how does one know they lack upper body strength in the first place?
and how important is it for riding a bike?

i fear this is merely a ploy to look buff on the beach.
perhaps we should just accept our body type (somatotype) and accept – some of us are destined to have sand kicked in our faces and others are destined to do the kicking. 🙂

Over the last 13 months, I’ve lost a LOT of upper body strength – well, muscle all over, really.

You really can tell on the bike – it’s heaver and more of a burden to “force” into a position. I’ve almost had to re-learn how to ride my bike properly and become a lot more flowy. It’s weird but, if you have strength, you don’t realise you are using it till it’s not there.

Having said all that, having to learn how to get the bike to do all the work for me and not forcing it all the time has, I think, made me a much better rider.

Rachel

how does one know they lack upper body strength in the first place?
and how important is it for riding a bike?

1. Lift something heavy.

2. Very important (core strength).

HTH.

Yeah, I didn’t realise how much upper body comes into it until I started using rollers this year. The exaggerated level of balancing required is a surprising workout.

I can feel my obliques, lats, delts and traps after a roller session.

So… I’d guess some upper body conditioning can only help, if only to offset fatigue and reduce mistakes.

And that there is the perfect illustration of a weak core. I get none of those muscle groups tiring in a roller session.

And that there is the perfect illustration of a weak core. I get none of those muscle groups tiring in a roller session

A perfect example of someone who’s coming back from a layoff from shoulder injury too.

And… you’re confusing strength with endurance again.

I’ve no idea what the upper body strength requirements for cycling are, but as nothing ever aches in the upper half from cycling, I guess the puny strength I’ve got suffices.

I think it is important for longer rides. I can compare how I felt after a 4 hour road ride before I started to do some weights at the gym and after couple of months of getting back in shape. My arms especially would be aching. I’m no six pack material however thanks to doing free weights I can now ride longer without feeling as broken as before. You don’t need to look buff and have Your six pack on show it’s just better to not have Hoy tights and chest/arms of a teenager 😉

Ride singlespeed and/or rigid forked for a good upper body workout. My arms and shoulders feel far less used when I ride my road bike.

This bloke seemed to manage ok 🙂

I think it is more noticable on technical terrain, on an uplift day I will be increasing speed each run while my weaker, but much fitter friends will be slowing down due to fatigue.

I remember the first time I saw that picture Iain, he looks like a refugee from Belsen 😕

This bloke seemed to manage ok

Yes, no getting away from it. The podium is always full of people who look on the brink of death.

Tthose superskinny pros still have a reasonable core endurance Also, the climbers and GC contenders will race at a dangerously low weight for one grand tour only a year. Not really recommended without constant medical supervision…

It’s down to slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle. Fast-twitch muscle grows, slow-twitch gets more efficient.

So big blokes with lots of fast-twitch muscle will be much stronger than the skinny slow-twitcher but will pump and run out of steam in a matter of seconds.

The skinny fellas, while not strong in an absolute sense, will be stronger than they look and have good power-to-weight and will keep going forever.

Which is actually what I think SbZ keeps referring to. Slow twitch will be a lot more useful for most types of cycling.

^^^ The skinny pros look completely different after the race season finishes. He could probably dish out some pain on a bike but he does not look healthy.

However here:

welcome to the gun show 😉

Re the lower-back/discs. Genuine question: how?

Cipo *swooon*

He wasn’t exactly known for going up hills or finishing a grand tour though

How much upper body strength you need depends on the discipline you intend to do.

Look at the BMX racers, the track guys, the sprinters, the dirt jumpers, the downhillers… they are all pretty well built.

hora – Member

Re the lower-back/discs. Genuine question: how?

Wrong thread hora.

I’ve never found my upperbody strength lacking. Visually it could probably look more ‘buff’ but thats different to strength. Its awesome for that

ON the bike I think its more CORE strength.

Even grip is more about technique/core.

The only thing I can think of is lats-strengthening those.

Have you seen some riders on bike vids? Some look like the nerds at school.

What is this “Core strength” people mention?

What is this “Core strength” people mention?

It’s all the stabilizing muscles. When someone says they’ve got muscles hurting in places they didn’t know they had… it’s those (not the big obvious ones likes legs and arms).

It’s all the stabilizing muscles

Ta, calling it “core” is what has been confusing me.

