Dialled is offering some very expensive calisthenics from what I can tell. It doesn’t seem he’s properly loading his own workouts, from the half a dozen or so pics I’ve seen of his compounds. He’s using less weight than I would throw on a barbell for my first warm-up set. It’s just… odd, but it fits the archetype of whole-body kettlebell bro. You can find videos of the skinnier Dylan Johnson repping out much higher working sets (with some room for improvement on form).
That said, going from 0 to something is going to yield results for most cyclists. If the novelty keeps people engaged more than an SS 5x5, so be it. The best lifting program is the one that you actually execute. With enough volume, you can get quite strong using calisthenics (eg, gymnasts). But not in a million years would I recommend this as an efficient program. It surprises me to hear that TrainerRoad might collaborate with him, as it is far from the evidence-based strength training camp.
And before someone suggests “perhaps it’s a program geared towards gaining strength without mass”—if that were the case, the rep ranges and loading pattern would actually move the opposite direction, on the very low rep, 85+% 1RM range. Fancy KB workouts are like 90’s “tone” for men. For lower body, it’s not much better than body weight exercises. There are lots of merits to calisthenics and KB movements for building functional strength and balance, kinda analogous to how one might pursue yoga or pilates to round out their athleticism. It’s just not efficient for strength training, and some exercises start to approach aerobic conditioning, which isn’t what a cyclist needs.
All of this. If a cyclist has the time and discipline to learn clean, or already knows it, it’s an excellent lift to throw in the rotation. You could also throw in clean + jerk (very technical) or clean + push press (less technical). That overhead position really forces you to brace and works in a touch of lateral core stability that often gets omitted in minimalist programming. Front squat is also a great, assuming people can get used the awkward loading and actually do heavy sets. For a beginner on time budget, front squat and clean should be learned after squat and deadlift form is locked in. Learning front squat will help develop the wrist/elbow/shoulder mobility you need to properly catch a clean.
Front squat is just brutal on the trunk musculature in a way that you just don’t get even with say, a deadlift (because if your core fails you basically just collapse!). I like it as a precursor to overhead squat (by far my favourite lift but aside from giving me a overwhelming sense of satisfaction I’m doubtful I can justify its relevance to running or cycling).
I am a big fan of like overhead stability (butlers walks etc in that prehab section), I find overhead pushes end up with me carrying too much upper body weight.
As for valuable calisthenics - I like jumps - broad or box - once the strength foundations are there and you want to improve rate of force production (but you don’t have the technique for clean or want to minimise weight gain). Especially excellent for runners.
Front squat is brutal. Try the seated good mornings and lmk how you think that compares to front squat for trunk. I’m a high-bar squatter (usually), so my default squat mechanics are a bit closer to front squat.
I mean, I have a whole A B C delt routines that have zero relevance to cycling. They are only relevant to the mirror. CdA++ and I’ll gladly take more.
Runners also want to focus on tendon health and landing from a jump is great for strengthening tendons. I’ve started doing some footwork drills, which is silly for cycling, but the focus actually loading the knee tendons with more dynamic movement. Cycling is an incredibly artificial movement; sometimes I feel I’ve lost some mechanical abilities that all normal homo sapiens have.
I was following it 2 offseasons ago, would’ve continued but had surgery that made most of the work too risky. Now I basically do my PT home exercises + upper body days.
What’s the reasoning behind this combination? I’d argue for a home gym, 25’s are never really needed. In my home gym I have:
Bumper plates - (4)45’s, (6)10’s
Iron plates - (4)5’s, (2)2.5’s
Short of needing more weight, I can do every combination easily that I need to. No need for 25’s or 35’s.
Interesting. Some of this is definitely personal. I find that 25’s provide just the right amount of granularity. I have a friend with 15’s and 35’s and it’s too much.
However, I would miss 25# bumpers. The amount that I ramp up big lifts during warm up sets tends to be between 50 lbs and 90 lbs. 10# bumpers are the most fragile and prone to warping; if you’re doing a lift from the floor between [95-135), you’d rather it have it dropping on two 25’s than four or six 10’s. It’s an extra $30 or so for convenience and extending the lifespan of the 10’s. This is more an issue with olympic lifts, until you get to a level where everything you do overhead is 135+. The main purpose of 10# bumpers as opposed to plates is to cover the range of [65-95) lbs from the floor. On a rack it makes no difference.
The iron 25’s and 10’s are useful for 1) the EZ bar, 2) plate raises/abs/etc, 3) providing weight progression for deadlift. Once you’re repping above 225 on DL, sliding 10# and 25# bumpers on and off can become more of a hassle without a jack. The iron plates have a smaller diameter, and can be more quickly exchanged compared to bumpers. (I might add another 10# or or 5# iron plate to my list above for that matter.) Iron plates are a lot cheaper and can be picked up at thrift stores.
Nothing to add but to say that a 1.25 plate that you roll the 20kg plate onto (fuck your arbitrary units) makes a very convincing and cheap bar jack for racking and stripping.
Great couple of posts, excellent write up of strength training fundamentals. For your equipment list here, I’d add that a smith machine on the squat rack and/or a leg trainer attachment for the bench are great ways of getting the isolation leg work done at home for not too much extra money or space.
Just reintroduced myself to the five fundamental movements this week as I’m transitioning to a strength focus.
