The #1 Strength Exercise for Cyclists (Based on Science)

[@soapowejazz]

I'm a massive advocate for strength training, for anyone. Strength is the second biggest predictor of longevity after Vo2max after all. There is no such thing as sufficient strength. However...muscles get their biggest training stimulus when they are stretched and when you go through the full range of motion. Not only this, but using the full range of motion (with proper technique) will also make you more flexible. A proper half squat should at least be done until your femurs are parallel or just above parallel to the ground (this is also mentioned in one of the studies). The way you show it is more like a one-third squat. Also, in two of the three studies the participants did not only do half squats, but also leg press and other exercises. Presumably, one can reach a larger muscle stretch in leg press since bad technique is not going to hurt you as much. And therefore, you cannot conclude that half squats alone will be beneficial because there were other exercises being performed at the same time. Also, in the last study, there were only 13 participants in total (including treatment and control group) which is really too low do draw any significant statistical result. Of course, doing a half squat (or even less than half) is going to be much better than doing nothing. But if you learn good technique, proceed slowly with increasing weight, and and go until your maximum range of motion you are going to see much more benefits 🙂

[@marcdaniels9079]

Reading your second sentence I fear you have been taken in by the Internet influencers, perhaps Dr Peter Attia? The claims you make are simply not backed up by reliable scientific literature but are correlations drawn from various sources much like the hang strength nonsense pedalled by Attia. There are any number of claims about predictors or ways to increase longevity and in reality the answer is we can only talk in broad terms about these with the usual categories of eat well, exercise, sleep well and maintain social contacts, as well as avoiding all the obvious bad stuff like drugs alcohol smoking stress etc etc. The rest of your comment is good.

[@aarondcmedia9585]

Agreed.

[@alanpaschoal7299]

Hey my friend, thanks for your message. 😀 If you don't mind answering a question, this could help others as well. I train regularly on the bike, but I'm always unsure of what exercises to do in the gym to strengthen my legs. When I do heavy weights with low repetitions (5-8), my workout routine usually includes squats, leg press, leg extension, Romanian deadlifts, and calf raises. However, the problem is that my legs feel extremely sore and fatigued throughout the week, which clearly impacts my cycling sessions. Is this how the pros train?

[@soapowejazz]

@@alanpaschoal7299 I'm not a personal trainer...just an engineer interested in sport! If you do all those exercises in one session I would bet that your legs feel sore and fatigued. Try and have a rest day or an easy day on the bike after the gym. for instance, if you do legs in the gym, the next day you cannot expect to do Vo2max interval. Maybe the other way around would be better, but in both cases I would have one easy or rest day in between. or even two. It really depends on how fast you can recover. I do two lifting sessions per week and in both I do squats, deadlift bench press, military press and pull ups. Reason is that I only have time for two gym sessions a week and so I do full body in both sessions. But I have a rest day and an easy day before my Vo2max intervals, which I only do once a week.

[@Markhypnosis1]

​@@alanpaschoal7299You're doing too many exercises for legs and they are taking far too long to recover as a result. But you haven't said how many sets you do per exercise. The leg extensions and calf raises are not needed to take them out. Your legs should recover much quicker now.

[@Avianthro]

Good advice...keeping it simple-KIS! Another option, one that requires no weights, is doing half squats on one leg. If you need to, you can maintain your balance by placing one hand on a desk, table, or chair.

[@JonnyKibble]

Thanks for watching! Nice I like that, great idea!

[@Foxtrottangoabc]

I like step ups on my stairs which would be not as tough as one leg squats , not sure my knees would survive 🙂

[@lechprotean]

I have arrythmia, meaning no VO2max exercises for me, only z2 riding. However, squats and sprints are fine and bigger squats translate to more powerful sprints at least for me. So my 'training plan' is z2 / free riding + gym

[@JonnyKibble]

That's a great way to still get some higher intensity training in! Awesome work and can-do attitude!

[@AndyPandy-v7v]

Great watch, cheers. Tried all the last 20 years. For me find single leg press best to ensure I don’t favour one leg like BB squats. For core activation find bend over BB row and standing DB press work well. Good idea is to stand in damp sand and see if one foot goes deeper than the other, shows what side you favour.

[@brianmcg321]

Half squats are a great way to put way to much stress on the knees.

[@pahouseholder]

Just clarifying: A great way not to put too much stress on your knees?

[@ElonMuckX]

Isometrics is even better. Low injury, and you can on MASSIVE weight, while not gaining mass.

[@LyndonNLeeming22]

Got hit by a car couple of years back now and got quite severe double knee injuries from landing on the road in a kneeling position. Part of my rehab was seated squats from a chair to progressing eventually to a low stool. This was great for my leg strength without being too harsh in the knees. Used that rehab as a spring board and now I'm stronger than I was before the accident. The seated squat is probably very similar in range of motion to the half squat 👌🏽

[@JonnyKibble]

Great to hear you're recovering well and how strength training helped to get you back on the road! Thanks for watching and sharing your story!

[@DicconHill]

Look forward. Not at your feet. Very important.

Thanks for this video.... amazing

[@alexgonzalezMI]

There is a lot of truth to this. I lifted a lot more during the winter and in the spring my power was higher than it is now. I should have kept up some of the routine.

[@JonnyKibble]

Nice! It's hard to stay consistent isn't it but it does work!

[@vietnguyen4312]

Thanks for the tip. I will be adding some weight training again soon but at 56YO, I need to be careful how I incorporate it with my cycling. I used to do 3 x 10 min reps of stair climbs (2 stairs at a time) with a heavy backpack and 2 x 5kg ankle weights. I found this to be very effective and allowed me to sustain power for longer periods. Has anyone else tried this?

