Idk in what part of your yearly program you are in, but in general this is the opposite of what the evidence says is good for strength in combination with cycling.
3 Likes
Gym for me is usually 3x3ās or 4x1 for strength. Sometimes 5x3.
My 10 rep stuff is like 1 leg RDLās, glute bridges, etc. Light stability , body weight, or plyometric work
Never more than that though. Gym is for strength, not endurance.
3 Likes
So Iām very much at the novice level of strength so my numbers wonāt be relevant to you, but I found switching from 5x5 3/week to 60% of my 5x5RM, 5x3, twice a week was good last year. This year after trying 5x5 with a Build plan destroying me, Iām now doing just 5x3 once per week at 65% of my 5x5RM.
Basically a whole heap lighter and I donāt seem to lose strength as long as I do a moderately hard session once a week.
1 Like
This would be WAY too little warm up for me. I need 25-30mins of Z2 whether it is cycling, running, or rowing.
I think I know the answer to this, but what do yāall think of high rep calisthenics? Iāve been really inspired watching Iron Wolf videos on YouTube. For a number of reasons that are loosely covid related (kids schools opening up and shifting job demands) my morning TR time doesnāt work any more and Iām really enjoying doing this sort of high rep calisthenic work, plus I can see that Iām getting stronger. My goals at this point are just to get stronger and feel great. I have a friendly 5k on the books for late summer but no bike races coming up so Iām not really worried about my bike specific fitness.
Video as an example so you donāt have to search:
You mean no cycling whatsoever, or at least not as a priority? It wonāt make you faster, but I think itās a ton of fun! Iāve worked out like for approximately two years and had āGPPā as my main physical endeavour. This was my basic template, all sessions were full-body:
M: Strength oriented workout (high resistance, low reps);
Tu: High rep conditioning - almost identical to that wolf workout;
W: Power oriented workout;
Th: Running intervals supplemented with calisthenics (I would test once every two months with this benchmark session: 12 burpees, 24 push ups, 36 squats, 400m run - no set rest, repeat 4 times) or hill sprints;
Fri: High intensity power-based WO (think throwing heavy things, swinging a kettlebell / sledgehammer, etc) - super intense but on the shorter side.
S: Rest
S: Yoga
Laying it down like that makes me realize just how intensity there was, but I was in my late 20ās / early 30ās and could take a beating it seems. I did most of the workouts outside in the summer (yes, I did get weird looks, I suppose that got me used to wearing lycra). I certainly felt great and was decent in just about all āphysical abilitiesā but long endurance stuffā¦ Come winter though, I swear I could shovel snow like itās nobodyās business!
The weird looks comment made me chuckle. Iāll still be cycling a fair bit, something like 75 miles a week just with commuting and a bit of rides for fun.
that looks like a really good mix that you laid out! Iāll figure out something like that rather than just high reps all the rime.
Thatās correct. Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS) generally peaks around 48-72 hrs in more severe cases and fades by 4-6 days post-lift, in the most severe cases. If itās not gone by then, we definitely went too hard in training. But if youāre still a bit sore for your light day, thatās actually pretty normal and optimal.
A note on soreness, lactic acid, inflammation, muscle growth.
Delayed onset muscle soreness is caused primarily by swelling and damage to the muscle tissue during training. In a progressively overloading weight training program, muscle soreness is a good proxy for muscle growth stimulus in both magnitude and timing. Lactic acid does not cause muscle soreness. Lactic acid is fully flushed out of any muscle tissue within 20 minutes of ceasing exercise of that tissue, whether you do any recovery or cool down. Sure, active cool down can speed along that clearance process but that has no effect on soreness.
So, if and when youāre sore, and in relation to how much youāre sore, youāre growing muscle. Interestingly, blunting that soreness might actually reduce some of the muscle growth adaptations caused by your training stimulus.
Things that might reduce soreness:
- Light aerobic exercise.
- Massage.
- Anti-inflammatory foods.
Things that DO reduce soreness: - Ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatory drugs taken during and immediately after the training stimulus.
- High-dose vitamin C taken during and immediately after training.
Turns out, all of those things might reduce the muscle growth stimulus from training, alongside their soreness-reducing properties, probably because the two go hand in hand. Meaning: donāt use them if you want to maximize adaptations to training. An acceptable time to use a strategy like that would be during a multi-day competition, when the goal of the first day isnāt to present a training stimulus to which you will adapt, but rather to compete well and then recover maximally so that you can compete well in the subsequent day(s).
Read: if you want to get stronger over time, donāt actively try to be less sore. If you want to be less sore because you have an event tomorrow, maybe consider some of the above strategies. Do so rarely, because anti-soreness strategies tend to also be anti-adaptation-to-training strategies.
That said, you donāt HAVE to be SUPER sore to get stronger. Itās probably wise to be a little sore and tight, sometimes, though, if you want to get stronger and not just maintain strength.
Youād be better off in the 2-6 rep range most of the time. Heavier weights, lower volumes = less soreness, and same or better strength benefits compared to 2-3x10.
Well said.
4 Likes
Or do gym on the same day after the event.
