On this edition the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast we have an interesting chat with our cycling coach Devlin Eyden about how to strengthen yourself for your bike training sessions, when you are off the bike.  He gives us insightful information of sessions that will assist in strength training whether you join a group or a gym or if you implement the regime at home.

Transcript

Brad Brown:         You’re listening to the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast, my name is Brad Brown and we’ve got our cycling coach, Devlin Eyden with us once again.

Devlin, fantastic question and funnily enough, this is one that pops up so often on our sister podcast, the running one and it’s got to do with strength training and this person wants to know, is there something that they can do off the bike that’ll get them stronger on the bike, for instance gym, could they be doing yoga, could they be doing Pilates, what’s the best strength training regime to improve yourself as a cyclist?

Devlin Eyden:      This is a great question and it is something that’s vital to improve your cycling. The strength training off the bike, I’m a big advocate of doing Pilates. Pilates is brilliant for your flexibility, firstly, so that’s going to also just help out with potential stiffness and injury on the bike, in terms of the core training and just as your overall stability and mobility of your joints as well. For me, Pilates is definitely a great option. If Pilates isn’t always an option, the gym training is also going to be quite key.

In saying that, it is important to be working with someone or at least have someone set up a correct program and work one or two sessions with you in terms of making sure that your technique is sufficiently good enough for you to avoid any possible injuries in the gym. Especially when we start talking things like doing squats and doing some of the Olympic lifts and that sort of thing, it is important to keep in mind technique is always going to be vital and the last thing you want to do is obviously injure yourself in the gym and it sees you not being able to ride your bike for a period of time.

Always look at getting some professional advice in terms of setting up the program and the actual correct technique to build on and then if gym again is not always an option, doing certain exercises and body weight kind of exercises that are vital for what you’re trying to achieve, can be done at home with various home equipment, in terms of stability, balls, and that kind of thing. Again, my suggestion is, get a program set up for the phase of training you’re in and the actual goal that you’re trying to achieve.

BB:         Absolutely. If you’re looking for a training program, as Devlin mentioned, you can head over to coachparry.com, just click on the navigation bar at the top and you’ll be able to access training coaching packages, tailor made for you, by our cycling coach, go check it out, coachparry.com is where you can get all the details.

Until next time, from the two of us here on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling

podcast, it’s cheers.