Core strength refers to both upper and lower abdominal muscle.
In the saddle I imagine the lower ones get worked.
Out of the saddle and moving the bicycle side to side the upper ones get used as well.
I would have thought prolonged out of the saddle cycling to be bad form but whatever works for you!

How much upper body strength you need depends on the discipline you intend to do.

Look at the BMX racers, the track guys, the sprinters, the dirt jumpers, the downhillers… they are all pretty well built.
Don’t they just take up those sports because they are too fat for endurance events though ?

Did you know Liam Killeen was getting injured loads a while back. he didn’t have a very good core to support his powerful muscles

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7yTIHUBpb8[/video]

On a very basic level there are two main types of muscle movers and stabilisers. The movers are on the surface and the stabilisers are in the core.

As for the doing your disks in its all to do with the biomechanics of how your spine works. It’s not the best possible design in that certain movements put all the force through the one place. Think of the disc like an onion – each time you load your disc in that one certain way you break a layer of the onion, do it enough times and you create a channel that alloys the the stuff in the middle to get to the outside and start pressing on nerves.

No idea, but if you ride regualrly enough surely it ballances out.

I started riding SS as a new years resolution and despite being on a calorie controlled (no net loss) high protein (1.5g/kg) per day diet I’ve not lost any significant weight (no suprise there) I’ve lost some upper body muscle (and bizzarely in my claves, probably as I’ve started to really drop my heals so the muscle is completely relaxed rather than being more level/droped) and gained a lot of muscle in my upper legs.

Come the summer It’ll probably go back up to my arms as I do more dirt jumping/pising about.

Don’t they just take up those sports because they are too fat for endurance events though ?

Fat lad done good:

I had back pain problems when I started riding again due to a lack of core strength combined with a lack of (particularly hamstring) flexibility. Regarding upper body strength I think you need enough for the riding you do – so if you pump/jump/sprint/DH/freeride you’ll need a lot more than if you ride XC (and too much strength will slow you down at the latter due to the excess weight).

an endurance cyclist would be similar to the distance runner on the chart. a bmx rider towards the centre line of mesomorph.

I always associated core with abdominal rather than stabilising.

Most noticeable example of stabilising for me was when I went horseriding. Did 3 hours. No problem, thought I, I’ve done plenty of rides 2 and even three times as long as that. Thing is it isn’t about turning pedals it’s about balance. I couldn’t walk properly for a couple of days. I have strong legs but they only go up and down, take me off a bike and I struggle.

I’ve also been told that people who suffer from sore backs often lack core abdominal strength. Working on this helped me stop getting an aching back on long rides (which only started aching when I stopped kayaking regularly).

mudsux – Member

“how does one know they lack upper body strength in the first place?
and how important is it for riding a bike?”

When my big bike’s built up with its dual plies etc I’d struggle to get it on a roofrack- which is both diagnosis and problem at the same time

It does depend on your riding I think, people do confuse strength and endurance but it’s not that simple, if you have low strength you end up working harder for the same results which saps your endurance faster. For typical UK XC stuff my legs always wear out before my arms, but give me an uplift day or (aargh) a push up day and it’s the upper arms that go.

So I’ve been working on that a bit, and it does make a noticable difference even for the simpler XC stuff, a little extra strength goes a long way when it comes to controlling a bike i think. But I still don’t think the effort it’s taken would be worthwhile for the results I’ve got, if I was only doing sort of low-end XC, reds and blacks and such.

Then again I ride bikes for fun despite the horrible exercise, my perspective’s not the same as people who appreciate the fitness element I’m sure.

I’ve thought for some time that many roadies have a Tyrannosaurus Rex as their body ideal.
I think they feel their arms are an aerodynamic inconvenience.

how does one know they lack upper body strength in the first place?

simple bodyweight exercises like how many chin ups and how many press ups will give a rough idea of your strength to weight ratio.

and how important is it for riding a bike?

it will certainly make manouvering the bike over obstacles easier and less tiring especially on technical climbs. It depends what sort of riding you do and how you want to do it really.

Kev

My physio said that if a fit healthy male can’t do 27 push-ups he is probably lacking upper body strength.

what if he can only do 26?

Best get down the gym then. The strength required for the 27th push up, may be the difference between 1st and 2nd place on that sprint to the finish line!

I have an ectomorph’s chest and arms, and an endomorph’s middle. I can manage only about 10 proper press-ups before I start to lose form. But generally I only get achy hands and arms from braking a lot. Leg and back muscles take a hammering on rough trails.