RCA: https://roadcyclingacademy.com
RCA Strength Program: https://roadcyclingacademy.com/weight-training-package/
Aaron Turner: https://www.usc.edu.au/staff/aaron-turner
Have you been thinking about starting gym as a master cyclist? There are huge improvements to be made in the gym, but more importantly, resistance training will make your body stronger and more resistance to injury. Watch on as Aaron explains just how strength training can help.
Working out your ideal max weight to lift and rep/set range: https://youtu.be/rIK1NWUjiSM
Cycling and bone health:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20581701/
https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1741-7015-10-168
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3230645/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37630821/
#strengthtraining #cycling #roadcycling
44 Comments
This makes me glad that I spend more time lifting weights than I do cycling. I don't cycle at all from late fall to early spring here in America. Also, what age are you starting the "masters" category? You don't look that old to me. For reference, I'm 59.
I wonder if the gym work is lower body specific regarding how many times you should go to the gym weekly. For example, if I go to the gym four days a week, spitting different body parts on different days and only doing legs once a week, that could be a negative?
As a 42yo cyclist whos on the larger side (6'6" and 115kg) I've found martial arts has been great. Can be high impact, very good high intensity vs what is usually a fairly steady intensity sport in cycling, and generally includes a bit of bodyweight strength and flexibility training as well.
Great video! I heard about this and I’m sure it’s because of low impact.
I know this is a cycling channel but running is one of the best high impact sports that also conditions your heart.
Also my mother’s doctor prescribed boxing with a punching bag for some impact. It’s all about the impact for bone density. Jumping jacks, burpees, jump rope, jogging, box
jumps.
Yep all aero exercises tend to do have these traits… so Lift weights heavy weights ❤
Joke’s on you! I never had type II muscle fibers to begin with 😂
Great info!!! 🍻
Love the content. I'm a 71 y/o woman who raced time trials and endurance events in the past. During that time, my winter season was full of cross country skiing and weight room training. Now that I'm older, I'm in a 6-person group in a gym with a trainer 45 min 3x/week. I'm maintaining muscle mass and strength with the circuits of compound movements and short aerobic segments. It's fun working out this way. There is no boredom given that when I walk in the door the only thing I know is that I'll get a good full body workout. I do have osteopenia, but have seen some improvement in my scan the past year. I'm going to keep it up!
This sucks for me. Even when lean and not lifting I am about 90kg – I gain muscle just by walking past the gym. Terrible for w/kg!
Power to weight ratio is important in cycling. People who persist with cycling are usually good at cycling; they have a high power to weight ratio. One way to get that high ratio is to have low weight. Is is possible that cycling SELECTS for low bone density?
for those time crunched athletes the Hatfield system could be an option: do one warmup set, followed by a set of strenght training 1-5 reps, 3-5min rest , one hypertophie set 8-12 reps, 2-3min of rest, and at last a set of 15-25 reps for resistance. Is it perfect? no! does it al least cover a bit if not enough of all three?? YES! regards from GER
For periodisation of strength training, look up Tudor Bompa. He is the pioneer of training periodisation.
interesting. good thing i got dumbbells as well as a bike.
Texas method does vary the volume and intensity within a week… one of the most famous strength programs in the world
I have been weight lifting for about 35 years. It was mainly for BMX. I didn't lift as much when I started racing road (crits) about 20 years ago, within about six years, I suffered low back injuries. The quadratus lumborum (QL). It can be very difficult to add strength training to a riding scheduling while working full time at my day job. With the help of a coach, I intentionally cut about 2 hours per week on the bike to use for weight lifting. It has made all the difference for my riding. My strength is finally back. I've had great results from 6-8 repetitions for legs and back. Core has also been an integral part of this program. Four days a week, two 40 minute and two 20 minute workouts.
This is the sort of stuff stick insect cyclists don't want to hear as they fear they will be slower up the climbs with extra muscle mass. However, if you want longevity, better quality of life and prolong your cycling 'career' then at some point you are going to have to embrace strength and conditioning work in your training regime.
I mountain bike and ride gravel. No paved roads for me. I weight train 3-4 days a week. Take a HIIT class 2x a week and I run. DEXA Scan says my bone density is good. I’m 56
Great topic, I’ve been cycling through weight training for 40 years, exactly the method you’re describing. I was put onto it by old school triathletes way back.. I’m 62 now and have great bone density
I’m aware swimmers have worse bone density
Might there be a relation to endurance athletes also generally having more risk of being low in blood iron? A quick search reveals bone mineral density might have a relation to iron levels. Just a hunch, might be massively wrong.
Started doing weights about 18 months ago on the advice of my gp due to having knee issues, he said just get on with it. It was a bit uncomfortable to start with but I'm now enjoying being considerably stronger, got a win end of last season. Massive over the bars after xmas and got injured , reckon it would have been worse without my improved upper body strength.
Bottom line is just do a bit, a bit is better than nothing. Even doing 3 minutes a day push ups, crunches and lunges will make a difference if you don't do anything.
Really interesting. Though not mentioned, I think cyclocross training would be beneficial due to its running requirement, a bit of bike lifting and high technical demands.
