My thoughts on weight training for cycling…

Let me first start by saying that I am not entirely sold that weight training helps a lot. There is a lot of work that you have to do in order to keep the strength gains for the season. I do think it is an amazing tool to stress your body a bit differently and develop some of those stabilizing muscles. This should help with injury prevention when you are putting in all of those hours when the warm weather returns. As a guy with small legs, I always come into the weight season with high hopes of developing some Chris Hoy style, monster legs. I just want to go through some thoughts on some of the major exercises people hit.

The dream. 

Squats:

This is everyone’s go-to. But why? For cyclists, their back is their weak point in this exercise, not their legs, so they won’t be doing much for building leg power. They might also injure themselves (see cyclists having a big egos and wanting to show off their leg power). On top of that, as far as specificity goes, it would then be great if you need to put out big power while sitting straight up. Perfect for those attacks in the feed zone while you are trying to eat. However, it is a great tool for building the glutes, but I think cyclists should stay light with high reps.

Deadlifts:

I love this one, the Romanian deadlift. Keep the legs mostly straight and just bend at the hips with your back straight. Great for building that pull-back strength in your pedal stroke. Wrist straps are for babies, and our grips aren’t that great with our tiny arms, so invest in some chalk if your gym allows it. If you want to work more glutes and stabilizing muscles, then turn this into a one legged deadlift. The additional benefit is you will be lifting lighter weight so it will be easier to hold. Also with less weight you are less likely to hurt your back.

Leg press:

This should be everyone’s go-to. You are bent in a position to mimic your position on the bike and you are just working on the feeling of smashing those pedals down. All of the stress is off of your back which allows you to maximally stress you leg muscles. I think there is footage somewhere of Chris Hoy doing 600+kg, yes kg, so the bar has been set. What do you got? With that he has many gold medals, so this must be the magic maker.

Leg extensions and curls:

Because why not? If you want to see muscle growth you need to tear those muscles apart. This is a bit safer way to do it than doing squats and deadlifts with high weights that could end up hurting you. Save these for the end and use them to give your legs a kiss goodbye.

Calf raises:

This is mainly for the ego. You can’t tell me in a group ride you don’t check out the person’s calves ahead of you. Then you question if yours look that chiseled. Make sure you are the one with the golden calves, and rock those raises!

Remember they look better with a clean shave!

Core and upper body:

These are for whatever looks you want to have during the part of the year where you are allowed to return to a ‘normal’ weight. On top of that, they are great for strengthening the bones which can help in injury prevention in the event that you crash. Core should be kept up year round, but the higher the weights you are doing in the free-weight department for your legs, the less core-specific work you need as the core gets a killer workout stabilizing you back in those exercises.

Don’t be afraid to question your weight routine and change it up. Also if you are new to weights, get a personal trainer to help you work on your form. Weights can help add some power, but they can also mess your body up if done poorly. My coach Jeff Kehler was able to help a lot with this while doing kettlebell workouts that past two winters. Alright this is the part of the season that you are allowed to have fun doing something else, so enjoy it! Now go to the gym and legally pump some iron!