Only a shortish blog tonight (although I realise I have a tendency to ramble!)... Mainly because I have zero energy left after training earlier. There's two main reasons why I have no energy - and they are the two culprits below left!
You see, tonight I trained with my friends and colleagues Tom and Pom. No, they don't do a comedy double act despite their similar names (unless you include their current attempts at growing beards as comedy). As you can see from the pic' above, they're not cyclists... 'So why train with them?' I hear you ask. Well, two reasons:
Reason 1
Training with mates is motivational. Not only does it push you to lift that extra weight or rep (or if you're on the bike, ride the extra mile), but it also gets you out and training in the first place. I can guarantee that tonight I wouldn't have made the training session without them pestering me on our 'group text'. Nor would I have lifted as much as I did, or focused on my technique. All in, they were good value to me tonight! (Thanks lads!).
Reason 2
Despite them being football and rugby players, the basic movements of their sports share many of the same features as cycling. Therefore, the exercises we do can benefit all of our sports.
The primary movement in almost every sport, is often referred to as 'Triple Extension'. Triple extension, in a nutshell, involves the extension (opening up) of the ankle, knee and hip joints. If we want to generate as much power as possible, then we have to be able to extend the hip' knee and ankle as fast and efficiently as possible. That means practising this movement repeatedly to train our muscular timing and muscle fibre recruitment. If we can 'time'our muscle contractions to work together perfectly and 'recruit' as many muscle fibres as possible, then we will be able to generate an awful lot of force which we could use for jumping, sprinting, pushing opponents, or... pushing pedals around in circles.
The Gluteals, Hamstrings, Quadriceps and muscles of the lower leg; Tibialis Anterior, Gastrocnemius and Soleus all have a role to play in Triple Extension, so tonight we used the Deadlift and Clean exercises to develop strength, fibre recruitment and muscular timing.
Training Triple Extension of course, can be done on the bike... but training muscular timing and recruitment is generally thought to work best when high forces are involved. High forces are possible on a bike of course (grind up a hill in a big gear at low revs per minute). But... tonight it was dark, wet and windy... and... the forces that I can generate with an Olympic bar on my back are an awful lot more than what is possible if I push pedals around - even up a big hill (push too hard and you'll either just lift your bum off the saddle or fall off!).
Now some of you might be thinking 'Yeah, but is any of that going to cross over to cycling?'. Well, in my opinion, yes. That's why track cyclists do it. I hear your next question... 'Yeah but what about endurance cycling?'. Well, Think of this analogy:
There are two identical twins - they both weigh exactly the same and genetically are identical. However, one of the identical twins can squat a heavier weight (twice his bodyweight) than his brother (he can only lift 1.5 times his bodyweight). This is because the first twin has been doing strength training.
Question - If both twins were asked to do 100 bodyweight squats (an endurance activity if ever there was one and nowhere near either twin's maximum lift), who would get tired first? You can write your answers below as comments if you like! I'll give you my (and the strength and conditioning community's) answer in the next blog!
So, that was tonight. Oh yes, with one other thing. Tonight a young impressionable cyclist named 'Todd' trained with us. Fingers crossed, he has felt the benefits of group training tonight! I guess we'll see on Wednesday, when our next session is due!
Our programme by the way, if you hadn't noticed is now in the top right hand corner of this blog. As it changes, I'll keep you updated!
Paul
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