DreamRider85

Usually when I start training consistently I’m able to do more pushups. Around 50. I’ve been training and doing hills more often. 40-50 mile rides. My clothes is much looser. So I thought that push ups would be so easy now. And I did like 6 and couldn’t do much more! It made no sense. Also I usually use 45 pound dumbbells for shoulder presses and now can only do 30 on each hand. This is really odd. I’m climbing more than 3,000 feet per day and am better than ever but now I feel WEAK when I’m doing resistance training!

Carbonfiberboy 

You're cannibalizing muscle for fuel, that's part of how you're getting lighter. It sounds like you haven't been doing 50 pushups every other day either. That'll take a toll right there. You wanted to climb faster and you did that. Good for you! Can't have everything all at once though.

It is possible to resistance train and ride. In some ways they are complementary and improve each other, but only in some senses. A good time to hit the weights and calisthenics is any time between September and February in the northern hemisphere. You can continue to do strength work right through the season, but only say 3 sets of 4 heavy reps of maybe 3 exercises, one day a week. Any more really cuts into cycling fitness. My in-season gym work has been squats, rows, bench, standing one-legged calf raises (no weight). This past December, a CTS coach said to get rid of that holiday fitness drop and ride 600 miles and do 1000 pushups that month. No, I didn't do that, but it's a good goal.

Edit: OTOH, 6 pushups is pretty pitiful. I can always do 15 no matter how long it's been. What's your diet like? How much protein are you getting and when? 3000' a day is a lot. That's a million feet/year. I used to ride with a guy who rode 30,000 miles one year and climbed 1.5 million feet another, but with a fewer miles, but not much. He said in the evening he would eat 1/2 a pan of lasagne. Maybe you aren't eating anywhere near enough. Figure your burn and intake calories, see what that looks like.

wolfchild

Try to keep your strength training and aerobic/endurance training separate. Don't do both on the same day.

Carbonfiberboy 

I think that depends on how many days/week one wants to ride. If I'm doing a big ride on Sunday, I take Saturday off. Otherwise I either ride or hike in the mountains every day. I strength train for an hour twice a week except for summer, when it's once a week. Thus I ride the same day I lift. I always ride before I lift but only for an hour or so. Sometimes it's just a spin, sometimes intervals, doesn't seem to matter. I lift the same weight no matter whet I do before hand. Different energy systems. As a general rule, don't lift before riding, though when I rode back from the gym in summer, I did sprint intervals, which worked well since squats had me primed for them and it was only 10' to home. Sprinting after doing squats is pretty cool.

canklecat

Yeah, as we age it's usually better to separate our workout sessions. I might do a warmup bike ride before strength training but I rarely combine strength training sessions and hard workout rides on the same day. When I do I usually need a couple of days rest to recover.

When I feel stale with strength training I'll switch to more reps with lighter weight/resistance. For example, due to old neck and shoulder injuries occasionally if I overdo it with pushups I'll get a flareup of inflammation and pain. So I'll switch to doing pushups off the kitchen countertop or other elevated surface, and do 50-100 reps. Usually after a few days I can resume more body weight training.

Check your diet and hydration too, especially the latter in summer.

I tend to stick to a fairly limited diet, not due to any digestion problems but because it just works for me functionally. But recently I switched things up a little for variety. While trying other foods, especially more carbs (lots of pizza the past week), tastes good, it doesn't really suit me. I do better with higher protein, especially meat, and fewer carbs.

Toespeas

i dodnt think there si anything wrong with that , i do cycling in the day and abs and arms at night , works for me

CyclingBK

I don’t understand, you went from doing 50 pushups to 6? When was the last time you could do 50?

I alternate days riding and strength training. And my strength training continues to improve right alongside with my strength on the bike and riding length.

DreamRider85

The last time was maybe before quarantine but I was about 20 pounds heavier then. I just stopped lifting cuz no gym and took a break from push ups. I can do more than 6, but wow they don’t feel easy anymore. But weird how I can climb the mountains I never could before and I feel lighter but when doing push ups I feel heavier.

CyclingBK

Congrats on the cycling training and weight loss! That’s great mileage, I only do 20 miles every other day but I do try to do some intervals in there.

The gym closing did not stop my strength training. I bought a 40lb weighted vest and do all kinds of pushups with it. I also do Bulgarian split squats, single leg dead lifts with it. And I do pull-ups without it. For me, I like it better than weights and will probably just keep sticking with it. Give it a try if you want.

With the vest, I add enough weight so I can only do multiple sets of 12-15 reps (as opposed to sets of 30+ reps) and I definitely feel like I’ve maintained and even built more muscle mass in some ways.

In fact, I’d suggest when you do pushups, you do them slow and all the way to the floor then all the way to lock out elbows. You’ll do a lot less than if you do them fast and “bouncy” but I think you’ll build mass and strength better, then get the vest when that gets too easy.

You said you dropped from 45s to 30s on dumbbell press. I could see that happening after a 5 month lay off from the gym. But it maybe seems like a bit much. The Push ups is a mystery, though.

I guess the best thing to do is figure out how to do them at least a couple of times a week to get your strength back. You will.

katrinoricci

From my point of view and from my experience is the time we are extremely exhausted , I get weaker in one sec

wolfpack95

Sounds like you haven’t done push-ups regularly for a while. If I take a week off, push-ups are really hard but after a week or so doing them every other day, they get easy again. Same with pull-ups. Fast ramp up and unfortunately, down.

OldTryGuy

How did I get weaker all of a sudden?

In my case it was a Gleason 10 diagnosis followed by the bi-lateral orchiectomy that began my treatment protocol. Use it before you lose it.

Flip Flop Rider

you are developing a cyclists body!

work4bike

It may be a case of just being more drained than you realize from your hill training. It might even be an indication that you're slightly over-trained, just enough when you try and do pushups you can really feel your body's fatigue..., but not enough where you feel it in your normal day.