[Closed] Leg training to build stamina

Swap your legs on each ride (or during the ride).

I'm left foot forward naturally, but on all but the most techinical I'm trying to swap to right foot forward for 50% of the time. It helps with musculature (fatigue) and frankly it's saved me from OTBs a few times because I'm now more comfortable on both feet 🙂

Wall sits apparently.

Dunno about the exercises, but can you do more long hilly rides?

I've been doing loads this month and my legs are feeling stronger than they have for ages.

Stop over thinking, ride your bike more and mix up the types of rides.

Running?

I’m not overthinking - I’ve got limited riding time available (because job / wife / 4 year old / non-trail dog)but can fit in a 45 home workout reasonably easily if I get up at 6am to get it done before work. So I can throw fitness training at the problem if it’ll help.

In terms of longer hillier rides most have been over 800m of climbing and between 25-40km on the mtb over the last lockdown. I’m happy my climbing fitness is progressing, it’s more the pumping / impact stamina that seems to be lacking. In the recent case this was the final Twrch descent at Cwmcarn after riding Cafell first and Twrch second.

Maybe I’ll try right foot forward a bit mixed with my usual left foot forward and see what occurs. At the least it might help sometimes when you end up with the wrong foot forward as you leave a pedally bit of trail and hit a technical bit.

I found strengthening my glutes has made the biggest difference to my riding, running, back pain, and general mobility. Side leg raises, clams etc.

Find Jeff Cavalieres Athlean X YouTube channel and watch some of his videos and read some of the comments for megalols.

I've been in this situation a few times, mainly due to injury, and am in it again after a winter on Zwift. A ride a few days ago round W2 at Afan left my legs destroyed from the constant compressions but as soon as the terrain flattened out I could easily pedal with plenty of power again. Basically my fitness is fine but the lack of riding on rough, long rides has meant my stamina over rough terrain has pretty much gone.

I've always got that stamina back by a combination of three things: days at bike parks, leg strength exercises at the gym and getting in a decent amount of longer, rough rides. Doing the Cafall and Twrch is actually one of them as it's my local, it's not as rough as W2 at Afan or as long but a good one to hit hard.

I’ve always found jumping style exercises really hard in general – and on my lower back due to bulged discs in the past. Maybe it’s this weakness in dynamic movements I’m finding?

Make sure your core is strong. That may be tough for you with your back issues but a strong core takes a lot of the stress off your legs for dynamic movement leading to less fatigue. Might be worth seeing a personal trainer for a session and getting some specific exercises that you can do to build this area up. I struggle with upper body exercises like pull-ups and free weights due to an old shoulder injury (blew the right socket so it's unstable) that means that certain movements can make it susceptible to pop out. A PT spotted me at the gym having issues and gave me some small exercises to do that have helped massively with the issue.

It may be your legs that are hurting but that may be due to them making up for weaknesses in other areas.

Thanks for the comments - will bang some wall sits into the session - remember those from many years ago now they’re mentioned.

Core wise I periodically do a load of glute bridges that a physio previously told me was the single best exercise I could do to support my lower back via the core. I should keep these up all the time but they’re boring / not that pleasant. But need to suck it up and get on with them - will add that to my leg day.

I totally agree the issue is partly I just haven’t ridden anything as long / fast / “compressionny” for a long while. Cwmcarn is about an hour away from me in Bristol so it’s probably the closest test of that particular fitness element.

Probably a PT session would be worth doing - I might see who is around locally where you don’t have to go into a gym. I’ve got a coaching session on the mtb I need to Re-book at FOD because it got postponed before Christmas due to Covid tiers / lockdowns.

I’ve got a right shoulder weakness but doesn’t sound as bad as yours. Dislocated it a few times and I had surgery to reattach ligaments to the bone but don’t fully trust it. We’re all broken in some / many ways!

Find Jeff Cavalieres Athlean X YouTube channel and watch some of his videos and read some of the comments for megalols.

Me: peels a banana with my hands
Jeff: wrong! Engage your core!

Squats and deadlifts got my legs feeling stronger and helped for riding, did 30miles and 6500ft of climbing at Cwmcarn recently and it was my arms going towards the end of the long rough descents.

