Training your body to be at its best when it comes to cycling can be achieved through a combination of targeted exercises.
Since cycling requires each leg to be strong on its own and a strong core to handle your bike, you can focus on exercises that will address these needs.
What’s important for these exercises is to simulate the motion of your lower and upper body to get the maximum effect. If you don’t have to practice these in a gym, this is just the place for you, as we’ll teach you how to best train your cycling muscles from home.
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Planks Strengthen Your Core
Probably the simplest exercise out there is also the top-dog when it comes to increasing your core strength.
You can do planks just about anywhere and they will strengthen your shoulder muscles, lower back muscles, and abdomen, while the rest of your body will benefit too.
If you find it too easy, put one leg in the air and it will put more pressure on your lower back.
Go with 4-5 rounds of 60-second planks, or half that time if you find it too difficult. Once you get the hang of it, you can go up the round time to 90 seconds.
What are Core Exercises Good for?
Your CORE is essentially all the muscles in the trunk of your body. How to work out your Core? What is the best Core exercise? Here are the reasons why it’s Important to work your entire Core.
Burpees Affect Your Entire Body
When you do a burpee, you’ll basically involve every major muscle to perform the entire move. This can be very effective, especially if you perform them in an explosive manner. They will strengthen your arms, legs, and greatly improve your posture.
If you want a more intensive training out of them, you can add a pushup in between and a jump at the end. Do about 15-20 burpees per round, with 4-5 rounds in total.
When it comes to body weight exercises, burpees are on the top of every list.
Suspension Trainer – Push Ups
Suspension training is probably the most effective way to increase overall strength in your entire body.
The reason for this is because suspension training will require you to stabilize and balance your body while it’s moving.
Doing TRX push-ups will ensure that you have a better control of your body, while also allowing you to transfer power from the upper body to your legs at an increased intensity.
While practicing push-ups on a TRX, you can easily slide backward if you want them to be a harder, or move forward if you’re looking for an easier time.
7 Benefits of TRX Training – TRX full-body workouts
One of the key TRX’s benefits is that you are able to complete endless number of exercises with a single training tool. TRX Suspension Trainer delivers a total-body workout.
Suspension Trainer – Hip Hinges
As previously stated, riding bicycles will require your legs to be strong individually, which is exactly why this exercise is great for you. Your muscles will be forced to keep you stable while you’re supporting your whole body on a single leg.
This is very important as pedal strokes have to be stable or you’re wasting energy, thus putting unnecessary strain on your knees, ankles, and hips.
When it comes to the count, you can do hip hinges for 120 seconds for each leg, and repeat it in 4-5 series.
🎁 How to apply the TRX Training Discount Code
Lunges
Lunges are great for cycling for the very same reason as hip hinges – they put pressure on one leg at a time. They will strengthen your quadriceps, hamstrings, and hips all while being fairly easy to do.
For more difficulty, you can do them while holding dumbbells or any other weight that you find fitting. Make sure that you’re keeping the torso stable during the back and forth movement phases and also that your knee never goes beyond the leading leg.
Aim for 20-30 repetitions per round, with 4-5 rounds.
Conclusion
Cycling can be extremely time consuming and not everyone can afford the time to cycle every day for a set amount of time.
Which is why it’s important to keep your body in shape through a set of exercises that you can perform at home, all of which will strengthen your body for cycling and keep it in perfect form.
It’s an easy way to stay healthy while targeting all the muscles that you’ll need for your cycling sessions. By doing the exercises we described here you’ll make sure to have an easier time every time you sit on your bike and go out for a ride.