WANT TO BE A BETTER CYCLING ATHLETE? POWER IS THE KEY (PART I)
By Sebastian Rebollo
Master in physical Activity
Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist
It doesn’t matter if you are a professional, semi professional or amateur cyclist, if you want to improve your performance or have a better economy of movement (efficiency), you need to incorporate this exercise into your weekly routine to gain strength and power.
You can start with some basic bodyweight exercises at the beginning and start adding weight and change exercises as I recommend in the first part of this article…. So, let’s get started!!
Bodyweight exercises
Single leg Rumanian deadlift | Single leg squat |
Step ups | Jump squat |
Cycled split squat jump | 30 yd sprints |
These exercises are going to build the foundation in which we are going to incorporate more complex exercises in the future, so we have to be very conscious and try to do this exercise with excellent technique. If we do not do the exercise with proper technique, the transfers of forces and power are going to be compromised, and could lead to an injury.
Now that we have the 6 basics exercises, it’s time to implement them into our training sessions. I recommend incorporating 2 power days in our weekly routine, with one or maximum 2 days between sessions (Monday and Wednesday, Tuesday and Thursday, or Monday and Thursday for example).
The routine will be performed as follows:
Exercise | Sets | Repetitions | Recovery between sets |
Single leg Rumanian deadlift | 3 to 5 | 8 to 10 | 1’ |
Single leg squat | 3 to 5 | 6 to 8 | 1’30” |
Step ups * | 3 to 5 | 6 to 8 | 1’30” |
Jump squat | 3 to 5 | 6 to 8 | 1’30” |
Cycled split squat jump | 3 to 5 | 6 to 8 | 1’30” |
30 yd sprint | 5 to 8 | 1 | 2’ |
*The height of the plyo box that we are going to use in the step ups exercise needs to be maximum height of the knee.
The first 2 or 3 weeks are going to be used to master the techniques and form execution of these exercises. After that we can start adding sets and repetition as the table indicates, but only if we can do the exercises with proper form.
In the next part of this article, we are going to talk about the progression of these exercises.
Disclaimer: No training program can or will protect you from injury. All athletic sports carry with them an element of danger. In the case of a fall, collision or other accident, you may be injured or killed, regardless of the type of athletic training you may have participated in. A training program itself could even result in an injury in certain situations. The only way to certainly avoid being injured while training or participating in a sporting activity, is to not participate in any sports or training activity.