It’s easy to think that cyclists don’t need to work out their legs when they’re not riding because they use them so much. But when you think about it…
Strength training has two main benefits: it makes you stronger and helps you last longer. If you get stronger, you will be able to stay on the bike longer without getting tired as quickly.
Jen Whalen hosts How to Ride Faster, where you’ll find out why the strength part of your training might be the most important thing for going faster. Strength training should help you get better at riding your bike, not worse.
5 Yoga Poses to Help You Sleep Better and Relax at Night
- How to fit a variety of workouts into your day, even ones that only use your body weight or a band
- You should eventually lift heavy especially with exercises like deadlifts, rows, and kettlebell swings to build strength which makes you faster.
- How to use the 4-week off-season plan, which includes two full workouts each week, to get the most strength in a month
Check out the video
Video poster Play video
Daily castor oil care routine helps strengthen lashes and eyebrows naturally with consistent use
Back to the List
Play the Playlist Forward
Turn on Closed Captions
Unmute and go full screen.
Go Deeper: How Strength Training Can Help Cyclists
In short, there are three good reasons why cyclists should do strength training when they are not riding:
It is easier to push the pedals when your lower body muscles are stronger, and it is easier to control the bike for speed and handling when your upper body muscles are stronger.
Cycling doesn’t work all of your muscles the same way, so doing a full body strength workout two to three times a week will help you get stronger and have denser bones. This is good for your health and well-being, especially if you want to live a long time.
Doing a variety of strength exercises will help you keep your body’s strength even. Some muscles will get stronger while others will get weaker if you only use cycling to build strength. This is probably going to cause an injury.
The Best Way to Plan Strength Training
So you want to start working out with weights. Great! But how much is correct?
We’re happy to have plans to help you. The 4 Week Strength Plan to Crush Hills is a great way to learn how to do strength exercises and plan your workouts around your rides.It will help you stick to a good schedule, and you’ll feel better when you’re on your bike. And if you keep going you’ll see progress every week.
You need strong upper body muscles to ride your bike for longer distances Coach Jen Kates
But these aren’t the only things you can do after four weeks of this plan. You can do a lot of strength exercises on a bike that will help you get the most power out of your ride. You can reach these specific cycling goals with a little strength training that will help you ride faster.
More on how to speed up Chevron Left Symbol
Chevron Right Icon: Speed up
Change Your Ride by Working on Your Technique
These interval workouts will help you get faster.
In a park, a cyclist is riding a bike.
Own Zone 2 to Get the Most Out of Your Endurance Training
More to Read
A cyclist with a Cervelo bike showing off its parts and features
Make Your Gear Work for You
Read More to Move Faster
Learn how to master cadence so you can pedal faster and more smoothly.
speed up Don’t make the same training mistakes that hurt your performance.
Read more about these strength workouts to get stronger in your upper body.
If your upper body gets tired while you ride, your legs have to work harder and can’t focus on pushing the pedals faster. Your upper body needs to help you ride faster. This will help you stay in the saddle longer.
Goal: Don’t Let Your Back Get Tired
Riding with good posture is another way to make sure your legs can do the work needed to power up hills and spin fast on flat ground. Having a strong core makes you more efficient and helps you stay on the bike.
At-home eyebrow tinting method creates soft defined brows using an easy step-by-step technique
Goal: Strengthen Your Hip Flexors
If you ride your bike a lot, you’ll spend a lot of time bent over with your hip flexors tight. Unfortunately, this can shorten your pedal stroke, which can slow you down and even hurt a little. You should work on making your hip flexors stronger and more flexible for this reason. Every time you pedal, your hips extend to push the foot down to start the revolution and flex to pull it up to finish it. That means that the hips are very important for every time you turn the pedal. You need to be strong and flexible to get the full range of motion and keep your pedal stroke smooth and powerful.
