Exercise Program for Cyclists

Hi, I thought this might be of some help.



Q: I am about to get back into Road Cycling and was wondering if there
were any exercises and routines that you could recommend. To start
with recreationally, but I am intending to get into amateur racing
eventually.

A: Cycling is very specific, and is not like activities we perform
daily. Your current training program should include:

1. One-leg squats
2. Squats
3. Lunges
4. Step ups on a platform
5. Lying or standing side leg lifts with leg/knee rotated down
(internally) and slightly in front of the body (works the gluteus
medius)
6. Clam shells: Lying on your side, bend legs into a fetal position.
Keeping the feet together, lift the top leg without rotating the hip.
This works the piriformis muscle (hip rotator).
7. Lower back extensions.

Many cyclists develop illiotibial band (ITB) problems due to weakness
in other muscles. Make sure to stretch all major muscle groups (upper
and lower body). Keep you body balanced by including upper body
exercises (especially the mid-and upper back which have a tendency to
become overstretched with cycling).

For your bike training:

Start slowly. Work on building a good aerobic base, where you are able
to ride for 60 minutes continuously (70-80% MHR, or RPE of 6-7). I
suggest riding a minimum of 3 days a week. After you have built a good
aerobic base, include:

1. One day of hill or interval training
2. Single leg pedaling drills
3. One long endurance ride.

Please let me know if you have any questions or need more information.

Ni Bueno
GHF’s Triathlon Expert

Taken from:
The Global Health & Fitness (GHF) Newsletter
Vol. # 382 September 19th, 2005
http://www.global-fitness.com/news/N...terVol382.html



Life is Good!
Jeff

In article ,
says...


Hi, I thought this might be of some help.


INDEED IT IS!!!

I've been looking for something just like this!!

Thanks so much!


-Bianchi Bob

Jeff Starr wrote in message
...
Hi, I thought this might be of some help.

Q: I am about to get back into Road Cycling and was wondering if
there
were any exercises and routines that you could recommend. To start
with recreationally, but I am intending to get into amateur racing
eventually.

A: Cycling is very specific

And that is why I think the rest of the answer given was far to
complicated. Just ride your bike; when your spending 10+ hours a week
doing that, you can get a bit more involved.

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 09:40:56 -0600, "Matthew Venhaus"
wrote:


Jeff Starr wrote in message
.. .
Hi, I thought this might be of some help.

Q: I am about to get back into Road Cycling and was wondering if
there
were any exercises and routines that you could recommend. To start
with recreationally, but I am intending to get into amateur racing
eventually.

A: Cycling is very specific

And that is why I think the rest of the answer given was far to
complicated. Just ride your bike; when your spending 10+ hours a week
doing that, you can get a bit more involved.

Yeah, your answer would have been really helpful to the guy asking the
question. The guy asked the question in a Health and Fitness
newsletter. These questions and answers are posted for all of their
readers, it gives them an opportunity to cover a topic.

Now do you understand why the answer was so thorough? Think about it,
why would I bother posting the info, if it came with your answer.

I found it interesting.


Life is Good!
Jeff

Jeff Starr wrote:
Many cyclists develop illiotibial band (ITB) problems due to weakness
in other muscles. Make sure to stretch all major muscle groups (upper

I am not really sure about this one. I know a lots of runners have ITB
problems, but cyclists ?? cycling is a not a weight bearing activity.

Very informative article, but there are lots of websites giving
information about how to strengthen legs. But when i posted to
misc.fitness.weights, most unanimous reply was to "ride the bike". I
tend to agree with it as well. Although weight training can give you
strong muscles, the endurance and sustained power output is built by
riding the bike. A proper system should include riding the bike equally
as much as training with weights.

my 2 cents,
+ravi

Jeff Starr wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 09:40:56 -0600, "Matthew Venhaus"
wrote:


Jeff Starr wrote in message
.. .
Hi, I thought this might be of some help.

Q: I am about to get back into Road Cycling and was wondering if
there
were any exercises and routines that you could recommend. To
start
with recreationally, but I am intending to get into amateur
racing
eventually.

A: Cycling is very specific

And that is why I think the rest of the answer given was far to
complicated. Just ride your bike; when your spending 10+ hours a
week
doing that, you can get a bit more involved.

Yeah, your answer would have been really helpful to the guy asking
the
question. The guy asked the question in a Health and Fitness
newsletter. These questions and answers are posted for all of their
readers, it gives them an opportunity to cover a topic.

Now do you understand why the answer was so thorough? Think about
it,
why would I bother posting the info, if it came with your answer.

I found it interesting.

I really don't think the answer in the OP was all that thorough. Let's
say I intended to implement the program recommended. I have a few
lower body exercise recommendations, but no volume parameters. So how
many sets do I do? How many reps in each set? How long do I rest
between sets? Between exercises? How often do I perform the exercises?
How do I coordinate strengthening exercises with streching exercises
and on-the-bike training?

Further, the answer wasn't very good. The author instructed the
trainee to balance upper body and lower body workouts but provided six
exercises for legs and one exercise for lower back. There were no
exercises for major muscle groups of the upper back, chest, or
shoulders. The author mentioned ITB inflexibility but didn't include
any specific stretching recommendations. It totally ignored the far
more common hip flexor inflexibility found in cyclists. The
strengthening exercise program recommended is likely to further
increase this inbalance because it includes very little hamstring work
relative to the quads. The author recommends only three rides per
week; perhaps for a triathlete relatively good on a bike this is
enough, but it is no where near enough for an aspiring amateur racer.

Matthew

"Jeff Starr" wrote in message
...
Hi, I thought this might be of some help.



Q: I am about to get back into Road Cycling and was wondering if there
were any exercises and routines that you could recommend. To start
with recreationally, but I am intending to get into amateur racing
eventually.

A: Cycling is very specific, and is not like activities we perform
daily. Your current training program should include:


Nothing can be more cycling specific than "ride the bike". None of those
exercises will yield even a percentage of the conditioning that riding the
bike over a variety of terrain will.

Nothing can be more cycling specific than "ride the bike". None of those
exercises will yield even a percentage of the conditioning that riding the
bike over a variety of terrain will.

How often do you "ride your bike over a variety of terrain" to the point of
muscular overload?






Chris Neary


"We will teach our twisted speech to the young believers"
-- The Clash

A: Cycling is very specific, and is not like activities we perform
daily. Your current training program should include:

1. One-leg squats
2. Squats

be very careful with these. doing them wrong will blow out your knees.
--
mac the naïf

Alex Colvin writes:

A: Cycling is very specific, and is not like activities we perform
daily. Your current training program should include:

1. One-leg squats
2. Squats

be very careful with these. doing them wrong will blow out your knees.

Don't do squats at all. Loaded knee bends are what cause most knee
damage. The US Army took long to discover that deep knee bend
exercises caused the most 4-F service discharges in basic training.
Knee bends of pedaling afflict many people's knees, they having done
no loaded knee bends greater than about six inches, encountered on
stairs... that are generally avoided by using elevators and
escalators. The two story home is scarce these days and running up
stairs two at a time in youth is good training but not done much
anymore. Pedaling a bicycle is in effect a 14-inch loaded knee bend.

Jobst Brandt