“The window is not even remotely closed.” That is Andy Galpin’s answer when Anthony asks whether a cyclist over 40, who has avoided strength work for years, can still make progress.
Galpin asks what progress should mean and how strength work fits the rider’s existing training.
Decide what you want to improve
Galpin separates strength, muscle growth and power, then asks how power is being measured. A vertical jump and cycling power are different tasks.
Write your goal in a form you can assess. If it is stronger lifting, keep a gym record. If it is performance on the bike, choose a repeatable cycling measure connected to your riding. Do not silently replace the second goal with the first because the gym number is easier to watch.
For practical starting choices, use our strength guide for cyclists over 40. Age is part of the context; recent training history, movement skill and available recovery matter too.
Expect learning to influence early results
Galpin describes how an unfamiliar exercise can improve quickly as someone learns the task. A trained cyclist can still be a beginner in the gym.
That progress is worth recording. It does not tell you how much muscle has been added or prove an equivalent improvement in cycling performance. Keep the exercise, technique and conditions consistent enough for the record to mean something.
A useful session note contains the movement, load, completed repetitions and how hard they felt. If the movement changed, write that down too. Comparing two different exercises as though they were the same test creates a misleading result.
Make room in the whole training week
When Anthony asks about someone already riding ten to twelve hours a week, Galpin explains that this work uses recovery capacity. Sleep and energy availability also affect the opportunity to adapt.
The practical implication is to look at the entire week before adding gym work. If the riding volume is fixed, there may be less room for strength progression than an isolated gym programme suggests. If you are also changing diet or sleeping less, an extra set is not the only decision under review.
Our guide to placing strength around rides provides a way to compare possible sessions. It is Roadman’s planning guidance, informed by a separate interview with Art O’Connor.
Keep two records
Record what happens in the gym and what happens on the bike. Review them alongside sleep, fuelling and total training. Improvement in both is useful; improvement in one with repeated deterioration in the other calls for a closer look.
The systematic review of heavy strength training in cyclists found potential benefits for cycling performance, efficiency and anaerobic power, with low-certainty evidence. It does not establish a universal programme for masters cyclists or a guaranteed rate of improvement.
Good Legs is being built around the practical task of planning and recording strength alongside riding. Read why we’re building it for the product’s purpose and current stage.
Editorial correction, 11 September 2026: The earlier article attributed detailed fast-twitch, protein and loading prescriptions to this interview without adequate support in its stored transcript. This version uses the source conversation’s actual distinctions and links separately to the research.
