Strength training for cyclists: how to use the gym if you're riding the Mallorca 312

In 2014, a review by Rønnestad and Mujika on trained runners and cyclists concluded that, on the bike, heavy strength training is the kind recommended to improve cycling economy (the oxygen you use to hold a given power), and that it is the kind with the strongest evidence of adding performance on top of endurance training^[1].

That same year, a systematic review of 26 studies of well-trained endurance athletes (at least 6 months of training and 6 hours or more a week, or a high maximal oxygen uptake), with strength programmes of 5 weeks or more and a control group, found improvements in time trials, economy and muscle power^[2]. They weren't only cyclists, and the authors called for longer studies, of more than 6 months^[2].

In 2026 a systematic review with meta-analysis of endurance cyclists only was published, covering studies published up to February 2025^[3]. It pooled 17 studies with 262 participants, with programmes of 5 to 25 weeks and 1 to 3 strength sessions a week^[3]. Compared with the groups that didn't do heavy strength training, those who added it improved performance (time trials and time to exhaustion), cycling efficiency and peak power in a short sprint. VO2max, the power linked to it, the threshold and anaerobic capacity didn't change^[3].

The review itself sets out the limits. The certainty of the evidence is low for every outcome, because of the small number of participants and a moderate risk of bias, mainly because cyclists weren't always randomly assigned to groups^[3]. They were trained cyclists, with an average VO2max of about 61 ml/kg/min and an average age of 31, and in every study they either had no previous experience of strength training or it wasn't reported^[3]. With so little data, the authors don't give a fixed prescription^[3].

The performance tests are time trials and efforts to exhaustion much shorter than the Mallorca 312: in 2 of the studies cited here, 40 minutes flat out^[4][6]. The review also includes a study in which cyclists improved a 5-minute effort done at the end of 185 minutes of easy riding^[3]. That all this carries over to a whole day on the bike is an assumption: these studies didn't measure it.

In the review, heavy strength training means leg exercises at 80% or more of your 1RM, or with a weight you can't move more than 7 times^[3]. The most common exercise in the studies was the squat, followed by the single-leg press^[3]. Its practical proposal, with the warning that certainty is low, is 4 exercises (2 with both legs and 2 with one), for example squat, single-leg press, hip flexion and single-leg calf raises, 3 to 4 sets with 2 to 3 minutes' rest, and loads that rise gradually from 70 to 90% of 1RM^[3].

To know what weight that percentage is, you don't have to test your max. With the 1RM calculator you estimate it from a set with a weight you can control, and what a 1RM is covers how far off that estimate can be and how to use the percentages.

In a study by Rønnestad and colleagues with 12 well-trained cyclists, 6 added heavy strength training 2 times a week for 12 weeks of preparation and then kept it up with 1 session a week for the first 13 weeks of the competition period; the other 6 only rode^[4]. After the preparation, the strength group had gained thigh muscle and 1RM, and both groups improved their VO2max and their average power over 40 minutes flat out^[4]. With the weekly session, the strength group kept what it had gained in muscle and strength, and by the end had improved maximal aerobic power and average power over the 40 minutes more than the other group^[4].

What happens when you stop has also been measured. In 14 elite cyclists, 7 trained strength 1 to 2 days a week for 25 weeks and then stopped for 8 weeks, at the start of the competition period^[5]. In those 8 weeks, compared with those who kept to cycling only, they got worse at jumping, maximal aerobic power and average power in a 30-second sprint^[5].

The 2026 review proposes the same: at least 8 weeks with 2 sessions a week, and 1 a week to keep what you've gained^[3]. Applied to the Mallorca 312 in April, winter would be the preparation period and the months of long rides, the maintenance period. The 2 studies have 12 and 14 cyclists, so take it as a reasonable way to organise things.

In the 2026 review there are 60 women among the 262 participants, and only 2 studies were done with women only^[3]. One of them, with 19 well-trained cyclists, compared 11 weeks of riding plus heavy strength training (11 cyclists) with riding alone (8)^[6]. Those who did strength training gained more 1RM on the single-leg press and more quadriceps muscle, and improved average power over 40 minutes flat out and cycling economy; nothing changed in the other group^[6]. In the review, sex didn't change the effect, but with so few women the authors call for more studies before drawing conclusions^[3].

On the bike you're sitting down and the bike carries your weight. A 2012 systematic review pooled 31 studies on cyclists' bones and concluded that road cycling doesn't seem to give the bone any benefit: adult road cyclists who train regularly have low bone mineral density in areas such as the lumbar spine^[7]. Other types of cycling, such as mountain biking, or combining it with other sports could reduce that effect^[7]. The authors point to the long hours sitting on the bike and the rest time afterwards, and the studies were too different from each other for a meta-analysis^[7].

For people at risk of osteoporosis, the review doesn't recommend cycling as the only exercise unless it's combined with some training that stimulates bone, and it mentions proposals to add jumps or impact exercises^[7]. Whether that's enough to make up for what the bike doesn't do is still to be studied, according to the same authors^[7]. The authors don't say the gym fixes it: if you're worried about your bones, talk to your doctor.

In the studies in the review, the cyclists had no previous experience with weights or it wasn't reported, and its proposal starts at 70% of 1RM and rises gradually^[3]. If it's your first time in a gym, start by learning the movements with a light weight. Technique before weight: you get to 80% of 1RM once your technique holds.