Is cycling up hills "resistance training"?

betreich

Hi, This is week 4 at MFP for me. I have been reading a lot of the posts here, and it seems from what I have read weight and resistance training is considered more highly than cardio. As my regular exercise consists of running (which I took up last year at the age of 56 and have come to enjoy - I aim to run 3 times a week of about 5 km, but try to make one of the runs longer, about 8km) and what would probably be considered recreational cycling (18km 3 times a week), I am feeling a bit sad, as I had felt I had done something good for my health and that it would help my weight loss efforts too. Today when I was out cycling, going up a hill, I realised that I do put a fair bit of pressure on the pedals to maintain momentum, so my question, can this be classified as resistance training? Or do I really have to do things with weights and such? My aim is to get my weight into the healthy weight range, improve my general fitness, and be healthy. I would appreciate any opinions, but please be nice!

Mr_Excitement

That would still be cardio-- but there's nothing wrong with cardio. It's great for you, as I'm sure you already know (congratulations on your running progress, btw).

Resistance training would be progressive overload to your muscles; doing a relatively small number of repetitions with a weight that you can only handle for those few reps... and trying to increase that load whenever you can, whether it's by adding more weight or another repetition. Could be bodyweight exercises, free weights, weight machines... etc.

Strength training does seem overwhelmingly popular around here, but running's great, too. Give resistance training a try if you're curious, but if you prefer running, I'd say keep running.

SingingSingleTracker

Hi, This is week 4 at MFP for me. I have been reading a lot of the posts here, and it seems from what I have read weight and resistance training is considered more highly than cardio. As my regular exercise consists of running (which I took up last year at the age of 56 and have come to enjoy - I aim to run 3 times a week of about 5 km, but try to make one of the runs longer, about 8km) and what would probably be considered recreational cycling (18km 3 times a week), I am feeling a bit sad, as I had felt I had done something good for my health and that it would help my weight loss efforts too. Today when I was out cycling, going up a hill, I realised that I do put a fair bit of pressure on the pedals to maintain momentum, so my question, can this be classified as resistance training? Or do I really have to do things with weights and such? My aim is to get my weight into the healthy weight range, improve my general fitness, and be healthy. I would appreciate any opinions, but please be nice!

Yes - you can do on the bike strength training and hills are one of them using big gears.

Here's a link from one of the well known cycling coaches that describes 4 typical strength training sessions on the bike:

http://lwcoaching.com/on-the-bike-strength-training/

rybo

Don't let the "lift heavy" crowd get you down. There is absolutely nothing wrong with cycling and running as your main means of achieving fitness. Keep doing what you enjoy

keithober

In my opinion, its all about balance. Most people, myself included, probably do more of what they enjoy at the detriment to the best cross training mix. Cyclists like me should probably do more running and weight training; endurance athletes should probably do more intervals; weight lifters should do more cardio; etc. If you're running, biking, and doing a little stretching, core, and/or weight training as well, that balance is probably better than just about anyone. I keep struggling to add weight training and core exercises to my mix, but there are only so many hours and so much motivation in any one day. Keep up the good work.

betreich

thankyou everyone for your encouragement and helpful advice

Cherimoose

Today when I was out cycling, going up a hill, I realised that I do put a fair bit of pressure on the pedals to maintain momentum, so my question, can this be classified as resistance training?

Vigorous cycling does have some strength-building components. What it doesn't do is improve your *lifting ability* as good as strength training with weights. For example, lifting a piece of furniture or a heavy box requires a coordinated effort of your legs, your back muscles, and your upper body. Cycling doesn't adequately strengthen your back & upper body, nor does it train the coordination skills needed to lift things safely. The deadlift exercise simulates all of that well, so it better prepares people to lift things without injury.
So unless you have servants doing all your tasks for you, it makes sense to include some basic exercises like squats, deadlifts, and lunges. And some upper body lifts too. It only takes 30 minutes twice a week to do a simple routine.

It's quite common for cyclists to be super sore the day after doing a single set of deadlifts or squats, using a moderate weight. Which shows how cycling isn't a replacement for lifting weights.



Deadlift

TheGymGypsy

Don't let the "lift heavy" crowd get you down. There is absolutely nothing wrong with cycling and running as your main means of achieving fitness. Keep doing what you enjoy

THANK YOU!

Rayman79

I've done a bit or research into this in the last year, as a person who has been lifting for a little while and just taken up cycling a few months ago.

I should say I am an advocate of resistance (weight) training for a number of reasons; it helps you retain muscle mass while you are in a caloric deficit, it strengthens your bones and connective tissue, gives you better posture, and makes you stronger.

Cardio training also has a place, it keeps you active and makes you fitter, it can also be a great stress reliever and social activity. A lot of people find it more enjoyable than weight training too, so will stick to it longer - this is a key point. You can probably get to a body and level of health you are happy with through running and cycling; you won't have a muscular physique but you can be fit and healthy.

So the question really sounds like 'should I make myself weight train'? My answer is no, not if you don't want to or enjoy it. You can do training on the bike (like trying to get up hills in a higher gear or doing high gear interval sprints on the flats) that will strengthen your legs. A lot of very good cyclists and runners never do real resistance work.

If you want to incorporate some of the benefits of resistance training into your routine you might look for a good body weight program (YAYOG or something similar). Don't completely neglect your upper body, you would be surprised what a strong torso can do for your running and cycling!

SunofaBeach14

Don't neglect your upper body, but if you are doing serious hill work in lower gears with a bike, it would be very hard to argue that it won't build your legs

cwolfman13

I would say it's a good muscular endurance form of resistance training and it will build your legs, albeit differently than squats and dead lifts would. Being an avid cyclist myself, I know plenty of guys with massive legs from cycling, but they couldn't squat or dead lift their own weight...but they can cycle hills like mad.

