"John Stevenson" <
[email protected]> wrote in message [...]
> Coach Ric Stern says not, except for a couple of special cases:
Apologies for warping the thread a bit, but if you disregard cycling performance and look at the
bigger picture (your overall health & fitness), wouldn't moderate exercise doing upper body strength
exercises be a great way to bring balance to your physique?
Lots & lots of cycling will give you really strong legs, even just a low 1700Ks per year will give
you reasonably strong ones (my case). I used to do much more, probably 6000-7000Ks per year but that
was up till 2001 when cycling in Oslo, Norway - so that gave me a bit of a base which is still sort
of in place even with the low Ks I'm doing now.
Now I cycle mainly to work for fitness & convenience, averaging 25-30 kph when not waiting for red
lights (when I do; mainly the big ones). This is on a reasonably good Gary Fisher MTB with combo
slicks (knobbed sidewalls for the occasional mud cornering, flat top for better city riding).
Combined with treadmill running [my knees are a bit bad and treadmill is the only running I can do],
I might do my legs over in the gym 6 times per year; I don't need anything else to keep them in
balance with my upper body which is what I mainly train.
Also, if you're a total nut & can't go a day without exercise, splitting it up with one or two days
of upper body strength might give your legs some much needed recovery time.
Just my $0.02c.
j