Upper-body training for cyclists

[CheckMyPecs]

Re:

I see musculature on each of these riders that pictures that have been posted. It's not like the greased up photo in your avatar but I'm certain that dude wouldn't come close to making it in under the time cut off on any semi-mountainous stage of any professional level event in Europe. The pros look the way that they do for an obvious reason, one that seems to have completely escaped you.

Have you read this link?

http://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/articleCU5.html

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Have you read this link?

http://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/articleCU5.html

"See the riders at the Tour de France? You're not a pro, you don't need to look like them". That article in a nutshell.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

Your dignity has nothing to do with how your upper body looks. The majority of people work out because they are insecure about themselves/their bodies, and gain self-esteem by making themselves stronger, often in the hope of becoming more attractive to the opposite sex (or the same sex for that matter)

Being strong all around (not just the legs or any other individual muscle group) is a sign of fitness. And everyone wants to be fit, right? So when you have a weak upper body you're basically sending the message that you don't respect yourself enough to get out and get fit.

For a cyclist, being fit does not involve upper body muscles. In fact, building upper body muscles requires you to be even more fit to achieve the same results uphill, and given the amount of climbing that professional road cyclists have to do...

 

[hrotha]

Sumo fighters: why can't they just slim down?
Horse jockeys: like, drink some milk?

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

Have you read this link?

http://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/articleCU5.html

"See the riders at the Tour de France? You're not a pro, you don't need to look like them". That article in a nutshell.

Peter Sagan is a successful Tour de France rider and he trains his upper body:

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/endurance/5-exercises-to-build-a-better-body-for-biking?page=2

 

[hrotha]

Of course. And I've seen pics of Purito lifting. As others have noted, you're confusing putting on muscle with gaining core strength.

 

[King Boonen]

Re: Re:

Your dignity has nothing to do with how your upper body looks. The majority of people work out because they are insecure about themselves/their bodies, and gain self-esteem by making themselves stronger, often in the hope of becoming more attractive to the opposite sex (or the same sex for that matter)

Being strong all around (not just the legs or any other individual muscle group) is a sign of fitness.

No. It isn't.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Re: Re:

Have you read this link?

http://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/articleCU5.html

"See the riders at the Tour de France? You're not a pro, you don't need to look like them". That article in a nutshell.

Peter Sagan is a successful Tour de France rider and he trains his upper body:

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/endurance/5-exercises-to-build-a-better-body-for-biking?page=2

that's because with training his upper body he actually gains mass. I'm sure if he could chose he would not want to gain that mass while gaining strenght. it makes him less in the climbs.

 

[Kwibus]

Re: Re:

Have you read this link?

http://www.cyclesportcoaching.com/articleCU5.html

"See the riders at the Tour de France? You're not a pro, you don't need to look like them". That article in a nutshell.

Peter Sagan is a successful Tour de France rider and he trains his upper body:

http://www.mensfitness.com/training/endurance/5-exercises-to-build-a-better-body-for-biking?page=2

Well you just keep believing that a ripped body with huge pecs will help you in the race then that's fine with me.
I'm sure all these GT winners are completely lunatics for not being pumped up gym boys. If only one of them figured it out I'm sure he would win everything.
Nevermind all those trainers and managers. They know nothing about cycling, soooo stupid!

No this is not an argument, but this topic.... Mother of god.

 

[Gigs_98]

Re: Re:

Another example? Check out German track cyclist Robert Förstemann:

His palmares includes 2 bronze medals and 1 gold at the WCs, bronze at the London Olympics, and a silver and a gold medal at the ECs.

Seriously?
You bring up a track specialist as an example why climbers should train their upper body?

But even besides that I completely disagree with you. Don't you think the professional trainers of the cyclists know a little bit more about which muscles need to be trained, than you or the writers of the articles you posted? And if the muscles in the upper body would be used for climbing, wouldn't the climbing automatically train these muscles?

 

[portugal11]

Upper body is very important in races like paris roubaix but no way in mountains

 

[DFA123]

Re:

Case in point: Peter Sagan in this year's Paris-Roubaix.

Yeah, and the guy that fell in front of him has a tiny, weak upper body right?

If only Cancellara would have done a few more bicep curls and thrown a few kettle bells around, he'd have been able to grip the bar properly and wouldn't have gone down.

Anyway, there are loads of cyclists around the world with a big upper body. Obviously you don't hear much about them though, because they're carrying too much unnecessary weight to actually make it onto the WT or win anything.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

If only one of them figured it out I'm sure he would win everything.

Peter Sagan, the World Champion, a guy who's won the green jersey at the Tour de France every single year since 2012, does crunches and trains his upper body. Hell, he even has a type of crunch named after him!

Therefore, upper-body training is effective even by your own standards.

Nevermind all those trainers and managers. They know nothing about cycling, soooo stupid!

Woo and quackery are still common among elite sport trainers. E.g., cyclists sticking sell-o-tape on their noses, wearing kinesio tape when not recovering from an injury, ozone treatment, the notorious "Cadel Evans healing procedure", ultraviolet blood irradiation... not to mention the infamous field of homeopathy.

That's why some of them cling on to the "Thou shalt not train your upper body" mantra despite it being 100% wrong.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Re: Re:

If only one of them figured it out I'm sure he would win everything.