Also, if cycling is all you are doing for resistance work you are ignoring all of your upper body. This is why I generally advocate a full body approach to resistance training...it could be body weight stuff or machines or resistance bands or whatever...but I find barbells to be the most efficient approach personally.

IMHO, a good fitness regimen is a balanced fitness regimen and is going to include elements of both cardiovascular fitness as well as strength/resistance work.

geebusuk

First off; hills don't REALLY matter if you've got a high geared bike - you can usually put the same effort in on the flat if you want.
And depending on how low your gears go, just knock it down some gears to go slowly while spinning on the steep bits.

It may build your legs a bit, but at best it's "high intensity cardio" - it's all a sliding scale, but I'd suggest that it's still a bit away from what people would typically do for endurance training with weights, which sort of the 'first stop' in the progression to resistance training.

As for general health and so on, it depends on your goals.
If you want to be a tour de france style cyclist, then it's all about light weight and efficient use of pretty small muscles.
For burning calories, spurts of high intensity may have a good 'afterburn'.
Heavy weight lifting will have the same. If you are looking to be an all around 'fit' person, then personally I'd include being strong as well as having good cardiovascular healthy. But not everyone is worried by that.

heybales

so my question, can this be classified as resistance training? Or do I really have to do things with weights and such? My aim is to get my weight into the healthy weight range, improve my general fitness, and be healthy. I would appreciate any opinions, but please be nice!

You stand up 100 times in a day - resistance is gravity, and you are working against it.

You do one rep max weight of a squat - resistance against gravity again.

Obviously with those extremes you recognize a difference in need for the body to change.
If former was a strain, need more glucose and muscle recruitment to do it again.
Latter would be a strain, need more muscle if that is kept up.

Diet is what will get your weight in to a healthy weight range, done right, just fat loss, done wrong muscle mass also.
Exercise will improve general fitness, and can help or hinder the weight loss being fat only.
Healthy is changes to both for some people.

So don't confuse the two. People that do workout mainly just to burn calories, and then wonder why not as many body changes from the exercise compared to others that actually fuel their workouts to have best benefit.
Or they exercise to make up for bad diet. You can usually not out-exercise a bad diet. So much easier to eat 500 calories than to burn it off, time and effort and ease of action-wise anyway.

Some of the studies showing what level of resistance training helped to maintain muscle mass in the face of a deficit was up to 20 reps - still considered part of lifting rep range, endurance side of the range. But not just tough cardio.

Now real HIIT intervals, 15-45 sec as hard as possible, followed by 3 x as long very easy, 8 - 10 times, has shown some of the same benefit as lifting. In fact it's how to gain sport specific muscle mass for cardio without lifting, if the diet allows.
Obviously before gaining muscle, you'll at least strengthen it to the max for what you've got, and then train it to be as aerobic as it can be. Then depending on diet and newbie gains, you might add some more.

Just pushing harder up a hill though isn't the same effect as lifting weights, but that may not matter to you.
Just don't take as steep a deficit with all cardio as you might get away with strength training.
Run Sprinting up hills BTW will get more for you, and improve cycling muscles at the same time, quads.

ninerbuff

Well it would be if you only had one gear. Being able to reduce the resistance on the pedals counter acts the resistance made by the hill.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

AmyMgetsfit

I also took up running last year at 58. I really enjoy it. I ride my bike a lot in the summer and I would call those tough hills resistance. My legs are working hard, actually my whole body is working hard. I used to ride my bike up the mountains when I lived in Colorado. That was a workout. I also lift weights, but I do that more for my bones than a body transformation. I have early stage osteoporosis. I had no idea until I had a body scan.

betreich

Wow, thank you so much to everyone for taking the time to help me understand this cardio/ strength training thing a little better. It's really helpful to hear a range of opinions about it based on different experiences and knowledge. You have given me a lot to think about. So, what I am taking from this for now is that cardio is good, and I plan to keep doing what I have been doing in that regard, with a goal of gradually pushing my running out a bit more as I get some weight off and improve my fitness and endurance. However, it would be beneficial to have a more balanced fitness regime including some sort of weight or resistance training to strengthen the upper body, back and core, or possibly a full body approach to this. It is suggested that 2 -30 minute sessions a week would be adequate. That seems doable, and I will research a simple program to this end. No, sadly I don't have servants, I don't have mountains to cycle up ( AmyM would laugh if I told her how tall our local mountain is!),luckily my bike has more than 1 gear, I have experience with trying to out exercise a bad diet (it didn't work - or you can't out run the fork as some one else said), I have played around with interval training on the treadmill and a bit on the bike, but not really to maximum effort - something else to try. This website is fantastic!

DiannaMoorer

It would be a great benefit to your running to improve your core strength by doing back and abdominal exercises. Also if you add arm strengthening exercises it will help give you that over all toned look. Pushups and dips are great for the arms. As we age we do lose bone density so the lifting and resistance training is a very important part of our exercise regime as by doing those exercises it'll help improve bone density. So definitely do add it. I know I didn't answer your question but everyone else did such a good job I didn't feel that it was necessary. So happy running and luck to you!

geebusuk

The usual recommendation for a basic resistance program to start with is either Starting Strength or Stronglifts - both are very similar and it's generally agreed that they are an ideal place to begin getting your body overall stronger.
Quite likely the leg work will actually improve your running and cycling too - if your legs can lift twice the weight they can now, then relatively every push of the pedals up a hill is less of your maximal strength.

However, they typically take 45 minutes - though if done quickly, I'd say half an hour isn't impossible.
Both recommend three times a week as well.
These willl also work your 'core' too, as well as pretty much all the rest of your body,