Cycling strength training: best exercises for endurance
Strength training is often the missing piece in a cyclist's program, but the evidence says it should be a priority. Research shows that combining heavy or explosive strength work with endurance training improves performance in endurance-trained athletes [1], while maximal strength training can boost cycling economy and extend time to exhaustion [2]. Heavy strength sessions also help maintain mean power output during long, submaximal efforts [3], the kind of riding that defines most distance events. For female cyclists, the benefits are just as clear: adding heavy strength training to regular endurance work enhances cycling performance [4]. Yet women have historically been underrepresented in exercise science, with assumptions about hormonal fluctuations often used to justify their exclusion [5]. Emerging training options, such as aquatic cycling, may offer additional ways to build strength and cardiorespiratory fitness with lower joint stress [6]. The takeaway? Strength training isn't a distraction from the bike, it's a proven accelerant for it.
Practical Playbook
Test your baseline bike-specific strength
Before you add weight to a bar, find your weak points. I'd test a max squat, deadlift, and a 3-minute plank. If your squat is under 1.5x bodyweight or your plank fades before two minutes, that's your bottleneck. Those numbers come from coach data: cyclists with at least those numbers hold power longer and crash less late in rides.
How often should you lift during cycling season?
It depends on your race calendar. In base season, two heavy sessions a week build the foundation. Once race season hits, drop to one, and make it a maintenance day, lower volume, one tough set, then go. The mistake? Trying to push strength PRs during race week. Your legs will hate you for it.
Prioritize unilateral and core work for pedaling efficiency
Single-leg deadlifts, Bulgarian split squats, and side planks. Why? Your pedal stroke is a series of unilateral, anti-rotation actions. When you're fatigued, your core gives out, your hip drops, and you lose watts. Strong glutes and a stable midsection keep your power transfer clean. I've seen 20-second improvements on 40km TTs from fixing that.
Deload your strength work before race weeks
Three days out, cut your lifting load in half. Heavy squats the night before a crit? Bad idea. Your nervous system needs recovery, not another stressor. I've watched friends skip this step and bonk 10 miles in. Instead, do a light version of your main lift at 60% of max, just enough to grease the groove without trashing your legs.
Common Mistakes
- Mistake
- Treating strength training as just more leg day.
- Why
- Cyclists already hammer their quads and glutes on the bike. Neglecting upper back, chest, and core creates muscular imbalances that hurt bike handling and lead to lower back pain over a season.
- Fix
- Add pull-ups, rows, and overhead presses twice a week. Your legs will thank you when you can hold aero position for an extra hour.
- Mistake
- Scheduling heavy squats the night before a century ride.
- Why
- Leg strength sessions spike CNS fatigue and microtrauma. Recovery takes 48+ hours, so you'll show up to your ride with legs that feel like wet concrete.
- Fix
- Put your hardest lower-body session at least two days before a key ride, or do it right after a hard ride (for extra stimulus).
- Mistake
- Sticking to high reps until the bar feels light.
- Why
- Endurance in the gym doesn't carry over to the bike, you already get that from pedaling. You need heavy loads (80%+ of 1RM) in the 3, 6 rep range to actually drive strength gains.
- Fix
- Pick a compound lift (deadlift, squat, or hip thrust), work up to a weight you can only do 5 clean reps with, and add 5 pounds each week. Progressively overload, don't just pump out sets of 15.
- Mistake
- Abandoning strength training entirely when race season hits.
- Why
- In-season strength drops fast, within two weeks you lose up to 10% of peak force. That means less sprint power and more crash risk on technical descents.
- Fix
- Maintain with one or two short sessions per week. Cut volume (3 sets → 1, 2) but keep intensity (heavy). Fifteen minutes of heavy deadlifts on Wednesday beats skipping it entirely.
Frequently asked questions
From the Dorsi blog
One Strength Session a Week Is All Your Cycling Season Needs
The most quietly powerful finding in cycling strength research isn't about how to build power in winter. It's about how cheap it is to keep it through summer.
After Thirty-Five, the Cyclist Who Skips the Weights Loses More Than Watts
There's a quiet shift that happens to cyclists around forty. The gym session that was an optional performance edge in your twenties becomes the most cost-effective medical intervention of your week.
Lifting Won't Hurt Your Watts-per-Kilo. Thirty Years of Cyclist Studies Settle It.
Every climber's quiet fear: lift heavy, get heavy, lose your W/kg. Three decades of cycling RCTs say it doesn't happen — and once you see the mechanism, you'll know why.
Sources we drew from
- 1
Bent R. Rønnestad & Iñigo Mujika · 2013 · Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports
Here we report on the effect of combining endurance training with heavy or explosive strength training on endurance performance in endurance-trained runners and cyclists.
- 2
Arnstein Sunde et al. · 2010 · The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of maximal strength training on cycling economy (CE) at 70% of maximal oxygen consumption (Vo2max), work efficiency in cycling at 70% Vo2max, and time to exhaustion at maximal…
- 3
Bent R. Rønnestad et al. · 2009 · Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports
To investigate the effects of heavy strength training on the mean power output in a 5-min all-out trial following 185 min of submaximal cycling at 44% of maximal aerobic power output in well-trained cyclists.
- 4
Olav Vikmoen et al. · 2015 · Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of adding heavy strength training to well-trained female cyclists' normal endurance training on cycling performance.
- 5
Lauren M. Colenso‐Semple et al. · 2023 · Frontiers in Sports and Active Living
Introduction: The bias towards excluding women from exercise science research is often due to the assumption that cyclical fluctuations in reproductive hormones influence resistance exercise performance and exercise-induced adaptations.
- 6
Yoo C et al. · 2026 · PPR
<title>Abstract</title> <p>Background This study investigated the effects of aquatic cycling training (ACT) at varying intensities on muscle strength, cardiorespiratory fitness, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), insulin-like growth…
A workout plan that keeps up with real life.
- Built around your goal — every session belongs to the same direction.
- Fits today's conditions — time, physical state, and equipment shape the work.
- Updates what comes next — training feedback keeps the plan moving with you.
See how Dorsi builds a personalized workout plan around your goals and current conditions.