A 2025 meta-analysis in the European Journal of Applied Physiology just reviewed 17 studies covering 262 cyclists and found that heavy strength training significantly improves cycling efficiency, anaerobic power, and time trial performance. No negative effect on VO2 max. None. And the benefits appear to be greater for riders over 40 than for younger athletes. If you're training four or five days a week on the bike and doing nothing in the gym, this episode is the one to change that.
Key Takeaways
The physiology is simple. After 40, you lose roughly 8% of muscle mass per decade, and the type 2 fibers, the ones that let you respond to attacks and surge over a climb, can be 10 to 40% smaller in older adults compared to younger ones. Zone 2 and threshold work don't touch those fibers. Loaded resistance work does. I started taking this seriously about two years ago and the difference in the last hour of a long day is real. One of the lads in our Not Done Yet coaching community added two sessions a week back in January and his 20-minute power was up 5% inside three months. It's like anything in training, consistency beats intensity. Two sessions in the gym every single week beats one heroic block in November and then nothing until next winter.
The protocol we run inside Not Done Yet isn't complicated. Two sessions per week, 30 to 40 minutes each, built around cycling-specific patterns: Bulgarian split squat, single-leg Romanian deadlift, hip thrust, step-up, plus a press and a pull. Three to four exercises, three to four sets, six to ten reps at a load you could get another two or three reps with. If you can do 15 reps comfortably, the weight is too light. The classical research used heavy bilateral barbell work — that's what most studies in the meta-analysis prescribed — but for the 35-55 amateur audience training unsupervised with full-time jobs, the unilateral and front-loaded variants deliver the same posterior-chain and quad stimulus at far lower spinal compression and injury risk. Keep going through the season. Adaptations can be lost within six to eight weeks of stopping, but you can maintain them with as little as one session per week. Give yourself 48 hours between strength sessions and key workouts and you'll barely notice the extra load. See the should cyclists deadlift? guide for the exact substitutions.
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If you want to see the specific exercises worth building a session around, the best exercises for cyclists episode goes through the compound movements in detail. And if you're newer to strength work and wondering where to start with programming, the core strength for cyclists part 2 episode covers how to layer it into a training week without wrecking your legs before a ride.