Carbonfiberboy 

But WOW, those legs . . .Doesn't look like a distortion from the camera. Looks like a toy bike under you.

terrymorse 

The photo does make my legs look weird.

21-inch quads, barely above average for an old guy. Legs are kind of long (49% of height), but not that long (average is 45%).

So a normal-ish pencil-neck geek:


Pencil-neck in the Cycology jersey

Ric Stern

as far as i'm aware, the concept of protein consumption post exercise, being able to 'last' a long time (i.e., if you consume more than X grams it gets excreted out - which is incorrect) has been available for a long time, i can't recall exactly when i started recommending this to my athlete and i don't recall there being any evidence of a cap at 25g for decades. that said the concept of taking 100g post exercise, is novel to me.

FWIW, those who are feeling underrecovered post strength training, i find that lifting heavy (near max) with minimal reps has little negative effect on me. for the majority of athletes i coach (ages range from 17 to 72) i usually suggest bike intervals in the morning and strength work in the afternoon. i found that significantly upping my total daily protein intake had a positive effect on my recovery.

MoAlpha

Yeah, you got the roadie bod thing going. This is from last spring. I've managed to pack on a kilo since then, but I have another couple to go. Hope all goes well with Mrs. tm!



Photo credit, Michael Hyman

Hermes

Great...posting pics. Here I am in my mid 60s doing a low key hill climb race - Montebello 6 miles long on the finishing 8% grade. It was really hot on the climb. I wanted to post a climbing NorCal pic to match Terry. I look about the same today. I eat a lot of protein (all meat) mostly later in the day. Eating more and eating more protein has helped both my wife and I in the gym and on the bike.

RChung

Just in case you guys were worried, I'm not going to post a photo of myself featuring my short fat legs and paunch.

Hermes

I will enjoy my high protein, red meat dinner a lot more tonight knowing this.

MoAlpha

Aw, cmon. It’s just us here!

79pmooney

At 70 with (I'm presuming) arthritic hands that were never powerful (got my mom's build, not my dad's that could twist off anything, no tools need) I can still open all the jars. Just need bigger and better tools! (I have moka coffee makers. I now grease the threads with olive oil every cup.)

I can fully relate! (With the pencil neck and the Kuss-like overall dimensions.) Except, again I got my mom's build with narrow shoulders. That I narrowed further ~1/4" at a time with each of 4 collar bone breaks. Had to wear jacket and tie for a half decade of schooling. Almost all my dress shirts were blue because I had a source for 15-34.

And off topic but goofy and fun. I spent some of my boatbuilding years making Wylie 34s. Never said this out loud but I had the thought many times "I build those Wylies with 34 arms and legs."

late

Use it or lose it.

I've done a few threads about resistance exercise in Pills and Ills.

Cycling doesn't do much for the posterior chain, or the core.

late

You can fix that, I'm 72, and I've been growing my shoulders (among other things)

You have a bunch of small shoulder muscles. One old school exercise is to take light dumbells, hold them in front of your chest, then move about a foot at an upward angle. You'll feel the shoulder muscles working when you are doing it right. Small muscle, light weight, lots of reps. Eazy Peazey.

You do have big muscles below the small ones, delts and traps.

I have a ton of rubber bands and straps and such. I cut some of the bands (they look like a fan belt in your car) to make straps. Stand on one, bend over and grab low enough to get some tension, them make like you are pulling your pants up. Bend over just a tiny bit, and the range of motion goes a little past your pants. But it's not hard to generate a lot of resistance working your back effectively. It's also easy on the joints.

Carbonfiberboy 

A little OT, but it is winter. From October to December I gym twice a week, and among many other things, I do 3 supersets of 12 rep dumbbell raises, all same weight: lateral raises all the way to vertical (gives the muscles a tiny break), then front raises one arm at a time, then rear deltoid raises. 1 minute break between the supersets. 78. Not exactly a cycling exercise, more of a long-term survival exercise. Does help keep the shoulders and neck from getting tired though. I use 8-12 lb. My wife rides dressage as well as the tandem, does them too. For traps, I do shrugs.

