The deadlift has a reputation problem in cycling circles. Coaches who came up through the sport have spent decades telling riders to avoid anything that builds "unnecessary bulk," and the deadlift — a barbell exercise associated with powerlifting and bodybuilding — tends to sit near the top of that banned list. The result is a generation of cyclists with strong quads, weak glutes, and lower backs that give up somewhere around kilometre 100.
The evidence does not support that blanket ban. What it does support is a specific way of using deadlift variations that builds posterior chain strength without inflating recovery cost or interfering with riding quality. Getting that right requires understanding both sides of the argument.
The case for cyclists deadlifting
Cycling is a quad-dominant sport. The pedal stroke is primarily knee extension, which means the quads accumulate training stimulus across thousands of hours while the glutes and hamstrings are comparatively under-loaded. That imbalance matters because the glutes are the largest power-producing muscles in the body, and because the hamstrings act as knee stabilisers, hip extensors, and — relevant at the top of the pedal stroke — hip flexion decelerators.
Prof. Stephen Seiler, whose research at the University of Agder has shaped how endurance coaches think about intensity distribution, has noted that heavy strength work performed in the 3–6 rep range drives neuromuscular adaptations — more motor unit recruitment, improved firing rate — rather than hypertrophy. That distinction matters for cyclists who are correctly worried about gaining body mass. Low-rep, high-load deadlifts make you stronger without making you meaningfully heavier.
The practical performance case is straightforward. Stronger glutes produce more force per pedal stroke. A stiffer posterior chain transfers that force more efficiently to the drivetrain. And a stronger lower back and hip complex holds position on the bike longer before form breaks down under fatigue — particularly relevant in the final 30 minutes of a long ride or race.
For triathlon cyclists specifically, glute and hamstring weakness compounds over the run. If the posterior chain is already depleted coming off the bike, the run falls apart structurally. That is a central reason why our S&C plan builds deadlift work into the programme from base phase onwards.
The case against
The arguments against deadlifts for cyclists are not entirely without merit. The strongest one is recovery cost. A heavy conventional deadlift session creates significant systemic fatigue — more than a squat of equivalent load, because the range of motion and total muscle mass involved is larger. For a rider already doing 12–16 hours of riding per week, adding two sessions of heavy barbell work can tip recovery into deficit if timing is poor.
The second argument is injury risk, specifically to the lower back. Cyclists already spend hours in a flexed hip, anteriorly-tilted pelvis position. Many arrive in the gym with shortened hip flexors and limited posterior pelvic tilt range of motion. Pull a heavy barbell off the floor with those movement deficits in place and lumbar rounding becomes likely. That is not a reason to avoid deadlifts — it is a reason to address mobility first and progress load carefully.
The third argument is specificity. Cycling coaches sometimes argue that the movement pattern of a deadlift does not translate to the pedal stroke, so the strength is "wasted." This is a misunderstanding of how strength training works. The adaptation that matters is neuromuscular, not biomechanically specific. You are not training the deadlift movement — you are training the nervous system to recruit posterior chain muscles more fully, and that capacity transfers.
None of these arguments add up to a case for avoiding deadlifts. They add up to a case for programming them correctly.
Romanian vs conventional for cyclists
The Romanian deadlift (RDL) and the conventional deadlift share a hip hinge pattern but differ meaningfully in where the load falls and what they demand technically.
In a conventional deadlift, the bar starts on the floor. The lift requires a near-simultaneous knee extension and hip extension from a deep starting position. Technique is more complex, spinal loading is higher, and the learning curve is steeper. For a beginner to strength training, it can take several weeks of coaching before load can be added safely.
The RDL starts from standing. The lifter maintains soft knee flexion throughout, pushing the hips back while the bar descends along the legs to roughly mid-shin. The hamstrings are under constant tension through the eccentric phase, making it a more direct hamstring developer than the conventional variant. Lumbar compression is lower, the movement is easier to learn, and for cyclists — who often have poor glute recruitment patterns — the isolated hip hinge teaches the mechanics that transfer to everything else.
