Originally Posted by
AmahlAmahlAmahl
Are you a sprinter or endurance rider?
I'm no expert but I believe you should be squating using a barbell right now. Leave the leg press machine alone if you have access to free weights.
There's so much technique that goes into squating. There's so many different variations and style of technique. I personally follow the philosophy of Olympic Weightlifters since the program I use has me doing clean + jerks and snatches.
You should ask yourself: Are you going to squat high bar, low bar, a** to grass, wide stance like a power lifter, or heels underneath hips or torso?
Also, learning how to properly front rack for front squats and cleans will take time and often most people have to do mobility drills or use a special bar to do front squats.
Also, about comparing yourself to others (about strength)- stop that. Strength takes a long time to develop. When you first start off your numbers will increase by a lot due to correcting bad technique, but after that... I'm afraid it's a slow grind. Also remember the strongest person in the gym doesn't equal the faster person on the velodrome.
Are you on a workout program or are you just making it up as you go?
I'm definitely making it up as I go. Right now I'm lifting at the gym whenever I am not sore (seems like 2-3 days recovery), doing form squats, leg press, low row (machine), lat pull down, form deadlift, abdominal. Bench, press, pushups, and some core when I'm at home, so I tend not to do it at the gym.
I have a track bike I bought 30 years ago and that'll go on the trainer as soon as I build a rear clincher for it (rim/spokes are on the way) - I plan on using that to figure out standing starts and seeing what kind of speed/power I can put down when limited to one gear. I'm lucky in that I live on a quiet flat bit of road that goes into a 10% grade, so initially I'll do my standing starts into that hill (I might even rig together a fake start stand). I'm putting together a modern bike that should be finalized in the next couple months (I have to figure out the bars and cranks).
On squat, due to long torso and short quads, I'm thinking high bar, feet under shoulders, break parallel. I have no training in free weights so I'm not going to do any purely technical moves (clean jerk etc). It'll be pure squats. I'll do form squats for now, work on bar moving vertically, get the mechanics down, very light weights, then increase weight.
Sprinter for sure. My FTP is pretty poor, 200-220w (220w = upgrade to Cat 2 in 2010, although I downgraded in 2011 to start a family). All but one of my results are through sprints or sprint efforts. On two SRMs I can repeat 1500w peak (1700w not very repeatable), and my best long road sprints were 1100w@19s. I'm rpm limited though, in terms of applying power, so one of my next steps is to do 0-150 rpm work. I raced track in 2009, every weekday I could do. I did a 3 km pursuit and I finished about 1 minute behind the winner. I won some races, keirin (with a moto), scratch, but they were all very low key.
I'm using others as benchmarks as I figure they'll be my competition, sort of. I want to be in the ballpark.