Strength training at home

koger said:

Hello

My main purpose is actually not to get stronger and faster on the bike, but to have better chances to stay injury free, so I'm thinking on the back, but perhaps also on the knees.

If you are most worried about injury I would say strength training will do about nothing for you. What you are looking for is flexibility. I would suggest some intense stretching sessions. Most people think stretching is wimpy and a waste of time but if you do it correctly it can help you quite a bit.

On a side note while people argue that it is difficult to learn as you get older but tumbling skills. I wish I had more of these when doing CX! Try and learn how to tumble cause when you fall that is all you can do to help prevent a major injury.

koger said:

Hello

I also want to train the upper body, that doesn't get much benefit from the cycling.

Cyclist need very little upper body strength, even MTB folks. Most have actually too much so you are just carrying extra weight with little benefit. Your best bet is to just stick to body exercises like push ups, pull ups and such. You will build more than enough upper body strength for cycling.

-js

koger said:

What exercises would you recommend for me?

Here are some of the exercises I'm considering:
-Lunges / single leg squat
-Bend over rowing / seasaw rows
-Rear latterals
-Saxon bends
-Lower trunk rotation
-Floor press / push ups
-Serratus crunch / curl ups

All of those are good and I can suggest some more for variety.
Some of your list I add in again for uniformity.

Shoulder day
DB shoulder press
DB side laterals
DB front laterals
DB vertical rows

Back day
DB bent over rows
DB single are rows using a chair or bench as a brace
Chin up - if you can fashion a chin up bar somewhere in your house
Close grip pull ups - if you can fashion a chin up bar somewhere in your house
DB stiff leg deadlifts - basically toe touches with the db's for additional resistance. Keep your back flat and do not round your back when touching your feet.

Leg day
Sissy Squats
One leg bench squat
DB leg curl

Those are just a few more. There are many others to add if you want variety and I didn't mention those for chest and arms because it sounds as if you are just working on the core.

Some other tools for home that are inexpensive and may be a nice supplement to the dumbbells. Although I am an old school weightlifter I have recently used rubber bands for some exercises like side laterals for the shoulders.

Also there are plenty of body weight exercise web sites as this type of training is becoming more popular again.

+1 for stretching - Great point. Too few people stretch adequately these days.

However I have to disagree a bit with the post dismissing strength training. Strength training in conjunction with stretching is the best bet for injury prevention. Stronger supporting muscles allow for proper form, minimalize our bodies' tendancies to compensate for weak muscle groups. Injuries don't occur solely due to crashes. Overuse and improper form are equally dangerous, and more easily prevented with adequate strength/conditioning.

If you are a dedicated racer, a little extra upper body strenth/size/weight might be detrimental in long climbs, but honestly, IMO, total body fitness far outweighs these concerns for most cyclists. Functional strength has its benefits.

Generally, strength doesn't have to mean bulk. I strength train regularly, and haven't punched over 148-150 lbs at 5'10. You won't get heavier unless you start eating more calories than you burn. You will, however, train your neurons to fire more efficiently, and recruit more contracting muscle fibers. This allows more force to be developed. It's training, not bulking. Don't get scared by claims that lifting weights will make you big and heavy - It's jus not true. 😉

Do lifts that imitate motions on the bike, and activate the same muscle groups. Be sure to strengthen oposing muscle groups such as hams/quads, bi/tri, chest/back to prevent injuries and encourage equal force distribution on your body.

I'd say focus on:

Lunges, IL squats and toe/heel raises for your legs. Try tracing the alphabet with your toes for dexterity and strenthening those muscles that transfer all of your power to the pedals.

Rows, pushups, shoulder presses and curls/overhead extensions for your upper body/arms.

Superman, good-mornings, stiff-legg dead lift for your back.

Leg lifts, 45 side/sides, trunk rotations and plank for your abs/core.

Start slow, and focus on form with each lift. It's not a cardio/calorie burning session, so enjoy really learning the proper movements needed for these lifts. Remember, you are training your muscles' neurons to achieve more efficient motion and strength.

