5 Exercises for Cyclists to Do at Home
You’ve probably thought at some point that to improve at your sport, the best thing is to train in the environment where you’ll be playing. Of course, training in the actual conditions where you’ll be competing is ideal. But you can also train in other places. Does the same go for cycling? Yes. T here are some great exercises for cyclists that you can do at home.
You can include these exercises in your workouts with the goal of complementing your training, even without the need to leave home. With that aim in mind, your house can become your training ground. You can do exercises that are especially focused on your legs, back, core, and shoulders, among other areas. The idea is to strengthen the different areas of your body that are involved in cycling.
Home exercises for cyclists
Although cycling is obviously done on a bicycle, your body requires much more than a good balance to be able to cycle. That’s why one of the most important areas to work on is your general fitness level. You can improve this by means of different exercises.
For these reasons, we’ll show you several exercises that will be of great help to you. To do these exercises, you’ll need some extra items such as an exercise mat and hand weights.
1. Squats
The benefits of squats are practically indisputable. Really, they’re an exercise that shouldn’t be missing from your workout, especially for athletes who want to work their legs. For cyclists, squats are a great option when you consider the demands of cycling on your quadriceps and hamstrings.
Doing squats improves physical capabilities such as resistance, strength and flexibility.
2. Burpees
Functional fitness training also has a place in exercises for cyclists. One of the functional training’s most faithful representatives is the burpee, which allows you to work your whole body at once.
However, you should keep in mind the fact that you can get the most benefit out of burpees only if you have the right technique. You should do this exercise the right way to prevent injuries. The areas you’ll work on stimulating with burpees are strength and anaerobic resistance, which will help you to get great results in a cycling sprint or speed race, for instance.
3. Home exercises for cyclists: box jumps
To carry out this exercise, you don’t necessarily need a box. A similar structure will do as long as it’ll support a little more than your body weight. Make sure it’s at least 50 cm tall.
Among the many exercises you can do at home, you should include some that favor the improvement of your explosive force and of your resistance. Box jumps are perfect for improving your lower body strength.
You can do this exercise with a slight pause between each jump, or do it more dynamically without pauses. The idea is to adjust the exercise to your own personal capacity.
4. Deadlifts
With regard to deadlifting, it’s recommended that you use a hand weight or a bar weight. If you don’t have either in your house, you can get inventive and use some other object or objects from around the home to do this exercise.
When you do this exercise with the right technique, it helps with strengthening the whole lower body and core. From your back muscles right down to your calf muscles, you’ll benefit from regular deadlift exercises.
Normally, deadlifting (see the first picture in this article) is directed to strengthening the quadriceps, hamstrings, and those related to the core such as the glutes, lats, and traps, among others. However, deadlifts will help you improve the strength of your entire body.
5. Planks
Among the many great exercises for cyclists to do at home, we have to include at least one isometric exercise or static strength training exercise. So here in our list, we’ve included one of the most complex and complete exercises around – the plank.
This exercise is based on strengthening the core of the body, as a 2017 study indicates. This exercise should be included in any athlete’s training program.
The muscles that benefit the most from a plank are the rectus abdominis (abs), the obliques (muscles on the sides of your abdomen), erector spinae (muscles in your lower back), and glutes. When you work out this area, your pedaling rate and power will dramatically improve. A stronger core through planking will also help to prevent many different types of injuries.
Exercises for cyclists at home: remember to have a plan
There are many different exercises for cyclists that serve to increase their performance before a competition, or that focus on strengthening their general fitness level, as well as specific areas of the body. However, you should consider making a definite plan to be able to obtain the results you want.
Planned sports training, not just in cycling, is useful because it takes into account different areas, such as training sessions, rest, and diet, as well as the appropriate loads and intensity for you. Just because you’re training at home, it doesn’t mean you should forget about these other areas.
If it’s not possible for you to use a trainer to constantly supervise your workouts and make sure you’re doing the exercises correctly, you’ll need to have a greater level of commitment, and a higher level of self-discipline. If you work from this premise, you’ll be able to reach your goals more easily.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Aparecido De Mesquita, M., De Santana, L., Antônio, L., Campos, S., & Campos, D. R. (2008). Isometria: teoria e aplicabilidade nos treinamentos de forca. Coleção Pesquisa Em Educação Física.
- Atkinson, G., Davidson, R., Jeukendrup, A., & Passfield, L. (2003). Ciencia y ciclismo: conocimientos actuales y lineamientos futuros para la investigación. PubliCE Premium; Journal of Sports Sciences.
- Heredia, J.R.; Chulvi, I; Ramón, M. (2006). CORE: Entrenamiento de la zona media. EFdeportes.ComISSN.
