5 Best Strength-training Exercises for Cyclists: Benefits & More

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December 30, 2021

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Yes, it is important to spend hundreds and thousands of cycling hours to become a pro-cyclist. But to become a world-class athlete, you have to go beyond that. You also have to incorporate exercises for cyclists in your routine.

Workout for cyclists is important as it helps in maintaining your body that you will ultimately need for cycling. Along with that, you also need muscular strength to keep producing force for hours. For all of this, you will have to do strength training and core exercises for cyclists.

In this article, we are going to cover some exercises for cyclists, their benefits, and much more. Read on:

Benefits Of Training For Cyclists

It is true that cycling in itself is beneficial for your health. But you have to do leg exercises for cyclists that will provide you extra strength to get going. Here are some major benefits of workout for cyclists:

Stretches Your Body: Just like any sport, stretching for cyclists is very important. Exercises can help you with stretching the muscles and warming up your body to do cycling.
Strengthens Your Legs: If you break down cycling to its core, it is basically pushing the pedal with the force of your legs and giving it the right direction. If you do leg exercises for cyclists, you will increase your muscular strength. And with more strength, you will be able to push your pedal faster.
Increases Your Resilience: The best exercises for cycling do not just make you faster. They also increase your resilience and help you recover faster from injuries.
Works On Your Core: Along with leg muscles, you also need to train your core for a better sitting position. Do core exercises for cyclists regularly and you will feel that you can sit on the cycle comfortably for hours.

The Best Exercises For Cycling

Now that you know all the benefits of gym exercises for cyclists, it’s time to know about the exercises that you can learn to do. Here is a list of 5 exercises for cyclists:

Squat

It is the best exercise for stretching for cyclists. In the beginning, you can do it slowly and increase the pace once your body heats up. And not just for cyclists, this exercise is also counted as an exercise to increase stamina for runners. Here is how you can do it:

Stand straight with both feet at a shoulder-wide distance.
Clasp hands in front of the chest, push hips back, and squat down.
Stop when your butt goes down below the level of knees.
Push your heels and get back to the original position.

Russian Twist

The Russian twist is a must-do exercise of strength training for cyclists. It strengthens your obliques which are required to stabilize your body when you move up and down. No matter how small your list of exercises for cyclists is, you should definitely do this exercise at least two-three times a week. Here is how you can do it:

Sit on the floor with bent knees, heels touching the ground, and a dumbbell raised at chest level.
Push back your hips while engaging your abs.
Twist from the waist, from center to left, and left to center. Then repeat the same to the right side.

Triceps Dip

Most people ignore triceps exercises for cyclists as they think that doing leg exercises are enough. But they face the results when they ride a cycle for hours and sore their arms. Triceps dips are an effective exercise to work on your triceps for cycling. Here is how you can do it:

Place your hands on the edge of the bench while your back is towards the bench.
Straighten your arms and extend your legs.
Now, bend the elbows until your arms make a 90-degree angle.
Force the palms and return to the starting position.

Lateral Lunge With Overhead Press

Here is another effective exercise to add to your training for cyclists. It covers two types of motions that might prove helpful for you: lateral and overhead. Here is how you can do it:

Stand straight, dumbbells raised on your shoulders, and your feet at a hip-wide distance.
Lunge left by bending the left knee and pushing your hip backward.
Get back to the position where you started, press dumbbells overhead, and repeat the lunge to your right side.

Dumbbell Deadlift

Strength training for cyclists is important to train their hamstrings, lower back, quads, and glutes. Dumbbell deadlift is efficient at working on all of these muscles. Here is you can do it:

Stand straight with dumbbells in your hands and palms facing you.
Bend the knees slightly and start lowering down the weight.
Make sure that the dumbbells stay close to your shins.
Bend until your torso becomes parallel to the ground.
Now, engage your glutes and push your hips forward to return to the position where you started.

Precautions & Safety Points To Keep In Mind

To ensure that you prevent yourself from injuries, keep the following points in mind while doing exercises for cyclists:

Always start out slowly with lesser weight and fewer reps.
If you can’t lift the weight while doing strength exercises for cyclists, just reduce it to your level of comfort. Remember, your end goal is to become a better cyclist, not a bodybuilder.
Try to not gain extra weight while doing strength exercises for cyclists.
Only lifting excess weight will never give you enhanced results. For that, you will have to pay attention to the technique first.

Conclusion

The number of benefits of gym exercises for cyclists is huge and yet most cyclists ignore them. These exercises neither require intense effort nor extra time. Just a few minutes a day are enough for a head start. Add these exercises to your home workouts now and experience the change in your cycling performance yourself.

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