Why Strength Training Matters More Than You Think (Even Though Cycling Barely Needs It)

Cycling is a low-force sport. I'll show you the maths in a minute — and it's the reason I spent years believing strength training wasn't necessary for performance on the bike.I was wrong, and it took multiple bone fractures to change my mind.

The maths that kept me away from the weights room

Strength is the maximal force (or tension) a muscle can generate, and it can only be produced at zero velocity. The faster a movement gets, the less force you can produce (this is Hill's force-velocity relationship). Cycling requires very low forces to begin with, which compounds the problem.

Here's the proof. Winning Alpe d'Huez at the Tour de France takes around 6.5 W/kg — for a typical 65kg male pro, that's about 425W. Knowing power, cadence and crank length, you can back-calculate the actual force at the pedal. At 90rpm on 172.5mm cranks, that works out to roughly 26kg (57lb) across both legs — about 13kg per leg on average, with peak force a bit over double that.

In other words: if you weigh 65kg and you can walk up a flight of stairs, you already produce the force needed to win on the Alpe. Heavier riders need a bit more; lighter riders, less.

Since virtually anyone can produce those forces, I assumed strength work was irrelevant to cycling performance. I put it off for years.

What changed my mind

Around my 50th year, with several fractures behind me, I started strength training for my bone health — and around the same time I read more of Rønnestad's research on cycling performance. That combination changed everything.

Rønnestad and others showed four leg-specific exercises reliably improve cycling performance: the back (half) squat, single leg calf raises, single-leg press, and standing hip flexion. Done as several sets of 4–10 heavy reps, they improved not just sprint power but FTP and durability — the ability to hold power after you're already tired.

Why does low-force cycling benefit from heavy, slow lifting?

Because strength work improves cycling economy (less oxygen cost for the same power), recruits more type II muscle fibres, and — the key mechanism — means each pedal stroke uses a smaller percentage of your maximum force. Less percentage-of-max effort per stroke means less fatigue, stroke after stroke, hour after hour. That's why the benefit shows up most in durability and late-ride power, exactly when you're already tired.

To be clear: if your FTP is 250W, strength work won't turn you into a Grand Tour contender. But it will meaningfully improve how much of your power you can hold onto deep into a hard ride.

What I've seen — and what happened to me

Typical gains in riders I've worked with: roughly 20–30W on FTP, 50–100W on sprint power.

My own numbers, at 57 versus my 20s: 5-second sprint power up 150W (genuinely surprising even to me); 60-second power down 20W (ageing is real); MAP unchanged from my 20s, though it took a real block of strength work to get back there; FTP up 5–10W from when I was a Cat 1, at the same body weight.

The health case — arguably the more important one

Cycling is poor for bone health; people who cycle a lot are at increased risk of osteoporosis. The same four exercises that improve cycling performance also build bone density — they took my own osteoporosis from a T-score of −2.7 to −1.6. For a non-weight-bearing athlete, this isn't optional maintenance. It's the part of your training that keeps you riding into your 70s and beyond.

And no — heavy, low-rep training builds strength largely through neural adaptation, not bulk. You won't wake up looking like a bodybuilder.

The one downside

DOMS — delayed onset muscle soreness — the ache that turns up a day or so after unfamiliar strength work. It fades once you're training consistently.

Where to start

The four key exercises above are the core. Add some upper body work (push-ups, bench press, a weighted row, core work like the Pallof press) and some power work — box jumps are excellent, but please don't attempt them with weights until you're confident with the movement bodyweight-only. It really hurts if you miss the box, and it takes a while to feel coordinated doing them at all — I looked like a horse trying to gallop with one leg in front of the other when I started. Stick with it; it clicks eventually.

Stack your strength work onto your hardest riding day, done later the same day — this protects your easy days and concentrates the intensity, so you're not blunting endurance adaptations by lifting heavy when you should be recovering.

Strength work is one of the few genuine "several payoffs from one habit" changes available to a masters cyclist: better performance, stronger bones, and a body that holds up better as you age. It's not a cure-all, and it needs respect — start light, get the movements right, load up gradually. But the case for doing it is about as strong as evidence gets.

If you want strength work properly built into your training — coordinated with your riding, not bolted on as an afterthought — that's exactly what's included from Silver level upwards. [See the full range of coaching options →]