Squats
- Thread starter mikeruss
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Incontinentia Buttocks
Veteran
edindave
Über Member
- Location
- Auld Reeker
Imodium. Oh sorry, I thought you were talking squits.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Strength training is only beneficial to a cycling training program if done in the right part of your periodization programme. Also, squats on their own won't do much. You have to combine cycle strength training with lunges, seated row, hamstring curls, quad extensions, calf lifts, donkey lilfts and a series of core exercises.
Strength training is only required if you want to improve certain aspects of your cycling, like climbing and sprinting. Do you really need this over endurance?
Like they say in the dieting industry: "only effective as part of a balanced regime."
Strength training is only required if you want to improve certain aspects of your cycling, like climbing and sprinting. Do you really need this over endurance?
Like they say in the dieting industry: "only effective as part of a balanced regime."
Citius
Guest
Just to repeat what I said in last week's thread - which is still on the first page of this forum - cycling performance is not limited by strength, and available evidence suggests that additional strength does not improve cycling performance any more than the equivalent amount of cycling. Strength training may even be detrimental. There's no real evidence that it is in any way beneficial.
Anyway, is the OP even talking about cycling training? Or just going to the gym in order to look good in speedos?
Anyway, is the OP even talking about cycling training? Or just going to the gym in order to look good in speedos?
ayceejay
Guru
- Location
- Rural Quebec
Not enough information to give a comprehensive answer but squats are a good way to gain weight and size.
Chris Hoy does squats regularly.
Chris Hoy does squats regularly.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
Squats do NOT make you look good in a Speedo. It gives you a big arse, that's all.
Anyway, I disagree about your view on strength training but I suspect we are not poles apart. Joe Friel's Cyclist Training Bible explains that strength training for cycling should always be structure so that it does not attempt to isolate one muscle/group like bodybuilders do, but involve muscles either side of a joint. I'm paraphrasing big-time here since it is a while I paid attention to that regime. Also, it is generally done in the off-season and should be more pronounced for older athlets than younger ones.
But squats in a Speedo it ain't.
Citius
Guest
Stronger legs will not get you up hills faster. Better cardiovascular fitness will get you up hills faster.
Pushing the pedals up a hill involves nothing even remotely close to a maximal strength effort - so making your legs even stronger than they already are is not going to improve your climbing. Climbing (or even cycling in general) involves repeated applications of a very low level of force - in other words, it's an aerobic effort, so your limitations will be aerobic in nature.
Citius
Guest
I suspect Joe isn't actually talking about strength training then, by the sound of it. Cycling is all about sustainable power, and in cycling terms you can generate relatively high levels of sustainable power on relatively 'weak' legs. 'Weak' in the sense that they are no stronger than the legs of the average man in the street.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
The chicks dig a big, but firm and shapely butt on a man.
Yellow Saddle
Guru
- Location
- Loch side.
OP is you. Original Poster.
From what you just said above here, I can safely say that squats will not help you achieve a better time in a sportive. Ride more, get a proper training programme and lose weight if you have weight to lose.