This was my first attempt at a leg workout last week - planning the next tomorrow. Going to add in wall sits and glute bridges 100%. I’m a bit nervous of deadlifts as that’s what actually caused my lower back bulging. I thought my form was ok but either I slightly slipped into bad form or just the 150kgs I was deadlifting (for 5 reps) was too much for my body at the time 🤷‍♂️

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Weights is a great way to do this, front and back curls, squats, front squats, deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, calf raises. Find a program for strength and stamina, not gains.
I do legs twice a week, and switch, so Squats will be 3x5 sets - ie a heavy weight, then do front squats at 3x 15 so a lighter weight. Then swap next session. etc..
I love the romainian dead lift, makes your glutes work hard.
If your going to do that, do an upper body program too otherwise you will look weird..

Haha, I think I’m good on the upper body side of things - nothing huge but 42” chest / 15” biceps / reasonable back etc. Tend to fit in one upper weights session a week as I’m not looking to grow but just keep my strength reasonable.

Gawd damn I hate gym/weights/exercise for exercise's sake.

What that means is that sat at my desk all day is making me a physical wreck 🙁

I suffer from this and I find that whilst strengthening in the gym does help (particularly unilateral lower body exercises & plyos), time on the bike supplemented with a pretty strict hip/quad/hamstring/lower back mobility and stretching regime is what really help me.

I had the issue when I could squat 190kg+ and I still have it now (and I barely squat regularly at all now). Its really annoying on long descents - particularly bike park style trails where there is minimal pedaling and lots of pumping/dynamic semi-squat movements required.

Doesn't bother me at all running or on the road bike.

A good one for general core and glutes/hip flexors is monsterwalk and crab walk with a power band.
Crab walk https://www.menshealth.com/uk/fitness/a753007/resistance-band-crab-walk/
Monster

Great to do a couple of reps waiting for the kettle to boil

I might need to get one of those band things. I’ve got some much bigger / thicker ones for assisted wise grip pull-ups but they’re too long.

Did a similar workout to above yesterday but for some reason it hurts even more than the workout last week - maybe because the day before had been a horrible long sweet spot interval day on the turbo.

Definitely feel like I’ve brutalised my legs / glutes with that leg training!

Meant to be a rest day either today or tomorrow - tempted to go swimming later at lunchtime to release some work stress and just loosen myself off. Then do literally no exercise of any description tomorrow.

Agreed with Romanian deadlifts. Absolutely awful things but definitely help with the muscle groups you want to target.

Ok, I’ve not done Romanian deadlifts before. Always nervous of actual deadlifts because of the bulged lower discs in my back. Might start with a light weight and try to keep form perfect and see how my back responds to that.

I’m struggling up and down stairs today 🤣

Have a go at barbell hack squats, they are like a hybrid squat/deadlift similar to trap bar deadlifts and put far less strain on your lower back.

Yep - romanian sdeadlifts are good, and single leg RDLs are good if you want to target just the one side. Then of course you've got your Bulgarian split lunges and farmers walks etc. Lots to choose from.

Skipping.

equipment is easy to store, and doesn't cost a bomb. Neither is it pretentious.

I quite like the Bulgarian split squats with a foot on a bench. They feel like they’re mashing you up good and proper - plus some balance needed so must be good for many muscles.

That hack squat / deadlift looks horribly awkward. Will have to give it a go and see whether I can make it work 🤔

Skipping - not sure on that one. I can do it and have done it for circuits before but the constant up and down impacts don’t do me a huge amount of good.

1min of fast hops (on one leg of course). Don't go for full extension - keep the leg bent and body bent over a bit. Make sure its done fast Plyometrics style (boing boing boing). Keep the tension. Increasing speed or bend angle makes things a lot harder very quickly.

A few sets on each leg while watching telly.

@earl

I like the hop idea - simple but probably effective. Will try it and see how my lower back like it. Might mash me up like skipping but you don’t know until you try.

If you stand tall and lock the knee out your back will hate you.

Use your ankle, knee and hips flex to take the shock.

Hoping is proper proper hard as a adult.

