I am about to begin seriously pedalling after a significant layoff (associated with excessive cigarette smoking - stupid exams) and was just wondering if there is anyone out there with pointers on rebuilding my muscle size and strength (i.e. what sort of ratios to pedal, what distances to ride, how many km per week in your experience) and which ratios will build strength (i.e. size) and which will build endurance. Any help greatly appreciated.

I'm not really sure that I am qualified to give points, but my question would be why are you interested in size? Surely its strength that matters more than anything else. More size is more mass that you have to haul up the hills. For the same strength, I'd rather have the lower mass.

I will try to shed some light on your question with my own experiences.

I began serious cycling after having participated in powerlifting for years in the military. I became burned out with lifting and had cycled for my cardio workouts and decided to concentrate on the bike.

At 170lbs (about 78 kilos) I had acheived a 560lb squat and had done sets of reps with over 500lbs in my training (no drugs). This is not too impressive in the serious powerlifting community but actually quite average. However I thought it would allow me to really go fast on my bike.

I learned after trying to apply my stregnth to the pedals that the mass in my quads would become pumped from hard efforts and I could not effectively spin at higher than about 65-70 rpms comfortably. After several years of cycling my leg mass declined with the rest of my body and I became much quicker and efficient on the bike.

I could grind big gears up hills quite well but overall I was slower
when my legs were very large. If you cannot spin comfortably in a 85-95 rpm range you won't do so well if you try riding with truly fast groups. It is difficult to do this when your muscles are so large they engorge with blood and actually become tighter as you pedal harder.

I have gained some weight over the years and now just ride for fitness but I do like to go fast when I go and power without a lot of extra mass is the key. If your legs are like slabs of beef hanging off your body then they will be like riding with weights.
A stong pair of legs that are moderately built sizewise is best in my experience. IE strength to weight ratio is what you want.

What I really want to know is how will I make my muscles stronger in the shortest period of time (believe me this equates to an increase in size - you should see my matchstick legs at the moment). Easy ratio and fast spinning or hard ratio and slow spinning?

The best results I have ever had for leg power is definitely squats. They put lots of strain on the knees so do them correctly or pay dearly.

Supplimental excercises to squats would be as follows:

Primary power movement= Squats
Secondary power movement= Leg Press

Supplimental excercises are

Leg extensions for quads
Leg Curls for leg biceps femoris or hamstrings
Calf raises for the calves

A typical beginner program would look like this:

First two weeks learn each movement and the proper biomechanics by doing one set of each with a weight you can do for 15 repititions. Do all movements slow and deliberately.
Speed=Injury when lifting weights. Improper technique will get you injured and stop your training.

Once your body is accustomed to each movement the following program used with progressive resistance should be good to start with for beginners.

Squats: 2 warm up sets first with no weight on the bar just to go through the range of motion, second with a weight you can do 15 repititions with.
Squat set 3 will add enough weight so the repitions drop to 10 with 10 being difficult to complete.

Now move to leg presses, your legs are already warmed up from squats so use a weight you can do 10-12 reps with for 2 sets.

Now do 2 sets each on the leg extensions and leg curls with a rep range of 12-15.

Calves are very hard to get to grow so do 4 sets of calf raises in the begining with a rep range of 15-20 per set. You can work your calves every day. They are accustomed to supporting your body all day long so it is hard to overtrain calves.


NOTES: Do this program once every three days. Train one day rest for two. Recovery is as if not more important as excercise. If your muscles cannot recover then they will not improve.

After the first 2weeks of progressive resistance training add one set to your squats and one set to your leg presses with a rep range of 8-10 for the added set.

from week 3 add one set of squats per week until you are doing 5 total sets. Also at week 3 increase to 3 sets of leg curls and leg extensions.

Add extra sets of leg presses on week 4 but do not do more than 5 sets.

Set and rep range should look like this: (After 6 weeks of training)


Squats and leg press: (Not including the no weight stretch and warm up set)
Set1 = 15 reps
set2 = 10 reps
set3= 8 reps
set4= 6 reps
set5= 5-6 reps

Extensions and curls:
10-15 reps for all sets.


All working sets beyond the warmup should be done until you feel as though you cannot do the next rep or until you fail to complete a rep. If you begin to exceeed the recommended rep range it is time to increase the resistance. Get proper instruction before doing the excersizes and check with a physician before starting any serious excersize program.

Do not do squats to failure without a competent partner to assist you.

I hope this will help, remember that you will need to try different strategies to find what works best for you. This will get you started but train with your instincts. You will learn what works and what does not as you go along.

I completely forgot to note the specific question..

Doing rides of 1 hour to 1.5 hours pushing a hard gear at low rpms will place the stress required for building bone crushing stregnth on the legs. The weight room will do it faster in my opinion. Combinations of weights and riding are the best.

Pushing hard in the higher gears will add bulk faster, but be careful not to overdo it and tear up your knees.

Try pedaling in your biggest gear at about 50-55 rpm's for about five minutes at a time. If you are inside on a trainer, it simulates climbing. If you ARE climbing, try the big gear, but at low rpm's for short periods of time. This will build strength and will not destroy your knees. Make sure you keep rev's low and push whatever gear you can for the full five minutes.
To get the max out of this, you have to have a very relaxed and still upper body. If your torso is bobbing all over the place, you lose the impact on your legs and back. If you are too tired and are all over the place, stop.
This will not get you huge thighs, but will strengthen your legs a lot.
Low rpm's for short periods, like five minutes with and equal period of rest between efforts.
It's a climbing workout from Chris Charmichael's Trainright company, one their coaches use for what you want.

I started serious body building about 6 months ago (got tired of looking at large thighs and nothing else), and have learned a few things about strength and muscle bulk.
Cylcling will develop strength and stamina, but not bulk. The muscles used in cycling are mostly slow-twitch fibres, and they aren't the ones that give you bulk. They will give you solid muscles made for endurance, though.
If you want to build bulk (like I've been doing on my upper body), you need to pump iron, not cycle. Creatine also helps add bulk.

I agree completely. Quickest way to bulk is pumping iron. The heavier the weight, the quicker the bulk. If you can do 10 - 12 reps with a heavy weight, all the better. Creatine worked well for me but it does not do the same for everyone.

Don't forget that you need to add a lot of extra protein in to your diet.
If you are relatively thin then you'll need to increase your daily calorie intake with the correct percentage of Protein, Carb and Fat. There are some complex calculations to work out the correct ratioon this. A good sports nutrition book will put you on the right track. If you wish to build muscle mas, then without the correct diet you just aren't going to achieve it without the correct diet.

A good website for pointers (although he's mainly trying to sell you his book) is

https://www.musclegaintips.com/