I lift 3 days a week. Approximately 1 hour each session. My routine is chest/triceps, then back/biceps, and finally shoulders/legs.
I trail ride 2 days a week, weather permitting. If the trails are wet, I don't ride because I don't want to make a mess of the trails and consequently make a mess of myself.

On a typical week, it'll look like this:
Monday - off
Tuesday - chest/triceps
Wednesday - off
Thursday - biceps/back
Friday - off
Saturday - shoulders/legs/trail ride
Sunday - trail ride

Monday through Friday - bike about 15 miles per day

Monday - back and biceps
Wednesday- chest and triceps
Friday - legs.

On the gym days I also add in shoulders and traps. I do abs all of the time at the end.

I follow his training:
https://www.youtube.com/user/vicsnatural

I do both, and swim as well. Right now I aim for each one twice a week. I do a general full body weight workout twice a week, two swim sessions of between 30-45 minutes each, and two hour long rides per week. Whenever possible, I do longer swims and rides. My general schedule (always subject to change) is:

Monday & Wednesday - swim
Tuesday & Friday - lifting
Saturday & Sunday - cycle
Thursday is either my "off" day or a fill-in day if I had to skip something else during the week

I also run errands on my bike as much as possible instead of driving, but I consider those "bonus" rides.

Commute 5 days a week, 2 evening rides mountain biking 2-4 hours then the big weekend mountain bike endurance training ride 4-10 hours (depending on fatigue from the week). I then lift twice a week doing this routine: Rack squat, Ham string curl, Leg press, dead lift, plank, incline bench press, Seated cable rows, Lat pull down. I'll normally throw in one session of bicep curls, tricep something and shoulder press each week at some point as well.

Once I start my next training block lifting will go to once-ish a week (maybe none depending on fatigue) as I will be doing interval sessions instead, threshold and VO2Max.

Riding and lifting dont go together. To much upper body muscle weighs too much and makes you slower going uphill. There is a reason that pro cyclist have no upper body muscles at all.

Riding and lifting dont go together. To much upper body muscle weighs too much and makes you slower going uphill. There is a reason that pro cyclist have no upper body muscles at all.

What works for the pros typically doesn't apply to us folks on MFP, so, I have to respectfully disagree and offer what my experience has been. When I started doing Crossfit which includes a lot of lifting, both low reps and heavy weights as well as high reps and lighter weights, it was a total game changer for my cycling. I didn't gain weight at all. The lifting was a vital part of a fitness regime that helped me drop about 20-30 lbs and this was while adding muscle to my upper body and legs. I went from the last guy up the hill on B rides to one of the first guys up the hills on the A/A+ rides. On solo rides, the upper body strength helped me to comfortably stay in the drops adding 1-2 mph to my average speed at the same effort levels. Also, as a mountain biker, the added upper body strength helps me control the bike with much more confidence, especially when having to quickly pop the wheels off the ground to overcome obstacles.

Other benefits: my IT band irritation on long rides disappeared almost immediately when I started lifting. Also, I can spin and at a broader range of cadences more comfortably and take long uphill pulls out of the saddle with ease. My 10-20 second sprints and short 1-2 minute anaerobic efforts got a huge boost. Finally, what lifting (and Crossfit) has done for me is that it allows me to keep up with guys that spend 2, 3, or 4 times/miles on the bike as I do. As a married guy with a baby, I just cannot get out much on the bike but it is nice to know that when I do want to catch the occasional group ride, I won't embarrass myself too badly.

I guess its all a matter of where your goals are at. I could care less what I look like I just want to go faster. As far as longer pulls and anaerobic and aerobic fitness this can all be achieved with intervals on the bike. The only off the bike really necessary is a small bit of core work during the off season to improve comfort in the drops and for better technical mountain bike performance. Believe it or not arm strength is more of a hindrance than a help in either Mountain biking or road biking. If you are using your arms to power through things you may have a form issue or a bike fit problem.

You really are intent on proving your point, aren't you? I don't know anyone in any field of athletics that got worse as something from getting stronger.

I'm going to have to agree with Vulcangreen and Matsprt1984 on this one. Not that I've ever disagreed with him/her before. If you look at professional cyclists, they aren't lifting to improve looks, they are lifting for two reasons, the same two you should be lifting. First is to improve strength so that you can improve performance. Second is to balance muscle groups so you can avoid injuries. Cyclists are notorious for building quads and calves but neglecting other leg muscle groups. This can lead to knee pain as abnormal wear on the joints. Weight lifting will help balance muscle groups reducing the chance of injury. During the competition season go lighter on the weights and during the off season go heavier. If you were to talk to or hire a professional trainer, they would have you riding even during the off season but they would also have you lifting weights year round, just more in the off season. I will agree with you that core strength workouts are a must. That is where your power comes from. Don't neglect the other muscle groups though. If nothing else, they will help speed recovery but processing lactic acid quicker.

Vulcangreen - you really sound like you know your stuff. I appreciate the insight and input.

Vulcangreen - you really sound like you know your stuff. I appreciate the insight and input.

Thank you sir!

Riding and lifting dont go together. To much upper body muscle weighs too much and makes you slower going uphill. There is a reason that pro cyclist have no upper body muscles at all.

