10 Ways To Stay Fit For Bikeriders

Winter is coming closer and closer, and therefore it can be hard to get the training done if the weather isn’t as nice as it was back in the summertime. However, it is actually rather easy to stay somewhat fit with just 10 different and easy exercises listed below. But they can also be done during the season, because they will make your body more prepared for longer and faster rides.

Cyclists’ squats

Most bikeriders have pretty tight calves due to a lack of fitting exercises, which does make squats a bit tricky to do squats the right way. But there is a way to make this easier, and squats is a really great tool to get bigger legmuscles.
But try to elevate the heels about 5 cm above ground. It can be done by placing some plates from the gym (if you are doing it at a gym) at your feet. Books and magazines can also be used if it is done at home. It will allow you to go deeper on the squats with an upright torso (very important to prevent backinjuries with weights on your shoulders). The deeper you can go, the better, but never go so deep that you will get problem to get yourself up again.

Try to keep the feet parallel, and do three sets of 12 repetitions. The weight that should be used, would need to be no bigger or smaller than making the 12^th repetition a very hard experience, but still not impossible. If you only can do 11, then there is too much weight being used.

Core training

Cycling is not always just legs. A strong core helps with a good posture, and will especially make you stronger when you are out of your saddle, putting some power in the pedals.

Here a simple exercise called “plank” would be enough to do. All you have to do is to lie chest-down on the floor, pushing yourself up to your elbows (kept beneath your shoulders), and tuck your toes under. Try to hold this position for as long as possible, demanding your coremuscles to be activated for a longer period of time. It is actually a harder exercise than it sounds. The best thing about this, is that it can be done everywhere; outdoors, at home, and even under your working desk.

Tricep dips

When riding on rough surfaces like cobbles or in the forrest on your mountainbike, the back of your arm does take quite some hits. So keeping your triceps strong is a great way to prevent soreness and fatigue from happening and making your ride a better experience.

To do this, try the tricep dips. Place your hands behind you, and make the fingers pointing forwards on a bench, step, or block. Keep the knees along with the tighs parallel to the ground meanwhile doing this. Then bend the elbows until your bottom almost touches the ground. Then extend the elbows and lift yourself back up again. Do the 12 times, rest for 60 seconds, and do it again.

Lower back

Lower backache is something several bikeriders experience, due to the position you are more or less stuck in, when riding a bike. Combine that with a trip for 2 hours+ and your back is not having the time of its life. But don’t worry, there is help!

This is due to the back becoming tired. The muscles on your back cannot keep up with the watts your legs throw at them (Remember that the Watts you put in your pedals also goes into your back because of Newton’s 3^rd law, Action = Reaction).

To prevent this from happening, I will recommend you to perform so called weighting row movements with kettlebells or dumbbells. Try to stand with your feet a hip-distance between each other. Then bend down until your torso is close to be parallel with the floor. It can be difficult for not-so-bendy people to do this, so just try to get as close as possible if you cant. Just make sure that your back is straight, and the shoulder are pulled back into their sockets. From here, tilt the pelvis slightly forward so that the hips point upwards a little bit. Then hold the weights in either hand and bend the elbows, while the arm is being pulled up until the weights touches your chest. Then extend the arms and repeat this with three sets of 12 repetitions, with 60 seconds of rest in between. The weights should be heavy enough so the last repetition will be pretty hard to perform.

Do intervals

Intervals is everything when it comes to training. You can increase your cardiovascular fitness extremely fast by adding intervals to the training. Just start with basic repetitions of 60 seconds where you are going about 80% of your maximum effort. Then do 60 seconds with around 40% of your maximum effort. This should then be repeated.

It is very efficiently done during spinning on a stationary bike or a hometrainer, at home or the gym. Spinning classes usually have intervals in their training sessions. It can also be added to your normal training, by making hill-sprints, or pushing/sprinting from a certain distance before a citysign.

Add power

Professional ironman coach Pat Leahy is stating that at least one trainingsession every week should be a very hard power session. This is preferably done on a stationary bike or on the hometrainer, where you know you can push as hard as possible, without the thought of being 10 km from home when you have pushed yourself to the max.

It can be done in many ways, but try to do 4 to 6 minutes on high resistance. Then take one to two minutes of recovery. Try to repeat this about 4 times, and build it up each week, in order to get stronger.

For riders whom does races, this will help a lot to keep up in the parts where the race is being hectic and everyone seems to go at max. If you can withstand this part of a race, you will be more likely to win a sprint or go into a successful break away.

