As a Personal Trainer I train many clients to be cycling fit (and indeed I'll sometimes cycle with them in training). Putting a broad question out there - what is your favourite strength and / or flexibility exercise for cycling?
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Favourite exercises for improving cycling performance?
(35 posts)- Started 14 years ago by tracyg
- Latest reply from mercury1and2
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Posted 14 years ago #
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Cycling up steep hills is probably my favourite and, if I'm honest, only strength exercise for cycling.
I know I don't do anywhere near enough flexibility work - at best I'll manage a bit of stretching of hamstrings, but that's about it. I really need to start doing something for my back...
Posted 14 years ago # -
Yeah I could do with a bit o stretching advice. I get a right bad knee after about 50 miles.
Posted 14 years ago # -
On training rides, I like to select a gear one or 2 up from where I would normally be. ie so I'm really having to work hard on the pedals.
Another tip is, when cycling up hill, hold the top bar as lightly as possible (almost not gripping at all) with hands as close together, this means that all work is being done by your legs. 1st time I tried it, I was amazed by how much harder I had to work.
Stretching wise, I just do a general stretching before and after big trips. I do tend to concentrate on my lowere back though, but only as this is a source of irritation on longer rides.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Sex
Posted 14 years ago # -
cycling up long and/or steep hills in an unreasonable gear (currently 53/17) is great for leg strength, the lungs and sheer mental determination!
Commuting into a headwind every day.
Playing "beat the clock" on the way to work (although that generally leads to a more unpleasant ride as everyone else on the road just seems so much more unpleasant and unreasonable!)
Nothing drives me on more than seeing a distant flashing red tail light or fluorescent cycling jacket and saying to myself "I'll have them"
Walking about after long rides helps in lieu of a dedicated stretching programme. Usually it's going to the shop for icecream and crisps to satisfy sugar and salt cravings!
Posted 14 years ago # -
For strength, as PS and kaputnik say, climbing hills on the bike in as high a gear as I can manage without bringing on knee pain.
Lactate threshold, muscular endurance and sprinting or anaerobic fitness are something else again.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I wonder if OP@tracyg is asking if we do anything other than cycling to improve our cycling fitness. even if that's not the point i for one find this an interesting avenue of inquiry.
Personally I think a regular free weights class is a great thing, it promotes the growth of all those little stabilizing muscles as well as protecting the joint by making the surrounding groups stronger. Squats are obvious but all the standing exercises help.
Using a rolla-bolla or teeterboard is a good idea too, if its good for skiers ankles and knees i think it must work well for cyclists.
Is this what you ment?
Posted 14 years ago # -
if we do anything other than cycling
there's other things apart from cycling?
Posted 14 years ago # -
Swimming
Posted 14 years ago # -
Rule 42:
A bike ride/race shall never be preceeded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
Posted 14 years ago # -
I always remember an old PE teacher telling me -
"If you want to get better at something, do it more often"
If you want to get better / stronger at cycling, go out cycling. If you want to get better at swimming, go swimming. A simple philosphy. Different exercises work different muscle groups in different ways. You could swim, run, push weights etc until the cows come home the only real benefit you would get from that would be a higher cardio threshhold / VO2 max.
Posted 14 years ago # -
At a tangent -
I was listening to a programme about drummers yesterday (still on "listen again")
"..how they cope with the physical demands of performing and how these veterans react to the negative image of the drummer"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vkwvc
Some interesting thoughts about fitness, stamina and ageing. One drummer, about 60, contemplating still doing it at 80.
Some parallels with cycling - 'we' all 'know' cycling makes us look/feel 10 years younger!
Posted 14 years ago # -
ruggtomcat: "I wonder if OP@tracyg is asking if we do anything other than cycling to improve our cycling fitness."
If that's so then perhaps exercising with a swiss ball. I think that helps maintain stomach muscle and maintains arm strength which helps if you are on the bike for more than maybe an hour at a time. But really there's no substitute for riding a bike if you want to get fit for cycling imo.Posted 14 years ago # -
I have been doing my daily commute (25 miles total) for just over a year now and I am starting to notice that I am getting a dull ache in my hips. At 48 years of age I hope it is not the onset of arthritis. I tend to stretch for ten minutes in the morning and ten when I get home. I have done a bit of yoga in the past so mainly yoga based stretches which I find very good. I am certainly more flexible than before. I have always had this vision of me as a retired sixty something year old being able to get up on a sunny morning and heading out on the bike for the day. Just have to hope the hips last that long.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Wow! Lots of comments on my first question - thanks! I was contemplating which strength exercises are best for cycling. Obviously cycling is the best exercise in the world... ever.
