Bike Exercises (particularly knees)

Rowing.

Functional strength training, which is much different from the usual bodybuilding-type workouts that so many people do.

There isn’t a precise definition of the term, but it usually means a focus on compound exercises (those engaging more than one joint of the body at a time), more focus on core strength, less emphasis on isolation movements (like biceps curls and leg extensions), de-emphasis of building bulk and usually a mix of bodyweight exercises along with free weights/medicine ball/stretch cord and other items.

Functional strength training is far more practical for most people, and more beneficial for an athlete or a weekend warrior. Muscle bulk for the sake of size is pretty useless for an endurance athlete. You can develop strength, neuromuscular control, balance, coordination and more with functional exercises, without bulking up.

Other key points include balancing out antagonist muscle groups (those that work on the same joint, such as the quads, hamstrings and glutes), development of stabilizer muscles (which are smaller but very important) and balance between the left and right side of the body. (For example, it’s important that one leg not be much stronger/weaker than the other leg.) Don’t do the usual bodybuilding split, where “push” exercises are done one day, “pull” exercises are done another day, and legs are done on a third day. Do all of the major exercises in one session. You will have to cut down on the total sets and exercises per joint/muscle but that’s OK. You also want to train to fatigue, not failure. It’s a subtle point but important if you don’t want to trash your legs so badly that you have to spend 5 days recovering from a strength workout. You should be ready to get back on the bike on the day after a functional strength workout. That’s much different from a bodybuilding workout that stresses your legs so much that you need several days to recover.

You can stick with a particular group of exercises for a couple months and then switch up. Or switch every other workout, as long as you are working the key muscle groups in a coordinated manner. Squats should probably serve as the foundation of your workouts, but there are many varieties. Stay away from Smith machines and leg press machines. If your legs are relatively weak, start off with bodyweight squats. Always warm up before any strength workout, maybe 15 min. on a stationary bike or do it right after a shorter bike ride. Try to increase the range of motion gradually so that your thighs drop down to at least parallel to the floor. (I like to take squats all the way down, so my rear is almost touching the floor.) Exercise form is extremely important in strength training. Get this right from the very beginning. Exercises done with poor form are not only worthless, but they can lead to injury.

If you do squats, you should balance those out with a hamstring exercise. Again, many options. Some of my favorites are back raises, Swiss ball leg curls and one-leg deadlifts. Others like to do barbell deadlifts, but I personally never feel right when doing that exercise. I don’t think I can get into a proper position, or something. You can mix in dumbbell lunges, overhead squats (which put more emphasis on the core) or other exercises.

Some people don’t do specific exercises for the lower legs. But I find that I tend to develop muscle imbalances between the calves and shins, so I try to fit those exercises in. (But I don’t always do them. Mostly over the winter and early spring for me.) Toe raises and toe taps work the shins. For the calves, you should alternate between bent-knee and straight-leg calf exercises like calf raises. (There are two calf muscles. The gastrocnemius is the more prominent one. The soleus is flatter and lies in back of the gastrocnemius. You can only work or stretch the soleus with a bent-knee movement.)

For the core, target all of the main muscle groups. The leg exercises should work the glutes, hip flexors, gluteus medius, quads and hamstrings. So for the core exercises, focus on the abs, the obliques, the lower back/spinal erectors and compression. Planks are good for the abs and compression. Back raises and back bridges are good for the lower back. Barbell squats also work the core. For the obliques, you’ll need to do a twisting or side-bending exercise. There are many options, from overhead side bends, Russian twists, standing twist w/dumbbell or medicine ball or kettlebell, woodchoppers w/cable pulley, and so on. Others do floor exercises like the Superman, the arm/leg raise while on the floor, etc. but I don’t feel like I get enough out of those.

You can cover the upper body with a few exercises, such as push-ups (chest, front shoulders, triceps), pull-ups or assisted pull-ups (lats/back, biceps, rear shoulders), and maybe a combination upright row/overhead press with a kettlebell. I rarely do bench presses. When I do, it’s a one-dumbbell press, alternating arms after each set or all the left sets 1st, then the right. If you have extra time, you can toss in a couple sets of biceps curls and triceps presses, but these should not be a priority. If you don’t have much time, arm curls should always be the first to go. For the cool downs, you can do some easy leg swings (back and forth, side to side), torso twists, and arm/shoulder swings to get the blood moving as your heart rate eases down. I like to stretch after strength workouts and runs, and after most bike rides too. If you stretch, remember to target all the key muscle groups as well as certain fascia bands: hip flexors, ITB, glutes, inner thighs, plantar fascia (bottom of feet), both calf muscles, shins, quads, hamstrings, obliques, shoulders, chest and back. Arms and upper back too.

