Six Pack from biking - Mission Impossible?
 

I got into biking pretty hardcore last year and lost a lot of weight, was pretty happy with myself. The problem was that I lacked upperbody muscle - I had the great biker legs, but had biker arms. I decided I wanted some more muscle on my body, so I reduced my cardio and started lifting weights. I've been hitting the gym 3 days a week, high-intensity workouts.

My calorie intake during weight days were right-on for maintaining weight and building muscle, including all the right macros. Now I'm interested in getting rid of the fat I've accumulated while I gained the muscle, and don't know what to do.

Some say to do cardio and keep my protein in check (1g/lb of bodyweight), others say cardio will kill my muscles I worked so hard to develop. For cardio, I've heard that running works the same muscles that biking does, and that I should be walking fast to lose the weight.

I weigh in around 178, 5'10" m, 21. I can see the outline of my abs, but the fat that sits around them blocks the view mostly.


My question - can I get back into the sport I love - distance biking - and get the six pack I desire? I feel lazy now getting out on the streets/trainer/treadmill and really want to bike again. BUT - I want these muscles well defined for my final spring break.


Any help, links to other posts (I tried the search, read it, but didn't get the answers I was looking for), or personal experiences are really appreciated.


Happy New Year!



--Casey

My question - can I get back into the sport I love - distance biking - and get the six pack I desire?

Yes ... but you won't get the six pack through long distance cycling. Trust me on that! I'd have the most amazing washboard going here if that were possible.

Why can't you do both cardio and weightlifting. I find that is quite effective for me. Last spring, I took a spinning class - 1 hour, 2x a week, and after the spinning class, I ran/walked on the treadmill for about 20-30 minutes, then lifted weights for the time up to 2 hours. In addition to that, I rode the trainer another 3-4 days a week, and lifted some weights at home. I was building muscle and losing weight. Sadly, an accident in early April prevented me from darkening the doors of a gym for the rest of the summer, but I'm getting back into it now.

If you were a bodybuilder, it would be recommended that you do a minumum of 10 minutes of cardio before and another 10 minutes of cardio after your weightlifting routine. If your main goal is to cycle, and especially cycle long distances, there's no reason why you can't extend the cardio.

Running and walking definitely do NOT work the same muscles as cycling. I can cycle 24 hours a day (literally), but can barely run after a bus. After spending all summer cycling up a storm, I started walking about 20 kms a week in September, and felt like I was going to die the first week or so. My muscles ached!! I never thought walking could be so strenuous.

But I noticed something else with all that walking ... I carried a heavy backpack when I walked, filled with textbooks. That probably added to the pain the first week or so, but after doing that for several weeks, I noticed that my abs had tightened up noticably! It takes me about 6 weeks of a concentrated ab program to show definition, and after about 6 weeks of walking with this backpack, but no crunches or anything like that, I was starting to show definition.

So ... my suggestion would be to vary your program through the winter ... ride as often as you can, do some weightlifting, go for long walks carrying heavy backpacks (build up gradually to that if you're not used to it), do some ab work for additional definition. It's all good.

I agree with Machka, you will not get a 6 pack cycling.

In order to get a 6 pack, you need two things: muscular abdominal muscles and a very low percent body fat.

Cycling does not really exercise your abdominal muscles. You need to do an industrial strength abdominal workout for that.

The other thing is getting your body fat way down. Body builders get down to around 5% body fat. Fat lies under the skin in a nice little layer. You can have great muscles but a layer of fat will hide them like a blanket. To get good muscle definition, you have to lose virtually all of that subcutaneous fat. The body builders I have known only get to that point during competitions. I suppose you can look pretty decent and still have a noticeable 6 pack at a slightly higher percent body fat of about 7% or so.

I have never been tempted to do that. It seems all about form over function. Besides, just how many chances would I get to peel off my shirt to show off a 6 pack if I bothered developing one? Wouldn't having a 6 pack be like being all dressed up with no where to go?

a strong core makes me a stronger cyclist. the body can stand up to the longer rides with a stronger core. for me, its function and form.

last winter while training for a spring half marathon i did two core workouts a week. simple stuff right at home. situps, pushups, dips, the plank and so on. it worked.

later.

How and why you have fat deposits around your waist has nothing to do with what kind of exercise you perform. It is true, that you may get some change to the look of your abdominal muscles by doing exercises that stress those specific muscles.

The bigger issue is whether you can exercise yourself into such a state of such "fat-free body mass" that you get to demonstrate or "reveal" your abdominal muscles.

So, if you cycle enough to constantly keep you in calorie deficit, always getting leaner, never storing any fat, and if you keep doing ab-specific workouts you'll eventually display some evidence of abdominal muscles. Woop-de-freakin-doo, work out for "guy muscles" - I'm sure the boys at the gym will like it.

Whether you can do it depends somewhat on your genetics.

You can lose the fat with the cycling, but you will need to work to preserve the muscle. First, you'll need to keep up the muscle workouts, and you'll also need to make sure that you a) drink a hydration drink with carbs and protein during your ride and b) drink a recovery drink right when you get off the bike. If you don't, you will likely tear down muscle to replenish carb stores. The research says that recovery meals work as well as recovery drinks, but my experience is that that's not true for me.

