Yes, Cyclists Should Strength Train. Here’s What You Can Learn from How the Pros Do It.

Tour de France pros are opening the door to DOMS and embracing barbells, all year around.

You should too.

“Any cyclist who’s not strength training is leaving performance on the table,” team Jayco-AlUla trainer Peter Leo told Velo.

“You can’t ignore the amount of scientific literature supporting its benefits. And riders who actually commit to a proper strength program feel the gains from it,” Leo said.

Pros are putting faith in the research that says a little lifting will improve neuromuscular efficiency, recovery times, and bone density.

Heavy barbell squats and deadlifts are becoming as integral to training programs as long base rides and VO2 max sessions. “Bodybuilder supplements” like creatine and beta alanine have joined cherry juice and Krispies Treats in the performance storecupboard.

“I advocate strength training to all my riders – no matter what their build. There’s benefits to big classics riders and climber-types,” Leo said.

It’s not only riders at Jayco-AlUla.

A recent study published to PLOS.One of 147 male and female WorldTour and ProSeries riders showed three-quarters of respondents hit the gym in the off-season. Around half of the 147 strength trained all year round.

Tudor Pro Cycling trainer James Spragg told Velo strength training is becoming an important lever in an increasingly marginal sport.

“Strength training has followed the trend of everything becoming more professionalized,” he said. “It’s always been understood that there’s benefits, but now it’s executed better and more consistently than before.

“There’s more sophistication in how we test the riders, how we implement a training program, and possibly more positive effects from it.”

OK, so we at home might not have employers who cover the cost of a world-class strength coach and an all-access pass to Life Time Fitness.

But for any rider who wants to cycle through to their seventies – and maybe see some competitive success along the way – there’s a lot to learn from what the pros do.

Don’t do too much, but do it with purpose

The golden rule of a pro cyclist’s weights program?

“Our philosophy is don’t do too much, but do enough. In the end, you’re still a bike rider – not a bodybuilder or weightlifter,” said Kurt Bogaerts, long-time trainer of Tom Pidcock.

“You need to make sure that you have enough focus on your bike riding. The strength should support it, not take away from it,” Bogaerts said.

Unlike some things in pro cycling, moderation is applied to strength training.

The Plos.One study shows that riders who lift only hit the gym twice per week in the off-season. That typically reduces to one session a week when racing resumes.

However, there’s no escaping elite sport’s obsession with data.

Gym work is tested, tracked, and monitored to the percentage point. There’s no half-assing, doom-scrolling, or “ego lifting” in the pro cyclist weight room.

“A rider’s strength program is based on assessments at the first team meet in October,” Spragg said. “We look at strength, but also anthropometrics, flexibility, strength, power, and motor control.

“We then return to a battery of tests using force plates, velocity trackers, and other subjective measures through the year,” the Tudor trainer continued. “It helps us track progress but also plan the strength training around the bike.”

Strength training for sprinters, bullet-proofing for climbers

Assessments in winter don’t only test the tininess of biceps and “chisel” of calves.

They’re used to establish what a rider stands to gain.

Off-season testing typically leaves burly classics racers and sprinters with sessions to improve their percentage of lean muscle and to build peak power.

A climber will normally be set S&C that levels out imbalances and strengthens skinny joints.

As Spragg said, gym work is as important for injury prevention as performance enhancement.

“We divide riders based on whether gym gains can directly translate to their performance on the bike,” he said.

“For example, gains in the gym might not translate into much for a climber. So instead we focus on minimising disturbances to their riding and making them robust,” Spragg said.

Riders on the comeback from recent injuries will also receive supplementary work. Exercises to strengthen and stabilize sloppy shoulders after a broken collarbone are common.

Every day is leg day, and the importance of torque

It’s no surprise that every day is a leg day in the pro peloton’s weight room.

The study released this year reported squats, single-leg squats, leg press, and deadlifts are most heavily favored. Core exercises are added as a supplement – or in Tadej Pogačar’s case, are a key focus.

