Originally Posted by
danfoz
Actually we've been trying to tempt Felt for months to add VO2 work to his routine
But seriously, I'm not seeing a correlation to lifting weights and VO2 max. I have lifted lots of weights, done loads of stair master, and raced bicycles competitively. That's not to brag, simply to illustrate a frame of reference i.e. I'm not talking out my ****.
I am however seeing a correlation between VO2 max and FTP, in fact coaches like Allen Hunter prescribe VO2 interval sessions to bump past FTP ceilings.
VO2 training consists of doing 3-8 minute intervals at 90%+ max HR. I never once got up into that heart rate territory lifting weights, even doing weights for reps as high as 20-25, although I mostly stayed in the 4-12 repetition zone, and more specifically the 6-8 rep "body builder" zone. In fact , to make a confession, at one point when I was lifting weights I smoked over a pack a day, and while I was benching 200 for reps, and squatting 300 for reps, I couldn't even swim a single lap in an Olympic size pool without becoming completely winded. I still managed however to add almost 10lbs of lean muscle mass that year, while maintaining a steady 7-8% body fat. Now I'm speculating on this but while my max bench increased 50lbs that year, and my squat made similar improvements, I'd hazard a guess that if I had done an FTP test before and after, it would have actually gone down (I was neither cycling or stair mastering at the time), and this was spending one or two hours a day lifting with several sets per bodypart, not some BS 30 minute routine.
Stair master, stair stepper, rotating stairs, or whatever variation of the movement, and whatever we decide to label it, works muscular endurance for a number of muscles synergistic to bike riding, as well as heart rate function to a high capacity and can easily induce heart rates into the sweet spot zone (75%-85% maxHR) for an extended period, and into the VO2 zone, which are both highly conducive to raising FTP.
While your gains are worthy of praise, to combine stair master and weights into the same benefit category simply because both were done, and benefit occurred, may be somewhat misleading to other readers. It's almost like saying if English sailors had been given cheese along with limes, that cheese was partially responsible for curing scurvy.