What works for the pros typically doesn't apply to us folks on MFP, so, I have to respectfully disagree and offer what my experience has been. When I started doing Crossfit which includes a lot of lifting, both low reps and heavy weights as well as high reps and lighter weights, it was a total game changer for my cycling. I didn't gain weight at all. The lifting was a vital part of a fitness regime that helped me drop about 20-30 lbs and this was while adding muscle to my upper body and legs. I went from the last guy up the hill on B rides to one of the first guys up the hills on the A/A+ rides. On solo rides, the upper body strength helped me to comfortably stay in the drops adding 1-2 mph to my average speed at the same effort levels. Also, as a mountain biker, the added upper body strength helps me control the bike with much more confidence, especially when having to quickly pop the wheels off the ground to overcome obstacles.

Other benefits: my IT band irritation on long rides disappeared almost immediately when I started lifting. Also, I can spin and at a broader range of cadences more comfortably and take long uphill pulls out of the saddle with ease. My 10-20 second sprints and short 1-2 minute anaerobic efforts got a huge boost. Finally, what lifting (and Crossfit) has done for me is that it allows me to keep up with guys that spend 2, 3, or 4 times/miles on the bike as I do. As a married guy with a baby, I just cannot get out much on the bike but it is nice to know that when I do want to catch the occasional group ride, I won't embarrass myself too badly.

So you lost weight and got better at cycling? Well no kidding. From a strictly scientific standpoint for distance/aerobic riding you use type I muscles. Lifting uses type IIa and IIb muscles. There is VERY LITTLE crossover. So what you're really experiencing is an improvement in general fitness and you power/weight ratio went up because your weight went down. You cadence improved again because you are more fit overall and you weight went down. Lifting weights is great for addressing muscle imbalances (see you IT band issue), it's great for body composition, and it's great to address injury prevention. It will not fundamentally make you a better cyclist. Hill repeats will make you stronger. Low cadence intervals will make you stronger. Threshold intervals will make you stronger.

Again being a competitive cyclist isn't the goal of the majority of this site, general health and aesthetics is so work in lifting as you like.

I have just started incorporating weights in to my routine. At the moment I am just making sure my body will adapt to weights, and am on "adaptation" period - low weights, high reps. I am doing leg flexion, hip flexors, leg extensions and hip extensions after calculating my RM - and I am pushing about 40% of that.

I am doing this three times a week, and following that session (about an hour) with a z2 ride.

I am also doing work on my upper body, but to a lesser degree. I will still need some muscle, shoulders, curls, lats for climbing - though I won't be looking to build, but strengthen without the bulk.

So, Tuesdays, Thursday, Saturday - Gym

And Monday, Wednesday, Friday - pure core work.

I think that there is this understanding that gym means bulk, which, if you are a track rider will follow a cycle of that means a long hypertrophy stage - whereas I am looking a lower hypertrophy as I am looking to do hill climbing and TTs next year.

Does anyone know if the "fact" that WT doesn't really take an effect until some 12 weeks later is correct?

I do a lot of riding - 5 to 7 days a week. In winter and early spring, I do legs at the gym 2-3 days a week to build strength. It made a huge difference in my hill climbing this year, and make a huge difference in my technical mountain biking ability, especially uphill.

I skip the weights in the summer and substitute strength intervals on the bike because I find lifting makes my legs feel weak for a couple of days. Instead, I do stuff like seated steep hill intervals pushing 300-400 watts for 1-3 minutes.

As for upper body lifting, well, I skip it.

Have fun riding!

Cycling is just one component of my fitness program.

Cycling was originally used as part of my cardio program in my weight loss programming due to its low-impact on my knees (and my weight). As the weight began to come off and my cardio improved, I was able to go for longer rides and began attending a spin class. I also began a strength and conditoning program. Once again, as the weight came off, I began to push myself to new distances and speeds. I also began to wak/run and even swim from time to time. It was at about 80 pounds gone, I decided to run my 1st 5k and I did great. And then I heard about a local sprint triathlon and thought . . . hmmm - why not ??? Along the way to training for the sprint-tri everyting changed (and accelerated) for me: eating, adding a lifting/strength program (via CrossFit) and working on faster times and even greater distances. **II won't bore you with the details of the last year, but will say that once I added an intense strength & condtioning program, all aspects of my life changed for me.

Here's my "Winter" schedule:
Monday - Spin (morning) and then CrossFit (evening).
Tuesday - Swim (morning) and then CrossFit (evening).
Wednesday - Rest day or maybe a swim or run.
Thursday - CrossFit (noon or evening).
Friday - Spin or Swim (morning).
Weekends - Long run.

*My "Summer" schedule has long bike rides instead of the runs - because cycling it my favorite :-)


And I have noticed a difference/improvment in all aspects of my swimiming, running and cycling. Better times, longer distances, ease of hills and spints/flats, etc. I've even been told I'm more foccused and at times get a little moody if I miss a workout. I've noticed that though my weight-loss has slowed, my clothes are looser and I'm leaner and that can be the best part !!!

Good Luck to everyone and stay safe on the roads, trails, lakes or where-ever you choose to run, ride, swim or train !!!