murrellington

Simple question. Do you guys still do leg day or do you just skip it and ride for like 30 miles or so? Wondering if it's okay or if it's still necessary to go the the gym for legs. I'd rather just ride, but does it target all the leg muscles?

What are your opinions gym people?

jbenkert111

For some reason many cyclist still don't know that the single most important weight training element for cyclist is weight bearing leg exercises. Riding itself provides almost no bone strenghting which can lead to many problems as you age such as osteoprosis and weak bones that can break easy. Any leg exercise that requires your legs to support the weight will help. If you have to skip a workout make it upper body.

franswa

I'd rather just ride, too, but I have been incorporating leg days as of late. All my pants are getting tighter around the thighs

cDiff Notorious

I hate leg day, I try to skip it as much as I can. Leg day has its advantages such as increasing your leg strength and helps your core muscles (esp. if you include abs). There's also the possibility that some small muscles are not worked or hit compared to cycling and vice versa.

Honestly, I don't think you can fully replace the gains that you get on leg day with just cycling. I think of leg day as support for cycling.

Huffandstuff

Depends all on what you are trying to do as a cyclist. I normally do 3x a week in the winter and work in as much riding as the rain will allow. I'd much rather be doing bike work all the time but life/weather happens.

TMonk

Similarly, it is important to ask yourself what your goals are out of lifting. What do you want lifting to accomplish in your life?

The answer to this question, and any overlap (or lack therof) will help you make a decisions about whether to lift and/or ride in a given day.

TMonk

Personally I love leg lifting - although I only do it during a few months out of the year, and only 1x/week then.

Powerlifts, like deads and squats, feel good to do imo, and they release tons of hormones - I'm always stoked after.

jbenkert111

Folks, I'm talking bone strenghtening here not muscle strenghtening. Weight training can improve muscle development and make you a better cyclist, but riding WILL NOT strenghten your bones. That's why in IMO weight bearing exercise is not an option, but a necessity and should be done on a regular basis.

murrellington

Got a lot of good opinions here. I actually love leg day, today was leg day and I love the feeling after when it feels like my legs can't support me.

The only reason I asked is because when I was younger I didn't work out legs at the gym and I didn't ride bikes yet. When I started riding fixed I noticed fast and great improvements in my leg muscles. I was able to see my calves for the first time and my quads became beasts. So, I thought cycling was a total leg workout. Guess I will still go to the gym for legs. Cycling can be more of a cardio for my with the added benefit to legs.

jbenkert111

Now you got the right idea, good luck!

hairnet

I wouldn't skip leg day but screw me if I had to ride afterwards that day.

hairnet

That's cool. I wish my legs reacted like that to cycling.

murrellington

It's weird for me, if I work out my legs and they are dead and wobbly... Once I hop on a bike and start riding I feel like my legs are 100% again.

But, once I get off the bike I sure regret it.

Huffandstuff

My ride home from the gym after leg workouts is usually filled with wincing and cursing when I encounter a hill.

stryper

Been doing most of my long rides on Sundays now, so back day is Monday and leg day is Tuesday so that I have enough recovery time for my rides. Chest is any other day of the week, don't care.

nohandlebars

You could mix it up... do an easier work out at the gym (less weight, less reps), and then go for a nice with the time and energy you saved.

Minion1

C'mon, we're cyclists - every day is leg day.

AristoNYC

I workout my legs the day before my rest day so if wednesday is my rest day I do legs on tuesday after a ride.

my training schedule usually looks like this:

mon, tue, thur, fri - 20 =/+ miles day
wed - off
sat & sun - 50 +/- miles a day

Just because you're getting stronger legs from cycling doesn't mean that you are engaging every muscle group, so lifting is important (in my opinion).

I might be the minority here, but I have more problems [uncomfortable] cycling after doing a back or shoulder workout than legs.

Jared.

I skip the long ride for the gym.

What's leg day? 3x a week (depending on work) deadlifts, squats, bench press, chin ups, plus a couple of ancillary exercises. 2x a week in the summer, during the track season.

harry2110

When I used to go to the gym before it became too expensive($40+ a month for a student membership) I used to love leg day honestly as it was really the only day were I could embarrass all my gym buddies. Being 5'5" and 150lb I got some extremely odd looks when I would have to almost gather up all the 45lb plates I could manage to do leg presses. Normally I would do a set of 10x540lbs, 10x 630lbs, 10x720lbs and one time attempted a max lift of around 1080lbs. Now being one of the slower members of the swim team a few of them got so ashamed that they decided to attempted my max set of 720lbs even after warning them and came close to getting crushed by the sled when their legs buckled. Personally if I would skip any day it would be upper body or arms as I hate doing bench presses, curls, hangs, or any other upper body exercises as it seems pointless for my usage which is cycling.

Anyone wanting to skip leg say will be missing out on the gains in sprint and top end speed you can easily gain vs doing intervals. Since I have stopped going to the gym these are 2 areas I have noticed it is harder to get gains in and I still am not back to my lifting sprint capability.