What kind of Structured Strength Training do people incorporate into their plans? Looking to add more into my routine 
There is a lot of different cases as to how strength makes sense. Health first approach would be different than a cycling performance as your primary goal. Also depends on cycling or activity volume, recovery speed which usually involves age, how well you sleep and what kind of strength training you like to do, or equipment you have access too 
But you are asking what other people do… My goal is health first, and staying motiviated and I am a minimalist when it comes to strength training. So low bar deep squats, bench press, some form of pulling is usually it 1-2 times a week, about 15-20 minutes total. If I don’t feel like doing that, then some pushups and kettlebell swing.
I am a strong believer in Mark Rippetoe’s beginner strength thinking (he’s some what controversial and self-obsessed but I still think his primary thinking is right on). Big focus on entire posterior chain and big multi-joint movements.
I also believe like Peter Attia that strength might be more important from a long term / longevity stand point than endurance training although that said for anyone with consistency problems I think endurance training helps with consistency which is even more important.
Not sure if that helps at all. I am not talking about cycling performance strength training
Hi Bree,
Alex lays out the foundation nicely. There is a health benefit and a performance benefit.
Health-wise, you should train your whole body. Performance-wise, it differs from the person you are. I grow muscle fast and big, so training my whole body results in a big and broad upper body. This is great if you want to show off on the beach, but it’s a real pain when you want to climb.
So, I use the heavy weights only for the legs and light weights for my upper body.
If you are a natural climber, you can probably lift all the heavy weights you want, but still look skinny. That is actually what you want. The power benefits, without all the extra weight to carry around.
Time is another aspect. Ideally, you would do weight training twice a week, but most cyclists struggle to find time for all the cycling they need to do, let alone time for weight training.
And finally, there is the motivational aspect. Do you like weight training?
I like the results enough to drag me to the gym, but the honest truth is that this is the first thing I skip when motivation is low.
I recommend starting for three months with short core workouts. They take a maximum of 20 minutes, need no equipment, and still build a lot of extra power.
After three months, you can decide if you like this enough to take it to the next level, the gym.
If you go to my Facebook page (Trainen met een doel) and search for Wednesday, you will find a series of core videos I created. They are spoken in Dutch, but you can follow the routine. They only take up 6 minutes of your time, so you can squeeze them in twice or three times a week.
Keep me updated on your progress.
And… as always, have fun while doing it, Coach Robert
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Both Alex and Robert give great advice. I’ll just add in my own .02 and opinions that may or may not help you.
Disclaimer: I got into cycling at around age 30, after being very into lifting weights and powerlifting for about a decade. Therefor, I have actually significantly decreased the amount of strength training I do, whereas most cyclists asking the question are attempting to increase.
First off, an observation I’ve had. You have probably noticed that every youtuber or cycling blogger/podcaster always says how important strength training is. They always say you need to do it and you will become a better cyclist. Well as I’ve become more and more involved in my regional race scene, I’ve noticed somewhat of the opposite. Many of the most “elite” or top cyclists who constantly win, either don’t strength train really at all or very little. Maybe doing some bodyweight stuff or mobility at the most. So why do all of these people say we should be “Lifting Heavy” in the off season and doing strength training religiously? Even when looking at the very top level (I’m talking World Tour), you don’t see JV or Pogi in the squat rack hammering out big lifts. So I’ve tried to find what this tells us, and here are some answers after scouring the internet:
- When limited by time, if your single goal was to be the best cyclist you can be(meaning sacrificing other health objectives), maximizing your time on the bike training would provide more benefit than several hours per week to do some strength training.
- Most types of racing we usually talk about and are most popular are endurance type races. Therefor most amateur athletes limiting factor at the sharp end of the race is going to be their aerobic endurance not muscular strength, which goes back to why my first point of putting more volume in your cycling training will have more impact than strength training if limited by time.
- When getting into very high volume (15+ hrs/week), strength training starts to inhibit recovery considerably more than lower volume. If you do 6-8 hours per week, throw in a couple hard gym sessions and you can recover quite well. Now do 20 hours per week and try throwing in a couple hard gym sessions. Much harder to recover from.
Now obviously as Robert and Alex mentioned, there is a balance here with other health objectives. For example, strength training improves bone density, increases injury prevention, helps you have better posture/form, increases functional strength for everyday activities, increases attraction from potential partners 
, etc.
So if you aren’t a WT cyclist, I suggest having a balanced whole body strength training program. Personally, I only do bodyweight or light upper body, but that is because after a decade of lifting my upper body is very broad and heavy. During the race season, I’ll do one day upper body maintenance and one day lower body maintence, with core work 2-3x per week. In the off season, I’ll do one day upper body and 2 days lower body, heavier weights with a focus on progression. Meaning I’m looking to increase either reps or weight as the weeks progress in the offseason. Still doing core 2x a week as well.
Good luck, hope this helps.
Perfect. I agree with you, that strength training for top performance has to be very carefully injected or it will do more harm to your performance than good and tons of seriously fast elites do minimal to none.
I like to focus more on the health first approach and hope that the benefits of being a more rounded athlete will give you more longevity towards life and training but if all you care about is performance that’s a different matter.
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