Riding with weights

If the weight difference between your normal wheels and a set of Zipp 999s threw off your rhythm, wouldn't dropping a 20lb weight before the TT *really* mess you up? 😕

frenchyge said:

If the weight difference between your normal wheels and a set of Zipp 999s threw off your rhythm, wouldn't dropping a 20lb weight before the TT *really* mess you up? 😕

The zipps were heavier than what a usually ride, so the it's the extra weight that threw me off.

I've always thought about adding extra weight to the bike and training through the winter this way, but I've never done it. I know of a local racer who placed cement blocks in his Burley and dragged this up hills all winter long. He dominated the local race series the following spring.

It's nothing new. Miguel Indurain climbed with a 10 pound weight hung round him on a regular basis when he was champ.
There's no proof such a tactic works but maybe it's worth a go. But I always get to thinking you could equally just push a bigger gear rather than add 10 lbs.

park said:

I've always thought about adding extra weight to the bike and training through the winter this way, but I've never done it. I know of a local racer who placed cement blocks in his Burley and dragged this up hills all winter long. He dominated the local race series the following spring.

Is that because the other riders were peaking for the summer events? How many people bought his book on "Cement Block Training" the next year?

There are a couple other threads on this topic which can be searched for, but the funny thing is that if you want to train with more power you don't need to add weight to the bike, ride with the brakes rubbing, haul trailers full of bricks, or anything else. All that is needed is to ride faster with your existing bike and you'll get all the resistance you could want.

I've got an extra 20lbs you are welcome to but it's not around my ankles . . .🙂

A good friend used to load up his bike with his weight set and climb hills. He's the strongest rider I know.

It's a tough one. If I tried to climb my toughest hill approximately one mile per hour faster, wouldn't that have the same effect as strapping a 20 pound weight on the bike? Wouldn't I just climb slower weighted? If I wanted to gain leg strength, why not just head to the weight room? I'm thinking that cycling is unique in that you can always work as hard as you want, or feel like. What I mean is that you basically have an endless supply of resistance. Adding more resistance(ie: weights) is just going to slow you down. Will that make you faster later? Sounds psychological to me.....

frenchyge said:

There are a couple other threads on this topic which can be searched for, but the funny thing is that if you want to train with more power you don't need to add weight to the bike, ride with the brakes rubbing, haul trailers full of bricks, or anything else. All that is needed is to ride faster with your existing bike and you'll get all the resistance you could want.

Yep. Adding weight to the bike or person is pretty much a waste of time.

"If I wanted to gain leg strength, why not just head to the weight room?"

Remember that no two exercises are identical. For example, you could build up your leg-presses with very heavy weights and be unable to squat. You could work up to heavy weights on a lat-pulldown machine and then find you've made no improvement on chins to the bar.

Personally I've always considered leg-presses to be a virtual waste of time for cyclists, even though Lance swears by them. But I see squats as being useful in other ways as they develop lower back stability and cyclists tend to utilise the back muscles when climbing.

Although a leg-press movement is very close to a cycling stroke but the back is fully supported in the movement.

One of Tyler Hamilton's problems is he has a weak back due to injury. Merckx also did exercises for his lower back, especially after being injured.

So, a lot of stuff I do is more for balance.

Climbing with a dumbell probably has some uses or alternatively you could ride a heavier bike frame.

Dr.Hairybiker said:

It's a tough one. If I tried to climb my toughest hill approximately one mile per hour faster, wouldn't that have the same effect as strapping a 20 pound weight on the bike? Wouldn't I just climb slower weighted? If I wanted to gain leg strength, why not just head to the weight room? I'm thinking that cycling is unique in that you can always work as hard as you want, or feel like. What I mean is that you basically have an endless supply of resistance. Adding more resistance(ie: weights) is just going to slow you down. Will that make you faster later? Sounds psychological to me.....

Adding weights to your bike will mean you have to produce more power to go the same speed up a hill, you might as well just use a bigger gear and go faster, the forces will be the same. The onyl difference extra weights will make is that you won't be able to accelerate as fast. Not really worth doing in my opinion just push yourself harder on the hills instead.

What worries me most is the effect on the knees. In my area there are many hills but I tend to be wary of doing too much climbing as opposed to flats. I figure a lot of climbing could bring about knee problems.
Climbing with weights would be tantamount to a bit more stress on the knee joints. Besides I weight 195 and that's already a lot of weight to lug up a 20 per cent set of hills.

Eldrack said:

Adding weights to your bike will mean you have to produce more power to go the same speed up a hill, you might as well just use a bigger gear and go faster, the forces will be the same. The onyl difference extra weights will make is that you won't be able to accelerate as fast. Not really worth doing in my opinion just push yourself harder on the hills instead.

If you don't want to damage your knees you need smaller gears which you can spin faster. Personally I have a triple up front so that I can spin up most hills. If your gears are a limiting factor as to how easily you can spin up steep hills then you deffinately don't want to be adding weights, it'll only slow your cadence down and possibly give you more knee damage.

etnerual said:

I did a TT recently and borrowed a friend's Zipp 999s. I could not get into my rhythm, the weight of the wheels felt odd to me. So I started thinking what if I add additional weight to all my training rides and take them off when race day comes, I'll feel lighter even with a borrowed set of wheels. I was thinking of using somewhere between 5 to 20lb ankle weights wrapped around my seat post. Has anyone tried this or something similar and what were your result?