For most cyclists, especially those newer to structured gym work, the RDL is the right starting point. Once hip hinge mechanics are solid and hamstring strength is established, adding conventional deadlifts broadens the stimulus and drives higher absolute load. Dan Lorang, Head of Performance at Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe and long-time coach to Jan Frodeno and Lucy Charles-Barclay, has consistently prioritised movement quality over load in the gym work of his athletes — a principle that applies directly here.
If you want a broader view of which exercises produce the most return for cyclists, the breakdown in our best exercises article is worth reading alongside this one.
Programming around your riding
Timing is where most cyclists go wrong with deadlifts. The instinct is to train hard on the bike and then add the gym on top, treating them as separate categories of work. They are not separate. Heavy leg work is heavy leg work, and neuromuscular fatigue does not distinguish between a set of 5 deadlifts at 85% and a VO2max interval session.
The most practical approach, used by coaches across multiple disciplines, is to schedule strength sessions on the same day as easy rides — either before an easy spin (allowing several hours between) or in the evening after a morning recovery ride. This consolidates fatigue into one day rather than spreading it into a hard ride the following morning.
Hard intervals and deadlifts need at least 48 hours of separation. If Tuesday is a threshold session and Wednesday is strength, Thursday intervals will be compromised. Move deadlifts to Monday or Wednesday, with Thursday intervals as the next hard effort.
In terms of training blocks, heavy strength work belongs in the base phase. As the racing season approaches and intensity on the bike rises, gym frequency drops from two sessions per week to one, load is maintained but volume is reduced, and closer to target events, gym work stops entirely. That periodised approach is what progressive overload looks like across a full season — building a strength foundation early, then reducing it to maintenance before it competes with race fitness.
How heavy should cyclists lift?
The answer depends on the phase and the goal, but the general principle runs counter to what most cyclists do naturally. Cyclists who do go to the gym tend to gravitate towards moderate weights for high reps — 3 sets of 12–15 at 60% of one-rep max. That is an endurance adaptation. It builds muscular endurance, not strength, and it does so at the cost of significant glycogen depletion and prolonged DOMS that interferes with riding.
The research on strength training for endurance athletes points clearly in a different direction. Sets of 3–6 reps at 80–85% of one-rep max drive the neuromuscular adaptations — motor unit recruitment, rate coding, inter-muscular coordination — without meaningful hypertrophy. Asker Jeukendrup's work on endurance performance and Joe Friel's long-standing guidance in The Cyclist's Training Bible both land in the same place: endurance athletes should lift heavy and lift infrequently.
Two to three working sets per session is sufficient. Total weekly volume for deadlifts does not need to exceed 6–9 working sets. More than that increases recovery cost without proportionate benefit.
One practical note: 80–85% of one-rep max means you need to know your one-rep max. If you are new to deadlifting, spend the first 4–6 weeks building to a technically clean set of 5 before testing anything heavier. Form failure under load is how backs get hurt.
The minimum effective deadlift programme
For a cyclist with limited gym time and no desire to become a strength athlete, the following structure works. Two sessions per week during the base phase. Each session includes Romanian deadlifts as the primary lift, with one supporting exercise (single-leg RDL or hip thrust) to address symmetry and glute activation specifically.
Session A: 3 sets of 5 RDL at 80% of working 5RM. Rest 2–3 minutes between sets. Follow with 2 sets of 8 single-leg RDL at bodyweight or light load.
Session B: Same structure. If load feels easy across all reps with clean form, add 2.5–5kg the following week. That is progressive overload in practice — small, consistent load increases across a 6–8 week block.
After 8 weeks, test a conventional deadlift. If hip hinge mechanics are solid and the RDL load has climbed meaningfully, the conventional deadlift can replace or alternate with the RDL from that point. The programme does not need to be more complicated than this. Dan Bigham, Head of Engineering at Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe and former UCI Hour Record holder, has spoken about the marginal gains principle applying to gym work too — the interventions that produce the most return for the least cost are the ones worth pursuing consistently.
Consistency over 16–20 weeks of base and build phase will produce more posterior chain development than any complicated programme run for 4 weeks. If you want that structure built into a full coaching plan with accountability and periodisation, the Not Done Yet programme integrates this kind of gym work with the riding load from the first week.