79pmooney

I do basically that only tailored to compensate for missing tendons etc, in my left shoulder but still, my shoulder balls are much closer than either spec or my liking. Can't change the frame without taking myself to a body shop.

canklecat

Doc, I'd like to suggest TRT for them gains, but after nearly two months I can't say I've noticed any difference. Although I was coming from a deficit so maybe it'll take longer at my age to notice any difference. Everyone else I know who's tried it say it was darned near miraculous. I'm starting to wonder if my vials are filled with just the oil base they use to keep it in suspension.

But I don't have the kind of physique that bulks up. Never did as a youngster either. I boxed amateur from 132-155 at 1/4" shy of 6', and was always a stringbean. I'm still only 165, and that's heavy for me now, the most I've weighed since 2014. But I've had to cut way back on cycling and jogging due to injuries.

Eh, maybe I should take up lifting. Start on some brand new exercise related injuries.

Sierra_rider

Gym time for me is all about increasing endurance, rather than just increasing strength. I put on weight very easily(both fat and muscle mass,) so I have to work at staying light for cycling. I can come off the couch and hold 1000 watts in a sprint, but having a decent w/kg FTP is a constant struggle for me.

PeteHski

I’m curious what gym work you do specifically for endurance? I’m the opposite. I use the gym primarily to gain muscle strength and rely on my bike for building endurance.

MoAlpha

Never had my testosterone checked. Might turn me into an alpha male!

Sierra_rider

Low volume, high weight...mostly squats, deadlifts, lunges, weighted box steps, as well as some other core work. The studies suggest that this increases time to exhaustion on the bike, this is what I meant by increased endurance...poorly worded on my part. I try to keep my volume low, as I put on muscle mass very easily. I guess that it's a good problem to have, but most of my events include a fair bit of climbing, so I'm trying to find the balance of power/weight.

ZHVelo

But does a higher protein balance necessarily imply more muscle growth?
I'm sure there is a genetic component to what happens with amino acids in muscles and how muscles grow. Just because you increase their amount, won't lead to higher muscle growth in everyone I would assume.

ZHVelo

This is exactly what I do in the gym.

MoAlpha

Yeah, that's the big question and, assuming the data reported here are right, the answer is not any sort of linear relationship.

Ric Stern

With all the athletes i work with, it's low reps and high weights in the gym. obviously, if you've never lifted before you don't want to start that way because the likelihood is you'll injure yourself (which you obviously don't want to do). So, in that instance i start with light weights and high reps. The evidence tends to show that lifting near maximal weights increases endurance and sprint powers

FWIW, I've increased my bone mineral density, increased my muscle mass, and lost 6 kg in weight. My 5-sec peak power has risen ~150 W and my FTP is up by ~ 10-15 W. These are *all-time* bests at 54 yrs old (55 next month), and my power data goes back to when i was 24 or 25 yrs old (i believe i have the largest collection of power data on a single person). Same weight as in my 20s (currently equal lightest). Earlier today i tapped out a 3-minute power PR (in the last 5 years -- i haven't checked back further than that yet). just about to start my 41st consecutive race season. currently my cycling streak is ~7.25 years.

PeteHski

Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering if you meant cardio based gym work like circuit training.

ThermionicScott 

There is a persistent meathead myth that the body can only assimilate 20 (or 25 or 30, depending on who's repeating it) grams of protein from a meal, but there has never been a good basis for it to the best of my knowledge. Our bodies are not as stupid as we tend to imagine them, thankfully.

MoAlpha

I can't cite the papers, but I think the evidence for this was fairly good. If assimilate means incorporate into muscle protein, then this study doesn't contradict that either. Rather, what they're showing, if my essentially lay reading of this is correct, is that the 100g protein meal has a "pharmacological" effect on the incorporation of labelled amino acids administered IV during the experiment. Maybe it signals to the body that, "we just slaughtered a mammoth and we have to eat it before it goes bad, so you can make all the muscle you want without depriving other tissues and systems of amino acids."