Cycling not only requires regularly going out on your bike to improve your endurance and physical condition. It also requires strong muscles and joints to increase your pedaling power, overcome tough climbs, improve your bike handling skills, and sprint to make a difference. There are still cyclists who mistakenly believe that to improve fitness, you should mainly focus on training only on the bike and strengthening your legs with extra static exercises. Nothing could be further from the truth. Exercising your hips, core, back, and arms is also part of that fitness improvement process and can make a difference in any ride, carrera or outing with your usual group of friends. For this, we present ten strength exercises to become a better cyclist that you can easily do at home, with just a simple mat and a pair of dumbbells or weights. Dedicating 30 minutes to an hour to do these exercises on your rest days between rides will help you strengthen your muscles and reduce fatigue when pedaling.

Lunges

Let's start with some exercises to strengthen the leg muscles, such as lunges. Start by stepping forward with your left leg and at the same time bending your right knee until it almost touches the ground. Then, move your left leg back to return to the starting position and do the next repetition switching legs. You can introduce variations to this exercise week by week, such as doing reverse lunges, crossing the leg that stays behind, or adding extra weight by holding two dumbbells in both hands. Remember to always keep your balance with your back completely straight.

Squats

A classic exercise to strengthen glutes, quadriceps, or knee tendons. It consists of squatting down, keeping your knees bent to work the muscles in the area, and then returning to the initial upright position. Just like lunges, there are many squat variations you can include in your routines: with a dumbbell or kettlebell, single-leg squats, wide-stance squats, jump squats... Start with sets of 10 repetitions and 20 seconds of rest and add more reps and less rest between sets each week as you master them.

Calf Raises

Once we have worked the thighs and glutes, it's time to do the same with the other half of the leg, mainly knees and calves. The simplest and most effective exercise consists of lightly leaning against a wall, keeping yourself straight and parallel to it, and slowly lifting your heels, standing on tiptoe. Start with sets of 10 repetitions and vary the exercise as the days go by. Do the lift with your feet turned outward, then inward, lifting only one leg, then the other. You can also strengthen your calves by doing squats with a dumbbell or kettlebell in each hand.

Planks

We move on to the superior area, with strength exercises for the abs and core, which are responsible for giving you stability and balance on the bike. Start with 30-second planks and 30 seconds of rest and gradually increase their duration little by little, without overdoing it. Also, introduce variations, such as side planks or alternating with only one foot or hand for support.

Russian twist

It is an exercise that has a more complicated technique than the previous ones, but it is very effective for aspects such as your posture on the bike or the flexibility of your abs or core. Sit on the floor and slightly raise your legs, supporting yourself only with your glutes and leaning your back back a little. In this position, rotate your torso from side to side with your arms extended and intertwined. You can increase the difficulty of the exercise by holding a weight in your hands while doing the twists.

Burpees

One of the most complete and common strength exercises in any cardio or high-intensity training routine. It combines jumping and chest and arm push-ups, working both the core and the legs. It is a perfect exercise to burn calories and strengthen your muscles at the same time. We recommend starting with 2 or 3 short sets of 8 or 10 burpees, with rests of between 10 and 15 seconds between them.

Push-ups

The classic push-ups or push-ups are a very suitable exercise to complement our cycling training, both for road cycling and mountain biking. This is a sport that traditionally has not given much importance to arm strength, but arms are an important part of our body that are involved in handling and controlling the bike, especially for descending or completing a descent and braking. With push-ups we will strengthen the entire superior area: abs, chest, superior part of the back, shoulders and arms. It is a high-intensity exercise and requires good technique to get the most benefit. Start by doing sets of 8 or 10 repetitions, with 20-30 seconds of rest between them. There are many types of push-ups you can do: with arms wider apart (strengthens the chest more), closer together (arms), hover (shoulders), pike (shoulders and back), etc.

Biceps curl

We move on to the arms with a very well-known, simple, and effective exercise. We can do it with a dumbbell or weight, performing the set with one arm and then continuing immediately with the other, or contracting both at the same time with a weight in each hand. To correctly perform the curl For biceps, you must keep your elbows close to your torso and your shoulders down at all times, so that the contraction is effective.

Farmer's Walk

This curious name refers to one of the simplest but most effective arm exercises to strengthen all the muscles in the arm, especially the forearms. It consists of picking up weight with both arms, as if you were carrying grocery bags, whether it's dumbbells, plates, kettlebells, or other heavy everyday objects, such as two water jugs. Once we have weight in both hands, we keep our arms in a neutral position downwards and begin to walk with them. We can start with a 1-minute farmer's walk and gradually increase the duration and weight as we master it.

Back Extensions

Finally, don't forget to strengthen and tone your back, one of the areas of the body most involved in maintaining posture on the bike. To avoid discomfort in the lower back or neck, it's very important to do exercises such as back extensions. You can do them lying face down on a mat, lifting your torso up again and again, as if you were doing sit-ups but in reverse.