Good luck!

spinner32 said:

You will, however, train your neurons to fire more efficiently, and recruit more contracting muscle fibers. This allows more force to be developed. It's training, not bulking. Don't get scared by claims that lifting weights will make you big and heavy - It's jus not true. 😉

+1 on this point, there was actually a good debate on the issue in another forum on can you put on muscle when you are in a calorie even/deficit..

the general conclusion from both sides was NO, only in the case of newbies in their first year may see muscle gains and fat loss because of the shape they are starting in. But you can see people lift more weight or SEEM TO BECOME STRONGER because of the reason you stated above with no weight gain.

I say this because the debate than went into can a person say they are stronger while gaining no additional muscle/mass and the debate never really settled on one answer as some said you were always that strong you just got better form at the exercise meaning you always had the muscle to do it, you were just untrained at that exercise...while others said that you did become stronger because as long as you can lift more it means you are stronger...it was really interesting.

But as far as cycling goes based upon what you advise than there really is no need for additional muscle to become better at cycling meaning cycling really requires less muscle in the traditional sense like all endurance sports. Therefore I would say weightlifting will not help your performance and the time is better spent on the bike.

-js

koger said:

Hello

I'm trying to put a strength training program together to use at home. I only have dumbbells available, and don't want to go and buy a large expensive machine. So I want to keep it simple and easy.

Here is simple and easy. Get a used copy of Pavel's Naked Warrior book on Amazon ($15). Buy a doorway chin up bar ($30) and a pair of rings like gymnasts use with adjustable straps ($55).

The Naked Warrior program is a simple "Grease the Groove" two movement program done at random times during the day. It consists of progressions to build to one armed push ups and pistols, or a full range one legged squat. The book is well illustrated and basically teaches all the progressions to get you to be able to do these two movements. It is a great introduction to the whole idea of strength training. A one armed push up requires a great amount of strength, balance, and flexibility. There are many folks who can do 50 pushups but can't do a single one armed. A pistol also requires strength, balance, and flexibility to stand on one leg and bring your but to the deck and then rise on one leg. You can do them anywhere with no equipment. I guarantee that there are many power lifters who can squat two or three times their body weight but can't do a single pistol. It is more than any level of strength you will ever need for cycling.

With a chin up bar and rings, you can do chins, dips on rings, flys, rows, hand stand push ups and virtually ever type of resistance exercise for upper body. You can make them harder or easier depending upon how high you hang the rings and whether your legs are on the ground or suspended. For example, If you can't do chin ups, hang the rings at waist level, and hang down parallel to the floor, back straight and do rows. As you change your body angle, you change the resistance. As you get stronger, you can do front lever pull ups which are really hard. I defy you to find a single gymnast that doesn't have an impressive physique and incredible strength. Almost all this strength comes from progressive exercise on the rings, and other body weight exercises. Google body weight training and there is an amazing amount of free resources on the web. A gymnastics coach also runs a great forum at GymnasticsBodies.com.

Use the dumbells to augment your body weight stuff. A 25 pound dumbell added to a weight belt really makes chins and dips more meaningful. Holding a heavy dumbell while doing pistols is fun as well.

I also like Rusian Kettlebells as well, but it is easy to injure yourself if you are not really careful and take the time to learn the movements properly. A ketlebell will cost you less than $80.

Felt and JS are also the real deal, but they have much different goals than just improving strength and preventing injuries. Felt's DB routine is great, if you are willing to dedicate a few days a week to strength training. I am one to encourage rather than discourage strength training of all types. Not because it will improve your cycling, but because it will make you a more complete human being and healthier.

I recommend 53x12 at anything over 60 rpm that you can manage... for as long as you can go. If your legs don't feel like they've squatted 15,000Kg after a few minutes then you're not trying hard enough. :p

If that isn't hard enough - try the 90 day free trial with a set of Powercranks. You won't need weights and you'll start developing a few "cycling muscles" that you've never had before...

