Strength Training On The Bike?

“Would it not be more beneficial to simply push a large gear (if on a trainer) or doing steep hills. I personally have gotten more out of doing 28% grade repeats for 2 hours than doing any sort of lifting – Andrew Coggan / Ric Stern seems to think weight training is useless / determintal compared to cycle strength training specificity.”

An interesting question!

Strength training for cyclists is a controversial topic which I have tried to describe in http://www.training4cyclists.com/strength-training-might-increase-performance/

Quote:
“Strength training is controversial when we discuss optimizing training programs for cyclists. There is no definitive answer to whether cyclists should include weight lifting in their winter training plans. There have been made several studies that have not yet proved that cyclists can benefit from strength training.

One of the biggest problems for these scientific studies is that untrained people do them, and the study group is usually small. That makes it rather difficult to prove a significant difference between endurance training only versus endurance training combined with weight lifting. My best guess is that strength training does make a difference, and it is, at least in theory, possible to prove it with a more extensive study group. But the difference between including strength training or not is not the most critical factor in overall performance in road races. Thus, it is challenging to recommend going to the gym or spending an extra hour on the bike. In both cases, you will probably improve your overall performance level. It is essential to notice that even though studies about strength training do not produce significant gains in overall cycling performance, it is very likely that there is a difference.”

This article about squat is primary an article to show why you should squat IF you decide to strength train. Not to discuss whether you should strength train or not.

Strength endurance training should always be performed ON the bike

2 hours of 28% grade repeats do not sound like max strength training to me, rather like strength endurance, which I always recommend should be done on a bike. That is why I don’t recommend long strength endurance sets with 12, 20, or even 100’s of reps. That is better done on the bike.

But when we are talking max strength, squat gets important because you activate almost every motor neuron in your quadriceps (and many helper-muscles) in a heavy lift. It isn’t easy to start the same percentage of motor neurons on a bike, especially if you do steep hills that take more than five revolutions in the pedals. So when you train for neural adaptations, it is crucial to activate as many motor neurons as possible. Also, there is some discussion on whether a better neural control will help you be more efficient when recruiting muscle fibres.

Still, I recommend performing ‘power sprints’ on the bike. These sprints are accelerations for about 8 seconds in a heavy gearing, e.g., 53/16.