[HillbillyBiker]

Endurance riding seems to make upper body muscle mass disappear. I'm in the gym 4 times a week working upper body, but I can't maintain upper body muscle mass when riding a lot... it just vanishes along with strength. Lifting heavy gets harder and harder with the more I ride. If I stop riding for a week or two I can begin to put mass back on with the same workouts, but once I start riding hard again, while maintaining upper body workouts, the upper body muscle disappears. Gaining weight seems to be nearly impossible when riding a lot and maintaining weight (not losing) can even become difficult. Any ideas? Success stories?

 

[bstguitarist]

YOur probably working your muscles too much. To build muscle you need to excercise and when that happens you actually tear a little bit of your muscle fibers. Which grow back bigger, especially if your eating enough protein. So what your doing is your constantly breaking the fibers and not allowing them a chance to regrow. if you go to the gym i would suggest every other day and allow the muscles to grow back on your days off. so say 3 times a week you hit the gym. Monday, wednesday, and friday. this allows your muscles to grow back. JUst be sure to eat a lot of protien too. the usual goal is to eat your body weight in grams of protein everyday. so if you 150 lbs then shoot for 150 grams of protien a day to maintain your muscle. but don't get obscessed with eating exactly 150 its more of a guideline than a rule. also another nifty trick for helping your muscles recover is eating almonds. two handfulls of almonds a day will do the trick. there is a natural chemical in almonds that help speed up the recovery process and help your muscles recover faster. BTW if you take supplements like creatine for the gym, it can be dangerous. People have died from dehydration associated with creatine. Since it pumps your muscles with water it severely impairs your bodies ability to hydrate. So be carefull, and have fun.


Hope I helped,
bstguitarist.

 

[kretzel]

upper body mass

Why are you concerned with upper body muscle mass? The mass is useless (actually detrimental) to riding, strength is what matters. I cannot imagine any scenario in which you need four days a week of upper body workouts in the gym to enhance your riding.

Endurance sports will always cause you to build leaner muscle - more strength with less bulk. If you wanna look buff (a perfectly acceptable goal) you will probably have to make a choice between endurance performance & size. Building body-builder like mass is at the completely opposite end of the sports spectrum from being an efficient endurance athlete. You can do both, but must live with compromising one or the other.

Regarding supplements, I use glutamine enhanced whey protein after every ride - you need as much protein to recover from your rides as you do from your weightroom workouts. You can get the same benefit from regular foods but it is less convenient, which in my case means it doesn't get done, so I use the supplements. There are numerous calculators out there to help you figure out daily protein requirements, I think there is one at the www.e-caps.com site in one of their articles. I was surprised to find out how much I needed.

good luck
Karl

 

[HillbillyBiker]

Thanks for the replies. I need the upper body mass/strength for other activities - moving tractor parts, workin' on the ranch etc. While riding is my main activity I value being well-muscled all over, not just legs and have found injury to be less likely when I have more muscle so I hit the gym to try to maintain this... but it's a losing battle when I'm riding a lot. I guess the activity you do most will dictate how your body is proportionated regardless of efforts to fight this. A lot of endurance riding will make a days work where a lot of upper body strength is required more difficult. But I can't quit riding, I'm addicted.

Nice website Karl I found it on another thread. Good articles you've put together. I found this one at e-caps that was interesting

It's looking like my only option for building more upper body muscle is to ride less. From what I've read my protein intake and fueling practices are just what I should be doing.

 

[kretzel]

ahh - now I see. Addiction to riding not meshing with requirements of everyday life. A common malady

More strength & balance = less injury is a good observation. Stretching is also a big help, and is generally not part of the "cycling culture".

Glad you liked the site - thanks.
Cheers
Karl

 

[NoMud]

Creatine

If you're not worried about a bit of a weight gain - creatine and low reps.