows his stuff, and knows how to get novice weightlifters strong. Just buy the book. Now.

jrobe

"Best book for cycling-specific weight training "


One possibilty is that weight lifting doesn't work for cycling (any better than on the bike training).

donrhummy

+1

PoopinFresh

Which would be wrong. Extremely specialized weight training, where it interferes with ones ability to train on the bike and recover from it, might and probably will not work. For everyone else, who can't yet squat 2x their bodyweight BELOW PARALLEL, or deadlift at or near that amount, weight training will not destroy your ability to recover from rides, and will make you a hell of a lot stronger.

If you're a novice weightlifter and a novice/intermediate cyclist, you can do both without overextending yourself. It might require that you sacrifice some time in the saddle and/or time under the bar, but you can and will make progress on both. Some thinking for yourself will be required, and it just so happens that Rippetoe also wrote a book on programming for strength training which works well as a template to programming for all things physical.

Thunder Dan

It’s already obvious that PoopinFresh and I see eye to eye on this subject, so instead of reiterating what he said, I will give you a couple of “testimonials”.

About 5 years ago I started getting into rock climbing and seriously curtailed and then totally quite strength training. Shortly thereafter I transitioned from primarily mountain biking to primarily road riding and then eventually even rock climbing took a back seat. For several years thereafter my lifting was limited and erratic. I finally decided last year that I needed to get back on course and made the weight room a critical part of my training routine. I spent an entire winter gaining back all the strength I had lost and eventually surpassing my previous PR’s (Personal Records). The next spring, I was an unbelievably stronger rider. I could sprint faster, climb harder, and put in allot more saddle time comfortably (I attribute this last improvement to re-strengthening my lower back).

Another good example would be my friends’ Dad. He’s been cycling for years and, ultimately, was the person that got my friends and I heavily into riding. Several years back he slipped on a patch of ice in his driveway and suffered a spiral farcture in this femur. The doctor told him that he suffered such a dramatic injury due in part to low bone density. As cycling doesn’t really offer the type of resistance necessary to signifigantly build bone density, the doctor recommended that my friend’s Dad start weight training. He started a program similar to mine, one based around the core lifts and without all these hoaky nonsense programs that seem to be the ever growing fad. Needless to say, he had a similar revelation to my own and found himself to be a considerably stronger rider that following season.

If you don’t believe me, then read this article. There is plenty more out there…I’m too lazy to cite them, but a google search may be of benefit to you.

PoopinFresh

That Training 4 cyclists site seems pretty decent TDan, thanks for the link.

dehoff

I'd also recommend Rippetoe's 'Starting Strength', although with a bit of a caveat- IF you do the program exactly as spelled out in the book, it isn't exactly condusive to the goals of a cyclist. You will definitely gain strength, but at the expense of added weight and the loss of a lot of time on the bike (he doesn't really recommend any cardio for the sake of getting adequate rest from the 3 days/week of strength training).

The fundamentals of Starting Strength are beyond sound, but I'd suggest a bit of a modification for a cyclist such as only 2 days/week and lightening up the eating somewhat (maybe only a half gallon of whole milk ). Definitely stick with the exercises he has in Starting Strength and the 3x5 progression, but that's a lot of work and possibly overtraining for three days a week and trying to get on the bike as well.

There's a Mark Rippetoe forum over at StrengthMill.net, with a couple cycling related threads, although he admits he hasn't had that great of luck training roadies-
https://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?t=906

I'd also recommend his DVD for anyone that purchases Starting Strength. It's pretty cheap (~$20) and has a lot of technical info on the basic lifts. Not exactly the most entertaining video, but it helps to actually see the lifts being performed.

Thunder Dan

^^^ What he said.

GirlAnachronism

How much of this stuff do you think is useful for women? I would like to include some weight training in my routine (right now I do core exercises and light free weights 2-3x a week) but I don't want to get crazy muscles.

Are there any books that you can recommend that are aimed at women? Or any general principles that help with getting stronger without developing too much bulk?

Also, I've always wondered about rest when combining weight training and cycling. Right now I only do core exercises and upper-body stuff, because I feel like my legs are already being used enough in cycling (and running at the moment). As a general principle, how much rest do you need? How often can the two be combined?

Busta Quad

The Aussie track program would disagree, and they have produced a good number of medal winners....

"Single-leg Press is our bread and butter. Different foot and hip positions
for different phases of pedal stroke, standing, seated, etc. I use high
speed video to match joint angles and velocities for each rider. We mainly
do it ballistically for power - throw the sled as far as you can - at
different percentages of max to match up to different muscle contraction
velocities for different phases of the acceleration (different cadences)."

