Why YOU should be doing strength training

Why YOU should be doing strength training

It would be easy to believe that for endurance cycling events you should only need to ride your bike, racking up 100s of kilometres every week.

But you would be wrong.

Multiday events and ultra distance races are mostly about mental and physical resilience, reliability, and consistency. Cycling is not a very dynamic movement, therefore you are prone to weakening of some ligaments, and muscles that aren’t being utilised. It's not very high impact either, so not doing much to maintain healthy bone density. In order to reduce the risk of injury, increase your physical resilience, your body needs dynamic movement, high impact exercises and to be challenged on a multi plane levels.

In early July last year I set off to France to see how much of the Pan Celtic Race route I could do. I had initially decided to withdraw due to a run of bad luck with my health over the previous 12 months. In that time, I hadn’t done a ride over 100km since last summer ( I hadn't realise this before heading to the start!), and only a couple of weekends of back of back rides. All I had managed to do is string together bursts of consistency with weekly strength and conditioning workouts, and occasional interval sessions on the turbo. I decided that aiming to do around 120km a day was feasible, if I paced it at an easy effort, and upgraded the gears on my bike to make the climbing easier. I was fully expecting to not last more than 3 days, and had already researched train stations on the route for when my body would inevitably give up!

At the end of day 1 I was tired, but my pacing strategy seemed to have worked. Same for day 2 and 3. I was surprised at how I wasn’t any more tired than at the end of day 1. It wasn’t until day 5 that I started to experience some over use issues in my right knee. It was a very slight niggle, one which, if I had been racing the event, I possibly could have pushed through to get myself to the finish line. In the end it was my mind that gave up before my body, (four nights in a bivi in persistent rain had eaten away at my enthusiasm! Afterall, I was touring, not racing). I rested on day 6, had another night of rain, then went home on day 7, with nearly 700km, 42hrs 32 mins, logged on Strava. I had no hand, neck, back, or shoulder issues. Apart from my knee, my legs felt they could have carried on.

With so little time spent on the bike this past year, I can only attribute this to the conditioning work I had been doing. I also attribute my daily recovery during the ride to good nutrition. I’ll go into more detail on this in another post.

Scholarship winner, Vera, constantly complained about the S&C workouts (they all do lol), but trusted in the process and followed the workouts with great consistency over her seven months of training with me. After completing the Pan Celtic Race in 2021, she noted that other riders were suffering from upper body and joint injuries, during and after the event, but she found her body coped well with the challenge. Vera felt her recovery time was much shorter than others too.

Here are the benefits of including strength training:

  • Injury prevention during training
  • Injury prevention during your event
  • Reduced joint stress
  • Stronger core to support upper body
  • Improved bone density
  • Being stronger makes faster easier
  • Improves cognitive function
  • Improves mood

All of these apply regardless of your age or gender, but are even more important for females, who are more prone to osteoporosis as they age. New research is showing us that it is essential for peri and post menopausal women, as once their oestrogen levels start to decline, they loose around 5% of their muscle mass every year. The best way to mitigate that is to lift heavy weights, once you've completed a period of conditioning in preparation.

So, what should you be doing, and how can you start?

There are a few online resources, for example, free videos on YouTube. Of course. I've also heard great things about the Dynamic Cyclist app. It's worth checking out your local gym to see what they have to offer too. Especially if you are new to this type of exercising, I'd strongly recommend in person one to one or group workouts. Look for a variety of workouts such as circuit classes, plyometric (aka jumping around stuff) and core work. At the moment I do all my training at home. My gym 'corner' has been slowly expanding and now takes up nearly half of my living room! It's working for me now, but when my weights are no longer providing enough of a challenge for my muscles, I'll need to choose between joining a gym or installing a squat rack next to my sofa 😬🏋🏽‍♀️💪🏽 


Click here for some some tips for creating your own home gym.

Eventually you should look to include strength work to your weekly routine. But before you can start lifting heavy weights, you need to prepare the body with conditioning work. This mostly consists of bodyweight exercises and a little plyometrics. An example workout would include squats, lunges, adapted press ups, tricep dips, hip thrusters, plank walk outs, mountain climbers, high knee marches, side planks, progressing onto jump squats, split jump squats, full press ups, knee thrust hops, box jumps, burpees, etc. All the dynamic, high impact, multi plane movements as mentioned before.

Try to fit into your schedule at least two workouts a week. Perhaps add a bonus short core workout if you can squeeze into your diary. It's perfectly ok to start with following a couple of 20 minute workouts on YouTube at home, and building from there. Start where you are, rather than risk doing too much, or going too heavy, and burn out or get an injury.

All my coaching services include access to progressive S&C training plans, taking you through 12 weeks of conditioning, before starting the strength training blocks. All the workouts are in a follow along format, with videos for each exercise, and are under 40 minutes. 

You can also use classes or personal trainers at your local gym, online personal trainers or programs, or videos on YouTube.

***I strongly recommend anyone who does not have experience in these types of workouts to seek in person instruction from a fitness professional***

How far ahead of your event should you start strength and conditioning training?

Now!

Whenever your event is, NOW is the time to start your conditioning work. Think of it as a pension fund. The sooner you start making deposits, the bigger the benefits in the future. And this isn’t just about your event, think of it as an essential selfcare task, like cleaning your teeth! It's also never too late to start. You can start to feel the benefits in just four weeks.

For more tips and advice, check out the Resources page

Happy cycling

COACH Alison