Strengthen Your Cycling

Strengthen Your Cycling

By David Kathmann, MS, RSCC, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Written on January 28, 2013

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So you like to cycle and are probably a little competitive, whether it is on the weekend with a few friends, training for a few events each year, or on the national level.  Everyone is always looking for the competitive edge over their opponent.  That edge can be altering your nutrition, your total hours spent on the saddle, the sweat you pour during hill intervals, and recovery between rides.  However, a highly overlooked and shunned aspect of training for cycling is lifting weights.  I’m not talking about high repetition weight lifting with light weights performed in a circuit with incomplete rest intervals that focuses on endurance and “toning”.  I’m talking about lifting heavy weights (relatively speaking for each individual), like squats, deadlifts, pull ups, and power cleans, for low repetitions that focuses on significantly improving your absolute strength levels. Before you stop reading and think I’m trying to make you into the next Arnold Schwarzenegger with enormous, bulging muscles, hear me out. 

Let’s first cover a few definitions to make sure we are on the same page, starting with the term “strength.” Strength is the ability of your muscles to exert force against an external resistance.  In cycling, strength is used when you drive your pedals down with your legs. Strength is also like pushing against the ground while performing a squat. In order to build your strength, you need to find an external stimulus that makes your body work harder than it is accustomed to. Another pair of definitions I’d like to cover is “work” and “power.”  Work is defined as force multiplied by distance (F x D). The more force you apply over a set distance, the more work you complete. Power is defined as work divided by time (W / T). The more work you perform over a set time, the more powerful you are. There are plenty more physics definitions I won’t bore you with, but those are some important ones. How does this apply to cycling, and, more importantly, you? 

SRM training device is a tool that measures cycling power

Consider this, the person who is able to apply the most force over a set distance (works hardest) and is most powerful (works fastest) wins the race. Basically, the rider who is the strongest and most efficient relative to his or her bodyweight will win the race. (Yes, endurance is important too, but is beyond the scope of this article). I’ll provide an example.  Why can a male, typically (not always), beat a female in a head-to-head cycling race? A few reasons, first, males have a VO_2max advantage. A VO_2max is a measure of one’s endurance or the maximal ability of the body to utilize oxygen. Males have bigger hearts, have bigger lungs, have less body fat, have more muscle mass, and are typically stronger. Let’s look at the muscle mass and strength advantage because, ultimately, it is your muscles that move the bike.  More muscle mass and strength allows men to apply more force into pedaling, propelling them further with each stroke. The reason males are stronger and have more muscle mass is because they have more testosterone. Here’s another example: Why do cycling organizations test for steroids and testosterone? Steroids (a precursor to testosterone) aid in recovery and help boost your red blood cell count, but also make the user stronger, providing an unfair advantage. If strength didn’t matter in cycling, then steroids and testosterone would be allowed.  

  

If you still believe lifting heavy weights will slow you down on the bike, let me present you with some research.  In 2010, a review found that implementing heavy strength training (along with endurance training) for a highly trained National Cycling Team resulted in an improvement of short-term and long-term endurance capacity, and improved their time trial performance (1; additional research, 2).  This group did not have a significant gain in muscle mass, nor did they have a decrease in muscle capillary density (the amount of blood getting to your muscles), but they improved their strength and power. This improvement in short- and long-term endurance capacity has also been seen in untrained and moderately trained cyclists, but only when performing strength training at a high intensity (at least 80% of your 1 repetition max). The reason strength training improves endurance capacity is because strength training improves the neuromuscular system, the connection and function of your nerves to your muscles.  In turn, every contraction of the muscles is more forceful, which means more force being placed into your pedal strokes.

You will still look like this while lifting heavy weights

Not like this . . . I promise

            Strength training causes an improvement in movement economy too. This means that it takes less effort to maintain a certain power output. This is because you are stronger and every stroke of the pedal is at a smaller percentage of your maximal strength. Since you are stronger, this movement is a much smaller percentage than before. If you are worried that lifting heavy weights will make you look like a meathead, take heed, because an important note in this study is that there was no significant increase in body mass because the endurance side of training requires thousands of calories and when you are in a calorie deficit, even when lifting heavy weights, you cannot gain mass.

Do you want to know something even more mind blowing? Another study on competitive cyclists found that replacing hours on the bike with time spent in the weight room performing explosive movements (e.g. plyo box jumps) also improves short- and long-term endurance capacity on the bike (3).  So, if you were worried there wouldn’t be enough time in your busy schedule to put in your hours on the bike and lift weights, well you’re in luck because you can replace some hours on the bike with an hour or less in the weight room and actually improve your cycling performance. 

