# More specific lifting questions



## Alkan (Jun 30, 2011)

I'm wondering who here does a decent portion of upper body work. I'm wondering if this would be detrimental or beneficial (or neutral) to overall cycling ability. Plus, I plan on doing some of that slow leg work that is intended to give your nerves more control over a larger range of muscles, improving efficiency.

So, I'm wondering since I have goals of having a lot of strength and endurance overall while being at least halfway competitive in some cycling events. I'm also wondering how cycling affects muscle overall, including in how much build you get in your legs, and if it subtracts any up top. I mean, you see plenty of professional riders with very large thighs and seem to be pretty well defined up top.

So, overall I'm interested in how all of this works to give you an overall ability in strength and endurance, since I'm also kind of interested in being well suited for backpacking.


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## bytewalls (Feb 14, 2010)

I do upper body work in the off season, specifically working the triceps through extensions and also doing lat pulldowns. The lat pull down is particularly helpful because it helps strengthen some of the muscles that often cause achey neck on LONG rides. I do lots of reps at low weight (3- 5 sets 15-25 reps).

Cyclists have all sorts of muscle fiber, typically the best climbers and time trialists have a lot of lean muscle fiber. They type of stuff that can go for a long time at lower force levels. Their legs aren't weak by any means but the don't look massive (Andy Schleck and Bradley Wiggins are good examples). Sprinters tend to have the large bulky super high force muscle fiber type. In general when lifting slow is good. Near the end of my off season I start doing faster lifts to work on power, but force and continued force is the biggest thing when riding. I don't know a whole lot about backpacking but since they are both endurance activities there should be a decent carry over.


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## habu987 (May 14, 2012)

I do full body lifting. I'm first and foremost a competitive swimmer (just picked up cycling a couple weeks ago) and am built like a tank.

Of my cycling friends who are also competitive swimmers, they generally tend to run on the leaner end of the scale. On the other hand, I've got a lot of chest/shoulder/back/arm mass, along with big legs. As a sprinter in the pool, I tend more to bulk overall.

As I'm new to the sport, I can't say what upper body work is preferable for cycling as opposed to swimming. That being said, I can't imagine that any of it would be detrimental. Well, if putting on more muscle weight is detrimental, then sure, but if that's not a concern then I can't see how general upper body lifting would be a bad thing.


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## kbiker3111 (Nov 7, 2006)

Alkan said:


> I'm wondering who here does a decent portion of upper body work. I'm wondering if this would be detrimental or beneficial (or neutral) to overall cycling ability. Plus, I plan on doing some of that slow leg work that is intended to give your nerves more control over a larger range of muscles, improving efficiency.
> 
> So, I'm wondering since I have goals of having a lot of strength and endurance overall while being at least halfway competitive in some cycling events. I'm also wondering how cycling affects muscle overall, including in how much build you get in your legs, and if it subtracts any up top. I mean, you see plenty of professional riders with very large thighs and seem to be pretty well defined up top.
> 
> So, overall I'm interested in how all of this works to give you an overall ability in strength and endurance, since I'm also kind of interested in being well suited for backpacking.


The thing with lifting is not necessarily whether or not it is ultimately positive to cycling so much as whether it is the most efficient use of time. Assuming you're like the rest of us, you only have limited workout time each week and even if you have 40+ hours a week to train you probably don't have the ability to recover from that much workload. Is upper body lifting detrimental to cycling performance? Probably not a lot. But could you be using your time better?

If it were me and I were lifting with the goal of cycling performance, I would include a lot of total body lifts (like squats, dead lifts, cleans, kettleball, etc) in addition to leg specific exercises. That will give you functional strength you need for everyday life and you won't really miss the other stuff, unless you want to punch someone really hard or look like the Situation with your shirt off.


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## bytewalls (Feb 14, 2010)

habu987 said:


> I do full body lifting. I'm first and foremost a competitive swimmer (just picked up cycling a couple weeks ago) and am built like a tank.
> 
> Of my cycling friends who are also competitive swimmers, they generally tend to run on the leaner end of the scale. On the other hand, I've got a lot of chest/shoulder/back/arm mass, along with big legs. As a sprinter in the pool, I tend more to bulk overall.
> 
> As I'm new to the sport, I can't say what upper body work is preferable for cycling as opposed to swimming. That being said, I can't imagine that any of it would be detrimental. Well, if putting on more muscle weight is detrimental, then sure, but if that's not a concern then I can't see how general upper body lifting would be a bad thing.


Doing upper body work is not detrimental to cycling. It simply doesn't help and ads unnecessary weight. It can be an extra 10 lbs you have carry up the hills. Sprinters often have stronger upper bodys to hold the bike still. Climbers have the smallest spindliest arms you have ever seen.


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## aclinjury (Sep 12, 2011)

*don't worry about it*

Unless you're a sponsored pro whose livelihood depends on it, don't worry. Moderate weightlifting in general have many positive effect, particularly to bone density. After the age of about 25, your bone starts to undergo osteoporosis, so you need to do some weight bearing exercise to counteract this natural aging process of the bone.

I workout with weight, but I mainly do the exercise that involves total body workout, like squat, clean, deadlift, pullup. I hardly bench or dumbell curl (stuff that most guys at the gyms love to do endlessly in front of the mirror). Squating and cleaning will give you explosive power and will tend to pack on overall mass (including upperbody) simply because these two exercises are probably the most intense exercise you can do in a gym. Also, these 2 exercises because of their intensity tend to up the testosterone level in your body over time, which for an athlete is a good thing because testosterone has an overall anabolic effect.

The only thing is that a good honest leg workout will kill your legs for the next 4-5 days. But what you can do is do short sets of intense leg workout, like do 4 sets in 20 minutes and stop, then go do about 3-4 sets of slow leg extension to hit the slow twitch fibers. This will pack on the fast twitch fiber (mass) and some slower twitch fiber, and yet won't drain your legs for 4-5 days (your legs still gonna be drained for a good 2 days though). But if you just do the "slow and high resistance" leg workout continuously for an hour mindlessly, you can bet that your legs will be spent for the next 4-5 days (meaning, you'll be riding junk miles for 4-5 days).

Me, I ride 4 times a week, and workout 4-5 times/wk. Isn't killing my cycling performance? Probably. But I'm not competing for anything other than good health.


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