Gain strength/power/muscle mass without becoming a fatty...

[E65Ross]

Ideally want to increase muscle mass and power, but don't want to have it all go to my belly. As many of you know, I'm very light, just 8st 6-7lbs and 5ft6 or so, I wouldn't mind putting on a few lbs, but I'd like to do it in the right places, and not my gut.

Any specific dietary ways of doing this....increase protein intake with training, or just general caloric intake alongside training? I'm never going to be a 1000+W power house, but I'd just like a bit higher power output if I can

[nammynake]

I think the general consensus is that building muscle is only really a benefit for very short high-power efforts such as track sprinting. Those guys incorporate a lot of weight lifting into their training. As far as I know it provides limited benefit for 'normal' riding, which is almost entirely cardiovascular and not muscular effort.

I certainly don't think it'll do any harm, but unless you're training specifically to increase your short-term (<1 minute say) power I don't see what benefit you'll get, especially when you could be using the time to do more effective training. You may also find it very difficult to build muscle mass if you're natural physique is so slight. I'm relatively light at 63kg and find it difficult to build and maintain any significant muscle mass.

[TwistingMyMelon]

As above doing weights etc is only good for short power outputs etc

Riding fixed bike is a good start

5x5 workouts with weights and high protein diet will help build you up a bit, but limited benefit on the bike

I'm 5"7 and 10.5 stone, I do weights through winter as I get skinnier through summer from riding, don't really help with cycling but tones the upper body and keeps strength up as I find when I cycle loads I lose upper body strength simply as it doesn't get used much

Kettlebell workouts are good as they build your core

I've found that whilst kettlebell workouts and dumbells don't directly help cycling they do help build muscles that can help stabilise and assist cycling muscles if that makes sense

You can take the Cavendish approach in that as you are smaller and lighter you don't need huge amounts of power to drive you forward

[MurderousCrow]

Some thoughts:

- weight training is essentially universally beneficial - if it's well planned, well coached and well executed, with correct attention to the main recovery modalities
- many people experience rapid initial gains in their chosen sport or activity *simply from learning correct neuromuscular activation* (no extra muscle mass required)
- its benefits are multiple: google for days
- you're at the lighter end of the scale in relation to your height, which means you have a fair bit of wiggle room for lean gains before power to weight issues start to adversely affect your performance on the bike
- an intelligent and considered dietary approach will allow muscular growth, while minimising non-lean weight gain. Such an approach will be flexible, and will be able to address any such non-lean gains in short order and without too much fuss

In short, do the research, find a good athletic training facility, and pay for quality coaching. Try and find coaches with degree-level quals, and experience in coaching athletes. They should be able to describe exactly how they plan to address your needs for cardiovascular conditioning, power, strength and mobility.

Hope that helps

Luke

P.S. anything by Pavel is good. But it cannot replace coaching: books can work very well once correct movement has been acquired.

[MurderousCrow]

Should have said 'resistance training' in place of weight training. And should have been clearer that the kind of training I'm referring to would revolve around fundamental compound movements such as squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press, barbell row, pullups, dips, cleans, snatches etc…

[SVS]

A quick search on Amazon shows there a several books on this, e.g. Weight Training for Cyclists.

[E65Ross]

Thank you everybody, much appreciated!