If you put a bigger engine in a car (let’s say trading in your Honda’s V6 for an Aston Martin V12), which obviously weighs more, does it slow the car down? Of course not!  The car is faster. Thus, if you add even a few pounds of muscle mass (your body’s engine) to your body due to weightlifting and eating, odds are you will shock yourself and have an improvement in your cycling (4). This is because you have significantly improved your body mass to strength ratio due to weightlifting.

     Robert Foerstemann squats and it doesn't slow him down.            Look at those quads!

                         (Yes, I know he is a sprint cyclist)

           You cannot, I repeat, cannot gain a significant amount of muscle-mass without gaining a significant amount of strength. However, if you put on too much fat mass, then you will definitely slow down because fat mass is dead weight [junk in the trunk (of your car)] and doesn’t contribute to improving your cycling. “The ability to gain muscle mass and minimize fat mass” talk will be saved for another day or you can speak with us over at Pro Fit Strength and Conditioning.

                                             Robert Foerstemann squatting the house! (484 LBS)

Here at Pro Fit S&C, we tailor all programs to each individual’s goals and have the education and experience to reach those goals in the most effective manner. If you haven’t checked us out or even talked with us about your goals, then you are missing out on an important facet of your training.  We love talking about exercise and any related topic, I promise we don’t bite and a friendly conversation with us is always free! So what are you waiting for?! You might even learn a thing or two.  In the mean time, get under that barbell and start squatting your way to better cycling performance and let your competition watch those powerful glutes of yours as you leave them in your dust. 

Disclaimer: All photos in this article are not property of Pro Fit Strength and Conditioning and are intended only for visual entertainment.

REFERNCES

1. Aagaard, P. and Andersen, J. L. Effects of Strength Training on Endurance Capacity in Top-Level Endurance Athletes. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports 20 (Suppl. 2): 39-47, 2010.  

2. Aagaard, P.; Andersen, J. L.; Bennekou, M.; Larsson, B.; Olesen, J. L.; Crameri, R.; Magnusson, S. P.; and Kjaer, M. Effects of Resistance Training On Endurance Capacity and Muscle Fiber Composition in Young Top-Level Cyclists. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports 21: e298–e307, 2011.

3. Paton, C. D. and Hopkins, W. G. Combining Explosive and High-Resistance Training Improves Performance in Competitive Cyclists. J. Strength Cond. Res. 19(4): 826-830, 2005.

4. Martin, J.C.; Davidson, C.J. and Pardyjak, E.R. Understanding Sprint-Cycling Performance: The Integration of Muscle Power, Resistance, and Modeling. Int. J. Sports Phsy. Perf. 2: 5-21, 2007.

CORE...No More!!!

CORE…No More!!!

By David Kathmann, MS, RSCC, CSCS, NSCA-CPT

Written on January 2, 2013

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I’m going to start off my blogging with an issue that comes around every year and applies to everyone from the mother of three to top tier athletes. Everyone wants “a tighter, stronger core”, “six pack abs”, “a toned midsection”, or whatever your favorite line is to strengthen up the midsection in time for summer. If one thing frustrates me more than anything in the world of strength and conditioning and personal training, it is the inability for trainers and strength coaches to think critically.  This is highly present in understanding how the body moves, especially in light of research and experience.  Many strength and conditioning coaches and personal trainers blindly follow the newest trends and don’t take the time to step back and critically think about the effectiveness of the hottest new piece of equipment or exercise.  One of the most overrated, useless, waste-of-time examples of this is isolated core exercises.                                                               

            

           Lets begin by laying out what some (not all inclusive) of the “core” (trunk; midsection) muscles are: rectus abdominis, external obliques, internal obliques, transverse abdominis, erector spinae, quadratus luborum, multifidus, longissimus thoracis, diaphragm, psoas major, illiacus, latissimus dorsi, gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, gluteus minimus, trapezius, pelvic floor, … and the list goes on.  You see how much the “core” is connected with the rest of the body and which begs the question, “what is the function of the ‘core’?”.  The main function of the trunk musculature (“core”) is to stabilize the spine and translate force generated against the ground from the legs and hips on up.; not to lie on our toes and forearms (planks) or to flex our spine forward (crunches) in an attempt to get those washboard abs. Side note: if you want that elusive 6-pak, guess what, you already have it!  The only problem is that layers of fat cover those razor abs and the only way to get them to show through is a cleaner diet, but I digress.

So that is where your 6-pak has been hiding . . . inside of you.

