Strength Training for Cyclists
Two short sessions a week that build the leg strength and bone density cycling never gives you, without stealing the legs you need on the bike.
Program Overview
Cycling is brilliant for your heart and unusually unhelpful for your skeleton. It is non weight-bearing, so bone density in cyclists is often lower than in runners and sometimes lower than in sedentary people, and the seated, narrow-range pedal stroke does little for the hip and trunk strength that holds a position over long rides. Heavy strength work addresses both, and the research on cycling economy points the same way it does for runners: low rep, heavy work improves performance while circuits with light weights mostly make you tired. Two sessions a week for eight weeks, placed so they never collide with your key rides. Every exercise includes a form video.
Running rather than riding? Our strength training for runners applies the same logic to impact sport. For a heavier off-season block when the bike comes second, our lower body focus program goes deeper.
Who Is This For?
This plan suits you if:
- You ride regularly and want more power without more hours
- You are aware that cycling does nothing for bone density
- You can give strength work two short sessions a week
- You want strength that serves the bike, not a second sport
Every strength option lives on our intermediate programs page.
Weekly Schedule
Phase 1: Build the Base (Weeks 1-4)
Two sessions built on squat, hinge and single leg patterns, with trunk work that holds a position rather than crunching. Place them on easy ride days or rest days, never the day before a hard interval session or long ride. Expect leg soreness in week one and plan your riding around it; it settles by week two and does not come back.
Two reps in reserve on everything. The strength work exists to serve the riding, so it never gets to empty the tank.
Hold one dumbbell at chest height and squat between your knees.
Stagger the feet with most weight on the front leg and hinge at the hip. Work both sides.
With your rear foot elevated on a bench, lower into a split squat and drive up. Work both sides.
Rise onto the balls of your feet and lower for a full stretch.
On all fours, extend the opposite arm and leg while keeping the torso still. Alternate sides.
Hinge and lift two dumbbells from the floor by driving your hips forward.
Step up onto a box and over to the other side, driving through the working leg.
Press two dumbbells from chest level to lockout above your chest.
Hinge forward and row both dumbbells to your lower ribs.
Hold a straight line from head to heels on forearms and toes.
Twenty to thirty minutes of easy walking, outdoors if you can manage it.
Five to ten minutes on hips, ankles, and the upper back.
Phase 2: Heavy and Springy (Weeks 5-8)
The loads move into genuinely heavy territory for the rep ranges, which is where the performance research points, and a small dose of jump work arrives to train the rate of force development that a smooth pedal stroke never asks for. Six crisp jumps beat twenty tired ones, so the volume stays deliberately tiny.
Heavy but crisp. If a set slows to a grind or a landing sounds heavy, that session has finished growing and so have you for the day.
Hold one dumbbell at chest height and squat between your knees.
Stagger the feet with most weight on the front leg and hinge at the hip. Work both sides.
Squat down and jump explosively, landing softly back into the squat.
Rise onto the balls of your feet and lower for a full stretch.
On all fours, extend the opposite arm and leg while keeping the torso still. Alternate sides.
Hinge and lift two dumbbells from the floor by driving your hips forward.
Elevate the front foot on a plate and lower into a split squat for extra range. Work both sides.
Press two dumbbells from chest level to lockout above your chest.
With one knee and hand on a bench, row the dumbbell to your hip. Work both sides.
Hold a straight line from head to heels on forearms and toes.
An easy walk to move blood through the muscles you trained without adding fatigue.
Gentle mobility for whichever joints felt stiff getting into position last session.
Strength Training for Cyclists PDF
Two 35-minute sessions a week that build the strength and bone density the bike cannot.
This is a 2-day strength plan you run for 8 weeks alongside your normal riding, with dumbbells and a bench. Phase 1 (weeks 1-4) builds the base with squat, hinge and single leg work at two reps in reserve, placed on easy ride days so nothing collides with key sessions. Phase 2 (weeks 5-8) takes the main lifts heavy for sets of 6 to 8, where the cycling performance research points, and adds a small dose of jump work for rate of force development.
- The Bone Density Problem Cycling is non weight-bearing, and cyclists often carry lower bone density than runners or even non-athletes. Loaded squats and hinges are the direct fix.
- Heavy Beats Circuits The performance improvements in the research come from low rep, heavy work rather than light circuits. Phase 2 delivers that dose in two short sessions.
- Scheduled Around Your Riding The PDF includes placement rules: which ride days to lift on, what never to do before a hard interval session, and how to handle week one soreness.
Get Your Cyclist's Strength Plan
Includes both training phases, the weekly schedule, placement rules and exercise cues for both sessions. Download instantly after you submit the form.
Unsubscribe any time.
Nutrition Guidance
Cyclists under-fuel the combination of riding and lifting more reliably than almost any other group, and the lifting usually gets the blame. Our macro calculator accounts for your training load and our recipes keep it practical. For more depth, read why you are always hungry on a diet and how to tell if your training is working.
What Actually Matters Here
- Calories: Riding plus lifting is a larger bill than either alone. If both feel flat in the same week, eat more before you train less.
- Protein: 1.6 to 2.2g per kg daily. Endurance athletes need as much as lifters and most get a fraction of it.
- Calcium and vitamin D: Worth attention given the bone density picture in cycling, alongside the loading this plan provides.
The lifting did not make you slow; the missing four hundred calories did. Cyclists hear this late and improve quickly once they do.