But of course, the number of plates on a barbell is meaningless if it cannot be converted into the pedals.

Teams use low-cadence “torque intervals” in the winter and periodically through the season to improve pedalling efficiency and translate gym power onto the pavement.

“Gym work is used to improve the contractile capacity – the ability to recruit muscles,” Leo said. “Then the specific recruitment pattern needs to be translated to the bike. So this is where things like big gear intervals, slow rolling accelerations, and spin-ups are crucial.

“All this kind of torque work is essential to translating rate of force production onto the bike,” he said.

Despite the science, not everyone is strength training

Objective science and subjective feedback point to noticeable cycling gains from strength training.

Of the respondents to the PLOS.One survey who strength trained, 65.4 percent of males and 79.6 percent of females reported an on-bike boost.

Yet despite the proven benefits for performance and comfort on the bike, and longevity off of it, not all riders lift. For example, Quinn Simmons recently told EVOQ.Bike he skips the gym, and only works his core.

And as the study shows, of those who hit the weights in the winter, many stop lifting in the season, despite trainer recommendations. Jayco-AlUla staffer Leo said some riders might strength train only a token few times a month to maintain muscle recruitment patterns.

Of course, there are obvious reasons why riders might not strength train in the season, or might be reluctant to start at all.

Even in the more power-focused modern sport, the fear of weight gain still stalks the peloton. And not even the most avid gym bro looks forward to a bout of debilitating DOMS [delayed onset muscle soreness – ed.].

Beyond that, there are obvious blockers when racing is on. Mental and physical bandwidth is limited, as is access to a gym.

No DOMS, no bulk

Yet at the pro level, strength training has become so sophisticated that neither sore glutes nor giant quads should be a problem.

Strength and cycling programs are periodised in harmony to ensure DOMS is only a danger in the off-season. Likewise, a rider will only “bulk up” if it’s a strategic decision.

“The kilojoule expenditure for these guys is so high, and diet is so closely controlled, that it’s really hard for a rider to gain mass. Also the lifting we program is rarely hypertrophic [i.e., focused on ‘size’],” Leo told Velo.

“There could be a few shifts in lean mass though. For a sprinter, for example, maximising lean mass really important – it directly impacts their rate of power development,” Leo continued.

In rare cases, teams will use off-season strength and nutrition plans to purposely promote a light “bulk.”

Uno-X Mobility staffer James Moran recently told Velo that underdeveloped riders on his team will be set a muscle-gain program that delivers an outsize pump in power-to-weight.

The strength training program of the pros

If all that doesn’t convince you to strength train, nothing will.

Of course, a personal strength trainer is the best option for us weekend warriors. Professionals can dial in form and ensure sustainable progress.

Nonetheless, here’s a broad brush look at what pros do, and how it might help us at home.

“There’s a general recommendation for endurance athletes to follow the ‘5 x 5 rule’ for the main lift,” Jayco-AlUla trainer Leo said.

“That gives enough neuromuscular stimulus to actually recruit fast-twitch fibers. But you also have some hypertrophic stimuli that targets a bit more of muscle mass.”

For those not up on the lingo, that’s 5 sets of 5 heavy but realistic repetitions.

And while strapping track sprinters might favor heavier weights and lower reps to boost outright power – GB sprinter Matt Rotherham squeezed out a 250kg squat last summer – it’s best for spindly roadies and gravel riders to stick to the “Rule of 5.”

“It doesn’t really make sense to go lower in the reps,” Leo said. “Riders will encounter limiting factors if they significantly increase the weight – typically it’s that the core cannot stabilize the lift.”

And what’s the workout?

Well, as we said before, every day is leg day.

Leo suggests combining a bilateral squat and unilateral deadlift in one session, and reversing to a bilateral deadlift and unilateral squat in the next.

“With that combination, you target all specific movement patterns,” he said.

So if you’re not strength training already, embrace the steamy suck of the weight room.

Your power numbers, recovery speeds, and bone health will thank you later.