Does gym help.

[T-man]

Yes it does. I am a sport scientist. Believe me it helps. Couple of advantages: increase bone density;increase muscular strenght; LOWER RISK OF injury....ect. you should also do power and explosive power work once your body have adapted to the gym work... You will be amazed. .....

[Christie]

Spending 2 days per week doing weights on a cycling specific program one winter was the biggest mistake I made in my training. I gained mass, but could not see any gain in climbing power or performance. Core muscles yes, leg and upper body, do that on the bike imo. Your legs move at 90 to 100 rpm on the bike, reps even with a lighter weight is much slower, it is a diffent type of effort.

[seven]

Different lifting 250kg in on go compared to lifting 25 in 100 times in a row with no recovery inbetween Strength for cycling is not measure in absolute once off mega benching terms

 

Cycling needs a more stringier than strong type of strength

 

 

... and proper stretching does not mean do whatever else around you are doing, nor does it mean stretching all and sundry muscle you can find. It means stretching only those muscles that need stretching (lengthening / releasing), and then doing that in the correct manner at the correct time

 

Perhaps try and read some of the USA's National Strength & Conditioning's (NSCA) wortk on conditioning for cyclists.

 

If you train at low loads you may as well leave it... I'm not saying do 1RMs, but you need to fail during your reps, or you are wasting your time.

There has been a lot of work showing the improvement gained by strength training.

 

Focus on a race, and prepare your strength work towards it as you would do with your cycling.

Strength base (medium reps), then more power and power-endurance work.

 

You wouldn't start off your cycling training without LSD, and you shouldn't start off your strength work (with all the high reps you talk about) without a PROPER strength base.

[Agteros]

Perhaps try and read some of the USA's National Strength & Conditioning's (NSCA) wortk on conditioning for cyclists. If you train at low loads you may as well leave it... I'm not saying do 1RMs, but you need to fail during your reps, or you are wasting your time. There has been a lot of work showing the improvement gained by strength training. Focus on a race, and prepare your strength work towards it as you would do with your cycling. Strength base (medium reps), then more power and power-endurance work. You wouldn't start off your cycling training without LSD, and you shouldn't start off your strength work (with all the high reps you talk about) without a PROPER strength base.

Perhaps you are picking on the wrong person... stringier vs bulkier was what I was alluding to

 

For recreational cyclists ANY reasonable type of training should render results, however even www.nsca-lift.org suggest gym work only in the pre-season, and in that same article they fall back to cycling specific(on the bike) exercises...

 

 

Muscle group imbalances can be identified at home with something like Lyno therapy and strengthening work can be done at home. No need to go to the gym and get sucked into the mega bench/dead lift scene.

 

So, back to the original question: "Does gym help"?

Answer: Only if you do non-bulking exercises specific to cycling, which can be done at home or any other place. However keep in mind that before you strengthen your main cycling muscle groups you should keep you body in balance and not forget to focus on the supporting muscles around the quads. Also keep in mind that you need an "anchor/base" to push/pull against when cycling and this can be created with a strong(not big) core (torso)

 

The answer to "Does non-cycling, but cycling specific, strengthening exercises help"? is an unequivocal YES!