Weight Training for Bicyclists

Bicycle riding is an excellent exercise for working the heart and lungs. It is also good for strengthening the legs and back muscles.  However, it does not do much to work the arms, chest and shoulders.  It is also not the most effective strength developer.

What bicycle riding lacks can be well complemented with weight training.  The off season for bicycle riding offers an opportunity to add weight training to your year round fitness program. Weight training offers the following benefits to bike riders: it develops muscle systems that are not well addressed by bicycle riding, it builds stronger legs, and it provides variety in your exercise program.  Here are some tips for adding weight training to your program:

• Don’t overdo it. For the first two or three weeks, think: UNDERTRAIN!  Keep the weights light and the repetitions high.  When starting a new weight program, or any new exercise program, the weak links are the tendons, ligaments and other connective tissue.  The connective tissue reacts slowly to training, so it is very important to start out easy and increase gradually.  The muscles will be telling you that you can handle more, but feedback from the connective tissue is not as good.  Your first indication of connective tissue problems may be a tear or strain.  A gradual and easy program avoids connective tissue problems by giving the connective tissue plenty of time to grow stronger.
• Always warm up. It is very important to warm up before you begin. A treadmill or stair machine is good for this. You can also warm up on the weight machines with light weights.  Use a weight with which you can do 20 to 50 repetitions without strain. Your warm-up will increase your heart rate, while also increasing blood flow to the muscle groups you are working.
• Know your equipment. If you are working out at a gym, the first two or three weeks should be used to experiment with the equipment.  Use very light weights and learn how the equipment is adjusted so you can use it with good form.  Many clubs have the machines set up in a logical sequence so you can go from one machine to the next and get a good workout.  Are the leg machines together?  Then start with the leg press and move to leg curls.
• Keep it short to start. For the first two or three weeks do an hour program that works the legs for the first half hour, and the arms and shoulders for the second.  This gives you a good complete body workout in one hour.
• Space your workouts. Three per week is optimum, but listen to your body for feedback.  These should be easy workouts.  You may feel some soreness, but you should be ready to go after one or two days of rest.  Giving the connective tissue and muscles one or two days to rebuild between workouts is essential.  If you just keep working the muscles without adequate recovery time between workouts, you will not get the results you want.  You’ll just get discouraged.
• Do your exercises in pairs.  Do a pushing motion followed by a pulling motion: leg presses followed by leg curls for the legs, and dips followed by pull-ups for the arms.  This works both directions of the specific muscle group and requires little or no breaks between sets.
• Have fun. During your first two or three weeks, some machines or exercises will be more appealing than others.  After you have done two or three weeks of total body workouts, your overall muscle system should begin to respond.  When you feel you are ready, you can begin to start focusing on specific muscle groups.  For instance, do legs one day and arms and shoulders another.  Enjoy your workout; do the exercises that appeal to you.
• Set goals. For example, you might start by aiming for overall strength improvement in all muscle systems. Then work on the legs or arms.  In other words, build a good foundation of over all training before you focus on a certain muscle group or activity.  Another goal might be to develop your hill climbing ability. In that case, think about squats with no weight, or with just the 45 pound bar. Lunges with or without dumb-bells are good.
• Build up slowly. Start out easy, and gradually work up to more repetitions and faster performance.  Don’t worry about lifting heavy weights.  That’s really more for bodybuilding.  Light weights and high repetitions work the connective tissue, the specific muscle group and also your heart.
• Periodize! Lance Armstrong is a big advocate of periodization. This is a system for varying your workouts so as to force your muscles to adapt to the change. If you do the same workout every time, eventually you will reach a plateau. That is because your body has become accustomed to this workout, and can handle it comfortably without strain. One way around this is to gradually increase the size of your weights. However, it has been shown that varying the weights in a set pattern yields faster improvement.
• Train smart. Here are some beginner mistakes that will lead to poor results, injury and discouragement:  Push yourself hard from the beginning.  Use the heaviest weights you can manage.  Don’t worry about form or using the equipment properly.  This is the typical program that beginners follow until they get injured or discouraged from poor results. Don’t make these mistakes! Don’t try to be Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Ride your bike. If you can do two or three months of weight training in the off season, you may see some good improvement in the strength of your legs, your overall strength and a good balance in your year round fitness program.  As bicycle season returns, you can cut back on the strength training and do more riding.  Enjoy the feeling of more power for climbing and sprinting.

Bike on!
Paul D. King
Asheville, NC
PDKingNC@aol.com

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