Calf strain doesn’t feel affected by squats so far, but I’m seeing a physio on Monday for first treatment.
I have a bastard bar (always makes me chuckle) 15kg, plates are in true units - bumper: 4x20, 2x10, 2x5, tri-grip: 2x2.5, 2x1.25
I don’t see when I’d ever need to dead over 120kg, 1.5x BW but who knows I may be convinced that maximal strength is a worthwhile goal as I shift up an age group in Jan. I’m favouring 3x5 over 5x5 for the same reason but that’s a paper based decision not a capacity one.
Same here. 6x45, 2x25, 4x10, 2x5 gives me everything I need. I do have some duplicates for bumpers vs. smaller iron and you can add extras for convenience. There’s also a good possibility I never use more than 4x45 again too.
One thing that has been a big convenience factor - I think I have 3-4 sets of J Cups on my rack so I’m not moving them around. I like a set at knee height on the front for setting up the bar for deadlifts. That, and plenty of convenient weight horns / weight storage.
I’ve got a Rep Fitness setup which has been great in a small space.
Thanks a lot! It is useful to know what someone with experience thinks is important. So far I have bought yoga mats, a foam roller and a few resistance bands, simply because they were the cheapest items.
45# bar and clips
2x45# bumpers
2x25# bumpers
2-4x10# iron plates
2-4x5# iron plates
2x2.5# iron plates
Maybe some iron 25
Maybe a low box for thrusters (can be DIY)
This will get you started with DL and you’ll use the BB to landmine hack squat etc until you get a rack (which is a fairly expensive item). If it’s going to be a while before the rack, you can look into hack squat attachments. Landmine belt squats are easier to load but require more bumpers or boxes to stand on. I think it’s more economical to start with the barbell as opposed to collecting heavy dumbbells to load legs, especially if you intend to have a barbell set up built out in the future. There are landmine variants of most things you could do with dumbbells, including rows, bulgarians, and single leg RDLs. Get some wrist straps because gripping the sleeve is harder than gripping a dumbbell.
There are many great core exercises with landmine as well. 180s, situp 21s, and honestly most of the overhead stuff hits obliques and trunk stability.
The biggest downside landmine for squatting movements is that it can get pretty hard to load at heavy weights. There are tricks and devices, but by that point most people have a proper rack. This is not something novice to intermediate lifters have to worry about. And there’s always single leg work.
EDIT: Some notes on DB economics. Getting DBs for the home gym has diminishing returns the higher the weight. It also largely depends on what sort of upper body work you’re interested in. The most valuable range, imo, is whatever you can lateral raise to failure at say 12 reps, that plus 5#, that minus 5#. The next most practical range is for DB curls, same idea. With any of the pressing movements (eg DB bench) the variability between lifts and rate of progress is going to require a large collection of DBs. Lateral raise-to-curl is a very practical set of DBs with other use cases, but less so if you don’t intend to do these exercises.
It’s been a while since I’ve looked into this, but iirc, the T2 is a real sweet spot between quality and price. I think I’d go for the T3 space saving for myself, personally, in a hypothetical universe that I wanted a home gym. I have a friend with the T3 space spacing and I think it’s just about perfect. The thing with racks is that you don’t want something cheap for safety reasons, but the high end (built to withstand gym use and strongmen) is absolute overkill for a home gym. I also know a guy who reps 4+ plates on a creaky craigslist find, so, idk, people have different levels of risk tolerance.
Cheap bars can also suck. Plates don’t matter as much, especially the iron ones. Some of the best powerlifting and olympic lifting gyms will have an odd assortment of iron plates collected over the past century. It’s only when you’re dropping weight from overhead (olys) that you really start caring about bumper quality. You don’t even need bumpers for DL, it’s just simpler for a home gym to have bumpers + concrete garage floor than it is to have a dedicated DL platform.
One of my friends who is a lot stronger than me suggested the T2. He does 300# + squats, he has been more focused on bodybuilding for quite a while now. Unless I go full bodybuilder it’s a good sweet spot, like you said.
I did spend some money on their elite series Olympic barbell. It can handle a lot more than what I can lift at the moment. I’m happy to hear someone else on here with good advice for cyclists.
Yup. With any complex movement you’re going to be limited by the weakest link in that chain, strength-wise. Even more likely the limiter will be your technique, because complex movements are skills that require coordination, balance, muscle memory, etc. It is rare for these to elicit an optimal training stimulus on the strength side.
A big question you should ask is whether learning the skill of any given complex lift is actually helpful to your sport. Squat and deadlift are complex, but they are also highly functional. Two very basic human movements: squatting down and picking something heavy off the floor. The muscle coordination you get from learning to do these well, under load, is very beneficial for sports—and life in general.
I could be persuaded that that cyclists (whose sport consists of a very artificial movement) stand to benefit from the coordination and mobility and whole-body sense that might come from some of these more complex routines you see on social media. But it’s much closer to calisthenics than strength training. Why not just hit the gym hard with a 5x5 and then do yoga on the side?
What do you mean by complex movements, are you referring to, say, the combination of a lunge, dumbbell curl and dumbbell overhead press? Or does a one-sided exercise count where you need to compensate for the imbalance with, say, your core?
The former seems gimmicky to me (as someone who knows next to nothing about strength training), I reckon I’d be better off doing each of these three exercises separately. The latter does seem pertinent to cycling, though.