Forums >Cross Training>Does cycling build muscle?
PBs since age 60: 5k- 24:36, 10k - 47:17. Half Marathon- 1:42:41.
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Cycling can also work your hamstrings if you get clip on shoes and pull back / up with the opposite pedal as your power stroke. Thats why racers and serious riding enthusiasts wear clip on shoes.
Also riding a "Tri" or "TT" bike puts alot more emphasis on the hamstring muscles due to its forward seatpost geometry. Triathlete and Duathletes use these bikes so the transition from biking to running is a quicker smoother adaptation. Running is flat out difficult after riding really hard on a raod bike since the emphasis is on the Quads..
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
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Cycling builds muscle to a certain point just like running. Really it's just low weight high rep weight training.
To build muscle the principle of progressive overload apply. If you are new to cycling you will be providing the overload at first so will see some(not a lot) of muscle- providing you are eating excess calories( because you can not gian any mass without excess calories). You will adapt to the load and unless you progress with resistance, gains will stop. This is why bodybuilders keep adding more and more weight. You are not going to get 30" bicepts curling the same 50 lbs as when you first started out.
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I hope that this isn't a lame question but I was wondering if intense cycling (spin classes) builds muscle or is mostly just cardio? I run, cycle, and weight train and wanted to know how cycling affects the muscles in comparison or contrast to weight training and running. I hope that my question makes sense. Thanks Lisa
I teach spinning (though not much lately).
It somewhat depends on the class, how often you go to class (basically a question similar to mpw in running), and how much you crank the resistance. Spinning really fast isn't going to build any muscle. Cranking the "hills" and doing jumps may. A little. Quads, mostly.
But, primarily, spinning is a cardio thingy. If you want to build leg muscle, spend that time lifting. If you are worried that spinning classes are gonna give you mega-quads, don't. The tri folks and cycling folks you see with the thick legs spend a whoooooole lot more time on the bike than you and I do on a spinning bike.