Weight training - useful or not?

[traveller_62]

Andrea,

Great input. Thanks! I live in a small rural town in Maine so I'm not sure there are many CSCS's running about but I'll see if I can track one down. There are lots of athletes around and lots of personal trainers...but finding someone with the credentials you mention may not be so easy.

I'll continue to lift for many of the reasons you list. Hopefully find someone locally who can figure out a specific lifting plan for me that would be appropriate and specific to building cycling power. In the meantime, I'll not worry to much about it and just enjoy riding my bike

[Wahine]

So I was one of the posters in the original spirited discussion. And I'm going to comment on a few of the things I said there, here:

1) resistance training is very important for bone mass
2) also important for increasing the tensile strength of tendons and ligaments to prevent injury with forceful movements (someone else mentioned this here as well)
3) is an effective way to increase the number of muscle fibres available for recruitment during cycling, that is, there is a beneficial neuromuscular effect to increase endurance that cannot easily be obtained another way unless you're willing to ride 6 hours a day like Lance did

New things that I would add specific to this discussion:
4) plyometric and ballistic movements when lifting weights are beneficial for increased effective use of fast twitch fibres that give you that short burst of speed when you need it (eg sprint end to a race)
5) I would reiterate the importance of core training for two reasons. You're likely to hurt yourself with ballistic motion or plyo if you don't have a strong core and a strong core translates into better application of power to the pedal (it's like having a stiff sole on your cycling shoe vs a squishy sole)

So in the end, yes I believe lifting weights is a good thing but I don't agree with ballistic lifting unless you are trying to increase sprinting power. Slightly faster lifts may be more beneficial in that you are recruiting the muscles at a speed closer to what you would use in cycling.

There are a bunch of people out there doing crossfit workouts, these are great, they combine better core work and faster movements (but not necessarily ballistic). I think these are very good workouts but you definitely need to be careful to modify the weights used to allow you to do the movements safely. I know a crossfit coach that recommends at least 3 months of doing the workouts with a bar only for things like squats and deadlifts while focusing completely on form, before you ever think of doing anything adding more weight than this.

[Andrea]

^I also do Crossfit workouts! They definitely take some instruction to learn the Olympic lifts and some of the other more complex movements involved with a lot of the workouts, but are a great combo of strength, endurance, and power exercises.
I've noticed an improvement in my cycling since starting them, but since Crossfit isn't research-proven as of yet, I'm hesitant to tell everyone that it's the best thing for cyclists since STI shifters and clipless pedals.

[RoadRaven]

Well, since joining this forum, I have learned a bit about weight training and women and cycling... and I understand now that it has a place (Thankyou people like Wahine, Hann and Andrea)

I do crunches (when I remember) to make my tummy stronger.

I have known for years that as we get older, weight-bearing exercise is increasingly important.
This is not always easy on a bike (depending on how you ride I guess) and certainly not as effective as something like low impact aerobics, or weights.

Having said that, I still stand by what I say every time this discussion comes up. If you want to get fit for cycling, you ride a bike.

My favourite discipline is time trialling, so I try to train smart. I am improving my performance in time-trials by the types of training rides I do.
I do my power-training on my time trial bike... so I do intervals in my biggest (or big as possible depending on conditions) gear - so my heart rate does not get really high, and the cadence is very slow but my legs get REALLY tired! I do hill reps on moderate gradient hills - seated and on my aero-bars...

I am not an exercise specialist, and maybe (probably, by what our experts have explained) if I had a gym workout I could improve my power output, but I don't have a coach/trainer with this expertise, and what I am doing is working for me.

And I think that is the key... experiment. Find what you like doing, what you have time for, and what you can afford.
(I like riding outside, I don't like gyms/ I have to fit my life around work, kids and the long drive to&from work - I don't have time to go to the gym / I can't afford to belong to a gym...)