If you are on an important training and racing schedule, keeping your muscles loose at all times is important. Recovery rides work great for this purpose, but sometimes you just can’t ride. You might be on a plane, driving, have a nagging injury that needs rested, etc.

So, consider these alternatives that may help keep your muscles loose so they’re ready for your next ride:

1. Pain relieving gels (such as Mineral ice)

I use this on recovery days to keep my muscles from getting stiff and sore. Then I can ride the next day like normal. (Without mineral ice, it seems to take me longer to warm up.)

Also, Topricin and other balms may work for you.

2. Panty hose (actually compression stockings)

Compression stockings (which are basically a fancy version of panty hose) are good for sitting at the office or during long plane rides. The tight fabric stimulates blood flow through your legs, giving them nutrients and fresh oxygen and flushing out waste products.

3. The Stick (or Muscle Trac)

The Stick is the self-massage thing you roll on your legs. Or use a Muscle Trac. Or a foam roller, if you have floor space.

4. Massage

The real thing, from a spa or professional masseuse. It might not fit into your schedule or budget very often, but it’s nice!

Your muscles will feel very supple afterward.

5. Hot and/or cold baths

Alternate hot and cold baths, do an ice bath, or try a sea salt bath. Whatever theory you subscribe to, some sort of bath usually makes you feel better.

One of my favorite off-bike training methods is plyometrics. Put simply, plyometrics are explosive jumping exercises.

Plyometrics are extremely intense and provide one of the most gut-wrenching workouts possible. They will build immense speed and power to improve your fitness tremendously.

(Note: Beginners should be able to perform most bodyweight exercises before moving on to the higher impact plyometrics exercises.)

What’s cool about plyometrics:

• Build explosive power without need for weights.
• More intense than any other bodyweight exercises.
• More fun and exciting than simply running sprints.

Technically speaking, plyometrics are about reaching maximum force in minimal time. Does that sound familiar? Perhaps if you’re riding in a group and you want to attack and break away? You need to create a maximum amount of force as quickly as possible to make such a devastating attack.

For more information about how and why plyometrics work, check out these two pages:

• Plyometrics on Sports Fitness Advisor
• Plyometrics on Bodybuilding.com

Ever gone out mountain biking on technical trails and ended up with sore forearms? Or maybe you did a lot of standing climbing on your last road ride, and your forearms are feeling it?

Forearm strength is not a top priority for cyclists, but your forearms do come into play during certain situations. Having strong forearms will come in especially handy during mountain biking, with the constant steering and lifting the front wheel. Not to mention holding on during white-knuckle descents!

So if your forearms ever do get sore from riding, that’s a good sign they need some training. Here are three ways to work them:

3. Wrist Curls

This is a basic, boring exercise for the weight room, but it will directly work your forearms.

To start, get some light dumbbells (one for each hand.) What you do is sit down on a bench and place your forearms flat on the bench or on your quads. Then you simply curl the weight up using your wrist. (It’s the same concept as a regular bicep curl.)

I recommend doing both pronated (palms facing the ground) and supinated (palms facing up) curls.

2. Twist Ups

I don’t know if there’s a true name for this exercise or device, but it’s something my football coach showed me years ago.

Basically it’s a weight plate tied onto a 5′ section of rope, with the rope then tied onto a 1′ section of dowel rod. (It’s easy to make one at home.)

To work your forearms, you hold your arms out straight in front of you with both hands on the dowel rod. Start with the rope unraveled and the weight plate resting on the floor. Moving the dowel rod with just your hands/wrists, roll it up so the rope goes around the rod and the weight gets pulled up to shoulder level.

Then, even though your forearms probably hurt like mad, turn the dowel rod in the other direction to slowly unravel the rope and get the weight plate back to the floor.

1. Weighted Pull Ups

Here’s my favorite way to work your forearms, and it doesn’t require a separate workout.

Start doing weighted pull ups! These are regular pull ups, but you use a dipping belt to hand weight plates off your waist.

This exercise will work your arms, shoulders, and back a little more than a normal pull up, but it really works your grip! Your hands and forearms are likely to give out simply from holding up the extra weight.

Unlike during a simple wrist curl, your forearms will really feel the effects of a weighted pull up!

A similar concept is doing heavy deadlifts. As you add weight, chances are your hands and forearms will crack long before your hips do! They’re tough, but the increased forearm strength will be worth it!

Try one or all three of those exercises and I doubt your forearms will get sore from bike riding anymore! (And if you’ll be swimming or kayaking in some triathlons, it wouldn’t hurt to build bigger arms for that.)

Creatine has been around longer than I have, but there are still many questions about its use. Today we’ll look at cyclists using creatine…

Hi Levi. Thank you for inspiring people like my self. I being bicycling an average of 150 miles per week. I would like to know if I would benefit from creatine? Please let me know, Thank You. Let me give you some info about myself. 5′-8″ 185 lbs. my goal is to bike an average of 200+ per week and to complete a century race.