Peter Sagan, the World Champion, a guy who's won the green jersey at the Tour de France every single year since 2012, does crunches and trains his upper body. Hell, he even has a type of crunch named after him!

Therefore, upper-body training is effective even by your own standards.

Nevermind all those trainers and managers. They know nothing about cycling, soooo stupid!

Woo and quackery are still common among elite sport trainers. E.g., cyclists sticking sell-o-tape on their noses, wearing kinesio tape when not recovering from an injury, ozone treatment, the notorious "Cadel Evans healing procedure", ultraviolet blood irradiation... not to mention the infamous field of homeopathy.

That's why some of them cling on to the "Thou shalt not train your upper body" mantra despite it being 100% wrong.

if 20 out of 20 people come tell you, that YOU are 100% wrong, then who do you think is right?

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re: Re:

If only one of them figured it out I'm sure he would win everything.

Peter Sagan, the World Champion, a guy who's won the green jersey at the Tour de France every single year since 2012, does crunches and trains his upper body. Hell, he even has a type of crunch named after him!

Therefore, upper-body training is effective even by your own standards.

Alright, I'll just drop Boasson Hagen a tweet that the reason his career has stalled is because every physiologist he's ever spoken to is wrong and that he isn't ripped.

 

[CheckMyPecs]

Re: Re:

if 20 out of 20 people come tell you, that YOU are 100% wrong, then who do you think is right?

It's not a popularity contest —as a rationalist, I like to test my theories with scientific observations. And this is what the observations say:

Lance Armstrong, strong and ripped, as shown in the photos above:

*7 Tours de France (world record) with many stages
*2 Dauphiné Libéré
*1 Tour de Suissé
*1 World Championship
*1 Clásica de San Sebastián
*1 Flèche Wallonne

(I know, Clinic stuff, but this is what he won on the road)

Peter Sagan, who trains his upper body so much he has a type of crunch named after him:

*1 World Championship
*1 Tour of Flanders
*2 Gent-Wevelgem
*1 GP de Montréal
*4 consecutive Tour de France green jerseys
*4 Tour de France stages
*4 Vuelta a España stages
*1 Tour of California
*1 Tour of Poland

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

armstrong is the most terrible example as he was doped up to his eyeballs.

sagan was not ripped early on in his career and won just as much, if not more. also sagan's win today come from more flatter races

 

[DFA123]

Re: Re:

If only one of them figured it out I'm sure he would win everything.

Peter Sagan, the World Champion, a guy who's won the green jersey at the Tour de France every single year since 2012, does crunches and trains his upper body. Hell, he even has a type of crunch named after him!

Therefore, upper-body training is effective even by your own standards.

Alright, I'll just drop Boasson Hagen a tweet that the reason his career has stalled is because every physiologist he's ever spoken to is wrong and that he isn't ripped.

It's only fair to let him know. I'm passing near Madrid tomorrow; I should probably pop in to give Contador the head's up that he could have won 15 GTs by now, if only he'd trained to be able to bench 100kg.

Perhaps he'll be able to get another five years out of his career with this crazy new training method. If not, at least he can go and compare pecs with Ronaldo.

 

[hrotha]

Re: Re:

Lance Armstrong, strong and ripped, as shown in the photos above:

Ok, you're trolling. Have a nice day.

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Re: Re:

It's not a popularity contest —as a rationalist, I like to test my theories with scientific observations. And this is what the observations say:

Lance Armstrong, strong and ripped, as shown in the photos above:

*7 Tours de France (world record) with many stages
*2 Dauphiné Libéré
*1 Tour de Suissé
*1 World Championship
*1 Clásica de San Sebastián
*1 Flèche Wallonne

(I know, Clinic stuff, but this is what he won on the road)

Peter Sagan, who trains his upper body so much he has a type of crunch named after him:

*1 World Championship
*1 Tour of Flanders
*2 Gent-Wevelgem
*1 GP de Montréal
*4 consecutive Tour de France green jerseys
*4 Tour de France stages
*4 Vuelta a España stages
*1 Tour of California
*1 Tour of Poland

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking

 

[Billie]

 

[PremierAndrew]

Re:

In cyclocross your core is super important, so it's no surprise to see Stybar like that.

 

[Billie]

 

[Angliru]

Re: Re:

if 20 out of 20 people come tell you, that YOU are 100% wrong, then who do you think is right?

It's not a popularity contest —as a rationalist, I like to test my theories with scientific observations. And this is what the observations say:

Lance Armstrong, strong and ripped, as shown in the photos above:

*7 Tours de France (world record) with many stages
*2 Dauphiné Libéré
*1 Tour de Suissé
*1 World Championship
*1 Clásica de San Sebastián
*1 Flèche Wallonne

(I know, Clinic stuff, but this is what he won on the road)

Peter Sagan, who trains his upper body so much he has a type of crunch named after him:

*1 World Championship
*1 Tour of Flanders
*2 Gent-Wevelgem
*1 GP de Montréal
*4 consecutive Tour de France green jerseys
*4 Tour de France stages
*4 Vuelta a España stages
*1 Tour of California
*1 Tour of Poland

Why do you keep referencing that Armstrong photo when you and everyone else knows that it was taken years after his retirement from the sport?

 

[Billie]

Re:

Armstrong was quick uphill despite his weight, not because of it.

This, surely, is the ideal cyclist upper body

Nibali's is better. Very tight