I was in a bike accident last spring. Broke my collarbone. I follwed Stacy Simms who was a triathlete and is an exercise physiologist who studies women. I am now on HRT, do jump rope, and strength training. I was a go out and ride 3-5 hours a day person. I increased my protein content to 1 gram per pound goal weight.
I love cycling, but am going to cut my riding down to 3 days a week and going on 1 to 2 hour rides.
According to Stacy Simms when you do cardio later in age, your body burns and breaks down muscle rather than burning fat. Lots of cardio messes with hormones. Lifting heavy weights increases our testosterone levels which decrease a lot in our 50s.
Is the body dumping bone to save weight to make the cycling more efficient?
swimming and cycling lead to lower bone density on average, running or walking or jumping is helpful to maintain a higher and more healthy density. the basic positive effect (there are some studies in the public) is triggered by the micro vibrations (found at least on study about this effect from the ETH Zürich online) – which neither swimmers, cyclists or humans in space experience in the way it seems to be necessary. weight lifting seem to help astronauts during (this is more pressing legs against an obstacle) during space flights and lifting after.
You're running on very old data. Early '00, all professional cycling teams started adding weight training and changed nutrition to address this. It's not a natural progression, it was a mistake in appropriate training and nutrition.
It's not a bad idea to get your bone density scanned, don't get me wrong, but just make sure you're doing some resistance training
You don't squat deep enough. Get ATG.
This was interesting to me because I've been doing my gym workouts with the 3 week up and down method for quit some time already I'm 62 and do 3 days a week in the gym in the winter season and one day during the race season even through my 18 year pro racing career I always had gym days maybe this is why i never broke any bones in crashes. I also used to ski and snowboard back in those days which helped with impact. After retiring from cycling I went and started racing motorcycles thur the woods another sport with impact that was a span of 17 years so when I got back on the pedals 6 years ago i guess that all helped me maintain bone health. So in short I always did stuff that helped me without knowing all the science behind it.
This guy is supposed to a sports science expert yet all he does is say (in a Ralph Wiggum voice) “we haven’t seen research, we haven’t seen research.”
If he’s a true expert, he should know pro cycling is the tip of the spear in terms of what works & what doesn’t. It’s literally 5-10 years ahead which is why he hasn’t seen any research.
Instead, use intuition & the data in front of you.
Use discernment which comes from having experience.
Does pedaling out of the saddle help since you loading weight onto your bones? I ask because I enjoy riding out of the saddle to the point I can easily stay out of the saddle for 15-20 miles. On every ride I ride out of the saddle at least once for 10 minutes at a time. I'm 73.
Brilliant video
Great insight
Tell on ice January 4th fractured my hip. Gym in coming once recovered
Ex powerlifter turned cyclist.
“Undulating Periodisation” is the term I think you are looking for.
REALLY smart way to train.
I’m a 54 yo with over 20 years of bodybuilding/ power lifting under my belt before I got into road cycling. I can certainly feel the difference on a bike after a winter of strength training, my core feels strong and I feel planted and able to transfer the power to the pedals. I try to lift heavy after a slow build to prevent tendon issues and generally aim for 2 leg sessions over a 7 to 10 day period. This last bit is important, forget training x times per week – everyone is different. For example I could train back twice per week back in the day, but not chest- I needed two more days recovery – so try and be flexible with your routine. Cycling will interfere with you strength gains, I can tell you for a fact that if you were just lifting a couple of times per week or so you would gain more strength and at a faster rate- but cycling and weights sends mixed messages (talking legs in terms of weights). Another example – one year I was squatting 190kg then started training for a half marathon, I still squatted but by the time I finished the event some months later I was down to about a 120 squat – it’s hard to do both 100%
It's because the sedentary people are obese, so it's like they're walking around with a 4 plates strapped on to them the fat fks.
4:00 it's only the impact not the stretch of the muscles. Swimmers have the same problem
TrainingPeaks Virtual Grand Tour race details:
https://youtu.be/W–Ris4a7lw
Are you saying I can slow down the slowing down?
The more you workout muscles make bones harder
Hello, RCA! I'm new to your channel. I've been cycling for 10 years here and there as a hobby.
Now I've just started a job as a delivery guy on my bike. Thing is that I have to cycle at least 8 hours a day 5-6x a week to pay my bills.
Will this inevitably lead to an injury? I have to do this out of necessity so I can't avoid this.
Do you have any videos, resources to recommend for me to learn about training and help me do things right?
Also, would this lead to improvements on the bike? I suppose not optimal, but at least some improvement if I do it for a year.
im 64 and just booked a Dexa scan for end of March will be interesting to see the results
Time to start running… Argh 😕
I dabble in duathlons in my mid 50s, just run around 25km per week (5k 5 times a week for eg) and vast majority of folks are golden.
I would look at the correlation between BMI and bone density in the general population, to get some more idea. Hypotheses would be that higher body mass correlates positively with bone density, due to 1. nutrotion and stress on the bones. Then I would guess road cyclists are in general lower BMI.