In general, endurance athletes avoid lifting weights like the plague. Cyclists especially will tell you how any extra muscle will reduce their watts per kilo (w/kg) and that if they are heavier, that just makes them slower going uphill.

There are many more reasons why it's a good idea for all endurance athletes to lift regularly. One of them is that it can help to improve their Maximum Sustained Power (MSP). This is different from FTP and is probably way more important to those athletes who are riding for several hours because it refers to the sub-maximal power you can sustain for long durations.

Today's guest is Jacques DeVore, a cyclist and strength coach who wrote the book Maximum Overload for Cyclists. In his book, Jacques lays out a training regime that he claims will help cyclists go faster by improving their sustainable power and fatigue resistance. He has plenty of evidence to back this up, having worked with hundreds of endurance athletes including cyclists Dave Zabriskie.

If you’ve been skeptical about the benefits of strength training to this point, this conversation might change your mind as we discuss:

At what point of the season should you introduce a strength routine

Priorities for endurance athletes

Micro dosing your strength workouts

Thriving vs surviving on a ride

How to be as powerful in the second half of a ride as the first

Why Maximum Sustained Power (MSP) is more important than FTP

Why strength training is vital for older cyclists (i.e. over 40)

To find out more about Jacques DeVore please visit these sites:

http://www.sirensandtitansfitness.com/

www.planibble.com

www.microdosingfitness.com

 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sirensandtitans/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sirensfitness

 

Read more about Jacques' thoughts on strength training at his blog:

http://www.sirensandtitansfitness.com/jacques-blog

 

Walking Lunges - we talked extensively about this in the podcast. Check out Jacques' YouTube channel where the first video you see demonstrates this movement:

Purchase a copy of Maximum Overload for Cyclists

 

We ask all of our guests to recommend books that have inspired them. These are the choices from Jacques:

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling by Frank Bettger

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Visit Simon's website for more information about his coaching programmes.  Links to all of Simon's social media channels can be found here.  For any questions please email [email protected].