Originally Posted by
HammyHead
Koffee (or anyone else) here's my question about
number of reps:
Here goes: In order to improve my cycling abilities and competitiveness (I am Cat III, 45+) I am lifting weights this winter � both upper body and legs. At this point I am only riding about 6 hours a week, but will increase that next month. As for legs weights I am doing leg press, leg curls, and calf raisers. With all of these I try and do 35 to 40 reps each set, really trying to move past the burn, increase my pain tolerance and build muscle. Well, yesterday at the gym I asked a trainer about this method. He said that at such high repetition levels I was only building lactic acid and that I really should be building muscle mass and therefore only lifting weights were I can do only 10 � 12 repetitions.
What of these two methods do you feel is best and why? Is the trainer correct? What other methods would you recommend?
I did a search specific to this but didn�t find anything, but koffee's quote below - if there is a thread about this can someone post a link?
Thanks and ride on�
HammyHead
With all training, there is a necessary balance of intensity, volume, and frequency that you need in order to reach certain goals. Most of the gains from weight training is from neurological gains. You increase neural drive and coordination, which allow you to control and lift heavier weights. The hope is that this significantly transfers to your cycling. The way most people do this is by also including some power lifting and plyometrics.
How much weight depends on your goals. Lifting for maximal strength entails, you guessed it, lifting progressively heavier weights. Plyometrics use lighter weights at high contraction speeds. Above 15 reps or so, you are not reaping all of the benefits of weight lifting. A concern of masters cyclists is maintaining muscle mass, and staying between 5 and 15 reps is appropriate for this. After lifting progressively heavier loads for some time (just like anything else, you'll see gains from doing anything if you're starting from zero), periodization can be used to enhance the results. Once you're put in your work to build a good strength "base" you seek to apply that to cycling, by making your lifts more specific to cycling. It is similar to the tradition of higher volume early in the season to build an aerobic base, but once the race nears your training mimics the event in many ways. For example, it is fine to balance and build your quads with seated leg extensions, but that motion is entirely absent from cycling.
It isn't an all-or-none proposition with volume/intensity. A popular technique to do pyramids (eg 3 sets: 15, 10, 5 reps) or by doing different numbers of reps on separate days of the week. For example, 5 reps/set one day, 10 another, 15 another. I find this to be less mentally taxing, and there is some research to say periodizing weights is better (not as much evidence as with aerobic activity, though).
Eventually, your lifts should be across the same ranges of motion and at similar speeds of contraction to ones you might use in cycling. Biomechanical research indicates that these conditions must be met for significant transference of skill/strength from the weight room to your activity (in this case, cycling). Slow, deep squats? No, for several reasons. Box jump plyos for sprinting? Yes. Leg extensions? Not necessarily applicable to cycling. Step ups, at a reasonable cadence? Yes, for increasing hip extension (and therefore seating pedaling) force production.