I actually was thinking during the summer to begin using ankle weights but was going to wear them on my ankles. I already ride in very high gear and want to make things a little more difficult so I'm ready to race come spring. My tires are already heavy. I'm hoping to be able to afford lighter ones in the spring. I decided to wait until it got a little cooler to begin using the weights. I don't want my thighs and butt to get to muscular though. What do you think the best approach to training would be for me?

there was a company offering a product to add weight, "porkka pigg" these were water bottle type weights of lead...
fact is, a heavier bike may slow you down fractionaly, but this is largely independent of how hard you train.
ironic though, add weight to the bike we spend to shave grams off!

etnerual said:

I did a TT recently and borrowed a friend's Zipp 999s. I could not get into my rhythm, the weight of the wheels felt odd to me. So I started thinking what if I add additional weight to all my training rides and take them off when race day comes, I'll feel lighter even with a borrowed set of wheels. I was thinking of using somewhere between 5 to 20lb ankle weights wrapped around my seat post. Has anyone tried this or something similar and what were your result?

I agree with all the posters here. Adding weight makes absolutely no sense. If you want to train harder, ride faster. If you want to build strength use a slow cadence.

lyotard said:

there was a company offering a product to add weight, "porkka pigg" these were water bottle type weights of lead...
fact is, a heavier bike may slow you down fractionaly, but this is largely independent of how hard you train.
ironic though, add weight to the bike we spend to shave grams off!

Strangely this appeals to people that should know better. When I first started racing there was a Cat 2 on our local team that would train with a lead bottle. One day it was just him and I off the front of our group climbing a mountain and I asked him why he didn't just ride faster. He said it made him feel better when racing to have a lighter bike... but then proceeded to demonstrate how much lighter and faster he was by removing the bottle AND HOLDING IT IN HIS HAND. I didn't bother to point out that it didn't matter whether it was in his frame or in his hand... I was just thankful to be born with a little bit more common sense... the worst part is he had an MS in Exercise Physiology and was a professional trainer!

wilmar13 said:

... the worst part is he had an MS in Exercise Physiology and was a professional trainer!

Yikes.
Your power output will not change by simply adding weight to your bike; all that will happen is that you go slower for the same power output you were putting out before.
As for anecdotal stories of racers training with a weight on their bike and subsequently being fast...well, that's all they are - anecdotal. Attributing performance to one training "trick" done over the winter is completely missing the point anyway.

Ok, I bashed the idea of adding weight to a bike last summer, and I'm here now to pay penance for having done so. :o Now that I've learned more about training and have progressed in my fitness, I finally understand the benefit of doing so, and wanted to set the record straight on my stance regarding adding training weights to a bike.

Everyone talks about adding weights to the bike for the additional resistance and power needed to climb hills. Well, that's not it. If you want to output greater power you can just ride faster without the additional weight and eventually you'll get all the resistance you could possibly want, as is pointed out in the posts above.

No, the benefit of adding weight to the bike is that it *slows the bike down* at a given power. Who cares, you might ask? The answer is "people in a vertically challenged locale who want to train on hills." I've found, as my fitness has increased, that I've pretty much outgrown all the hills in the rolling terrain near me because I'm able to ride faster than I ever did before. Hills that used to make nice 5-minute intervals are now 2-3 minute intervals or less at a power level that's challenging to me. By adding weight to my bike, I could put out the same power at a slower speed, and thus my local hills are now 5+ minutes long again and make nice intervals without having an interrupting downhill section. Another scenario would be to get a good workout from a group ride with less fit riders.

Anyway, I'm not ready to load up a trailer full of cement blocks just yet, but I have been thinking about how to replicate my beloved trainer intervals outside. Remembering this thread, it's been weighing on my conscience that I bashed the idea without understanding it. Mea Culpa. 🙂

frenchyge said:

Ok, I bashed the idea of adding weight to a bike last summer, and I'm here now to pay penance for having done so. :o Now that I've learned more about training and have progressed in my fitness, I finally understand the benefit of doing so, and wanted to set the record straight on my stance regarding adding training weights to a bike.

Everyone talks about adding weights to the bike for the additional resistance and power needed to climb hills. Well, that's not it. If you want to output greater power you can just ride faster without the additional weight and eventually you'll get all the resistance you could possibly want, as is pointed out in the posts above.

No, the benefit of adding weight to the bike is that it *slows the bike down* at a given power. Who cares, you might ask? The answer is "people in a vertically challenged locale who want to train on hills." I've found, as my fitness has increased, that I've pretty much outgrown all the hills in the rolling terrain near me because I'm able to ride faster than I ever did before. Hills that used to make nice 5-minute intervals are now 2-3 minute intervals or less at a power level that's challenging to me. By adding weight to my bike, I could put out the same power at a slower speed, and thus my local hills are now 5+ minutes long again and make nice intervals without having an interrupting downhill section. Another scenario would be to get a good workout from a group ride with less fit riders.

Anyway, I'm not ready to load up a trailer full of cement blocks just yet, but I have been thinking about how to replicate my beloved trainer intervals outside. Remembering this thread, it's been weighing on my conscience that I bashed the idea without understanding it. Mea Culpa. 🙂

Wouldn't riding a bigger gear give you the same effect? In other words isnt improvement being able to ride at a faster RPM on the hill with a given gear ratio? I just cant imagine how one can outgrow a hill unless its a 10 second hill or a sprinters hill.