But what kind of body weight exercises (if any) do you find help? I like squats and single legged deadlifts and lots of shoulder stretching. My fav post ride shoulder stretch simply involves lying along a rolled up towel (a version of a yoga stretch), to get the shoulders moving back and stretch out the neck...
Posted 14 years ago # -
Welcome to the forum tracyg. I see you are a personal trainer so double welcome! Do you think that running would improve cycling fitness? I like to think I am fit but if I have to run any distance I'm soon out of breath. Should I try running? And if so how far and for how long? Aaargh, so many more questions but perhaps it's a bit unfair to pick on you like this.
Posted 14 years ago # -
running is odd, even when i was cycling 300 mile a week i still couldn't run far. I found out I was doing it wrong, i read 'chi running' and changed my whole running style based on what he says (hes a ultra-marathon runner and coach) and immediately started working properly, going faster and most of all enjoying my run. I recommend it :)
Posted 14 years ago # -
Thanks for the interesting comments. I think cross training has advantages, for the very reason that it develops different muscles from cycling muscles, so there's move of an overall balance.
To improve at cycling, of course lots of cycling training will help, but also strength training (weights) will give you more leg muscle power.
Regarding running, yes, it's totally different and more difficult. Like ruggtomcat, I recommend the book Chi Running (going slower to go faster). I like using a HRM (heart rate monitor) to get clients into running, start with your heart rate in the lower end of the fat burning zone and do at least 30 minutes SLOWLY(your HRM should set the limits according to your age). And build up from there... :)
Posted 14 years ago # -
Rule 42:
A bike ride/race shall never be preceeded with a swim and/or followed by a run.
@ruggtomcat - so Triathlons are always Run - Cycle - Swim?Posted 14 years ago # -
RULE 2:
It is forbidden for someone familiar with The Rules to knowingly assist another person to breach them.
Posted 14 years ago # -
tracyg are you able to devise winter training programmes which use cycling and running with HRM to maintain fitness and set up a base on which to build in preparation for a series of sportives in 2011? I think I have figured out what your website is so I might take a look there.
Posted 14 years ago # -
Slightly related
“
Regular exercise changes the look and workings of the human heart. And researchers are discovering that different sports affect the heart differently.
“
Posted 5 years ago # -
"Since swimmers exercise in a horizontal position, he says, their hearts do not have to fight gravity to get blood back to the heart, unlike in upright runners."
Reclining on a bike might also have similar factor. I know that it feels different than upright. Going extremely head down on a bike will also have an effect as you are more prone but of course legs still stick down to turn pedals (!)
Posted 5 years ago # -
I really like how chdot revives the threads from years and years ago! :D I wonder if he actually remembers all the threads on this forum?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Yes he is all knowing Bill.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I pick my daughter up every day. She gains weight every day. Thus increasing the "resistance".
Posted 5 years ago # -
wishing to start HIT training of some kind- i would like to do more hills- im doing the seat, then would like to do bathgate alps but which Alp do people think would be good to start with as still not got round to doing one yet.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Maybe not Kingscavil or Cairnpappple as a first Alp. The ridge up from fauchiledean and along to Ochiltree is good. Nice cafe at the visitor centre too. You can get to the start of this climb just before faucliedean by taking the canal towpath should you wish. Come off at Niddrie Castle or thereabouts?
You can come off the ridge and go down to Linlithgow and back along the canal or come off to the south and tack back via ecclesmachan, pumpherston, east Calder, kirknewton etc.
Posted 5 years ago # -
If you're looking to do HIIT intervals I'd recommend a shorter hill. My destination of choice was Kirk Gate out of Currie but tbh its probably still to long (for me). Something you can power up in a minute or two and cruise back down to get your breath back before going again.
Posted 5 years ago #
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