Although cycling is a good exercise for most of your body, to be your best, you still need to work with weights to build strength and power. Basically, there are 2 types of muscle fibers, fast twitch and slow twitch. It has about 50% of each type of fiber that makes up your muscles.

To perform at the top of your game, you need to have both types developed well. Slow twitch fibers allow you to ride stably for long periods of time, fast twitch fibers give you bursts of power that allow you to kick and climb hills. So unless you are always driving where there are no hills, you need to develop both types. How do you do that?

Leg training

You need to have all your leg muscles strong for peak cycling. Train your quads and glutes with squats or leg presses. Both exercises will train both sets of muscles. To make sure your hamstrings are strong enough to match the strength of your quads, you should work them with lying leg curls.

To strengthen the hip flexors

The muscles that allow you to pull in the upward movement, and not just letting your leg rest on the way up while the other leg pushes down, you need to pedal with one leg during a training session each week. This will allow you to push down and up with one leg and strengthen those muscles. Pulling up with one leg while the other pushes down will give you more power and speed, little by little. Work out once every 2 weeks with heavier weights, but do most weight workouts that allow you to do sets of 50 to 100 reps.

To develop fast twitch leg muscles

The best exercise is doing jump squats. Try to do 5 sets with just your body weight. Start with 8 reps per set, increase as you get in better shape.

Training

A strong and stable core is essential for maximum cycling. To get the core you need, your training should consist of chin-ups, planks, side planks, bird dogs, and shoulder press lateral lunge. Try to do one basic workout per week.

behind

Pull-ups will strengthen your back and core muscles. For back training you should also do good morning, windmills and hyperextensions.

Back

Strengthening your shoulders will make those long hours of support with your hands on the bars much more bearable. You should shrug with a front-to-back twist at the top of the shrug. The shoulder press you did in the core workout will also work your shoulders. You should also do lateral raises and your last upper body exercise, the push-up.

Arms

The last group, and one you don’t want to ignore, are your arms. Your forearms will work out well with cycling. To work your biceps and triceps, you need to use weights. Tricep extensions and push-ups are the best triceps exercises. To work your biceps, do dumbbell curls and hammer curls.

To perform at your best, you need to have the strongest muscles, with a lot of resistance. You will feel that cycling in itself is a good muscle builder. For various muscles that is true. But if you want to perform at the highest level in your cycling, you still need to exercise with weights. Try these exercises for a couple of weeks and you will see a noticeable improvement in your performance.