torero310

What's training available for not being on the bike (or trainer) that would be available without a gym? I'm more interested in the weight training without equipment, and without the space or money for a treadmill or anything like that (this assumes this is winter training).

wolfchild

Walk, run, sprint and do bodyweight exercises... Do you have a park near you ??. Many parks have exercise areas and monkey bars where you can do pull ups, dips, push ups and many different bodyweight exercises. The possibilities are endless and cold weather is not an excuse for not going outside.

Machka 

One of the things I do is climb flights and flights of stairs. I work in a 10-storey building, so I do some when I come in first thing, a few on breaks, some after lunch ...

I've found they really seem to help my cardiovascular system and leg strength ... especially when it comes to cycling up hills.

Daniel4

Go outside. Winter sports.

DaveQ24

Resistance bands are pretty good, and really cheap - you should be able to get a set for about $20, probably less if you look for sales, coupons, from retailers like Dick’s, Dunhams.

joejack951

Winter running is far easier than winter cycling (outdoors). I can stay more comfortable in far less clothing and with much less special equipment on foot than on a bike making it easier to drag myself out of bed before sunrise to exercise (9 miles before 7am today).

For body weight exercises, I am doing pushups and planks to keep my upper body from total neglect. I don't care about mass up there but I can really feel the loss in strength after losing considerable weight this past year.

canklecat

Ditto, body weight exercises, at least to start with. Check the Bowflex channel on YouTube. They offer lots of concise tutorials for exercises without any apparatus. Most are only 1-2 minutes, very good demos, and they're aren't just trying to sell viewers on Bowflex equipment.

I'd hit a wall in conditioning back in the summer after getting a road bike. My arms and neck were aching after only 20 miles. Sore elbows and wrists. And my legs were shot from interval training.

I hadn't done any basic core or limb exercises in years. My body was just a neglected mess. So I resumed the same basic exercises we did in gym class as kids, and in the military in basic training and routine physical fitness training. Pushups, squats, lunges, crunches, etc.

I began with very easy chair-ups to strengthen my back and neck, due to car wreck injuries. Sit in a chair, bend over, up, repeat. Then I'd lay on my stomach in bed with my head dangling and gradually lift my head and roll my neck.


Pretty soon the elbows and wrists weren't aching. My legs recovered much more quickly after climbs and sprints -- usually I only needed to ease up on the pedaling effort for 1-5 minutes before resuming intervals. Before adding some squats and lunges I'd have to get off the bike to rest for 1-5 minutes after a set of sprints or climb repeats.

The neck is still a problem. Always will be due to a permanent C2 injury. But I can usually handle 20-30 miles with no discomfort, and up to 50 miles if I get off the bike to stretch a couple of times.

Only thing I can't do easily at home is pull ups. My apartment's doorways won't tolerate the strain. And my biceps were flabby sacks of flabby meatlike material. So I began with 16 oz cans of whatever was in the pantry -- usually pasta sauce -- and did continuous curls enough reps to feel some burn (I'm up to 300 now, so I've probably outgrown that exercise), then added shoulder and triceps conditioning stuff.

It all helps. I've regained enough muscle tone to try more weight and fewer reps.

noglider 

I didn't really do any exercise for several years. I worked in a six-story building and took the stairs rather than the elevator. I walked up very fast, always two steps at a time. It wasn't a complete program, but I stayed in good enough shape that I could jump on the bike and ride 50 miles without too much trouble. So I'd say that stairs are a good approximation of cycling if you have nothing else.

There are lots of great videos on the intertubez. I recently started following FitnessBlender on youtube. The exercises are easy to follow and seem effective.

I do pushups and use a barbell in my bedroom. I don't go to a gym.