[151]

In my brief 18 months of training I have always been told to lift weight twice a week and do full body work outs.

All the weight lifter types I know do not do this. They do one major muscle group a night maybe two.

I have a couple questions. How does lifting say four times a week but doing only one muscle group effect recovery? And is it just wrong to lift weights on this type schedule for endurance sports?

The reason I ask is because my whole body work outs take about an hour and a half leaving me with not much time to ride. Plus I find it hard to get motivated to lift weights even though I am very motivated to ride my bike.

So on some nights I procrastinate and end up not lifting or riding.

What I am hoping is that I can Change up my weight lifting schedule to three maybe four days a week focusing on one or two muscle groups and only spending 20-30 minutes lifting weights, then I can get out on my bike and ride.

If that is okay I think I would get more weight lifting in, and I know I would get more time on the bike.

So I would end up rowing for 20 minutes or so to get a little warmed up, then I would do a arm and chest work out, or a leg work out, or whatever for 30 minutes, then I could go put in some miles on the bike.

My first impression is that this type schedule might have negative effects on recovery, but I am just guessing.

Any thoughts?

 

[Ghost234]

I usually do mine like this:


Tuesday: Lower body + Core
Wednesday: Upper body + core
Thursday: moderate endurance ride

Typically you should not weight lift and ride in the same day. Try to weight lift your body until near exhaustion, and then take the day off. Also: Never do back without doing chest, and never do quads without doing hamstrings. If you feel like you are still exhausted from the previous days workout, try not to overexert those muscles - you will only hurt yourself.

 

[MJH2]

I usually do mine like this:


Tuesday: Lower body + Core
Wednesday: Upper body + core
Thursday: moderate endurance ride

Typically you should not weight lift and ride in the same day. Try to weight lift your body until near exhaustion, and then take the day off. Also: Never do back without doing chest, and never do quads without doing hamstrings. If you feel like you are still exhausted from the previous days workout, try not to overexert those muscles - you will only hurt yourself.

I'm not so sure I agree with this.

In January I started lifting 2 times a week. Monday (a day I don't ride) and Thursday (before I ride). Once April rolled around I scaled back to just Monday (a day I don't ride). Seems to have contributed to pretty decent performance gains.

 

[specializedrider]

I'm not so sure I agree with this.

In January I started lifting 2 times a week. Monday (a day I don't ride) and Thursday (before I ride). Once April rolled around I scaled back to just Monday (a day I don't ride). Seems to have contributed to pretty decent performance gains.

I'm a fan of 2X per week lifting right now also. I ride Sunday-Tuesday-Friday, and lift using a circuit-type workout Mondays and Thursdays for upper body and core only. I alternate push-pull exercises (ex chest fly and then bent-row). Wednesday and Saturday are off days (stretching and foam roll-stuff only). I don't lift legs during the riding season.

From what I have read, the body-builder type lifting schedules are not really appropriate for endurance athletes if your goal is to build functional strength to help with biking.

 

[heathb]

I lift most mornings when I get off from work. My hospital has a really nice weight room, so it's easy to fit the time in.

I rotate between push and pull days. Usually lift 4 to 5 days a week and do core three days a week. My lifting sessions never last more than 20 min/day. I go home and sleep and then get up and ride.

Keep it short and sweet in the gym so you don't fry yourself.

 

[litespeedchick]

The husband is a serious weightlifter and cyclist. He does:
Mon: chest (bench)
Tues: legs
Wed: ride
Thurs: ride
Fri: different upper body muscle groups
Sat: hardest ride of the week
Sun: recovery ride

This works for him, he says he's never felt any leg soreness (like ever. apparently all those years of squatting 600 make riding a bike no biggie for the legs)

He tells me there's nothing wrong w/ me doing upper and lower body on the same day, but just cautions me not to do legs within a couple of days before a hard ride.

 

[B-Fun]

A lot will depend on what you are trying to accomplish. Bodybuilders are wanting to increase muscle size, which is why they only work a couple muscle groups each day. This allows them to do multiple exercises, sets, and reps to maximize the work they put onto those muscle groups and thus help increase muscle mass.

This is different from the goals of most cyclists. Personally, I believe cyclists looking to imporve performance should adopt a periodized strength program just like most adopt a periodized riding/training schedule.

Start with a general prep phase, move into a strength build and max strength phase, then transition into a convert to power phase, and then incorporate 1-2 days per week during the season for strength maintenance. Start back again in October or November with the General Prep.

If you're doing it right, you shouldn't need to spend more than 30 minutes in the gym doing these workouts, 1-3 days per week (depending on the phase).

If the goal is to just stay healthy and maintain strength, then your idea would be just fine. Or adopt a more focused full-body plan that would allow you to get in a good total body workout in 30 minutes instead of 1.5 hours.