I use accelerade on bike, and endurox after, but other people have good results with others.

Question - why did you accumualte fat while adding muscle?

Abs - somewhat genetic as to where you store fat, but I would say just have a well rounded program based on # hours you can train. Do any and all exercises you like and get back on the bike. Just spend time in the gym on your upperbody and core.

1) work core - situps and plan etc an - 2-3 times a week
2) lift 2-3 times week - do it intenslefy with supersets
3) Cardio - 5-6 days a week - 2 days intervals, 1-2 long steady, 1 tempo - bike, spin, run

If you want a good lift and good cardio on same day then do the cardio in the AM. If doing it back to back sip on a gatorade / protein powder mix on the second expercise and take a pre-wk out snack.

Anyway - lifting or cardio will help not hurt your abs. Only way you hurt your muscles is to not feed them after a workout or overtrain them and do not let them recover.

I rode home with a 6 pack once.

it's a sad fact that
a) a strong stomach and back help your cycling (tight core will pay dividends in cycling)
b) cycling does nothing to strengthen your core!

I only got my abs cut from upper body workouts & a bit of machines. cycling will tone things but to cut your abs, you gotta feel the burn on them! :)

I've seen 2, 3, and 4-wheeled row bikes. The return movement to get set for the next power stroke uses the abs. To spend 2 or 3 thousand dollars to replace an inclined plank is silly.

Well from what I know, it won't strengthen your muscles there, but it would help to burn the fat away which could add to definition.

You may want to check on your protein. I was under the impression that it was 1g/lblean body mass. The Friel book mentions a range from 0.5g/lb to 1.1g/lb (for heavy weightlifting periods) depending on whose studies you are reading.

And I'm not sure why you wouldn't gain some amount of fat when trying to build muscle. I'm assuming you are implying a caloric surplus and even on the 'cleanest' diet, you can expect both fat and muscle gain. There are some newbie gains where you can gain muscle and lose fat but that only lasts so long.

I rode home after 6 Guinesses once.

My weight has platoued recently, slowly gaining muscle. The fat gains were because I was close to this http://www.fresnobeehive.com/archives/upload/2006/12/nicole-richie-beach-01.jpg

Not too attractive. I needed some muscle. I'm going to try to get on the trainer 4 days a week, then go running 1-2x a week. Doing what the shark mentioned. I've got core workouts that I've been doing, as well as good weight lifting.

Thanks for the help, and Jim Bushard, swing by with that 6pk tomorrow. Happy New Year.

In a straight line?

I am a pretty lean individual (7-8% bf) and do have a pretty strong core that stems from doing 1000's of crunches, pulls, and other related exercises to strengthen my lower back and abdominal muscles.

Riding can't really give you this kind of workout but I do find that mountain biking, especially on an ss, really does work/use the core muscles far more than road biking or cruising does.

From what I understand, any moderately active person has six pack abs, but as you are saying they are hiding behind a natural layer of fat. So if you want to show the abs at spring break -- and being twice your age I can't blame you one little bit -- you need to get rid of the fat. However, there is no way to target just the fat in your abdomen. When you lose fat, you lose it all over your body. Now the plus side of this is that your arms, back, legs, chest will also stand out more on the beach as you work it off.

My general advice would be to do not stop your resistance work outs because muscle mass helps burn more calories and therefore fat. I would say to up your cardio and make sure you're eating well (see above regarding recovery drinks/meals, nutrition, protein, etc.)

The one specific thing I would suggest is to use a stability ball and bosu ball for your weight lifting. You might find that you're lifting a little less weight than when on a solid bench but you'll feel the difference in your core. After doing a workout that might include dumbell press, flies, shoulder press, lunges, lateral raises, and various push-ups using the stability and bosu ball my whole core area (abs, sides, back) are more sore than when I just do an ab-specific workout.

I'm sitting around 19%-20% body fat at the moment and would need to drop that by at least half to be able to strut on a summer beach, but even now I can tell that I've got the best core muscle tone of my life. More importantly I can do more -- road & mtn biking, hiking, yard work, whatever -- without any back soreness than I could before starting these workouts.

Since I started cycling in June, I have noticed that my core muscles have been starting to show instead of the fat that was there. During the colder days, I tried to work more on my abdomen, since a lot of balancing strength needs to come from there. I also do calisthenics, which helps maintain muscle and increase strength all over.

I think that if you just cycle, you will just look leaner with the exception of your legs. Having a balanced workout and dieting plan has helped me not only look pretty good, but also build on my cycling skills as well.

Does hill climbing on bikes help strengthen the core? That has also contributed to my ab progress as well...

everyone has a six pack


just take the fat off and it'll show up

Look at the Beachbody.com website. A friend of mine is doing the P90x series (and is a serious biker). He has seen noticeable differences in just 30 days. He was lean to start, but is even leaner and stronger already. I am preparing to do their other program (for those of us not quite as fit) called Power90. The core exercises are excellent. Even if you aren't interested in p90x, just do lots of core work and you'll get there.