I am 42 years old and enjoy both cycling and weight lifting. I was initially into weight lifting and used cycling for cardio. Eventually I got into power training for cycling and it has become a bigger part of my training.
Can I cross train between the two and still get more mass?
I am now about 175lbs and my workout week usually goes like this.
Monday - 1 Hour on Bike - Recovery Pace & 1 Hour Bench and Dead lifts - Moderate
Tue, Wed, Thursday - On Bike mixing it up with intervals and tempo riding.
Friday - Off
Sat and Sunday - Either Race or 2-3 Hour endurance ride and on Sat 1-Hour Bench and Dead lifts Heavy low Reps and Sunday 1-Hour Bench and Dead lifts Light, High Reps
As far as Nutrition I do not eat like a cheerleader like most cyclists.
Any advice other than stop cycling and just do weights would be great…
I shoot for 3 days a week of lifting but this time of the year I usually fall short. I pretty much max out at 2 days a week with Saturday being the big day.
Cycling is usually 5 days with the intense riding being on Tues, Wed, Thu. If I plan on doing a race I will make the week day riding less intense. My riding will be anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours. Weekends can go up to 3 hours.
I also recently suffered from burnout as I tried to do more higher end intervals. My body just crashed completely and I caught a flu. This is one of the main reasons I am posting as it has set me back atleast 1-2 months of training.
I notice that for me if I do cycling for 1 hour prior to weights I can actually lift heavier especially the dead lift. I prefer doing compound exercises and heavier low rep sets followed by the second day being high rep sets to get the blood in there to recover quickly but not sure if this is the reason I crashed.
-js
[quote]rsg wrote:
Are you only lifting 1 day a week?
I lift 3-4 days a week and cycle about 1 hour a day/5 days a week.
Still making progress, you just have to eat enough. Though I’ve been feeling sick for the past few days so I have no appetite which is not like me.[/quote]
Your not going to get mass training like that, and if you do it’ll probably be more fat than anything because you would absolutely have to pig out.
Mixing sports and weightlifting can be difficult because there are times when you should drop one or just concentrate on another and you don’t want to because you love the sport your doing.
Since this seems to be cycle season for you, You shouldn’t worry too much about gaining Mass, but you should concentrate on going through a seriuos bulk cycle once its over. That way when you switch back to bicycling season you can use it to burn fat, and keep more muscle.
I kind of thought this might be the answer as I could focus more on the weight training during the Fall-Winter, from September - March.
How would you handle the weight lifting now so I do not turn into a cheerleader and loose anything I may have gained?
-js
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
Your not going to get mass training like that, and if you do it’ll probably be more fat than anything because you would absolutely have to pig out.
Mixing sports and weightlifting can be difficult because there are times when you should drop one or just concentrate on another and you don’t want to because you love the sport your doing.
Since this seems to be cycle season for you, You shouldn’t worry too much about gaining Mass, but you should concentrate on going through a seriuos bulk cycle once its over. That way when you switch back to bicycling season you can use it to burn fat, and keep more muscle.[/quote]
I would try to keep lifting 2-3times a week, get enough food so you don’t burn miscle, get enough protein and perhaps use some BCAAs before/after cycling as they are quite anabolic.
That’s dependant on your recovery, since you don’t want to be burned when your cycling.
In general though, I would say the standard 1 day, heavy and medium or low reps, and 1 day lighter and higher reps(Full Body both days) will be fine to keep your muscle long as your protein and carb intake is good. If your bodyfat is where you want it you really don’t want to go on a low carb diet with all the cardio you do.