PoopinFresh

Women, while different in many ways, are going to adapt and respond to training just as men will, to a varying degree due to lack of hormones. Train the same way, ie., go buy starting strength.

Getting big is very much a product of what you're eating, not how you're training. Keeping the reps low and the weight high is actually a good way to get stronger WITHOUT concurrent hypertrophy (muscle growth).

As for combining programs, this is where you need to go out and learn. Initially, you'll be able to do both things. As you get stronger, and are able to use more weight and cycle more miles, you'll have to learn how to program based upon your ability to recover from the demands you're imposing. This stuff isn't rocket science, but there is definitely more to it than most people think. As you begin to understand your body, you can figure out how much training is enough vs. too little, and really begin to work more by feel.

If you're interested in the theory, buy Practical Programming by Mark Rippetoe in addition to Starting Strength. If SS is the how, PP is the why. Between those two books, you'll have years, if not your entire life's training potentially planned out.

PoopinFresh

And they're also olympic caliber athletes who can already easily rep MORE than 2x their bodyweight in a deep, olympic style squat. They'll require different forms of exercise than someone who can't even rep their own bodyweight yet. It still stands that for most people, the bread and butter exercises will be far more useful, require less time and inventiveness, and can be learned on ones own with relative ease, as well as be performed safely with relatively little equipment.

SushiJoe

For those of you doing weight training now in conjunction with riding; which days do you train your legs (with weights)?

PoopinFresh

Joe, I'm new to cycling, and for me, cycling takes a back seat to lifting, as I use it for getting around in NYC more than pure road training. I'm actually just starting to build my miles up now- when I commute to work, it's a little less than 10 miles daily, and I'm slowly integrating that. I squat, press (either bench or overhead), and do some sort of deadlift accessory three times a week, on saturday, monday, and wednesday.

What you do will depend on what you're hoping to accomplish. Most people would be best served by relegating the biking to the backseat while focuing on increasing their squat, deadlift, OHP, and bench for a few months. Depending on your fitness level, that can be any number of things.

The easiest way to do it would be to integrate lifting three times a week (BUY Starting Strength) while leaving your miles in tact as you learn the movements. Once recovering from the strength training becomes an issue, bump your calories and drop some cycling until you've completely exhausted novice strength training progression, which will take anywhere from 6-9 months, and probably leave you with a squat around 1.5X your bodyweight for anything from 1-5 reps.

ccrnnr9

You bring up some good points however none of them seem to address the point that weightlifting does nothing to increase ENDURANCE CYCLING PERFORMANCE. I too like to lift weights for the health benefit but to think that it improves endurance cycling performance is a crock that I am not willing to believe until there is evidence to the counter. As of now there is not one peer-reviewed study in over 25 years of specific research that has showed a benefit for trained athletes and their endurance cycling performance.

Most of the "cycling weight lifting guides" run off so called conventional wisdom which in sport science has proven to be an exercise in futility more times than not. We need to be careful not to succumb to logic that is "well I did this and I got better, therefore it is fact." Controlled environments are the only means of achieving true reliable results.

Again don't get me wrong. I am not against weight lifting. It is something I used to do and for my own health I need to start up immediately. I just take major issue with saying it benefits endurance cycling performance. If you would like more evidence to support my claims I am happy to provide it.
~Nick

dehoff

+1

Also have to take into account the first part of that quote from the Aussie coach:

Single leg press is probably decent once someone can squat at least their bodyweight for reps and has a high-speed camera and a coach to watch joint angles and velocities just like the Aussies.

tombailey

I agree. All these weight training/strength building/power lifting books are great I'm sure, but they offer little proven assistance to a cyclist. Resolving muscle imbalances, training muscles that you probably never have (hip adductors, the outer parts of your butt etc.), improving core strength, and some weight training (mostly off season) will do much more for an endurance cyclist than being able to squat/deadlift a huge mass.

The latest thinking on in-season weight training I have heard (though this was aimed at triathletes) was to do one day a week, picking one exercise per muscle group, and doing that exercise for 45 seconds to 1 minute with very good form and very, very, very slow movement so that absolute exhaustion results at the end of the time. The thinking behind this is that (a) the slow, controlled movements cause fewer of the micro-tears which hurt the following day (possibly keeping you off the bike) and reduce the risk of injury; and (b) the slowness recruits more slow- and medium- twitch muscles, and fewer fast-twitch muscles, thus improving muscular endurance without the hypertrophy or power gains.

kwrides

Man, I just read that thread. Seems like a guy who enjoys being rude, hates cyclists, and encourages people NOT to lift if they like to do things like "have fun outside".