Upper Body Circuits?

[Hudson1984]

Hi all,

so, i'm currently using the turbo trainer and Zwift to build up my cycling fitness ready for this year (intending to join the local club for rides with real people)

at the moment this consists of 1 hour on the turbo 3 times a week doing interval training.

I was wondering if anyone here is a PT or similar and could advise some upper body workouts to do once i'm off the bike? Or potentially do full body training (although legs will be hindered!)

I was thinking of just running a 5 station circuit for 60 seconds a station, rest after full circuit then go through say 4-5 sets.
I have dumbells, kettlebells, sandbags, a punch bag and of course myself (which is a decent sized weight!)

SO perhaps:
Deadlifts,
KB Swings,
Incline rows,
Renegade Rows,
Pushups,
Cleans,

etc.

But would welcome advice. I'm really not looking for the skinny cycling look - I'm a big guy and would like to maintain a larger frame so I imagine my strength circuits would be more hypertrophy biased perhaps?

I box once-twice a week, attend BJJ once a week and then cycle three times a week. I eat enough to sustain this haha.

[foxyrider]

Don't you do upper body for your Boxing?

The easiest thing you can do is to get out on your bike in the real world, climb some hills and do real world intervals if you must. This will improve your cardio, and give your upper body and legs a good all-round workout. As a bonus you'll get a bit of experience of road riding before getting out with others - you can't learn bike handling on a turbo.

Good luck

[Cyril Haearn]

Cycling is the best way to train for cycling

[Carpediem]

Don't you do upper body for your Boxing?

The easiest thing you can do is to get out on your bike in the real world, climb some hills and do real world intervals if you must. This will improve your cardio, and give your upper body and legs a good all-round workout. As a bonus you'll get a bit of experience of road riding before getting out with others - you can't learn bike handling on a turbo.

Good luck

Excellent advice to anyone wishing to take up cycling at any level..pushing yourself on a trainer is difficult IME..especially solo.
In the real world hills have to be ridden up.

[whoof]

If you are looking for general fitness and conditioning I would recommend press-ups, dead-lift, squat and sit-ups. These exercise major muscle groups and will deliver good results for your input, as opposed to something like bicep curls. I know that squats may sound a bit odd if you are already cycling but that isn't load bearing, is not doing your hamstrings and even the leg muscles it does do move in a very linear way. I would also do some stretching.

As to riding with a club it would be best to get out on the road. You need to be able to corner, descend, drink from a bottle, look over your shoulder and hold your line all within close proximity with others.

[ANTONISH]

If you are looking for general fitness and conditioning I would recommend press-ups, dead-lift, squat and sit-ups. These exercise major muscle groups and will deliver good results for your input, as opposed to something like bicep curls. I know that squats may sound a bit odd if you are already cycling but that isn't load bearing, is not doing your hamstrings and even the leg muscles it does do move in a very linear way. I would also do some stretching.

As to riding with a club it would be best to get out on the road. You need to be able to corner, descend, drink from a bottle, look over your shoulder and hold your line all within close proximity with others.

This is sound advice - even if it doesn't improve your cycling (IMO it probably will, else why would professional cyclists do it ?) maintaining general body strength is as important as fitness.
While cycling is good for aerobic fitness, it doesn't alone make for an overall strong body - and that is important as one ages.
I'm impressed that the OP can do an hour on the turbo - I find that twenty minutes seems like an age.

[Hudson1984]

If you are looking for general fitness and conditioning I would recommend press-ups, dead-lift, squat and sit-ups. These exercise major muscle groups and will deliver good results for your input, as opposed to something like bicep curls. I know that squats may sound a bit odd if you are already cycling but that isn't load bearing, is not doing your hamstrings and even the leg muscles it does do move in a very linear way. I would also do some stretching.

As to riding with a club it would be best to get out on the road. You need to be able to corner, descend, drink from a bottle, look over your shoulder and hold your line all within close proximity with others.

This is sound advice - even if it doesn't improve your cycling (IMO it probably will, else why would professional cyclists do it ?) maintaining general body strength is as important as fitness.
While cycling is good for aerobic fitness, it doesn't alone make for an overall strong body - and that is important as one ages.
I'm impressed that the OP can do an hour on the turbo - I find that twenty minutes seems like an age.

great advice on both. Whilst I appreciate the sentiment regarding becoming a better cyclist by cycling that's great for one aspect and that's cycling, but that's not really my end goal - I did used to ride with a group every weekend so i'm not completely inept in a group, of course every day's a schoolday haha. My point being, I can't just get on the bike and go out, I plan my working out around my normal life, so sometimes that's pretty late in the evening, as such the turbo works for me. May not be everyones cup of tea but for me it's great.

I've just joined Darebee forum and they have hundreds of circuits around what i'm looking for so might give that a bash - I will certainly heed your advice on squats though as you're 100% correct, I'm working the legs but with no weight bearing and I certainly feel it in my hamstrings more than anything so stretching and full body is probably the circuits I'll use more than perhaps just focussing on upper body.

But yes, with the group ride bits, they have a beginner group and i'll be sitting in there, i'm not expecting to rock up and lead the pack or anything like that, the group thing is more for social that anything, training for me will also be "gym" based. I would perhaps like to eventually maybe do a proper sportive or maybe a time trial or two but i'm not looking at that any time soon.

Fitter, Stronger and a little less bodyfat - that's the aim. The bike is merely a tool to achieve that.


Oh and with the time thing, Zwift is brilliant for that! really makes the time go, keeps it interesting etc. When I used to use rollers 10 minutes was long enough! I just completed a 2 hour ride yesterday on my turbo and would be happy to do the same tonight. It's keeping it fun....Sore ass but fun