I added some of my thoughts to the following blog entry this morning that may be helpful to some.

Link

Felt_Rider said:

I added some of my thoughts to the following blog entry this morning that may be helpful to some.

Link

great post in your blog. I assume the pix are of you. Impressive. You're going to make me dig out some of my old wrestling pics. Great summary of the misconceptions that a lot of cardio only atheletes have about resistance training.

The only thing I would add is that the issue is load placed on the muscle group as opposed to the actual "weight" of the dumbell. For example, a sissy squat utilizes no or little extra weight (some guys might use a weight vest) but puts a load on the muscle that is comparable to an exercise of significant weight. Essentially, you are squatting your body weight plus the extra resistance from leveraging back. Or you could strap the two 25 pound dumbells to your waist and do dips which would in most cases be a strength building exercise as opposed to an endurance type exercise. If the load is something that you could do 20, 50 or 100 or more reps. In all likelihood there is relatively little benefit in that high rep, low load acitivity as a strength exercise. Again, I am clarifying that your quibble is not with the proposed equipment, a 25 pound dumbell set, but with the concept that someone can develop additional " max strength" at very low load/high rep activities.

In contrast, there is evidence that very low rep or static activities can be extremely beneficial to build strength. For example, a guy that can do 5 one armed pull ups (true one armed not braced or assisted) is usually "stronger" than a guy of equal weight that can do 20 two armed. And a gymnast performing a static hold like an iron cross is exerting forces on the rings that are sigificant enough to build strength and an impressive physique. But neither exercise probably has much value in determining who could generate more watts in an hour on an inverted (hand cycling) bike.

And there is another group of sports researchers that are very interested in the whole concept of functional strength. IOW, should the offensive lineman be training like a power lifter, i.e. one max lift. Or, is it more important to get him the kind of strength that he can get off the ball quickly and out of his stance to push another 300 pounder around. Accordingly, a lot of wrestlers, football players, gymnasts, martial artists, and other atheletes (suprisingly divers, sprinters, field atheletes) are exploring whether a power lifting/body building routine really is the best way to train for their sport. And they are using sandbags, kettlebells, bodyweight exercises, plyometrics, and the like to optimize the development of that kind of strength. Even still, there is probably a much closer relationship between a lineman's one time max squat and strength on the field as opposed to his ability to do x number of squats in 15 minutes @135 pounds. And there is evidence that gymnasts and wrestlers-- putting aside technique -- have impressive max strength lifts, despite barely lifting a weight. This is because their training routinely imposes loads on muscle groups that are approximately 75%-95% of what they could do in a one time effort. Conversely, a cyclist would never ride a bike less than 20 revolutions at a load that is roughly equal to 85% of the max load they could do for a single revolution so they really don't develop "max" or one time strength in any degree.

Kopride, thanks for the additions and for taking the time to write those valid points. In other words glad you typed that and not me. 🙂

I was trying to keep typing effort to a minimal this morning and some of that spilled over into work time so I couldn't quite go as deep as you went. Even then we could deeper in discussion.

Hopefully what I wrote will help those who don't understand the baics of progressive training principles.

kopride said:

I assume the pix are of you. Impressive. You're going to make me dig out some of my old wrestling pics.

:o Yes, that was me a week before my last competition in 1993 where I won the men's open class and qualified for the Nationals, but I retired from competition after that. Needless to say a number of years have passed and though I still train with diligence I am not where I used to be. Please note that I only added the picture to add some validation of my experience level.

Felt_Rider said:

:o Yes, that was me a week before my last competition in 1993 where I won the men's open class and qualified for the Nationals, but I retired from competition after that. Needless to say a number of years have passed and though I still train with diligence I am not where I used to be. Please note that I only added the picture to add some validation of my experience level.