[@marcdaniels9079]

I am 63 cycle and use heavy weights. There is nothing intrinsically more hazardous than stair climbing either a back pack and it is much more effective

[@MorganBrown]

Interesting. I would still like to go deep for some sets,but the half squat is interesting not just because you can go heavier, but because you can more safely go to failure in a squat rack with safety bars. I personally am not really keen to take ass-to-grass squats to failure!

[@pahouseholder]

Frankly, I think I'll do some of both. I'd imagine I can go heavier weight to more reps with half squats.

[@pj9375]

Bulgarian split squat, Full squat, deadlifts. That’s all you need to get much faster from strength aspects In my experience.

[@itscliffvtr]

Don't skip leg day

[@tomaszsosnowski9279]

I would recommend doing these in heeled shoes (like weightlifters do it) to put your spine more vertical and push more with your quads, and less glutes. Smith machine is great for this purpose too.

[@alaefarmestatesllc]

Just use a plate or board if you don’t have weightlifting shoes

[@jakebailey146]

I had my personal trainer look at my squat form and she said that my back was not staying neutral when I lowered, and she demonstrated this with a dowel along my spine. She said it's not a good idea to squat with weight unless I can maintain a neutral spine throughout the movement. She thinks my ankle flexibility (or lack thereof) is a contributor. Any thoughts on improving ankle flexibility for squats?

[@errollfinn6407]

You gain a kind of strength with this kind of squat. Don't know for sure if it is good for your knies. An argument that half squat resembles the leg angle of cycling...I don't buy that; yes, you get better, but why "a half thing"? You actually miss the glutes. The old rule is still valid: max strength is trained with max weights, for 1-5 reps. Core exercises, lunges, half-squats, pushups, mountainclimbers, burpees etc are, at least for me, no strength training, but suit for finishing and warming up. Yes, you get better and you lift weights, however...well, define the "strenght" you are aiming. If you need simply power in your lower body, do full squats, heavy. Max. weightlifting suits well with endurance sport, ask the Norw. xc-skiers. Okay, my background was powerlifting and a kind of bodybuilding before I switched to endurance mostly in form of cycling. No problems with that switch, and leg training with olympic bar is still in programm. Needed for transalps with MTB.

[@Eirikkinserdal]

How about a box squat? Go to 90°. Don't put the tension off, just tap the box before going up again?

[@JonnyKibble]

Yeah sure! Slightly different as with going lower you'll be able to handle less weight than going half way down but you'll still gain plenty of strength!

[@DicconHill]

I'd avoid leg curls. Loading the knees. Covered with exercise.

[@Ealpcc]

Cheers for the vid and tip🤘 Question - do you reckon this exercise is better than the the one using the leg press machine?

[@JonnyKibble]

Thanks for watching! In a lot of the studies they also use single leg leg press as one of the exercise and it would have a similar effect to the half squat. You'd just miss a little core activation from it but you'd get some good results!

[@albertdee1139]

I have been told by a few people that if doing weight training and biking in the same day to do weights first and then bike with several hours between the weight lifting and the biking. Also, if riding more than 4 days a week, one should only weight lift 2 days a week. Did I get bad info?

[@pj9375]

Weights should be done after the riding.

[@81antiloop]

What about climbing stairs

[@andymackellar]

I advocate doing wt training at different speeds as well . For cycling we need that strength at around 90 rpm. Who is doing weights at 90 reps per minute ? Who thinks its relevant ? Given that transfer of training seems limited in other ways, it makes sense to me to consider this. I'm not working with any keenies at the moment so haven't tested this...Any one ?

[@lil__apan]

i will try it, bcs i want to improve my sprint and vo2max like 5 minutes efforts

[@lil__apan]

rn i have max power of 1400 watts and im 14 :)

[@JonnyKibble]

Awesome that's impressive stuff! Let me know how you get on :)

[@bungg1337]

Started doing half-squats. Every day somebody comes to me in the gym to say im squatting not deep enough😅

[@jempanuncialman9361]

What if if i do 20 reps are ok?

[@czeckson74]

Ass to grass

[@Maciej_Potucha]

Half squats n1 excercise for cyclists? Dumb advice. Even more with " you can ise smith machine". The only essential, mother excercise that everyone should be doing is FULL SQUAT. There is a load of variants of full squat that can be suited for your actual ROM and strength possibilities. 1. Full squat will maintain structural balance in the lower body. This allows for long-term building of muscle strength and muscle mass and prevents injuries because muscles, joints, ligaments and tendons work in the full range of motion under heavy load. 2. A full squat is also an indicator of maximum strength and the only exercise that does not cause structural imbalance. 3. Prof. Zatsiorsky confirmed that although we generate more tension in the legs in the upper part of the range of motion (half squat), we generate the greatest force from a full squat. The knee then behaves like a spring; the greater the deformation (bending), the greater the force output. 4. This means that the greater the strength in a FULL squat, the greater the potential for power production. 5. In sports with a high speed component and absolute strength requirement, the full squat is a mother exercise to which we compare all other lower body strength parameters. 6. Stretch shortening cycle is most effective in full knee flexion therefore full squats will always be safer for the knees than half or quarter squats.

[@jpoodle]

Half-squats? Lmao no no no. Do the full-rep and get the full-gains!

[@dirkv1537]

A deep squat is better than a half squat for developping your leggs but if a cyclist will make more progression on his bike it's better to do a half squat.

[@AndyPandy-v7v]

Done both and get more power out of half’s as mimics closely the pedal stroke power of the quad.

[@brianmcg321]

Exactly. Half squats put too much stress on the knees.

[@BBQSKI]

Please don’t do half squats! Horrible advice