Combining Cycling with Weight Training?

[GradualStudent]

Hi All,

Kate the Newbie here ...

I would like to lose weight (20 lbs gained over a brutal winter/job change and another 30 more) and balance my cycling workouts with some weight training. I bike commute as much as 120 miles a week and it does affect my body after a while.

I sometimes have problems pulling my shoulder muscles if I bodyboard or haul my bike onto a train (a common commute method for me) or do anything arm intensive. I'd also like to shed the bouncing blobbing baby belly for good, deal with inner/outer thigh sloppyness, and counteract the tendancy of big boobs and bent-over cycling to make me hunchbacked.

I am a graduate student, so I have access to a great weight facility and a pool. Time is a problem when heaped on top of long bike rides to or from work (25 miles plus 5 back with the train to help). I also wonder if stacking the weights on top of 30 or even 50 mile days is a wise idea ...

Any ideas on how to put together a series of 3 weekly 30 minute weight workouts? Timewise, it works better if I do these on days I bike all the way in because I can just go to the athletic center, work out, then shower and get to work - is that a good idea?

Thanks in advance for any assistance anybody can give me - and super thanks to John for setting all this up!
-kPa

[GradualStudent]

Okay. So I went to the Body For Life site and found a bunch of truly interesting stuff. Wow - no tricks or sales crap or teasers, just a beautiful, sensible, helpful site.

Anyway, I think I will experiment with their program, but adapt it to my needs. I really don't need the lower body stuff, so I'll add the abs workout to the upper body workouts and do that 3X a week on top of all the biking. A few experiments with which exercises deal with my particular shoulder and back issues will do it. I might throw in the cybex adductor and abductor machines to keep my knees happy too.

Maybe I'll even start the challenge in August? Hmmm.

Additional comments are welcome.

Thanks,
Kate :db:

[Chopaholic]

Originally Posted by GradualStudent

Okay. So I went to the Body For Life site and found a bunch of truly interesting stuff. Wow - no tricks or sales crap or teasers, just a beautiful, sensible, helpful site.

Anyway, I think I will experiment with their program, but adapt it to my needs. I really don't need the lower body stuff, so I'll add the abs workout to the upper body workouts and do that 3X a week on top of all the biking. A few experiments with which exercises deal with my particular shoulder and back issues will do it. I might throw in the cybex adductor and abductor machines to keep my knees happy too.

Hi Kate, welcome aboard.

I too am an avid cyclist, and I do not work my lower body. I do have more physiology-based reasons for doing so, mostly due to knee problems and tight hamstrings, but I've not yet found this to be detrimental to either my cycling or my weightloss. I do some resistance work with a PT band to rehab my knees and lots of lower body stretching. All of my cardio - cycling, hiking, and walking - is lower body-based.

Personally, I have found that my body likes a bit more rest than a one-day lifting cycle, so I've moved to a two-day push-pull split. Here are a few links that you may find helpful as you develop your program.

Krista's site for some women-specific advice
An online directory of exercises
Hussman's Fitness Site

I'm happy to try to answer any cycling-specific questions you might have. It's always nice to see another cyclist kicking around.

[AMR]

The body for life workout is a great place to start.

The cure for the hunch back is a strong back and abs.

For your back do the seated pull downs and bent over dumbell rows. Both of these exercises will strengthen your back and pull your shoulders back.

For your abs I would do incline sit ups. Don't do the marathon ab routine that some people do only do sets of 12 or 15. If the incline situps get too easy then add some weight by holding a weight on your chest.

If you want to burn fat even faster, add some hill repeats to your ride a couple days a week. Maybe on the way home. Find a short hill and go up it as hard as you can a few times and then coast back down.

good luck

[GradualStudent]

Thanks guys. This is really helpful. I was in sports for years so I am familiar with weight training, but it can be hard to get going again without doing it as a team sport (or having some cute guy encourage you to blow out the girl's bench press record ... )

I'm working on the food stuff, increasing the biking, and designing a weight program this week. Next week, when all the undergraduates finish finals and leave, I think I'll get started. I won't have to jostle for bench space at the time I want to work out and I can take my time learning stuff.

If I can ramp things up to speed, I might consider doing the June 7 BFL challenge.