Upper Body and Power

Don Shipp

I am sure that the little bit of muscle up top that they allow themselves is as fit as it can be.
Overtraining is injurious.
Training should be specific to purpose, cyclists train by cycling. This way they build up ull the muscle and strength they need, and none that they don't.
If they are doing weights, it can only be a small part of their whole training program.

Don Shipp

Now I see that Stern did not claim that strength training is injurious to endurance cyclists, but that it is detrimental to endurance cyclists performance. This would be an overall effect, with the sum of all the various disadvantages that have been mentioned being more significant than sum of all the advantages.
Of course, some upper body and core strength is required, but this can be developed on the bike.

Felt_Rider

Good post
Same as the discussion on the worthiness of stretching.

The main factor is Time that used efficiently for sport specific training.

Time for sports specific training
Time for nutritional needs (eating properly)
Time for recovery (rest)

.....and for the average Joe

Time for family
Time for career

What time is left after that in the normal cycle of the day or week?

I am advocate for weight training (except in this forum - I agree on physiology pertaining to cycling). I skirt the thin line between weight training and cycling, but my goals are not for competitive cycling. I say skirt the line because I am in a state of barely recovering from doing both without the use of PED's and yet I will not be able to excel greatly at either.

Yesterday morning I trained legs which included squats and yesterday afternoon I did 22 miles on the road bike and attempted interval training. Needless to say I could not hang with the guy I train with for cycling. It's not just my extra lean mass that causes me to be slower it is also my slower recovery rate from trying to juggle too much.

To become a real competitor that is set on improving one may have to get tunnel visioned and become very sport specific.

Don Shipp

Most people who train underestimate the time that their bodies take to recover from exercise to get the full benefits.
To become a real competitor you have to sacrifice something else that you enjoy doing.

acoggan

Type "interference effect" into PubMed and you'll turn up several studies that have found that attempting to simultaneously train for both strength and endurance can be detrimental to the development of either. Not all studies have observed this, however, which has led to the hypothesis that it depends on the overall training load. IOW, it seems likely that an athlete attempting to maximize their endurance cycling performance will not be able to do so if they simultaneously perform resistance training. This conclusion is consistent with data showing that the muscular adaptations to resistance training - in particular, hypertrophy leading to a reduction in capillary and mitochondrial density - are antithetical to endurance.

(And if you don't like that answer, how about this one: where's the data supporting the claim that resistance training improves the performance of endurance cyclists? )

acoggan

I gather you've never heard the saying "never copy the training program of a champion, because you don't know if they are a champion because of, or in spite of, their training program"?

mises

I find it very disturbing that reasoning logically from accepted facts is no longer considered a valid way of proving an idea.

i.e All body mass requires energy to maintain and to move through space. Only a subset of body parts are utilized in propelling the bike. Adding mass to the non bike propelling parts consumes resources. Humans can produce only a finite amount of power. Therefore adding mass to non bike propelling parts is detrimental to cycling performance.

tfstrum

A lady at work shared an article awhile back that outlined ways for women to work on arm strength outside of weight rooms and bicycling was one of the top activites. The pulling and the resistance of being in the drop postion was mentioned as the factors for shapely arms. So, not sure how much a man would benefit from the same activity. I think I'd work on the core outside of just the bike if I was racing though.

Cheesy

As a MTBer I can second that the upper body gets a good workout, as does the core.

I imaging that upper body is also important for sprinters - as they are trying to generate large down force on the pedal to accelerate fast, and body weight only doesn't really cut it - not only do you need to pull up hard with your trailing pedal, but also pulling with your arms allows more force.

I've got no data or proof, I just know what I need to do when I try & accelerate hard in a high gear. And a previous poster mentioned the observation that sprinters have more built upper bodies.

taras0000

just try some track racing, you'll bring in your upper body more, and it's still cycling specific

__________________
Taras

n crowley

With the natural or normal pedalling styles where vertical pedal pressure is the main power supplier it is impossible to effectively use your upper body arm power. This test will explain why. With your bike on a trainer, lock your back wheel and set the right pedal to the 1 , 2 , 3 or 4 o'c position, using your normal seated pedalling style apply max force to the pedal, then try and use your arm to increase this force, all you will do is pull yourself out of the saddle. In order to be able to use max arm power, the pedal power application line and arm resistance line must be in opposite directions and this is not possible in natural pedalling, a simple but complete change in the leg power application technique makes all this possible. The reason for your attempted pulling on the bars is that search for increased resistance. With your pedalling style your lower back is supplying most of the resistance, this places the lower back under continuous strain and the attempted useless pulling increases this strain, resulting in your sore back. Linear pedalling is the answer and it opens up a whole new area of research where force instrumented bars would be useful. Using the linear technique in that test above, when arm and leg power is combined you can apply almost equipment breaking force to the pedal while your lower back remains in a relaxed position due to the fact that all resulting strain is hinged in the hip instead of the lower back.