Cycling and lifting

abasementcrossfitter

I am just getting into cycling and wondered if anyone has any tips for combining cycling and lifting.
I tend to get pretty bad quad DOMS from lifting, and not really sure if it's counter productive to push through them on the bike, or if I'd be better off trying to schedule better to avoid this. (Ex- doing a bike ride and leg workout on the same day, and have more days of rest for my lower body?) I've read push through, and don't.


My goal right now is mostly general fitness/weight loss, and working towards possibly doing a sprint triathlon next spring. So I am also trying to incorporate a few swims each week. I've been doing my swims and lifting on the same day. I've been aiming to alternate my swimming and biking days with 1-2 rest days per week, but not really sure where to fit the lifting, mainly leg work. Upper body soreness is not nearly as much of a problem. (I'm not opposed to my lifting suffering as a result, I'm just looking to maintain my current muscle mass.)

cwolfman13

You might just have to ease into it...DOMs are pretty short lived when you train regularly and ease into things. I lift 3x per week and ride 4x per week without issue...I only get DOMs when my trainer has me do something I haven't done in awhile. My rides are variable in mileage and intensity.

For me personally, an easy spin on the bike when I am sore is one of the best things in the world to just loosen my legs up.

My schedule:

Monday - weight room
Tuesday - easy ride (8 miles...30 min). It's 100* degrees here right now so I don't go longer
Wed - weight room
Thurs - off
Fri - easy ride (8 miles)
Sat - ride to gym (7.5 miles); lift; ride home (7.5 miles)
Sun - 20 mile ride...sometimes more if I have the time.

This gets me a solid 50 miles on the road.

notarunnermfp

Somehow this posted under an old account I deleted... Hello, I am actually the OP.

@cwolfman13 you do full body workouts, correct?

My thinking was a similar schedule, but with the swims thrown in. Hoping that by spreading my leg work out I would be able to reduce DOMS. I am not new to lifting, but have had some time off due to a back injury. So maybe there is hope that the DOMS won't last, especially with the decrease in volume. When I was doing dedicated leg days pre injury, I would frequently still get DOMS though.

aokoye

I agree with cwolfman13 - you need to ease into it. I will say that I'm not super into weight lifting (or training or whatever phrase would be most accurate for me) but I do it for physical therapy. I don't lift particularly heavy at all but I'm also coming off of a major knee surgery (and a shoulder fracture ) - most of the non cardio things that I do that are leg specific are squats, leg press, leg extension, and hamstring curls. Again, not particularly heavy in the grand scheme of things, but heavy in the context of a major surgery and a lot of atrophy from having to be non-weight bearing for 6 weeks. On the other hand, the cycling that I do inside is typically high intensity interval workouts (outside, not so much unless I'm riding on major roads).

That said, I have no real problems lifting cycling or swimming on the same day nor do I have problems swimming and cycling back to back. It's really a matter of easing into it.

notarunnermfp

I have been into powerlifting/bodybuilding for a few years, quad DOMS are still normal for me. (Kind of always been jealous of the people who say they never get DOMS.. lol I’ve trained legs 2x a week for a long time and almost always sore for then next 2-3 days.)
I have been slowly adding the biking/swimming. Started doing stationary bike before I got my road bike, and really not doing much ‘swimming’ yet, still getting comfortable in the water. So I don’t really feel like I’m trying to do too too much.

sijomial

Depends on the duration, intensity and frequency of your cycling.
An hour steady riding is a different kettle of fish to a long ride smashing a load of challenging hills or going for a maximal effort 1hr FTP test.

Moderate cycling and leg work in the gym isn't a problem at all and in a way can be complimentary to help recovery.
But there comes a point when you have to prioritise. Do you want to complete a sprint triathlon or compete in a sprint triathlon? One just requires a certain volume of cycling which you can fit in virtually anywhere in your schedule and the second requires quality cycling training sessions. And you can't have quality with sore legs.

