Should you? Shouldn’t you? There's much debating about the effectiveness and necessity of strength training for cyclist.

 It is vital that strength training be added regardless of age, the benefits will enhance your cycling ability and your overall enjoyment of the sport

• Resistance Training and Weight Training Enhance Coordination

Whether you are doing body-weight resistance exercises, lifting free weights, or using rubber tubing, there are balance and coordination components to your movements. This develops and maintains neural pathways for proprioception and balance, and it develops small muscles that help your stability. 

•  Strength training increases your options

This is crucially important for lifelong cyclists. Cyclists have extremely well developed aerobic engines, yet very underdeveloped musculoskeletal systems for any sport other than cycling. 

• Strength training keeps you in the game

 In my experience, well-rounded athletes are able to be more consistent in their sport-specific cycling training because they spend less time sidelined by soreness and injury caused by being unprepared for activities of daily living. The position of a cyclist is an unnatural position for the human body to stay in for a period of time; hyper-extended neck, rounded back, and shortened hip flexors all add up to a poorly developed posture for every day life. This is another reason cyclists should program strength training in to their training schedule. All professional athletes from all sports will spend time in the gym, correcting muscular issues and building strength training as part of their daily routine.

• But, does Strength Training make you Faster?

So, does strength training make you faster on the bike? Probably not in a direct sense. Even though squats, for instance, use the same muscles you use to push on the pedals, the rate of force production is far slower during a squat than it is during a pedal stroke. You don’t squat at the leg speed of a 90rpm cadence. However, in an indirect sense, the fact that strength training makes you a better-rounded athlete, increases the range of activities you can participate in, and increases your chances of exercising on a more consistent basis, means you can apply a greater training stimulus more frequently than you could otherwise. And that can definitely make you a faster cyclist.

• Strength Training for cyclists

In conclusion should cyclist incorporate strength training in to their workout schedule? In my opinion there is no doubt that strength training should be a regular training regime, especially during the off season, Re-addressing postural and muscular issues during the off season and then focusing on building strength is vital if you want to have a good cycling season ahead of you. It really doesn’t matter what type of cyclist you are, whether that be a road racer to sportive rider it really doesn’t matter, what matters is that you are in the best shape at the start of the cycling season. To be the best cyclist you can you need to train wise and train complete.