Muscle Gain from Endurance riding?

[Trickymac]

just to add on to this.
lets keep in mind that elite riders do train for sprints, they do train different aspects and they hit the gym, there is also a point where you will need to improve muscle size to improve performance, there is a lot you can get out of a muscle in terms of density and improvements in the firing of said muscles but there is a point where you are limiting your potential, you would be hard pressed to find a elite rider who doesn't periodize a time for muscle mass.

Riding alone will not give you the same size as Cadel, it just wont happen, long distance riding or sprints don't offer the right stimulus to yield size growth to that level, newbies will gain size but its not a long term or viable way to try and add size. hill climbs and sprints both offer higher levers of stress over a shorter period of time. These practices do increase size but you cant expect cadel results on a bike only.

sprinters do not just do sprints on the bike and climbers just don't climb hills all day, there is lots of off the bike training and periodzation in those programs.

i concur...sage advice

 

[Go]

I think you will find alot of research doesn't support this view.

For example: http://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(09)00966-2/abstract

If you read who funded the study, your views on it's legitimacy may change.
Much like the studies that say gatorade is good for you. You guessed right. Funded by gatorade

 

[disappearin]

If you read who funded the study, your views on it's legitimacy may change.
Much like the studies that say gatorade is good for you. You guessed right. Funded by gatorade

It actually states that two of the six researchers involved in the meta analysis received funding from the soy industry. This isn't uncommon in research and the fact that the results of 36 research projects were pooled together for this article makes the findings statistically significant. This point of view is also supported by more recent research. Feel free to check it out for yourself. I find it quite interesting.

 

[Mywifesirrational]

Also its in a journal with a pretty reasonable impact factor 3-4 over the last 4 years - another sign of quality.

 

[top_oz_bloke]

cadel evans has decent sized/big legs, sure his upper body is lithe but hes got some power in those legs, just look at him next to a schleck brother
when i started riding 4 yrs ago, i put ON 10kg, 5 on each leg i reckon, plus i lost a bit around the tummy,i ride btw 50-100klms a week, kept that same weight now for last 4 yrs giive or take a kilo or 2 depending on how much i pudding i eat

I'm far from a cycling analyst but is Cadel really considered a climber? My impression is more of an all rounder with a strong TT and thus would fit somewhere between the mountain whippets and the sprinters.

'Lithe' is a bit more flattering than my usual description of pro cyclists having the upper body of 12 yr old girls....

My weight has stayed reasonable static too even though I reckon I've gained muscle and lost fat. But pretty hard to be definite when I'm not actually measuring or tracking anything.

 

[Trickymac]

I'm far from a cycling analyst but is Cadel really considered a climber? My impression is more of an all rounder with a strong TT and thus would fit somewhere between the mountain whippets and the sprinters.

'Lithe' is a bit more flattering than my usual description of pro cyclists having the upper body of 12 yr old girls....

My weight has stayed reasonable static too even though I reckon I've gained muscle and lost fat. But pretty hard to be definite when I'm not actually measuring or tracking anything.

yeah hes a climber, the year he won the TDF he single handedly dragged the peloton up every mountain....made me proud to be australian..not to the point of getting a southern cross tattoo tho