Most club cyclists I know have a training plan that accounts for every kilometre, every interval session, every long Sunday ride. Ask them about their gym work and you get a sheepish look. Some do a few squats occasionally. Some did a core class once in January. A surprising number haven’t touched a barbell since secondary school. That gap is costing them, in watts, in race results, and eventually in physiotherapy bills.
Strength training for cyclists in the UK is one of those things that everyone agrees is a good idea in principle and almost nobody actually prioritises. British club culture doesn’t help. Rides get planned, sportives get entered, turbo sessions get logged on Strava. The gym? That’s for the CrossFit crowd. I’ve heard every version of this excuse, and I’ve been guilty of most of them myself. This article is my attempt to make the case clearly, and give you something concrete to take into the gym next week.
Why cyclists have predictable strength gaps
Road cycling is a repetitive sagittal-plane movement. You pedal, you pedal, you pedal. The hip flexors shorten, the glutes switch off, the hamstrings tighten, and the upper back rounds forward over the bars for hours at a time. Do that enough times and your body adapts to it, which sounds fine until you ask those same muscles to do anything else.
The specific gaps I see repeatedly in UK club riders are: weak single-leg stability (because cycling is bilateral in feel but actually asymmetric in load), underactive glutes, no posterior chain strength to match their quad dominance, and almost no capacity in the hip abductors and external rotators. Add in the fact that British roads are genuinely rough, potholes, cambered lanes, sudden braking, and you’ve got a body that’s unprepared for the reactive demands the terrain actually places on it.
A 2023 survey by British Cycling found that over 60% of club cyclists reported a cycling-related overuse injury in the previous two years. Knee pain was the most common complaint, followed by lower back issues. Both are classic signs of the imbalances above. That’s not coincidence.
The exercises British riders skip most
Single-leg work
The bilateral squat isn’t useless, but it lets your stronger leg compensate for your weaker one without you ever knowing. Bulgarian split squats and single-leg Romanian deadlifts force each leg to carry its share. I started programming these seriously about eighteen months ago and the difference in my left-right power balance on the bike was visible within eight weeks. Not dramatic, but real.
Hip hinge patterns
The conventional deadlift, the Romanian deadlift, the kettlebell swing. These build the posterior chain, glutes, hamstrings, erector spinae, that cyclists consistently neglect. If you’re quad-dominant (most road riders are), these movements rebalance the load and reduce the knee stress that comes from the patella tracking badly under a weakened hip.
Upper back and scapular work
Bent-over rows, face pulls, band pull-aparts. Hours in an aerodynamic position shortens the pec minor and weakens the mid and lower trapezius. That matters for neck pain, shoulder tension, and, this surprises people, breathing efficiency. A collapsed thoracic spine limits your lung capacity on the bike. Pulling movements counteract all of this.
Single-leg calf raises
Boring, unglamorous, and genuinely important. The soleus and gastrocnemius transfer force through every pedal stroke. Weak calves mean energy leakage at the bottom of the pedal stroke. I do three sets of slow single-leg raises at the end of every gym session and I’ve not had Achilles trouble since.
A practical gym routine for club cyclists
This is a two-session-per-week structure that fits around the riding most UK club cyclists already do. Session A on a Monday or Tuesday, session B on a Thursday. Keep the weights moderate in base phase, heavier as you build strength over eight to twelve weeks.
Session A (lower body focus, 45 minutes)
- Bulgarian split squat: 3 x 8 each leg
- Romanian deadlift: 3 x 8
- Single-leg glute bridge: 3 x 12 each leg
- Copenhagen plank: 3 x 20 seconds each side
- Single-leg calf raise: 3 x 15 each leg
Session B (upper body and hip stability focus, 40 minutes)
- Barbell or dumbbell bent-over row: 3 x 8
- Face pulls with resistance band: 3 x 15
- Single-arm dumbbell row: 3 x 10 each side
- Lateral band walks: 3 x 15 each direction
- Dead bug: 3 x 8 each side
You’ll notice there’s no bench press, no bicep curl, no lat pulldown. I’m not saying those exercises are harmful, they’re just not where the return is for cyclists. The limited gym time most people have should go towards fixing the actual imbalances, not adding mass where it doesn’t help you climb.
If you’re also doing structured endurance work, whether that’s Zone 2 sessions to build your aerobic base or longer sportive preparation rides, timing the gym work away from your hardest cardio days matters. Strength sessions on easy days or after shorter rides, not the day before your biggest effort of the week.
How to periodise this around your cycling year
Off-season (October to December for most UK club riders) is the time to build. Heavier weights, more volume, no worrying about tired legs affecting your rides. Come January, reduce volume slightly as your riding picks up. By March and April, you’re in maintenance mode: one session a week, keeping the strength without accumulating fatigue before your target events.
This is the same logic behind managing physiological stress across the training year, you can’t peak everything at once. The gym has to fit the bigger picture.
The British Cycling training knowledge hub has some useful guidance on integrating off-bike work into a full training plan, and it’s worth reading if you want a structured framework beyond this article.
What about nutrition to support the gym work?
Adding two gym sessions a week to a training load that already includes several rides means your overall energy demand goes up. Protein intake especially: most club cyclists I’ve spoken to are running too low, somewhere around 1.2g per kilogram of bodyweight when the evidence points to 1.6–2.0g being more appropriate for training adaptation. If you’re already thinking carefully about how to fuel your endurance training without overspending, the same principles apply to supporting gym work, adequate total calories, enough protein distributed across the day, real food where possible.
The strength work itself won’t make you slower or heavier if you’re cycling regularly alongside it. That fear stops a lot of riders from ever starting, and it’s largely unfounded for someone doing 8-12 hours of cycling a week. The muscle you build in the gym will be functional, not excessive, and it will express itself as cleaner power transfer and fewer injuries.
Start simple and stay consistent
The biggest mistake is treating gym work as optional extras you fit in when convenient. Two sessions a week, every week, through the autumn and winter. That’s it. Pick the exercises above, learn the movement patterns properly, add load gradually. Six months from now you’ll feel it in the saddle, more stable in the hips on long climbs, less fatigued in the lower back on rougher roads, probably a few watts cleaner through the pedal stroke.
The cyclists who skip the gym aren’t lazy. They just haven’t been given a clear enough reason to bother. Now you have one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should cyclists do strength training each week?
Two sessions per week is the sweet spot for most club cyclists. One session in the off-season or base phase, increasing to two as winter progresses, then dropping back to one maintenance session as the racing or sportive season picks up in spring.
Will strength training make cyclists too heavy or too muscular?
Not if you’re also doing regular cycling. Combining two gym sessions a week with a full cycling training load will build functional strength without adding significant mass. The caloric burn from cycling is high enough that hypertrophy stays minimal for most riders.
What are the best gym exercises for cyclists with knee pain?
Single-leg glute bridges, lateral band walks, and Copenhagen planks all strengthen the hip stabilisers that commonly contribute to knee tracking problems in cyclists. Reduce load on any quad-dominant movements like squats until pain settles, and consider seeing a physiotherapist to rule out structural issues.