Amazing Way To Cycle Your Way To Better Performance!

As mentioned in last month's edition of Northern Insight, the Amazing 12 (Building Better Bodies) Programme impacts on far more than just what occurs in the gym, as Phil Earley explains.

This month’s article has a focus on the popular sport of Cycling. At first glance one would be forgiven for thinking the headline means that to improve cycling performance, simply cycle more! However, I refer to ‘cycling’ specialised strength training, alongside the endurance work ‘in the saddle’ if you wish to attain new levels of cycling performance. I stress specialised programming and that requires many years of experience.

A recent study of elite Danish national team cyclists showed that doing concurrent strength training with regular cycling training resulted in superior 5-minute and 45-minute time trial performance, as well as a loss of body fat! That’s a win-win as I will expand upon below and the great news is you do not need to be an elite athlete to reap the rewards of specialised strength training! Neil, aged 50, recently completed our Amazing 12 Programme and reported hitting surprising new PBs as a very experienced and committed cycling enthusiast: “Before the A12 training I was 12st 5lbs and 16% body fat, after nine weeks I was 12st 10lbs and 14.8% body fat and most of this gain appeared to be in my upper body. “The surprise to me was that I was approximately 11% quicker up hills, sitting much longer in the saddle, pushing bigger gears and all with seemingly no extra effort. “I thought, as a fairly committed cyclist that my legs were in pretty good shape, lean and hard, but with the Amazing 12 they became solid, denser and more defined. “My motivation with the A12 was to become overall a bit stronger, the cycling performance was just a happy accident. “If your only motivation is to improve your cycling, I tend to think that this programme would be spectacularly successful! ” READ ON!

The study looked at two groups, the first simply continued their endurance cycling programme and the second group did regular cycling training and weight training using a periodized programme. The group who did only the endurance cycle training gained no strength and no improvement in time trial performance and lost only 0.8% body fat. The second group (with integrated strength training) lost 2% body fat, increased quadriceps strength by 12% and improved 45-minute time trial performance by 8%. They also increased lean body mass (key to any fat loss goal) by 2kgs without any increased size of quadriceps (major thigh muscles) or overall weight gain. Here is the ‘win-win’ mentioned earlier – the group with the integrated strength programme improved performance through increased peak power and a new ability to maintain a higher work rate for longer without gaining weight but still losing pounds of body fat! This is a very important consideration for those more keenly involved in cycling, triathlons and other sporting disciplines where ‘gaining’ weight could conceivably slow them down and impair performance. For anyone whose main goal is fat loss, the take home message is to favour weights and shorter, higher intensity cardio over endurance which can actually eat away at healthy lean muscle over a long period. It is very rare to find a programme that can deliver such varied goal results, it is even more rare to find one that can deliver all this in 84 days. We give people that opportunity. And we’d love to hear from you to discuss your needs whether they are feeling or looking better, or improving your sports activities.