Hey guys, I need some advices about my weight and my style of cyclist.
I’m a good puncher like 7w/kg during 5min. But I weight 55kg so I have not a lot of opportunity to push this power and drop riders because I need a very steep climb. So my question is : if i’m gaining muscles mass maybe 5kg and I’m gaining like 35w to keep the same w/kg FTP and 5min power. I can do a lot of better result because i’m going to be more fast on the flat, on the small climb (3-6%) and keep the same speed as I have now on the steep climb ?
Theoretically. But additional muscle mass doesn’t mean your FTP will go up. There is very little causation between adding muscle mass (mass generally) and being able to increase your FTP. And in this case, it isn’t just that you want to increase your FTP, you want to increase your power above your FTP.
It’s tough to know for sure if gaining weight will increase your power. It’s generally a good idea to incorporate strength training to make your muscles stronger, though.
Becoming stronger will probably help you stay injury-free and feel more “solid” on the bike overall. This will help with your training consistency, which will allow you to continue to build your cycling fitness over the long term.
Again, it’s hard to know for sure if gaining weight will equal an increase in power, but we do generally see larger riders putting out more power than smaller riders. I don’t think it would hurt to try to gain a few kilograms of muscle – especially if you’re trying to get a bit faster on the flats while staying punchy on short climbs.
Anecdotally, I’ve weighed between 60-70kg when racing. I’ve personally been able to put out more power when I’ve weighed closer to 70kg, but it’s difficult to tell if the power came from weight alone – I was also likely eating better, which allowed me to gain/maintain weight rather than lose it (and thus have better energy levels for training), I was in the gym more often doing strength work, and I had also been training for a few years by the time I weighed about 70kg (I was closer to 60kg when I first started). All of those factors probably contributed to my ability to be able to produce more power.
So in short, I think it would probably be a good experiment to try eating a bit more, doing some strength work, and continuing your cycling training to build up your aerobic fitness. If you gain some weight/muscle and your power goes up, then great! If you don’t gain weight but you feel stronger, I’d say that would be a success as well.
Hope this helps – feel free to let me know if you have any additional questions!