Strength Macrocycle

So far we have reflected on this past season and started to imagine next season. Daylight savings time has come and our last road and cyclocross race have gone. Our off-season is upon us. As we know strength training is a wonderful addition to this period. Strength training can improve our time to exhaustion on long rides. It also can help with things like back pain on our bike. A strong core will also help transfer more power into the pedals. Strength training is also important for our bone density and general health.

I’ve been a personal trainer longer than I’ve been a cycling coach. The chance of injury usually increases with the level of difficulty and complexity of the exercise especially when people aren't trained or try to do too much too soon. I want to keep this strength training guide towards the basics. The basics will give us most of the gains and be the least likely to injure us. Please check with your doctor before starting any exercise, especially strength training. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me or another fitness professional.

There are a few main phases that we can work through this off-season and winter. They are outlined below.

Here are the few phases of strength training we will be getting into this winter.

1. Preparatory Phase

   There are two areas to focus on here. The first is to master the basic movement patterns you will be using for the months to come while using body or very light weight. This is an easy step to skip but I promise you it is worth completing. If you go right into heavy weight you’ll get very sore (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS) and can very easily hurt yourself.

   Another important focus is on your mobility limitations that you discovered when you performed the mobility assessment in the last post. Shoulders tight? Don’t lift overhead and work on your shoulder mobility. Core not stable? Don’t go very heavy with a deadlift until it is stable.

2. Muscular Endurance Phase

   There are studies that show that this type of training is what increases your time to exhaustion. This is when you add weight to the exercises/movements you have mastered in the Preparatory Phase. Higher reps of 15-20 with little rest.

3. Muscular Power Phase

   This type of training will help your fast twitch muscle fibers produce more force. This will translate over onto the bike when you sprint to close a gap or to the finish line.

4. Taper and maintenance

   This is when you scale back the volume of strength training and replace it with more time on the bicycle! Hopefully you keep some strength training going during the season. At the very least for the core.

Optimal Timeline

November — Preparatory Phase

December - January — Muscular Endurance Phase

February - March — Muscular Power Phase

April - Into Season — Taper and maintenance