I do virtually no leg work in the gym during the summer months when my #1 priority is cycling. I either need my legs to be fresh for the next day's ride or they are recovering from my last ride. Your priorities determine your schedule.

notarunnermfp

sijomial wrote: »

Depends on the duration, intensity and frequency of your cycling.
An hour steady riding is a different kettle of fish to a long ride smashing a load of challenging hills or going for a maximal effort 1hr FTP test.

Moderate cycling and leg work in the gym isn't a problem at all and in a way can be complimentary to help recovery.
But there comes a point when you have to prioritise. Do you want to complete a sprint triathlon or compete in a sprint triathlon? One just requires a certain volume of cycling which you can fit in virtually anywhere in your schedule and the second requires quality cycling training sessions. And you can't have quality with sore legs.

I do virtually no leg work in the gym during the summer months when my #1 priority is cycling. I either need my legs to be fresh for the next day's ride or they are recovering from my last ride. Your priorities determine your schedule.

I am just looking to complete the Tri. I also have 60-70 lbs to lose, and zero swimming background. So I don't expect to be in any shape to be competitive any time soon. Just looking for new ways to stay active/get in shape now that I'm no longer powerlifting.

Thanks for the advice! I guess I'll hope that the DOMS decrease as I continue with the full body workouts, and if not figure out something else.

BusyRaeNOTBusty

Yes, this is definitely a problem. Last year when I was training for mountain bike racing my schedule looked like this:

Mon: Full body lifting (lower weights, slow progression)
Tuesday: Cycling intervals of some kind
Wed: Lifting
Thursday: Cycling intervals
Friday: off
Saturday: moderate to long MTB ride
Sunday: long MTB ride


My lifting routine is based on this post:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/373801/two-day-full-body-strength-training-routine/p1

cwolfman13

notarunnermfp wrote: »

Somehow this posted under an old account I deleted... Hello, I am actually the OP.

@cwolfman13 you do full body workouts, correct?

My thinking was a similar schedule, but with the swims thrown in. Hoping that by spreading my leg work out I would be able to reduce DOMS. I am not new to lifting, but have had some time off due to a back injury. So maybe there is hope that the DOMS won't last, especially with the decrease in volume. When I was doing dedicated leg days pre injury, I would frequently still get DOMS though.

Yes, I do full body programming and it's not a ton of volume. When I train for long cycling events I back off the lifting and focus on cycling...usually only lift 1x per week to cross-train while I'm preparing for an event. My wife does the same when she's training for a 1/2 or full marathon.

If/when you actually start triathlon training, you're likely going to have to back off the weights due to the higher training volume biking, running, swimming, brick work, etc...I trained for a tri a few years ago and ended up not being able to do it because I injured myself doing too much and didn't get any quality recovery because I was still trying to do my full body program 3x per week while simultaneously training for a tri. As a side note, I am on the older side, so your mileage may vary...I was 39 when I did that.

notarunnermfp

cwolfman13 wrote: »

notarunnermfp wrote: »

Somehow this posted under an old account I deleted... Hello, I am actually the OP.

@cwolfman13 you do full body workouts, correct?

My thinking was a similar schedule, but with the swims thrown in. Hoping that by spreading my leg work out I would be able to reduce DOMS. I am not new to lifting, but have had some time off due to a back injury. So maybe there is hope that the DOMS won't last, especially with the decrease in volume. When I was doing dedicated leg days pre injury, I would frequently still get DOMS though.

Yes, I do full body programming and it's not a ton of volume. When I train for long cycling events I back off the lifting and focus on cycling...usually only lift 1x per week to cross-train while I'm preparing for an event. My wife does the same when she's training for a 1/2 or full marathon.

If/when you actually start triathlon training, you're likely going to have to back off the weights due to the higher training volume biking, running, swimming, brick work, etc...I trained for a tri a few years ago and ended up not being able to do it because I injured myself doing too much and didn't get any quality recovery because I was still trying to do my full body program 3x per week while simultaneously training for a tri. As a side note, I am on the older side, so your mileage may vary...I was 39 when I did that.