Man after Tyson, we are all into corroboration and validation. if you have young kids, they can show you how to photoshop your current face onto your 20 something physique. I wish I had some pics back from '93 that survived my divorce in '99. '93 was before I had my first kids and I was training on the weights and riding a lot

Felt_Rider said:

I added some of my thoughts to the following blog entry this morning that may be helpful to some.

Link

Nice work! Hopefully the next entry will explore the use of 25lb dumbells in the prevention of cycling injuries. That's a topic that's got me curious. 😕 😉

frenchyge said:

Nice work! Hopefully the next entry will explore the use of 25lb dumbells in the prevention of cycling injuries. That's a topic that's got me curious. 😕 😉

One in which I can do since I had to rehab from a separated shoulder injury from a crash last year. Other than x-rays the only attention was my own physical therapy rebuilding strength in my chest, shoulders and back. It is now 15 months later and this morning I did standing military press with 105 lb olympic bar for 4 reps. My best before the crash was 185 lbs x 6 reps, but not bad since I couldn't lift my arm for about 2 months after the crash. I don't think my bench will ever be the same.

After the swelling went down using R.I.C.E., I started with just moving my arms with no weights. I couldn't do a regular push up, but I could use 5 lb. dumbbells and light elastic bands for side laterals. I just slowly and incrementally went up the dumbbell rack from the superlight weights and I am still using progressive overload up to current day. Still building back the strength. In my case 25 lbs was too heavy to start rehab. Just regaining motion was the first step.

That is of course a very simple overview. 🙂

Recovery makes sense. It was the 'prevention' that had me stumped.

Even with your impressive military press you still crashed?? :p

frenchyge said:

Recovery makes sense. It was the 'prevention' that had me stumped. Pavement reeks havoc on just about all of us.

Even with your impressive military press you still crashed?? :p

Prevention for me is not being as stupid racing down the mountains 🙂 , but I don't know of prevention for those who have a bit better sense than I do.

I do believe that my muscle mass has helped me in several road and mt. bike crashes. Especially on the mt. bike as I seem to hit trees quite often with my shoulders as I lean into the curves. Like I said my riding skills are not that great.😄

Lance doing some corework. Hardass is ripped me thinks..

elizabethkreutz.comelizabethkreutz.comOpen ↗

(See Lance's comeback)

I have the 2nd entry for strength training about Range of Motion available.

Blog Series:

1. Progressive Overload
   
2. Range of Motion
   

.....and as a bonus you will get for free if you act now 🙂 (joking)

Visualization

I am considering the next of the series on how to work on balancing out muscle groups, such as, one arm or leg being slighty weaker than the other.

Disclaimer: The blog entries are of course my observations through the years and not all may agree with those observations, but my intentions are to help those with very basic knowledge of training with weights and common mistakes that I have either experienced personally or observe during many years of training at the gym.

Skinny and ripped = not that hard

Big and ripped = hard

-js

RHR38 said:

Lance doing some corework. Hardass is ripped me thinks..

elizabethkreutz.comelizabethkreutz.comOpen ↗

(See Lance's comeback)

Excellent points on the range of motion...ego, fear and patience gets far too much in the way.

I have seen so many folks in the gym who can barely get parallel on a squat, forget about box squat. It is tough...I have to remind myself often before I go into a lift, proper form and range of motion. You need both to be successful.

To me honestly the hardest thing to really master and still alludes me a bit is muscle control. Especially true in back and chest workouts where many are using all arms and little to no back or chest. It is that little extra pull or flex of the targeted muscle group that can make all the difference.

-js

Felt_Rider said:

I have the 2nd entry for strength training about Range of Motion available.

Blog Series:

1. Progressive Overload
   
2. Range of Motion
   

.....and as a bonus you will get for free if you act now 🙂 (joking)

Visualization

I am considering the next of the series on how to work on balancing out muscle groups, such as, one arm or leg being slighty weaker than the other.

Disclaimer: The blog entries are of course my observations through the years and not all may agree with those observations, but my intentions are to help those with very basic knowledge of training with weights and common mistakes that I have either experienced personally or observe during many years of training at the gym.