2 Likes
Hi all. Strength training is something seriously missing from my routine and Iād really like to address this. I have a basic set of dumbbells (can go up to 20kg per dumbbell) and a bench. Could anyone recommend a suitable workout/weekly routine that I could do on my days not on the bike using just this equipment? I try to train 3/4 days a week on the bike and I have a window of opportunity for the next couple of months pending returning to the office on a more regular basis.
Interesting to note the comments on DOMS above as this is something I suffer from massively whenever Iāve started to train with weights in the past, particularly in my legs. Probably overdoing it even though it feels ok on the day. I should say that Iām not interested in being the lightest cyclist so all round conditioning would be great, including my weedy arms but also not looking to get hench ;). Thanks in advance for any advice.
Your query is a bit demanding. Just a partial answer here. You can include Bulgarian Split Squats and One legged deadlifts. Cheers.
1 Like
Thanks. It wasnāt meant to be demanding in so much had anyone got a link to a site rather than customising a routine for me 
1 Like
The_Hybrid_Athlete_by_Alex_Viada.pdf (rackcdn.com)
Pretty interesting read, concurrent training guidelines
3 Likes
If you hit up the old google image machine and search for ādumbbell full body pdfā youāll find plenty of infographics for free.
A dumbbell set like that with a bench can honestly get you pretty far, especially if your goal is something other than the bodybuilding circuit.
N=1, I had to cut my cardio WAY down to gain muscle. Mostly just so I could lift more often (5-6 days, vs 2-3 days), and to cut down on the food I needed to eat. I am one of those people who needs to ābulkā and get āfluffyā to put on any meaningful amount of muscle.
It just depends on the person. I was about 155, put on 10lbs, then added my swimming and riding back in, and am cutting down now. Back to to 157-158. Much happier with my body comp vs pre-ābulk.ā I now lift 2-3x per week but still slowly adding weight to my lifts, just more slowly than when I was mostly just lifting.
Swimming has improved with my gym strength and muscle gains. I donāt have a power meter or train seriously for cycling (Iām here for nutrition talk and such), so I canāt say whether or not itās helped cycling. Iād wager that strength and muscle is way more helpful in swimming than cycling (duh).
Iāve been wanting to incorporate some strength training in my routine, but Iām worried about doing the heavy lifting and how long it will take to adapt to that. In my 20s and 30s I did a fair amount of regular free-weight lifting, mostly from a general strength building and conditioning perspective, so Iām familiar and comfortable with the process in general. The problem is that I also know how that makes my body feel, how sore I get, and how that affects my ability to do other exercises when Iām sore. So Iām worried about how my legs are going to feel after doing such high weight, low rep exercises, and how that will limit my ability to do bike and run training.
Just to test it out and prime my muscles for those movements, I started doing some of the exercises recommended here and elsewhere in TR, but with light dumbbells - super light, like in the 10-15 lb range. And even that made my legs sore and took 3-4 weeks of doing those exercises 2-3 times per week to finally not be sore every time. Iām feeling reluctant about how much I will have to scale back my biking and running if I start to increase the weight to the range where Iād be doing 3-5 reps. Is there any way to know how long it will take my body to adjust to that load until Iām not crushed by each workout and canāt do any running or biking for several days afterward? What have others in similar situations encountered on that particular question? For reference, Iām mid-40s and have been doing structured bike/run/swim training for a few years and average around 9-10 hrs/week.
Hereās my canned advice given to folks re-starting lifting after at least a month off from it:
Words to the wise, start SO SO light and easyā¦ noā¦ even lighter and easier, when you return to lifting from time off. Biggest reason: safety. The reason that will actually convince most people to not go hard, or anywhere near it, is that you can actually get better results by going easier and slowly ramping training. The less you do during the first few days and weeks coming back to training, the more responsive your body will be to training in the coming weeks afterwards. Youāll be able to continue progressing for longer, and 6 weeks from now will be stronger than if you hit the first few days back at 50+% of your older 1RMās. My first day back in the gym, I legitimately just start with the bar.
Endurace Sport Lifting Templates (I wrote them and profit from sales, for full disclosure). All barbell movements can be swapped with DBās quite easily and I have dozens of folks doing that in the RP Endurance Group on Fbook if youād like to join.
I have heard good things about Alex Viadaās work from colleagues in the industry as well, though I have not personally reviewed much of his writing or programming. What little I have read, has seemed well thought out.
Start lighter. Still low rep. Low set number too. Thatās how the link above is written by the way.
Happy to remove this post if it comes off too salesy. Just pains me not to share the thing Iāve specifically written for folks like those quoted.
3-4 weeks is normal if you havenāt been lifting. If getting too sore, definitely err lighter-weight, and lower set count. Keep reps below 5 reps per set, and set count capped at 1-2 per exercise, until soreness is minimal post-training. (assuming soreness-mitigation is the goal to facilitate running & biking)
5 Likes
Thanks for that - very helpful indeed.
1 Like
What days do you prefer to work out during the Base, build and spec. phase? is it better to work out on your easiest day or hardest day?
better to do strength on hard day or if you have a recovery day tommorow. I do Tu and Sat. Th can be core.
2 Likes