Strength training for cycling

The muscles in charge of your pedals they need to be well worked to maintain the effort involved in the cycling sector in the triathlon and "survive" the race afterwards, so we are going to work a little strength.

Before discussing some exercises that you can perform in the gym to improve pedaling, you should know what are the Main muscles involved in the action:

As you can see in the previous image, in each pedaling phase There are several muscles that are the main protagonists of the movement.

In addition, all the core muscles are involved in maintaining posture on the bike and helps transmitting force when pedaling.

Therefore, these are the exercises you must perform to improve:

Squat.

You can do it with or without weight depending on your level.

Climb step.

Squat to one leg

You do not need to jump, simply go up in an alternative way to a platform, step or box, keeping your abdomen active and making strength with the gluteus and the quadriceps.

You have many variants, Bulgarian squat, sit and stand with one leg, pistol squat. Depending on your level you can vary the exercises and their difficulty

Stride.

Both forward and backward. They can increase the intensity with a dumbbell in each hand

Leg press.

If you have a leg press available, use it!

Irons

As we have already mentioned, core musculature is very important on the bike, so work with all the varieties of plates that you can think of.

Start with static, increase the difficulty giving movement to the exercise and when you get it, include materials that provide instability.

How many sessions?

Carry out at least 2 sessions of strength training a week will help you improve overall triathlon performance. Remember that it is always better to have the supervision of a professional to guide you in planning your workouts.

Laura García Cervantes

Photos: Vitonica.com