Since it is winter in North America and for many of us cyclocross is winding down, my suggestion for a podcast topic is weight training. I believe this was covered some time ago, but revisiting it would be helpful. A few questions:
How much strength training in the gym as a percentage of weekly training load is appropriate?
What is the best way to combine weight training with endurance rides and intervals?
Traditional exercises such as squats and RDLs vs plyometrics and functional movements
How to integrate weight training, or eliminate it, during the early spring season and into the summer
Thanks for considering the suggestion. You all are doing great work on your side.
Cheers,
Erik G
Portland, Oregon
Although the movements in strength training are (or can be) different from cycling, the same principles apply:
overloading & recovery
low load + long duration = good for endurance (type 1 fibers)
high load + short duration = good for strength (type 2 fibers)
high load + long duration = congratulations, you won !
So:
you can watch an entire Netflix series while squatting just 10 centimeters, and finish the title screen with 15x 90% knee angle squats to simulate the final sprint.
Please note:
both movements do not resemble the muscle load of a true pedal stroke. Expect the muscle load to be higher and some muscle pains after your first few session.
expect your average heart rate to stay lower than during cycling. Strength training is not the ideal modality for preparing your heart for cycling
you don’t need to become stronger than you need to be. You won’t win a race because of your 1 repeat max, but because of your 100K repeated max. A Belgium Phd (Jan Olbrecht) said something along the lines of: develop the capacity you need (strength), then increase the repeatability.
I love this topic idea. I was thinking of it from a slightly different perspective. Weight training for your rider type and goals/sports.
E.g. time trialists need different from track need different from crit / MTB. And fast twitch muscle types need different than slow twitch (Adam peaty trains strength before endurance without a break because he’ll otherwise put on too much muscle)
For all of us, if we took a time off we need an adaption period… And ideally we never take off more than 7 days.
For those that have issues activating your transverse abdominals (think someone who snakes while pedaling), they need to focus on that first before anything else.