does anyone know if having alot of your bodyweight on your handlebars builds muscle in the arms or is it just bad for your joints?
ive been wondering this for a while now and can decide after a long ride if the sensation in my arms is my muscles being put under stress or my arms telling me to stop.

You should not have a lot of weight on your hands; that indicates a poor fit on the bike. Too much weight forward but pressure on hands, shoulders, neck.

Ideally, you should be able to put have your hands on the flat part of the bar then be able to remove them without falling forward. If you are correctly fitted on the bike but can't do this, build up your core muscles.

You probably aren't correctly fitted to the bike and will need to shift weight back by moving the saddle and/or raising the bars and/or shortening the stem.

It will build arm strength but that's not necessarily a good thing. You'll fatigue faster and you could run into more serious problems with your wrists and hands

Arm strength is less of an issue than core strength. As other posters said even with aggressive positions you shouldn't really be supporting weight on your arms. Some people will come over to road bikes from cruisers or more relaxed style bikes and just won't be able to support their upper body at really any angle, if that's the case, crunches and sit-ups are your friend as well as just general fitness. If your saddle to bar drop is too big or if your saddle is positioned with the nose pointing down, you likely just need to change you set-up.

I bet a lot of people that run super deep track drops have this problem and just never realize it because they don't ride on that bike long enough to kill their shoulders and back.

Cycling is a pretty bad strength training tool for anything but your legs.

I do various core excercises, my stomach is a sheet of metal. I do 3 sets of 10 curls with a 100lbs, its not alot but it works.

sounds like a poor fit. lemme guess: deep track drops on the road.

IF you want arm strenght do some push ups, not supporting your weight with your wrists.

You should be able to support yourself in your riding position without having your hands on your bars.

Rule of thumb according to Mike Sylvester who developed the Serrota fit system and fitted me in Portland: you should be able to hold your back at the angle you ride at without your hands supporting you. This speaks to rudetay's point on core strength. I have a lot of saddle to bar drop on my track bike (5.5") but I have no problems as I've gradually built lower back strength. On road bikes, I run much less saddle to bar drop for more comfort over the long haul.

Also for what it's worth, if you want to be a fast sprinter, you're going to need to build up your upper body with weights.

i think it should be noted, though, that just because your arms feel fatigued does not mean you have a bad riding position, especially if you are new to riding. you should be able to hold yourself up with your core, but that doesn't mean you do when your arms are on the bars, they are always taking some of the weight.

when i started riding i was moving over from running, where my core was fine but my arms were little twigs. my triceps killed after every ride (over 10 miles or so). they didn't really hurt because i was putting all my weight on them, it was just my arms absorbing all the bumps and twists and turns of the front wheel. once i'd been riding a couple months my arms were up to par and i had no troubles.

my bike fits really well,and i can lift my hands without falling forward.......

and no i do not have drop bars, just flats.
I am, however, spending over ten hours a day on my bicycle, so was just curious as to whether having some weight on my arms was in any way beneficial to my muscles.....

i would have assumed that supporting weight on your arms would gradually build them though

I'd be more worried about your balls than your arms


10 hours a day? are you a messenger? Traveling Bicycle Bible Salesman? 10 hours a day?

You're not going to build muscle strength no matter how much you rest your weight on your arms. you're just going to damage your joints

It maybe would, but the discomfort in your arms/shoulders/back would not be worth the benefit. And, again re-phrasing what a lot of other people said, you'd end up building core strength more than arms anyway.

10-15 push ups would likely be better for you than a day of riding like this...unless you do push ups off the bars while riding.

If you're on the bike 10 hours a day your general performance and health will probably benefit from a very basic work out and stretching routine anyway. At 10 hours I'd assume your a messenger as well; some upper body strength will also help you carry all that stuff and avoid injury in the process.

10 hours a day?... good gravy. You're a beast.
I don't know what to say.

haha, yea, i work from 8.30am till 6pm with a half hour lunch.

its very rewarding though.......and i dont mean financially unfortunately.

my balls are fine btw......surprisingly

Well aside from ibuprofen... I used to run straights and drops and switched to bullhorns due to knuckle numbness and shoulder pain. Bulls give me more positions - from upright to stretched out. I'm sure you know this but it could be worth a try.

sure beats what I do for a living! I pedal to & from work, (& for fun of course) but I'm a desk jockey by trade.

mostly joking about the balls part, but still, I's be wearing some really good riding shorts if I was you & make sure you have a quality saddle too

speaking of which, does anyone have any suggestions for a pair of tough wearing, water resistant riding shorts with plenty of pockets and a belt loop??

ive been going through the crotches of combat shorts like a madman

Get yourself some bib shorts. If you are spending that much time on the bike you really should be wearing cycling specific clothing. The comfort is amazing and the chamois has an antimicrobial agent in it so you don't get crotch rot. They last a lot longer, too.

Cycling jerseys typically have three large pockets in the back. You can carry a lot of stuff that way.