Are you a cyclist? Don’t overlook doing targeted training sessions at the gym to improve your overall cycling performance

Even endurance sports like cycling require good levels of strength: numerous studies have shown how weight training can improve performance, making you more efficient on the bike; by working on your endurance, you’ll tire less easily and less quickly. Here are 3 tips for a short but extremely effective workout!

Upper body exercises

Strengthening your upper body will give you better control of the bike and greater stability, and you won’t tire so easily. Your trunk and upper body muscles are all involved in maintaining balance and support, and to do this they must be well trained! The best exercises you can do are the flat press and incline press, with both barbell and dumbbells. And don’t forget your back: rows are excellent for this, which you can do with dumbbells but also with suspension training, which also involves your core muscles. Do 3 or 4 sets of these exercises with 5 to 8 repetitions.

Lower body exercises

Increasing your leg strength is essential to being a faster, stronger cyclist! Do exercises that will allow you to increase your overall strength such as squats, deadlifts and hip thrusts; do more specific exercises as well, such as lunges to strengthen the quads and Romanian deadlifts with dumbbells for the glutes and hamstrings. Do 3 or 4 sets of these exercises with 5 to 8 repetitions. Finally, don’t forget to train your calves: these are very resistant muscles and can take a higher number of repetitions (10-12).

Explosive strength exercises

Remember that cycling also requires explosive strength: a really useful and complete exercise that allows you to improve the explosivity of your whole body is the kettlebell swing. Jumps of various types are very useful for improving explosive strength: try adding burpees to your workouts or box jumps.

Technogym has created cycling training plans with renowned sports physician Max Testa, who has worked with pro cyclists, runners, and triathlon athletes. Access Max Testa’s programme from the Technogym App and take your on-road performance to the next level.

–Article brought to you by TechnoGym