Hillclimb

This was already mentioned at the intervals, but it is a pretty neat and incredibly effective way of training. Find a hill in your area that is both long and hard enough to keep you challenged when sprinting from the bottom to the top. Set yourself a goal to do this a number of times (for example 5), and then do it. When you have done it, just roll down the hill until you hit the bottom and repeat it. This way your pulse should be lowered enough to do it a few more times without maxing the pulse out for 5 minutes in a row. It will make you a much better sprinter on the long run, and it can be added to your everyday training easily.

Become flexible

Just like your calves probably are a bit tight due to the cycling, your hamstrings also get tight if this is the only type of exercise you do, unless you stretch out for 5 minutes after every training, which 99,99% of people reading this article, aren’t doing. A great and easy way to stay flexible is to do a few yoga sessions every week. In warm temperatures it will be better, so your muscles aren’t cold when performing it. Warm muscles prevents injuries and makes the stretching a lot safer.

Resting is just as important as training(!)

Just face it, resting is very important in order to get anything out of your training. Take at least one to two days off every week. When you train, you break down the mitochondria-fibers (aka microfibers) in your muscles. When you body rebuilds them, they become stronger, and you will experience it as increased strength (Isn’t evolution just great?). But the mitochondria’s demand rest in order to be rebuild efficiently and quickly. So if you train too hard, too long, and too much every week, you will not experience any improvements, compared to taking a few days a week off from training. This also helps you to stay positive on the training, instead of going dead due to a trainingsession every single day.

You are what you eat

As well as resting, eating is very important. The mitochondria-fibers will also rebuild a lot faster, if you eat the right stuff. Eat regular meals and healthy snacks, consuming something every 3 to 4 hours, in order to keep an intake of energy flowing all the time. Vegetables, fruit, and meals consisting of proteins, along with slow-release carbohydrates is the ultimate things you can eat.

Written by René

Read more: http://www.cyclingtipsonline.com/news/a10-ways-to-stay-fit-for-bikeriders/

Make Grouptraining More Fun And Varied

Below, there is some different kind of trainings you can do if you are training in a group. The preferred size of the group is mentioned right after the name. It can make the training more exiting and challenging for everybody.

Sprint on a line (6 – 20)

The riders’ rides on one straight line (one after one) in a pace they will maintain. On the captain’s signal, the last rider sprints all the way to the front. It is important that this rider after overtaking the rider in the front, goes in front of this rider, and maintain the exact same speed. This way it will go around, and train the sprint abilities for the riders. It is good intervaltraining.

After all riders have done this, they go one gear up, and start again. This is done as many times as the riders wants to do. The captain has to make sure that there is no upcoming traffic behind, and therefore he will not be a part of this training exercise. Remember to have done half an hour of warm up before. In addition, a good trick is that the captain yells the name of the rider, so the riders do not always look back on when it is their turn. That can create some dangerous situations.

Accelerations to the group (6-24)

The riders rides one after one on a straight line in low speed. The last rider stops, clicks out of the pedals, goes of the bike, and then he goes back on, clicks in the pedals, and sprints up to the front of the group. He will have to maintain the exact same speed as before. This way it will go around, and train the sprint abilities for the riders. It is good intervaltraining.

It can be done with pairs so it can be done faster. In addition, a good trick is that the captain yells the name of the rider, so the riders do not always look back on when it is their turn. That can create some dangerous situations.

This can be done early when everybody has done just a slight warm up. Muscles are needed to be fresh to perform this task.

“Race” with individual tasks (14-30)

The riders drives a bikerace with a masstart. Preferable on a 7-10 km route. They drive a couple of laps (20 – 30 km). Before the start, each single rider gets a task they have to follow somewhere in this “race”. The tasks has to be given, so most people can finish the race in the leading group. Therefore, the strongest riders gets the hardest tasks. The riders must not know what the other riders have to do.

The roles can be everything from going into break away, or catching the breakaways. Also, like pushing the peloton as long as no are doing any break away. The roles can be given on a warm up lap on the route.

The captain has to know how strong each of the participants are, in order to make this successful. He can participate himself. It will be good to find a route that doesn’t have much traffic.

“Race” with team tasks (12-30)

The riders rides a 15-20 km race, preferably on a 4-7 km route. Before the start, the riders are made into a team of 3-4 riders. The teams have to be as varied as possible. So weak riders are put along with strong riders. The teams gets different tasks. Typically some offensive and other defensive tasks. Example, a team rides for 1 rider on the team, and has to make sure that no break away can get away. The teams will have to have a tactics meeting before the “race”, which can be done while driving the route as a warm up.