Always nervous of actual deadlifts because of the bulged lower discs in my back. Might start with a light weight and try to keep form perfect and see how my back responds to that.

Definitely this. Just use the bar on its own initially to get the shape of your back right. I’ve prolapse a disc in my back twice (don’t think I have a permanent bulge) and my back has got better for it. Keep up the volume rather than the weight (which is better for our type of biking anyway).

After 2 sessions in I think I’m already feeling the benefit. Did 46km on the hardtail yesterday - some road to / from the trails - plus 25 laps of the pump track under the Cumberland basin in Bristol before riding Ashton Court / 50 Acre Wood / Leigh Woods trail centre then down a few off piste trails to the bottom path to start making the way home.

Especially the pump track would have been hard on legs but felt strong / fit round there - and sped up as I went - even doubling some of the little rollers.

Going to keep plugging away at my legs once a week in the gym - will try the hopping thing next time + some wall sits just to mix it up a big. I think the single leg split squats are ace so will keep those plus normal squats. Maybe swap out the lunges on the next one.

Core. It takes almost no equipment, it just works and locks you onto the bike so much better and the new power you can engage when climbing is awesome.
The change in performance will take a while to be noticed which makes it less fun to do as an exercise.

Core is on the list - I did biceps and back training this morning which included glute bridges (I think that’s what they’re called) - hits the stomach and bum. I feel properly mashed up now from yesterday / today. Going to take it easy and swim tomorrow for less impact - probably about a mile if I can fit that in around work etc.

I took a picture mid way through May of my legs and compared it to today after my leg sessions and the changes are surprisingly big already. Feeling stronger on the bike, plus running a calorie deficit diet I’ve lost 8lbs in about a month. I smashed down Twrch recently and felt a lot stronger but still some improvement - lower back struggled a bit.

I think my weak spot now is definitely my lower back so need to build the core more to support it. Glute bridges in every leg workout which should help - doing them at the end of each leg workout feels really horrible.

I do enjoy reading these exercise threads and getting ideas for exercises I might do. Not doing weights myself, just aiming to be less sedentary while WFH at the PC.

One thing I've noticed through various 1 legged exercises involving balance, as well as yoga moves involving balance (warrior/lunge etc), I find it more difficult to balance on my right leg than my left, but my right leg is my strong/lead foot on the bike. Anyone else notice this too?

Singlespeed? Cheap & easy (just leave your bike in a ~2:1 gear) and it works.

I’ve no desire to use a singlespeed for anything - I like my gears!

On the one leg thing I did some reverse squats I’d seen some fitness hottie on Instagram doing this morning - I did find I had better balance on my left leg.

I’m right footed with football and my right leg is marginally the more muscular but it was harder to keep nicely balanced on it (it’s my trailing leg on the bike and the one that was struggling more when I started this whole thread). Who knows what the answer is 🤷‍♂️

Take a look a The Strength factory videos. Ben has loads of videos full of top tips. Top tip stand up when you go up hill, worked a treat for me. I’ve been doing his home body weight plan and it’s worked well for me, very simple and costs just under £20. He also offers more in-depth training programs but that ones fine for me.

It’s certainly not cheap or easy but lots of fun. This has improved my leg strength and stamina.

Apologies for the crap video but you get the gist.

Especially when you notice she’s being towed whilst holding her brake on. 🙃

Build in a couple of core exercise into every session you do to help your back eg planks, deadbugs.

Have you tried hill sprints on the bike or some HIIT on an exercise bike, I used to do a 12 minute HIIT session on the the MATRIX machine at Puregym: 5 minute warm up, find my coasting level, normally coast on level 8, after 30 seconds ramp up the RPM and at the same time ramp up the level all the way to 30 off the saddle and try and maintain your best RPM for 30 seconds, on completion ramp down for one minute and go again until you`ve done 8 reps.

Back pain? Watch this first.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gvCLoR_349M&t=249s

When Jeff enters the Gym:

All the equipment start warming up

That video is interesting for sure - I’ll chuck that action with an empty barbell into my next leg session just to concentrate on the mechanics of it. Not sure that’s going to fix my back but it’s a useful drill I think.