How Strong?

[Rbenz]

Rip,

I picked up sprint cycling a few months ago, and wish to take it more seriously now. I am trying to set some solid long term goals in the general strength department. How Strong do I need to be?

Ive squatted 335x5 now and pulled 400. This is not by any means strong enough, but when does strength become enough for my sport? I am about 3 months into the texas method and the gains are starting to get much much harder to come by. I have also noticed I am run into the ground often during my cycling training sessions. Is 2x bodyweight squat a good number to maintain once I hit this? I am weighing about 220.

[Mark Rippetoe]

My former trainee Aaron Kacala squatted 365x20, 205x45 in 90 seconds x3 sets, and 225x30 in 60 seconds x3 sets. There are stories of Eric Heiden doing 600x20. I don't know what "strong enough" would be. I guess it would be when you could beat the guys you needed to beat.

[TrackJunkie]

Chris Hoy is a world champion and olympic gold medalist in team sprint, kilo, match sprint, and keirin. His personal best squat is reported as 500 lbs.
Of course, your results may vary, but if you can squat 500 lbs and you're not winning races, you can probably safely say that the solution to your problems lies outside the squat rack.

[Andy Baker (KSC)]

My former trainee Aaron Kacala squatted 365x20, 205x45 in 90 seconds x3 sets, and 225x30 in 60 seconds x3 sets. There are stories of Eric Heiden doing 600x20. I don't know what "strong enough" would be. I guess it would be when you could beat the guys you needed to beat.

The 205 x 45 makes me want to puke....and also, out of curiosity, what type of rest periods were you guys taking between sets on the 60 sec. and 90 sec efforts.

[Mark Rippetoe]

We used 15-20 minutes, whatever was necessary to permit the next set.

[Tsypkin]

600x20? Holy God. I had no clue sprint cyclists were that strong.

[Marcus Eligius]

I have a hard time believing the 600x20 set -- unless they were the type of squats people here frown upon. Although this proves nothing, I found a few sites quoting him as saying he only went up to 300 lbs in the squat. Now he's reputed to have done 100's of reps with 300 lbs, which is ridiculous in itself, but that is no widow maker with 600 lbs.

[Bleve]

We (I'm a track cycling sprint coach ...) have a rough strength standard at elite level of ~2x bodyweight for a squat.

Sean Eadie was tripling 250kg at ~100kg bodyweight in 2002 when he won the world championship but I can't comment on his form or depth. I don't know what the poms are up to with Hoy et al these days but it may be around the same sorts of numbers.

Eadie was a big unit at his best (~98kg race weight) ...



This is a worthwhile read, even if it talks about some exercises that many here (including me ...) would not prescribe and may not be current best practice :

http://www.aboc.com.au/Members/carl/...-for-sprinters

I have an elite junior (14yo female) who is close to 1.5x bodyweight squats at the moment, just as another point of reference. Good track sprinters are very strong, for non-weightlifter/powerlifter athletes anyway.

[Greg C]

I don't know what "strong enough" would be. I guess it would be when you could beat the guys you needed to beat.

This is so true it's almost a cliche

600x20? Holy God. I had no clue sprint cyclists were that strong.

Dude, have you seen Eric Heiden? The man had some serious power.

[bruce]

Any reason for the slant towards endurance training, or were these (very impressive) high rep sets done only occasionally or more for testing purposes? I was under the impression that it is better to improve strength even for endurance sports and that the necessary endurance would come from specific training, in this case cycling.