Yeah, I will definitely pull back on the lifting if/when I decide to try a race.
The one I am considering would be next May, and it's just a 300 yard swim, 15 mile bike, 5k run. It's at the wellness center where I train, and they offer a 12 week course leading up to it, so I would most likely take advantage of that if I decide to do it.
My thinking is if I build up to running and biking some reasonable distances while focusing mostly on losing the weight, those distances shouldn't be too much of a problem. My first few rides have been 7 and 9 miles without much struggle other than DOMS on the longer ride. I'm not starting running until I lose some more weight, but I am fairly familiar with 5k distance when I was running a few years ago. My plan was to start walking after some bike rides, eventually build up to intervals, etc.

Not looking to get too serious, just fit enough that I could enter some local races and feel like I have something to train for. I am really enjoying checking out the local bike trails right now!

cwolfman13

notarunnermfp wrote: »

cwolfman13 wrote: »

notarunnermfp wrote: »

Somehow this posted under an old account I deleted... Hello, I am actually the OP.

@cwolfman13 you do full body workouts, correct?

My thinking was a similar schedule, but with the swims thrown in. Hoping that by spreading my leg work out I would be able to reduce DOMS. I am not new to lifting, but have had some time off due to a back injury. So maybe there is hope that the DOMS won't last, especially with the decrease in volume. When I was doing dedicated leg days pre injury, I would frequently still get DOMS though.

Yes, I do full body programming and it's not a ton of volume. When I train for long cycling events I back off the lifting and focus on cycling...usually only lift 1x per week to cross-train while I'm preparing for an event. My wife does the same when she's training for a 1/2 or full marathon.

If/when you actually start triathlon training, you're likely going to have to back off the weights due to the higher training volume biking, running, swimming, brick work, etc...I trained for a tri a few years ago and ended up not being able to do it because I injured myself doing too much and didn't get any quality recovery because I was still trying to do my full body program 3x per week while simultaneously training for a tri. As a side note, I am on the older side, so your mileage may vary...I was 39 when I did that.

Yeah, I will definitely pull back on the lifting if/when I decide to try a race.
The one I am considering would be next May, and it's just a 300 yard swim, 15 mile bike, 5k run. It's at the wellness center where I train, and they offer a 12 week course leading up to it, so I would most likely take advantage of that if I decide to do it.
My thinking is if I build up to running and biking some reasonable distances while focusing mostly on losing the weight, those distances shouldn't be too much of a problem. My first few rides have been 7 and 9 miles without much struggle other than DOMS on the longer ride. I'm not starting running until I lose some more weight, but I am fairly familiar with 5k distance when I was running a few years ago. My plan was to start walking after some bike rides, eventually build up to intervals, etc.

Not looking to get too serious, just fit enough that I could enter some local races and feel like I have something to train for. I am really enjoying checking out the local bike trails right now!

Yeah, I was training for a sprint tri too. The hardest part for me was getting off the bike and going straight into a run doing brick work.

GiddyupTim

So, for runners it can be quite difficult to combine serious weight training with serious running. Tired, sore depleted muscles make you slow. Therefore, if you lift even just twice a week, that's four days you don't run or, if you do, you don't run well. Take a rest day during the week, and you are only running two days a week. You won't get to be a better runner like that.
However, I just saw an article in Runner's World that suggested this schedule:
(I assume it would work for cycling and triathlon training too.)
Monday-Upper body lifting
Tuesday-Tempo run. (That's a run where you are working on your speed, and it usually involves intervals of fast and slow.)
Wednesday-Heavy lifting lower body
Thursday-Rest day
Friday-Medium distance run
Saturday-Tempo run
Sunday-Long run
This kind of lifting will not turn you into Venus or a powerlifter, but it will help running and, I assume, cycling.

deannalfisher

whenever you ride - run off the bike, even if its only 5-10 minutes - it will help your legs get used to moving