 

[eddya]

[Deleted as it's a rehash of what's already been said]

 

[sa7nt]

I usually do mine like this:


Tuesday: Lower body + Core
Wednesday: Upper body + core
Thursday: moderate endurance ride

Typically you should not weight lift and ride in the same day. Try to weight lift your body until near exhaustion, and then take the day off. Also: Never do back without doing chest, and never do quads without doing hamstrings. If you feel like you are still exhausted from the previous days workout, try not to overexert those muscles - you will only hurt yourself.

This is just flat out wrong. Plenty of weight lifters will devote an entire day to back and another day to chest.

Additionally, there is nothing wrong with cardio and weight lifting on the same day. I lift six days a week. I would never get a chance to ride or run if I didn't do it on the same day. You will see better results when it comes to muscle building if you separate the two activities by a number of hours. I get around this by lifting first thing in the morning and then riding in the afternoon.

If you're sore you can push through it. If you 'hurt' you should definitely stop to avoid injury.

There is nothing wrong with doing upper body one day and lower body another day, but it isn't the routine that will maximize your efforts toward muscle growth. To the OP, if you want information on weight lifting, you should head to a decent weight lifting forum. I wouldn't go to a weight lifing forum to ask about cycling.

 

[Ghost234]

I'm a big believer in compound exercises rather than pure isolation ones. Exercises that move your body through space are also some of the best ones available.

My favorites:
Squats
Deadlifts (regular and Romanian)
Standing rows
Dips/Chins
Bench/flies

 

[151]

My main goal for changing from a once or twice a week full body work out is motivation. I have already started doing the one body section at a time and it is much easier to get up and do.

With the longer full body work out I was losing entire days because of procrastination and then not doing anything when it was all of a sudden too late in the day/night.

Now I warm up on the rower do 20-30 of lifting and still ahve time to get a good ride in.

The difference is only in my motivation to lift weights for 20 minutes instead of two hours.

Even if the results from breaking the work outs down to sections and doing weight lifting more often during the week, are not optimal I have to assume they are better than not getting any riding or lifting done because of my putting off the lifting until it is too late.

I'll let you guys know how it works in a couple months.

 

[tomdecel]

First... don't listen to bodybuilders. I have seen web pages that consider 15 minutes on an exercise bike adequate "cardio".

I can only speak from experience, but a while back I took weight lifting seriously only to abandon 4 or 5 workouts per week for daily cardio in the mornings. I ride my bike (120 miles per week +/-) and when I don't ride, I try to get an animated 4 to 6 mile walk-jog session up and down hills. Real cardio. I try to do 6 days per week.

In addition, I average about 3 weight sessions every two weeks, usually in the evenings. What I do is pick a "theme"...back, chest, arms..but hit the weights really heavy. I will do maybe 4 exercises 3 times, always to failure (40 minutes is all I need). I have noticed incredible results in muscle definition, and all it takes is one or two times a week.

In the past couple of weeks, I started doing push exercises in the sessions in the middle of the week and going to the gym on the nights of my long rides (Sunday) and doing pull exercises. My original thought was just to do stretching exercises with resistance almost as a counterbalance to my bike rides and have really been enjoying that.

 

[smw]

After trying the weight lifting/cycling thing for a year I gave up the weights. I was not getting the results I was looking for(improving my cycling while getting fitter). This year I have incorporated something different, and actually much more beneficial. P90X!! It fits better for me for several reasons. One Im extrememly stiff in my hips, lower back and hammy's. P90X does alot of stretching. Second the workouts are more on the cardio end of strength training. Since I really need to be more balanced this program exposes my weakness's and helps correct them. Third, I can do it at home anytime. My wife has even taken an interest so thats a bonus.

Since cycling is not so good for a balanced body, and I was never balanced anyway, this works great for me. Everything has improved for me on this program. It takes about an hour a day, although I do skip days as the body or time dictates.

I was a bit leary at first, but ordered it anyway. At times Ive been sore for more then 3 days, as this stuff hits muscles that I appartently didnt know existed.

 

[uhcoog]

Working out for size and working out for endurance are 2 totally different things. As a younger man I lifted strictly for size and power using programs like DogCrapp, Max OT, 5x5, etc. Roadies don't really want to do this.

I would advocate 3 times a week, total body and superset/giant set everything. Pick one compound movement for each major body group (legs, chest, back, shoulders) and you could maybe throw in an isolation or two for the bis and tris. Keep the reps in the 8-15 range. Sample Workout:

Squats: 3 sets of 8-15 superset with Lunges: 3 sets of 8-15
BB Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-15 superset with Close Grip Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-15
BB Rows: 3 sets of 8-15 superset with DB Curls: 3 sets of 8-15
DB Overhead Presses: 3 sets of 8-15 superset with DB Shrugs: 3 sets of 8-15
Core work

This type of workout shouldn't take more than 45 minutes and will keep your heart rate way up. I also tend to ride/swim/run on lifting days. I keep those much, much shorter than on cardio only days but work in a good amount of sprint intervals.