Carbonfiberboy 

https://trainright.com/cycle-uphill-...orque-workout/

When I do these on the road, I do them as 10' hill repeats which does mean that I have a long enough hill nearby. I note how far I got up the hill on the 2nd repeat. When I can't get close to that far on a repeat I quit and ride home.

Steamer

Is there any evidence that this works better than doing intervals at freely chosen cadence and separate strength training via weights?

terrymorse 

I do a somewhat similar workout, but I do nowhere close to 10-minute intervals. I just blast up short but steep "leg breaker" grades at full gas. The longest climb is about a minute and a half.

I keep repeating these sprint climbs until my legs are too tired to continue. Once the muscle soreness goes away, I see a decent bump in my fitness.

RChung

If so, I haven't seen it--but I'm coming around to the thought that it might not matter. Things "work better" if people do them, and if you're motivated to do workouts because it's a change of pace from doing your usual everyday workouts, that might be enough even if you could be doing something "better" or "more time efficient." This is sort of like my thinking on hyper-structured workouts: there's no evidence that hyper-structure per se gives better results than loosely-structured workouts, but people are entertained and if they're motivated to try new workouts that's a plus.

I tend to think that training is pretty simple but people's minds and motivations are complex, and if the thing that stimulates them to ride more are weird ass workouts based on woo then at least they're doing something.

MoAlpha

That does seem to be the take-home from a critical overview of the training literature (as applied to the average slob, maybe not the WT pro looking for the last marginal crumb). And have you ever seen a comparative efficacy study of training regimens that contained a power analysis? The sample size required for a valid comparison of two known-effective treatments is just ridiculous.

Steamer

Yeah, for sure. Even an imperfect approach to doing a certain kind of training is superior to the 'empty set'.

I asked because this is the kind of workout I personally would only do if it had the reward of being really effective. The reason being that I used to do these and got injured doing them.

Carbonfiberboy 

You'd have to try it and see if it works for you. It's similar to climbing hills fixed or SS - or when you run out of gears. There are a few hills around here that we used to end our group rides on, steep enough to be panting at 50 cadence in the lowest gear anyone had. I think there are many ways to increase muscle fiber recruitment, but this low cadence work recruits nerve and muscle fiber in one's hamstrings, which includes timing in the pedal stroke and does come in handy. Alpine skiing a couple days ago, the first time since winter 2021. I made perfect turns right off the chair lift. Ganglia are everything.

Carbonfiberboy 

Quite so. It's quite a strain on one's ligaments and etc. I like cycling, but I'm also a backpacker and Alpine skier and I've been a gym member since '79. I should have put in a "good knees" caveat.

PeteHski

I climb plenty of hills (15%+ grades) where a realistic max cadence is grinding in the 50s, so I find these high torque, low cadence intervals really useful.

I also find strength training off the bike useful too, but I wouldn’t rely on that alone to prepare for these climbs. Muscle coordination when climbing seated or standing at very low rpm is something you can only really develop pedalling on the bike. It’s not just about muscle strength. It’s also about firing those muscles in the right order to be most efficient.

So strength training to gain raw muscle strength, plus low cadence, high torque intervals to develop efficient muscle coordination. Obviously doesn’t matter if you are never forced to climb at very low cadence.