# Best of both worlds: working weights and cycling (no competition)



## Midgetman (May 4, 2010)

There is a plenty of threads around in which people brain each other because they cannot agree on whether lifting weights will make you a faster cyclist or not.
Not everybody is trying to win a mountain time trial though. I believe that I'm not the only person around who tries to combine cycling and lifting weights and wants to achieve reasonable performance on the road and in the gym. You might call that the attempt to become a "complete" athlete.

I currently exercise six times a week; trice on the bike and trice in the gym:

Mon off
Tue gym: legs, shoulders, core
Wed gym: back, biceps, core
Thu: gym: chest, triceps, core
Fri: bike: about 2h @ 70-80% of lactate threshold
Sat: bike: intensive/intervals, 2-3h with intervals or fartleks (lactate threshold to max)
Sun: bike: extensive, 3-5h @ 70-80% of lactate threshold or moderate fartleks

At the gym I do twelve weeks of hypertrophy training (4x8-12 reps) followed by four weeks of maximum strength / intramuscular coordination training (3x3 reps), twelve weeks hypertrophy, and three weeks of endurance training (3x25 reps).

I think, however, that I might be doing too many sets for each muscle. The chest workout for example includes three varieties of chest press plus flies. That adds up to sixteen sets (+ eight sets for the triceps + core workout) and I feel that as a result the hypertrophy training might be turned into an endurance training. I'm 6.6ft and weigh about 207lb - aim is 220lb. What do you think?

As for cycling: I've recently changed the plan from training at the gym and on the bike in turns, because I think that this way I have a longer period of recreation for the legs and can train harder. Nevertheless I feel the urge to get on the bike for at least a little recreational ride after working the weights. These little rides turn out to end up as normal exercises, especially when meeting other riders... Thus I was pretty worn out after the last weekend. Would you suggest to drop the "little rides", switch back to training in turns, or will it be sufficient to reduce intensity and duration?
In general three intensive strength workouts combined with three times cycling a way works out quite well for me (won a sprint triathlon, 24h MTB race (team of two), and placed top ten in another MTB marathon last year).

Could the solution to these "problems" maybe be to have shorter strength workouts (a total of six to nine sets?) and plan them as compound training (or two exercises a day) in turn? E.g. something like:

Mon off
Tue chest/back/core + moderate cycling
Wed shoulders/arms/core + intervals
Thu legs/core + recreational ride
Fri chest/back/core (+ recreational ride)
Sa shoulders/arms/core + fartleks
Su extensive ride

Your comments? What is your training schedule like?


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## Topher (Jun 5, 2005)

Not an expert - but I was a collegiate runner, and have trained myself for half-ironmans, etc. 

I agree that lifting is important... I am riding 4 days a week, lifting two or three. Most of my lifting is 3 x 10-12 reps, but I'm not trying to gain muscle mass. It sounds like you are trying to put on quite a bit of muscle mass, so have at it. 

I don't think you need to drop the little rides... you said you were pretty worn out - was it because you increased your weekly mileage too quickly? Was this a one week experiment, or have you been doing it for a few weeks, and are still worn out? 

Regarding your mixed workout plan, I think lifting 5x a week is excessive... 4 would be the most I would do. You could get to 4 pretty easily by combining some leg work into 1 or 2 of your days and that still leaves you with 2 chest/back/core, shoulders/arms/core days each week if you shorten the rest of your strength workouts, this shouldn't be hard to do. Keeping your Tues/Wed. Fri/Sa schedule would give 2 days off for your muscle groups, which I think would help you recover. 

One other thought... what about riding first and lifting second? Do your lifting in the evening after you've done your ride.


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## Midgetman (May 4, 2010)

Well, I don't think that 220lb @ 6.6ft are very much. I'm still a pretty lean guy. When I did road racing, I weighed only 175lb - but I wouldn't like to look like that again.
Gaining weight is not the object anyway, if it was I'd go to a bodybuilding board. Let's put it that way: 220lb is a (long term) goal and a maximum at the same time. Actually I already had 220lb, but lost some weight after a crash.

The week split (3xgym followed by 3xcycling) is an experiment. I was eager to see whether this would lead to better results. In principal the cycling performance should benefit from the consecutive exercises. A (cycling) coach I talked to said I should try it.
If it doesn't work out, I go back to the alternating system (gym-bike-gym...).
My week milage did indeed grow, but only by two hours (got no bike computer). I don't think that's the problem. Maybe it was just a poor week.

Two "complete" leg workouts a week are too much, I think. They wouldn't mix with the intensive workouts on the bike. I sometimes do two or three leg workouts per week in winter, but then I combine them with very easy, recreational exercise on the bike. 
I wonder whether shorter, "incomplete" exercises for the legs on the other days would make sense for a cyclist. Our legs are trained so well already that we have to work with high intensity in order to provoke some adaptation. High intensity means specific warm-up and that consumes a lot of time... 
I'd rather drop the leg workouts altogether and do some uphill sprints instead. Then I'd be down to four strength workouts as well.

Riding first and lifting second is certainly a good idea - as long as I keep the rides short (carb reserve). Exception: riding after leg workouts makes sense, as you keep the blood circulation and lactate disposal going.


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## Midgetman (May 4, 2010)

I dropped the leg workout at the gym and settled for four very short strength workouts a week.

workout 1: bench press, incline bench press, neck press, dips, hanging abdominal leg raise
workout 2: pull-ups, t-bar rows, barbell upright rows, barbell curls, crunches

I do workout 1 on Monday and Friday, workout 2 on Tuesday and Saturday. As for cycling, I prepare for a ITT in July and come up with the following:

Mo: recovery ride + workout 1
Tu: intervals + workout 2
We: off
Th: endurance ride (z2)
Fr: intervals + workout 1
Sa: recovery + workout 2
Su: fartlek


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## Swish (Jul 31, 2004)

In my personal experience people tend to overtrain. I get good results with short but intense workouts, 45 mins max. I like the P90X routines but I have heavily altered them to my liking. 
I'm only able to get in 1-2 rides per week, I try to give my legs atleast 1 day of rest after I've trained them in the gym, before getting on the bike. A 2 day rest would be even better.


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