Once you get to the intermediate stage, you can and should include some one-leg work. Pistol squats (one-leg squats) are an excellent exercise, although they might be too demanding and difficult for a beginner. Lunges have similar benefits for body balance and stabilizer muscle development, and they are slightly easier than the pistol squats. Step-ups are another option. Combine the step-ups with a knee raise and overhead dumbbell press for even more coordinated total body work.

Once you become familiar with the techniques and the muscle groups, you can switch from exercise to exercise a little quicker. You can get a sense of how much work you should do, what you can skip and what you shouldn’t skip. This can help you to warm up, finish your sets, cool down and get out of the gym or basement a little faster. Just as with cycling, you can periodize your strength training. This means that you can focus on different elements of fitness at different times of the year. For example, many people spend a little more time on strength training in the winter, when it’s more difficult to get outside to bike or run. Then once you start going outside to ride more in the spring and summer, you can cut back on the strength training so that you’re just doing maintenance workouts.

Strength training by itself isn’t enough to make you a good hill climber on the bike, but it does provide a solid foundation for your hill workouts. More importantly, ST develops the core and the small stabilizer muscles that you don’t always train while on the bike. It’s strange but cycling doesn’t work the core that much, even though a strong core is important for being a good cyclist, and an injury-free cyclist (or runner).

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When I first started running as an adult in fall 2008, I quickly got injured. I kept getting injured throughout 2009. But after I started training smarter (low-intensity base training at the start of each season, functional strength training, adequate rest and recovery, post-workout stretching, good nutrition), the injury problems went away. I haven’t had any training injuries since 2009. Of course, bike fit is also very important for a high-mileage cyclist, but strength training can help a lot too. You don’t need to spend that much time on it. But you should probably devote a little more time when first starting out, just so that you learn properly and let your muscles adjust to the new stress. Once you get more experience, you don’t have to think about it as much. That’s because you’ll have a better understanding of what’s going on with the exercises and how to limit the increases in intensity to moderate steps.

Do all the strength exercises in the same workout. Then recover for at least 48 hours before the next strength workout. This workout/recovery schedule is separate from your bike rides. If you’re an experienced cyclist, you can continue to ride as often as you do now. The only thing you have to watch for is any bike speed workouts or tough hill workouts, and weekly long rides. It’s possible to do a strength workout and a bike speed/hill workout on the same day, but you have to be really careful that you don’t start digging too deep a hole in terms of stress. If you go too deep down that hole, you’ll end up overtrained or injured. Same thing with long rides, but this depends on what you’re used to. If you’re an experienced cyclist who doesn’t think much of a 2-hr. ride, then you may not have difficulties with a strength workout and a 2-hr. ride on the same day. But if you only do one 4-hr. ride per week and that’s much longer than your usual daily ride, you may not want to do a strength workout on the same day as the long ride. I never do ST on the day of a long ride.

Too much volleyball tore up my knees pretty bad. Since I’ve given that up, a lot of yoga has helped rehab them to pretty much normal condition. Also, the increased flexibility helps a lot too.

I’m not normally a fan of workout junk you buy from TV, but I’m borrowing P90X from a friend right now. The leg/back workout is killer. You don’t need a lot of weights (in fact, I don’t use any but I have strength bands if I change my mind), which I really like. It’s totally customizable – you just do what you can. Sometimes I have knee twinges, so I either do fewer reps or cut out an exercise altogether. The yoga workout is also pretty challenging. Between those two workouts, I feel like my strength and flexibility have really improved.

Honestly, whatever workout you choose to do, the key is consistency. You won’t see marked improvement from one week to the next, but you will over time. If you slack off for a week or two (which can easily turn into three or four), it will set you back. So just stick with it as best you can.

I met Tony briefly after the race. He led a group warm-up before the race. I participated a bit, but I mostly did my own warm-up. He ran the race this year. He didn’t go too fast, but he said that he injured his hamstring a month ago.

He took pictures with just about everybody and signed shirts. He also posed for pictures with all of the winners, age group winners and even random prize drawing winners, except those people who just picked up the bag and walked back to their seat immediately. (The random prizes were mostly books, shirts and mugs.) He’s a gregarious guy. I read that he started out as a comedian before he got into fitness.

@GuyContinental 39928 wrote:

that can build up some lower core strength? The simpler the better…

Leg lifts. (If you have enough floor space to lie down and don’t mind your coworkers laughing and pointing.)

@FFX_Hinterlands 39935 wrote:

How about standing on a balance board while working in front of a computer all day (if you do that kind of work). Seems like it would help with those lateral knee muscles that don’t get used until you’re standing on the pedals. Sounds like my kind of workout as well.

That actually sounds fun… knees are strong though- I really need lower back.

Some of these look promising: http://www.livestrong.com/article/112696-ab-exercises-can-desk/

It may sound a little gimmicky, mainly because it is, but I’ve found a lot of great body weight excercises in Convict Conditioning. I’ve combined a few excercises, mainly push up variations, leg drops, and yoga stretches as a nice post-ride workout.