            How then does one strengthen the trunk muscles without apparatuses such as the BOSU Ball?  Simple, use the body and trunk muscles as they are intended: as an entire unit.  This means to choose exercises that have you translate force from the legs and hips to your upper body and/or exercises that stabilize your spine. This includes main, compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, bench press (yes, bench press), pull ups, Olympics lifts (a.k.a. weightlifting in the Olympics; clean and jerk and snatch), and similar movements.  Most of these movements require you to translate force from your legs up your body and to the barbell, while maintaining a stable spine. I know that “core” exercises do in fact work your trunk muscles (based on EMG readings), but nowhere near the level that a relatively heavy squat or deadlift can. Also, these main exercises allow you to incrementally load the movements to not only progressively strengthen the trunk musculature, but the rest of the body as well.  However, I must note that these movements (the main exercises) are hard, much harder than a plank on a stability ball.  Also, there is some coaching and thinking involved in performing these movements correctly. If you already have a personal trainer and you are doing isolated core movements, then you may want to start looking for a new strength coach, because he/she either is too lazy to teach you how to train properly or doesn’t know how to teach the main exercises correctly. Either way, they don’t have your best interest in mind.

           

                                                       Arnold knows the benefits of squats. Do you?

There are exceptions regarding the ability to perform the main exercises, but a very limited amount.  If one movement is contraindicated for an individual for the time being, be it due to a surgery or some other existing “situation”, then the individual can most likely do some of the other movements pain-free. Of course, in my opinion, these people should have already been getting strong with the main exercises before the surgery or “situation” and deserve a little break, but I’m an idealist. Rarely is a person ever contraindicated from doing all the main, compound exercises for any extended period of time, but is only able to do “core” exercises.  Just doing one or two of the main exercises (at even 50% of a person’s 1 repetition max) can elicit far better trunk muscle strengthening than any glute bridge or quadruped extension (3).

            If you aren’t convinced that the main exercises mentioned above are sufficient enough to get your “core” strong, then 1) You haven’t had enough experience getting strong with the main exercises, so start getting stronger 2) Do your research homework (Check out the resources after this blog) and 3) Test yourself. I’ll provide you with an example you are familiar with, the leg press. How much can you leg press? The house, I bet.  There are probably not enough polyhexigonal plates in your gym to leg press because your legs are so strong.  Now, can you take that exact same weight you can leg

press and squat it? I’m going out on a limb and going to say, “No.”  Why not? You just proved your legs are strong enough to lift the weight, so why can’t you do it while standing up with a bar across your back?  Simple, you don’t have a stable, padded chair to help you out.  The reason you can’t squat more than you can leg press is because you have to support all the weight of the barbell and have to translate the force your strong legs can generate against the ground up (wait for it), yes, your trunk (a.k.a. that core you’ve been working on), to the bar on your back.  Squats require you to maintain a neutral, stable spine and work the trunk the way the muscles are suppose to work (force transfer and spine stabilization).  Be diligent in your training and keep adding weight each time you squat, and when you get your squat up to a respectable weight, you’ll notice your core is much stronger. Now, tell me how effective a superman, back extension is now!

                                    Don't be "that" guy who is "working" his core harder.

Here at Pro Fit Strength and Conditioning, we focus our training on getting the entire body stronger with the main, compound exercises, and use the body in unison, as it is intended for; not as isolated, individual parts.  This gives our clients an efficient, high quality workout with outstanding results.  If you don’t know where to start or need some high quality coaching to learn form and programming, then come see us at Pro Fit (training@pfstrength.com) and we will get you started in the right direction. So, stop sitting on your stability ball or stirring the pot or whatever you are trying to do to isolate and tone your “core” and get to training and getting stronger, all over!

Disclaimer: All photos in this article are not property of Pro Fit Strength and Conditioning and are intended only for visual entertainment.

References

1. Chulvi-Medrano, I., Garcia-Masso, X., Colado, J.C., Pablos, C., Alves de Moraes, J., and Fuster, M.A. Deadlift Muscle Force and Activation Under Stable and Unstable Conditions. J. Strength Cond. Res. 24(10): 2723-2730, 2010.

2. Hamlyn, N., Behm, D.G., and Young, W.B.  Trunk Muscle Activity During Dynamic Weight-Training Exercises and Isometric Instability Activities. J. Strength Cond. Res. 21(4): 1108-1112, 2012.

3. Nuzzo, J.L., McCaulley, G.O., Cormie, P., Cavill, M.J., and McBride, J.M. Trunk Muscle Activity During Stability Ball And Free Weight Exercises. J. Strength Cond. Res. 22(1): 95-102, 2008.

 2012 Pro Fit Strength and Conditioning www.pfstrength.com