Cycling/ Weight Training/ Leg Growth.

I

ian

New Member
Morning all,

I need some advice about cycling/ weight training/ leg growth.

For those who only have a second to read…..

I basically want to know how I can achieve good leg growth with cycling and how much I should supplement this with weights. The issue is that my legs are pretty much useless for 4 days after I squat!

For those who have time to read a bit of background….

I bought a mountain bike about two months ago.
The day I bought it I’d just done squats and tried to cycle home from the shop….. I couldn’t! Obviously I was unfit in terms of cycling (I hadn’t cycled for years), but also the fact my legs were exhausted meant I got cramp pretty much straight away.

I had two weeks SD during which time I started cycling to work.
I recommend this to everyone! I’ve got a lot fitter (I rarely do cardio these days), it’s twice a fast as a car in a congested area like mine and there’s no fuel costs/ tax etc so I’m desperate to keep it up!
I could really feel this work my legs as I was new to it and its pretty uphill on the way home so I decided to leave legs out of my routine for a while.

For those that don’t know I’m currently training old school, as in heavy weights one/ two body parts a day etc. I know you guys are pretty much all HST, but seeing as I reached my non steroidal max growth according to those calculators (for my upper body) about 5 years ago I’ve decided to train in the manner I most enjoy, which is train until I die.

I did legs on Saturday, I was quite impressed that after 2 months off squatting the weight I used only just went down, without the cycling I would normally struggle to lift anything! However, the muscle pain now ….it’s Monday and I’m pretty sure I’ll be unable to walk for the next two days never mind cycle uphill! My legs are pretty much always like this after squatting.

So does anyone have any idea how I’m going to still get decent legs growth and be able to cycle to work? Can I stop squatting? Should I only cycle for half of the week and keep up the weights?

Thanks!

Ian
 
ian, it sounds like you are doing a ton of volume on 'leg day'. I'd split that volume up over two or three sessions instead and see how that works out. Don't see why you can't keep to your cycling everyday; it doesn't sound like your cycling is the problem.
 
yeah your probably right, maybe just one lower body exercise every other workout.
Might limit the squats and do leg press, they hurt a lot less the next day!

thanks
 
ian, you might want to try to do a vanilla HST cycle and keep the squat. With HST you are using submaximal weight most of the time so it shouldn't tax so much your legs while generating hypertrophic stimula. If even the submaximal weights are too much try reducing volume.
 
electric, thanks or the post, but i'm not using HST at the moment.

As i said i reached my max gains for biceps chest back etc years ago so i've decided to train in the manner i most enjoy for a while ie old school heavy weights every session (i appreciate that this is not the best for putting on muscle, however i've tried pretty much everything since my biceps hit 17.5 inches etc, so i'm just having fun for a while).

I may have to adopt HST techniques for my lower body though (not sure what) my legs are not in proportion as of a number of injuries and my current training lends itself to being sore for days on end, meaning i can't cycle to work.
 
I used to suffer with extreme soreness, especially in my hamstrings when training less frequently, since coming back to HST and squatting every other day this is no longer a problem.
 
Hi Ian,

I cycle also but on a race bike.
I cycle around 6000 km - 7000 km per year.
I train my legs around 2 times a week but only squats. In heavy weeks its hard to train your legs the day before you cycle.
 
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