Archaea's question on developing power - cougarguard.com — unofficial BYU Cougars / LDS sports, football, basketball forum and message board

bluegoose · 02-10-2006, 10:26 PM

I just thought I would start a new thread on Archaea's queries regarding developing strength and power.

Perhaps someone who actually has some strength and power would be more qualified to address this topic. But since it's just us hacks here, someone's got to do it. :wink:

Last week, a guy named Max Testa came to our local community college to lecture and, for a small fee of $250, preform fitness testing. He's a very qualified guy, having been team physician for 17-18 Tour de Frances. Now he runs a testing facility at UC Davis. Once again unable to attend, I got the recap 2nd hand from others in attendance.

Following your individual testing, they sit you down and review the data showing your strength and weakness. They then map out a short and long term training routing for you.

Several guys that I know had decent aerobic capacities, but were lacking on power output at certain max HR%. He recommend to them to intiate a strength training program, especially here in the "off season".

This didn't necessarily mean hitting the weights in the gym, although he did outline a gym program as well. He mainly recommended doing more high resistance, low frequency workouts once or twice per week. Grinders. Cadance should drop as low as 40-50 rpm. For most people this would require either a spinner/resistance trainer or a long hill that you can grind up.

Once a decent strength base is developed, then the focus should turn to transitioning to a higher cadence, ala Lance A. Once the "racing" or riding season is full swing, high intensity intervals and sprints need to be incorporated to train the system to clear lactate more efficiently.

Take home message - most of us that want to learn to ride faster do not train hard enough on our hard days or easy enough on our easy days to get the right amounts of strengthening or rest to make us better.

If you find yourself in Sac or Davis again this year, its probably worth the time checking out this guys facility.

02-10-2006, 10:26 PM	#1
bluegoose Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Northern California Posts: 2,919	Archaea's question on developing power I just thought I would start a new thread on Archaea's queries regarding developing strength and power. Perhaps someone who actually has some strength and power would be more qualified to address this topic. But since it's just us hacks here, someone's got to do it. :wink: Last week, a guy named Max Testa came to our local community college to lecture and, for a small fee of $250, preform fitness testing. He's a very qualified guy, having been team physician for 17-18 Tour de Frances. Now he runs a testing facility at UC Davis. Once again unable to attend, I got the recap 2nd hand from others in attendance. Following your individual testing, they sit you down and review the data showing your strength and weakness. They then map out a short and long term training routing for you. Several guys that I know had decent aerobic capacities, but were lacking on power output at certain max HR%. He recommend to them to intiate a strength training program, especially here in the "off season". This didn't necessarily mean hitting the weights in the gym, although he did outline a gym program as well. He mainly recommended doing more high resistance, low frequency workouts once or twice per week. Grinders. Cadance should drop as low as 40-50 rpm. For most people this would require either a spinner/resistance trainer or a long hill that you can grind up. Once a decent strength base is developed, then the focus should turn to transitioning to a higher cadence, ala Lance A. Once the "racing" or riding season is full swing, high intensity intervals and sprints need to be incorporated to train the system to clear lactate more efficiently. Take home message - most of us that want to learn to ride faster do not train hard enough on our hard days or easy enough on our easy days to get the right amounts of strengthening or rest to make us better. If you find yourself in Sac or Davis again this year, its probably worth the time checking out this guys facility.