For fun, the teams can get point for how many riders they get in top 10. 10 points for a win, 1 points for a 10^th place.

The captain has to know how strong each of the participants are, in order to make this successful. He can participate himself. It will be good to find a route that does not have much traffic. The task can be done as a ending part of the training, or in the middle of it.

Time trial/hunting (8+)

The riders rides a time trial based on a huntingstart. the slowest rider in that time trial, starts first, and the fastests starts last. The difference between the riders, will be the same as the difference was in the time trial. That way, every rider got just as big a chance to win the race.

It can also be done in groups. Alternatively, the slowest and fastest rider gets send out first, and has to be together. After them the 2^nd worst and 2^nd best gets, send out. The captain has to take time in the time trial, so he cannot drive in that. But he can sit on the wheel of the last rider in the hunting.

The exercise can be placed just after a short warm up, or at the end of the training. But an important thing is, the riders must not know that they have to ride a hunt right after the time trial. Some riders will probably ride slower than they can, just to get an advantage then.

Intervals in pair or groups (8+)

The riders ride on a known route between 5 and 15 km long. The riders drives a huntingstart either individually or in groups up to 5 riders. The riders/teams gets send out so the weakest starts first, and the strongest starts last. The time between the different riders /groups gets send out can vary from everything so they get together before the route is done, or they will ride solo all the way. That way, the riders can be motivated, so they can “win” once a while. If overtaken, its allowed to follow the one overtaking you, if possible.
The captain has to ride with the last team, so he/she can make sure, the timegaps are big enough. Therefore, the captain has to ensure, that he/she is strong enough to ride with the strongest riders. The riders will need a warm up before this can be done.

Sprint with numbers (8+)

The riders ride on a known route with about 5 citysigns, they will sprint to. The captain will give a few riders some numbers before the first sprint is made. The other riders must not know who has been given a number, or what number a person has been given. The captain will yell a number, like “3”, and the rider that has been given the number 3, will have to decide whether he will attack 5 km before the citysign, or 100 meters before. The other riders will then have to try following him, or outsprinting him.

This is easy for the captain; he just needs to point out the ones opening the sprints. This can be done in the start, where the captain gives numbers during the warm up. It is important that the riders knows the route.

Sprint from group to group (5-20)

The riders rides in a single group. At the front there will be a rider who is 200-400 meters in front of the group. The riders will one after one have to close the gap to the rider in front. The rider in front have to try to maintain an agreed speed all the time. The frontgroup that will grow bigger and bigger must not increase this speed.

If there is too many riders, they can do this in a group. The speed of the frontgroup can be increased, if the strongest riders will be the last ones to be send out. The captain will have to be in the group behind, and therefore be the last rider to sprint up to the frontgroup. It is a good idea to have everybody warmed up.

Starrace (10+)

The route will be made into a route with 5-6 spots (like a star). Maybe in every corner of a town. The riders will be send one after one, and they can be send after each spot at the same time. will ride out to one of the spot, and then back to the center, and go after the next one. The winner will be the one to ride to all the spots and back to the center.

It can be done in pairs too. The captain has to stay at the center, so he/she cant participate. If he has to participate, it will demand no cheating from any of the riders. It will usually be ridden as special trainingsession, that will take all of the trainingsession.

Break away corporation (4+)

This is trained best under realistic circumstances, so in groups of 5-6 riders. If the riders are trained in this, they will ride with a bit high intensity. It will usually be ridden as a huntingstart, with the slowest group starting first. The riders will change position, and ride 2 on 2. They will circulate, so they shift to ride in front, but only for  a small time, until the next rider gets in front of you. When you are the front rider, you ride over the other side, in front of the rider that took lead before you, and throws it a gear down. When you are the one to enter the pushing side again, you go a gear up. Remember to maintain a specific pace is important. This way you are having 50% pushing and 50% “relaxing”. That way you as a team can maintain a high speed for a large time, because you are working together. You see pro’s do this too, especially in crosswinds. If the crosswinds are coming from the right side, the left side can relax and fall back, while it is the right side that will do the pushing.

The captain can participate in this as he/she wants too. Alternatively it can be done 5-10km outside a city, and the finishline with be at the citysign. Therefore, groups will have to corporate to get first over the finishline.

Written by René

Read more: http://cyclingtipsonline.com/news/how-to-make-grouptraining-more-fun-and-varied/