Strength training for cyclists according to the latest literature

Strength training has become an integral part of the training schedule of modern professional cyclists. Top players like Mathieu van der Poel, Tadej Pogačar and Wout van Aert are structurally spending time in the gym to become stronger and more explosive. Strength training can improve your performance, prevent injuries and strengthen your stability on the bike. This blog looks at interesting findings from the latest literature.

However, many athletes think that strength training to complete exhaustion, or “failure”, is the fastest way to build strength. But for endurance athletes such as cyclists, it appears that training to maximum exhaustion is not the most effective approach. In fact, it delivers non-failure training the same strength gain, but without the extreme muscle fatigue that often accompanies training to exhaustion. This makes it easier to integrate strength training into your cycling schedule without negatively affecting your cycling workouts. In this blog, we'll elaborate on why non-failure training is a smarter choice for cyclists, and how you can use it to improve both your strength and the quality of your cycling training sessions. The results from various studies show that the outcomes for men and women are the same.

Why strength training?

• More power: it makes your muscles stronger, so you can simply deliver more power to the pedals. Both short 30-second all-out tests and a maximum of 5 minutes of values after a 3-hour effort show obvious improvements!
• Improving your lactate treshold.
• Despite the increase in muscle mass, studies show that there is no overall body weight gain.
• More stability: it creates a better overall balance of all muscles in your body, reducing the risk of injuries due to overexertion. The cycling position is a very static position, which means you can't train all major muscle groups efficiently. Cycling makes your leg muscles especially strong, which often leads to an imbalance between the upper and lower body. Your core must counterbalance each pedal stroke, otherwise you'll push yourself off the bike, as it were. “You can't fire a cannon from a canoe”.
• Better injury prevention: It increases the resilience of many physical structures and improves bone density.
• Better training consistency: On days when you can't ride a bike or simply don't feel like it, you can still perform a functional workout.

Training to exhaustion: unnecessary and even harmful!

In a recent review on the effectiveness of strength training up to exhaustion versus training without exhaustion, two important conclusions were drawn that are particularly relevant for cyclists and endurance athletes in general.

The first conclusion is that there is no difference in strength gains when you use the same weight, whether you train to full exhaustion or not. For example, the study compared lifting 100 kg to exhaustion (8 reps) and lifting the same weight for 5 repetitions. What turned out? The strength gain was identical. The body gets the same stimulus from the weight, which means that the strength gain is the same regardless of whether you fully exhaust your muscles or not. This is an important finding because it shows that you can achieve the same benefits without pushing yourself to the limit.

The second conclusion is about recovery. Indeed, training to full exhaustion requires a much longer recovery. In a test where athletes performed 3 sets of 8 repetitions with their 8-rep max (8RM), recovery after 48 hours was found to be only 69% of the original jump force (measured via a jump performance test, a test commonly used to measure muscle fatigue). Compared to an alternative test, where the same athletes performed 3 sets of 4 reps with the same weight, their recovery was complete after just 6 hours. The results of the non-failure training were therefore much more favourable. There was a faster return of jump height, less hormonal stress (lower prolactin and IGF-1 levels), less muscle damage, and a smaller impact on heart rate variability (HRV).

Practical application of strength training for cyclists

As a cyclist, it is essential to effectively incorporate strength training into your schedule without sacrificing the quality of your cycling training. By not training to exhaustion, you can get the most out of your strength training without your recovery time affecting performance on the bike. In this section, we'll dive deeper into how you can practically apply strength training to your training routine, taking into account the science and effectiveness of non-failure training. Below is a schedule that you can use to get started with strength training.

When to start strength training?

• You can start strength training throughout the year, but the most ideal time for this is during your off-season. During this period, you can better tolerate muscle pain and fatigue, which are inevitable in the early stages of strength training, without sacrificing your cycling performance.
• Construction schedule:
  • Start with 20 reps without weight to slowly get your muscles used to the load.
  • Each session, reduce the number of repetitions by 2 and increase the weight gradually. This ensures a controlled build-up and prevents injuries.
• It is important to build up the training very slowly and after about 2 months of consistent training, you can intensify your strength training and increase the load on the bike again. So make sure you have a good basis before you can properly apply the principles from this blog!

Strength training with 80% of your 1RM

As described above, make sure you have a good consistent basis before starting this next step. The key to effective strength training lies in training with a weight that is approximately 80% of your 1RM (maximum weight for one repetition). How do you determine this exactly?

• Determine your 1RM: Choose an exercise that you also want to use in your strength training (such as squats or leg press). Find the weight that allows you to perform up to 8 repetitions. This weight corresponds to approximately 80% of your 1RM.
• Outturn: Perform 4-5 reps per set, but do not go until complete exhaustion. This ensures that your muscles are sufficiently stimulated without the fatigue that delays recovery.
• Number of repetitions per muscle group: It is important to achieve a total of 16-30 repetitions per muscle group per session for best results. This can be done by adding multiple exercises. For example, if you're doing 3 sets of 5 reps with the squat (a total of 15 reps), add another exercise, such as the incline leg press, to total between 16-30 reps per muscle group.
• Combining exercises: Add both a hip-dominant (e.g. deadlifts) and knee-dominant (such as squats) exercise to encourage balanced strength development.
• Try to do one-legged exercises as much as possible and strive to relate the hip angle to your cycling position as much as possible. In this way, you create as much bike-specific result as possible.
• Supplementing your training with core exercises is highly recommended. A strong core is essential for stability on the bike and prevents overloading other muscle groups.

