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Winter is the ideal time to think about strength training. Shoulders, arms, legs, abdominals – gyms allow you to tone and develop all muscle chains. Nevertheless, for cyclists and triathletes of all levels, is it smart to lift weights, a type of work that seems opposite to the goal of endurance disciplines?
By Pierre-Maxime BRANCHE – Photos: @FUELBELT / TRX HITBOX / LES MILLS
Yes, it is interesting, even important, to go to the gym during winter. The primary benefit is to maintain physical activity during the off-season, then during the return to training to facilitate and optimize getting back into shape. This applies to runners and triathletes of all levels and allows for indoor training when weather conditions do not permit outdoor training.
Strength Training
As part of maintaining activity and/or a gradual return to training, two to four weekly sessions can be considered. First, we focus on muscle strengthening and core work, meaning training the abdominal belt and lower back, as this will allow for developing full power in the lower limbs and maintaining power through the core to avoid losing form during effort and, in the case of triathletes, to maintain an aero position over time. This work can also be continued during the season, but in smaller doses. Make sure you are well supervised, as an improperly executed exercise can lead to minor or major injuries if the loads lifted or pushed are not appropriate.
Pure Weightlifting: Why Not!
In parallel with muscle strengthening, one can engage in pure weightlifting, targeting different muscle chains. Of course, this mainly concerns the lower limbs, so the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. This leg strengthening should be done on four or five different machines that will allow working the muscles one after another, in isolation or together, such as the quadriceps and hamstrings which can be solicited in both contraction and extension.
Prioritize Repetition
Regarding session organization, it is important to prioritize the number of repetitions rather than the maximum load, to try to physiologically reproduce endurance work, then resistance with intermediate loads. Optionally, in the case of a lack of explosiveness, it is possible to work with heavier loads, but this should remain occasional, as the important thing is to preserve the joints that suffer with heavy loads and to avoid the appearance of tendinitis. In other cases, one can focus on strengthening the glutes, but also the pectorals or arms, which are, for example, solicited during climbs. Working the upper limbs is not useless. Be careful, however, not to gain too much mass, as this will quickly become a limiting factor for the power-to-weight ratio. In all cases, it is better to prioritize endurance and resistance, emphasizing the abdominal belt and lower back. Weightlifting is a very interesting complementary sport, but one can quickly make mistakes.
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