Originally Posted by
Carbonfiberboy
Tuesday is my upper body day, mostly pulling work. I do pushing and legs on Thursday. Anyway, when I'm doing dumbbell work, it's mostly done standing, curls bent over with bent knees, etc. After an hour of that, my quads are screaming. Bizarre, huh? Maybe it benefits cycling, but mostly indirectly. The work enables me to stay on the bike and not get injured.
A side note:
Schermer's Neck is an issue among randonneurs, but is very simple to insure against simply by doing upper body work with dumbbells: shrugs, presses, side raises, front raises, rear raises. Fixes the neck right up. I superset the sides, fronts, and rears to save time. And I'm really glad I included that link, because I've had
diplopia on brevets without Schermer's Neck. Probably something to do with trying to hold my head as low as possible and still see well ahead. It goes away pretty quickly, usually during the brevet, nothing to worry about, just eye muscle strain. I've wondered what caused it for years. I used to think it was low blood sugar, but have disproved that.
My neck injury is from being hit by cars, twice. C2 was broken in 2001 but healed, although it's thickened and the cartilage is shot so there's some grinding. And after the 2018 collision the C1 and C2 are displaced in opposite directions, so occasionally there are bizarre side effects from nerve pressure, like spikes in BP and HR.
Yeah, I get the double vision thing too from being in the drops too long or using aero bars. I've modified my bike fits to minimize that problem. It's not the most aero and technically the reach is just a little shorter than optimal. But it's comfortable, a reasonable compromise and I've been able to enjoy longer rides this year.
And daily physical therapy is a must. At a minimum I do massage and stretching every day, usually two or three times a day. On good days I'll add strengthening exercises. Really helps.