Originally Posted by
merca
Interesting info. I can't say whether this is the right approach. After a break due to health issues, I'm currently following an 8-week workout plan to get ripped. It includes various exercises, including deadlifts. Maybe it is better to ask a professional trainer, but I think there is no other way to build muscles than to lift weights.
If you're a cyclist, you don't really want to "build muscles," at least not much. You want to get stronger, but not heavier, if anything, lighter. Your 8-week program will mostly improve your nerves' ability to fire muscle fibers, so you'll make a lot of progress in weight lifted, quite quickly. Getting "ripped" is mostly a factor of losing fat, not so much gaining muscle mass. When I'm in my fall strength training phase, I keep my meals small, so I hopefully don't gain weight and instead lose fat, but not weight, replacing the fat with muscle.
Doing leg work, I think cyclists are a bit of a special case, because our job is to accelerate the pedals as quickly as possible. That's a neuromuscular thing, not just muscular. So when I'm past the "I might tear something" phase, I accelerate the weight as quickly as I can. Think power clean, even though you probably aren't doing one:
The idea of doing several sets is to avoid injury and move more weight on the last set than you could have, had you only done 1 set. I start with maybe 85% of what I plan to lift on my last set. That warms up my muscles and makes sure my technique is correct. I don't rep to failure on the last set, just to where I know I would fail the next rep. No spot necessary.
Another difference between machines and free weights is range of motion. I think it's very important to move one's limbs through their full range of motion in whatever exercise one is doing. A machine may not allow that. I think that's a cool thing about Olympic lifting, that and the speed. I used to love doing snatches. That's really fun. Not that I was any good at it, I just loved doing it.