Thank you,
Creatine Chris

Hi Chris,

The short answer to your question is no. As a recreational cyclist, looking to complete an endurance event like a century, you won’t have a whole lot of use for creatine supplementation.

You might see some benefits, so maybe you do want to try it out (it’s not expensive,) but you probably won’t see a huge performance in your cycling that could be attributed to creatine use. Here’s why:

Creatine is a natural substance found in your body. It is used to aid your body’s production of ATP, the energy used up during short anaerobic efforts. Examples of situations where you use lots of ATP at a fast rate would be weight lifting and sprinting. That means creatine supplementation can work very well for body builders, and also for Track & Field sprinters, but it doesn’t do much for endurance cyclists (who rely on aerobic energy production.)

Also, creatine isn’t a miracle as some people would have you believe. Some people think they can take creatine and then they’ll get ripped and be super strong. Mainly what it does, though, is allow you to work a little bit harder during your workout due to the increased energy. (But that’s only applicable once you are mentally capable of pushing yourself to extreme intensity, which most beginners aren’t ready for.)

As for building muscle without extra work, it’s true that an abundance of creatine phosphate in the muscles can allow them to store more water. That will make them appear bigger, but the muscle tissue is still the same size. Does that matter to an endurance cyclist? Nope.

Another thing is that your body contains quite a bit of creatine as is. If you eat meat (which naturally contains high levels of creatine,) you probably have enough of it in your body. If you’re a vegetarian, though, you may benefit from supplementing with creatine.

There is one aspect to creatine that you might like, though: faster recovery. The first thing I noticed when beginning creatine was that I recovered from my workouts faster than normal. I had never heard of this affect, but once I looked, I was able to find a study showing improved recovery times.

Unfortunately this improved recovery was only noticeable during my weight training workouts. And once I really began to increase my workout volume (thanks to the creatine,) I needed the improved recovery just to recover at my usual speed!

In the end, there are two main things to consider before making your final decision on creatine:

1. Creatine is considered safe.

While some people have reported minor side effects of less sweating and increased cramping (not good side effects for bike riders!,) it’s a pretty safe supplement. I’ve never had any problems with it.

It’s not like you’re taking steroids or HGH. Or blood doping. So don’t be scared to try creatine.

2. There’s not much value for an endurance athlete.

While creatine is pretty cool, as an endurance cyclist, your money is better spent elsewhere. For example, you’d probably get a more noticeable benefit from something like Endurolytes, especially if you’ll be doing a century in hot weather.

Or spend your creatine money on higher-quality fruits and vegetables. I bet you’d get more value that way.

While most cyclists and runners aren’t concerned with having big arms, arm strength comes in handy for XC skiing, swimming, kayaking, BMX, mountain biking, and even bike repair! So let’s look at building big arms…

A Question On Bicep Curls!?
Right. Im 14 and am naturally quite skinny in the arms. I have started doing bicep curls with a 3kg weight. Any ideas until i notice a difference and what can i do to make the process happen quicker. E.g. Should i eat more fatty foods etc. I want to stay complelty away from steroids.

Thanks!
-Skinny Steven

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but doing bicep curls with a 3kg (~6lb) dumbbell isn’t going to get you anywhere. You could curl all day but your arms will stay just as skinny as they are now.

So the first thing I would do is just forget the curls altogether. You could work your way up to heavier weights, but even then, you can lift more weight with other exercises. I’m not saying you can’t do curls later, but if you want to pack on some real size in a relatively short amount of time, look elsewhere!

There are four main exercises I suggest: pull ups, chin ups, dips, and shoulder presses. These exercises involve compound movements that work your entire arm, which allows you to move heavier weights, which leads to greater gains in size and strength.

Pull ups, chin ups, and dips can all be started with just your body weight. That will be a little safer than jumping into a big weight lifting program.

Shoulder presses will require a barbell and/or dumbbells, but you could start out with pike push ups (or handstand push ups) to work your shoulders before hitting the big weights.

How many sets and reps should you do for these bodyweight exercises? Read this: Determining Sets and Reps for Bodyweight Exercises.

More weight lifting and lots of eating wouldn’t hurt, either.

For example, you could add in a lift like the deadlift (maybe some squats too.) By working big muscles in your legs and back, your body will produce more of a testosterone response from your workouts. This could lead to better growth in your arm muscles for the same workout (studies are conflicting.) Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt to work out your entire body and not just your arms!

Being a beginner, I’d suggest following a pre-made plan from an expert. A book that would probably work for you (that you might enjoy reading as well) is Nate Green’s Built For Show.

And you need to eat extra calories if you want to build muscle. As in, LOTS of food!

As for your diet, stay away from junk food. Make sure you eat healthy foods like lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruits and vegetables. You can eat fatty foods to get more calories, but stick with fatty foods like almonds, avocados, and olive oil. No junk food!!

Basically, if you do a good amount of weight lifting and eat lots of natural, unprocessed foods, you should see some results! It won’t happen overnight, but stick with it for a couple months, and I think you’ll be pleased.