If we look one step further and analyze the entire pedal cycle, we can look at this like a clock. We deliver the most power when the crank arm is between 2 and 4 hours. This peak force has a period of 0.2 seconds. Extra emphasis can also be placed on this during strength training. This requires a good basis for strength training and optimal control of the exercise.

Rest and recovery time

It may seem contradictory for cyclists who are used to prolonged aerobic exercise, but sufficient rest between sets is crucial for achieving optimal strength results.

• 2 to 3 minutes of rest between sets of heavy strength training is highly recommended. This may seem longer than you are used to, but scientific research has shown that it significantly increases the effectiveness of the training. It allows your muscles to recover sufficiently before the next set, resulting in greater strength development without excessive fatigue. Especially when it comes to complex exercises such as barbell squats or deadlifts, it is important to take the full 3 minutes of rest. This is crucial because these exercises require cooperation between many different major muscle groups. They must always be well equipped to perform safely and effectively. Too short rest periods can lead to injuries.
• Avoid supersets between major complex exercises because of the risk of stabilizing muscle fatigue. However, supersets can be used effectively in combination with upper body exercises such as dips and push-ups.

Frequency of strength training

For maximum improvement in strength and cycling-related performance, it is recommended to do strength training at least 2 times a week. This provides sufficient stimulation without affecting performance on the bike. If you ride a lot of races during the season, research shows that it is good to still perform one strength training every 10 days.

If you end up putting more emphasis on strength training every time during your off-season, you can take good steps forward during this period. You can maintain this progress well throughout the season, and then take another step forward during your next off-season. For example, if you can keep your squat at 100 kg throughout the year, you can train it to 110 kg the following year and then maintain it again throughout the year. This way, you can keep making progress year after year.

Strength training and age

As you age, your muscle mass decreases, which is a natural process. This is what makes strength training right importantly for maintaining muscle strength and preventing loss of muscle mass. Continuing to do strength training throughout the year helps to slow down the negative effects of muscle loss and keeps you in top shape, both on the bike and off the bike.

Strength training on the bike vs in the gym

While bike strength training is useful for improving bike control and pedal strength, it is not a substitute for strength training at the gym.

The goal of strength training in the gym is to improve neuromuscular control. This requires heavy weights and low repetitions. This cannot be fully achieved by training on the bike alone.

Exercises

Earlier in this blog, we talked about the importance of achieving a total of 16-30 repetitions per muscle group per session for best results and that it is preferable to choose one knee-dominant and one hip-dominant exercise for this purpose. Below are a number of examples of exercises that you can use for this purpose.

Stay one leg as much as possible and at a bike-specific hip angle.

Five knee-dominant strength training exercises:

1. Squat (Barbell or Dumbbell)
   A classic exercise that trains the quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes, focusing on the knees through the bend in the knees.
2. Lunges (dropout pass)
   Lunges are excellent for strengthening the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, with your knee prominently involved in the movement.
3. Leg press
   The leg press mainly focuses on the quadriceps and hamstrings, and places greater emphasis on the knees than, for example, the hips.
4. Step-ups
   Step-ups on a raised platform (such as a bench) are a great exercise to train the quadriceps and glutes, actively loading the knee during the movement.
5. Bulgarian split squat
   This exercise is a variation of the lunge, where your back foot is on a bench and the emphasis on the knee comes from the extra weight and deep squat movement.

Five hip-dominant strength training exercises:

1. Deadlift (Barbell or Dumbbell)
   The deadlift is a classic exercise that strongly targets the glutes, hamstrings and lower back. It's one of the best exercises for hip dominance because you have to fully stretch and bend the hips.
2. Hip thrust (Barbell or Dumbbell)
   This exercise specifically targets the glutes and is highly effective for improving hip stability and strength. It can also help increase the strength in hip flexion.
3. Romanian deadlift
   A variant of the traditional deadlift, which focuses on stretching the hamstrings and glutes. The hips come out more and the knees stay more extended, which focuses on the hips.
4. Glute bridge
   This exercise targets the glutes and hamstrings. By pushing your hips up while lying on the floor, you primarily use the hips to perform the movement.
5. Kettlebell swing
   The kettlebell swing is a dynamic exercise that activates the hips, glutes, and hamstrings. It is a powerful movement that helps develop explosive strength in the hips.

Conclusion

By using strength training smartly and effectively, you can improve your strength and performance as a cyclist without interfering with your bike training. Combining regular strength training with cycling allows you to make consistent progress throughout the year, with a lower risk of injury and fatigue. So it is definitely worthwhile and there is sufficient evidence from the literature for this.

Do you want to integrate strength training into your cycling regime? Try these principles and let me know how you like it!

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