Weight training

Zac

Is wieght training different for track racers than it is for road racers? If it is does anyone know where I can find a program? Thanks for any advice given!

Jonny

Zac,

Track sprinters would want to do explosive squats and leg presses and olympic style cleans. Do stiff leg deadlifts(not explosive) to strengthen your back.

cheers

Jonny

Duckwah

most road racers don't do much in the way of serious weight training since they want to keep their weight down

weight training for track will depend heavily upon the events in which you want to compete.

For example the longer track events like the 4km individual and the 4 man pursuit are more anaerobic/aerobic events than pure power events. For example the performance of Brad McGee last year where only a week or two after the TDF he won the 4km individual pursuit

for the shorter events like the 500m (and whatever else trackies do) you may benefit from a program that has several phases

1. Hypertrophy, this is where you build lots of muscle
2. limit strength, this is where you get the maximum strength out of your now big muscles by lifting pretty close to your max weights
3. Power phase, In this phase you learn to accelerate fairly heavy weights as fast as possible (this is what olympic weightlifters do a lot)

of course this has to be worked in around your track time so its probably best to find an experienced coach and ask them
.

Aztec

It always cracks me up when I see how cyclists don't weight train because they want to keep their weight down. Um, a normal drug-free athlete would struggle to put on more than a few pounds per year -- and that's withOUT doing a lot of time on the bike. Mix in 'normal' road miles, and those gains will be near-zero. Never worry about gaining too much muscle weight -- it ain't gonna happen unless you are an extremely gifted athlete.

As for track-specific work, I'm unsure. But surely a routine of squats, leg curls, back extensions, chins, and some kind of pressing move, hit just about everything.

2LAP

They are very different, given that one is a sprint dicipline and the other endurance. While many people recomend no weights for endurance riders, weights is a must for sprint riders.

There is a lot written about weights for 100m sprinters, etc. (i.e. athletics) and you will no doubt find some lessons there. The goal of the weighs should be not to build mass or strength, rather to increase the power on the bike and this should guide your exercise choices.

Aztec

The exercise choices are identical. It's the sets/reps that MAY be different. Basically, you can't go wrong by squatting, leg curling, back extending, and chinning. Go with a few sets of 5-10 reps, with heavy weight [for you] and a quick explosion out of the bottom of the movement. But since these are heavy weights, the weight should still end up moving slowly, even though you are trying to move it quickly. ALWAYS lower the weight slowly, and don't bounce.

Zac

Does anyone know where I can find a program?

treebound

Be carefull of over-generalizations, there are track events that are very endurance intensive and road events that are very sprint intensive, all depends on the race and parameters it was set up under. For example some crits are real grinders and some are sprint and coasters. Do a 50 lap race on a long velodrome track like Marymoor in Redmond Washington and you find a want for good endurance (not sure if they still do the longer track races there as it's been a decade or more since I was there).

It really comes down to a personal decision:
1. Where are you at right now as far as conditioning and training.
2. How are you build and what attributes work better for you than others.
3. What are your goals in cycling and racing.
4. There is no universal right or wrong, there is only what works for you or doesn't at any particular point in time or life.

For example, some may swear that their breakfast of strawberries and Cheerios mixed with vanilla yogurt 4 hours before a long hard hilly event is the key to their performance, but if you are alergic to strawberries and are lactose intollerant then it does you no good. If you have a portionately longer torso and shorter legs then following someone's training or weightroom routine who has a short upper body and giraffe legs will probably do you more harm than good.

I like Friel's book and the older racing book by Borysewicz. Some things change, some stay the same, some are revisited every 10 years or so. I'm not a top level racer, just a cyclist, what works for me simply does.

leifclarke

Yeah, the big thing now at Marymoor is the 10 mile scratch (40 lap).

A lot of you guys giving advice seem to have some good ideas but are generalizing by categorizing trackies as "sprinters" or "endurance." How can an omnium racer get the best of both worlds? Will huge squats to build explosive power in the sprints hinder performance in the 4000 meter pursuit? And vice versa?

Leif