Muscle Endurance Via Isometrics?

So, I want to train my legs to have better endurance. I have a tendency to occasionally cycle much further than I ‘should’ given my level of training and would like to be better equipped.

Obviously, regular cycling is important and a weekly ‘long ride’ would be great. However, due to time constraints I don’t get that much biking in. About 10km 5 or 6 days a week, at most (until this Canadian weather stays above freezing, anyway).

I used to have much better endurance when I did a lot of isometric leg work (if I’ve got my terms right) through martial arts. The best example would be holding ki ma sae (aka ‘horse stance’) for extended periods; it’s kind of like a harder, unsupported version of a roman chair.

Would adding this to my schedule be a time-effective way of upping my muscular endurance? Seems like it trains the anaerobic end of things…

Thanks!

Oh yeah; the terrain I bike on is quite hilly and (to skip the explanation) my regular destination is significantly higher than my starting point.

And please don’t suggest a stationary bike. Bleh.

Well you wont get endurance by doing only 10 km rides that I can guarantee you. But what you seem to be looking for is muscle endurance and or lactic tolerance. That you can do on just 10 km or by doing some exercise routine.

Personally I find what you call ‘horse chair’ to be much easier than the roman chair. Perhaps it just resembles the cycling stance a bit more. In the roman chair the strain is closer to the knee in my experience. I never worked much on the roman chair (perhaps I should have) but I was around 3 min there, probably not a good time, I should have tried for 5 min by putting it in my schedule. The thing with roman chair type of exercises is that it drains the legs a lot, so it will make one a bit soft on the bike, but in the long run it should help.

Do lots of hill repeats. Stay seated if you want to work your strength. But you can alternate seating and standing either on the climb or do one climb standing and the next climb sitting. But to maximize cycling strength sitting up hill works better. Can even try to sprint up hills.

Riding up hill in about 2 gears too heavy will also work you plenty. But WARNING you should have strong knees before you do that. Your knees should travel straight up and down, no wobbling. If your knees wobble then you will hurt your knee joints. Also mind your lower back when pulling big gears or sprinting. You need to work on setting up your bike correctly (and that is a science in it self).

You can do lots of squats. Unweighted fast ones will work you plenty (but your limiter will probably be your cardiovascular system than your legs (a bit of both)) but doing barbell squats of 15-25 reps you will certainly feel, and you might need a bucket if you really push it. ;)

One leg squats or pistols work good too. You can use a dumb bell, it might even help your balance (hold it out over you leg). One leg exercises are superior for cycling (and in general), just not real safe with big loads. Always mind your knees. Never want side to side movements! – Yeah and experiment with similar rep ranges with front squats, and dead lifts and such. Tabata type squatting will work very nicely too. Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRPcN5hcufg&feat…

Stability exercises are good too. Standing on one leg for a target amount of time, then doing it with your eyes closed, then doing it on a unstable surface, then with your eyes closed… this is the way you progress it roughly. It will help your kicks in your martial arts no doubt.

All this is focused on training your muscle-skeleton but it will not train your aerobic system in any real way. I will train your muscles to do anaerobic stuff and tolerate lactic acid, it will train your raw strength up to a point (high reps) and other similar stuff. It will not give you a big aerobic engine tough. But perhaps you don’t need that anyways.

If it burns then it is working. :)

PS. You can also do Time Trial type riding. That means riding all out (not sprinting though) for all this 10 km distance, and competing with your clock, trying to improve your time.

PSS. When I spoke of ‘roman chair’ I meant sitting with your back to the wall, with nothing underneath, with knees bent about 90°. I think it is actually called ghost chair or something similar.

PSSS. There are more leg exercises you can do like lunges, jump squats, switch squats/lunges, and so on, but I got to stop some where. But just know that you have many options!

Haha, wow. Thank you sir; very thorough!

On the time trial bit, if you have a heart rate monitor, you can train against your lactate threshhold. If you don’t know what your LT is, then you can get a rough figure on where it might be by looking at your HRM and seeing what your HR is at that moment when you start to breath heavy. If you have a sports science lab near you it is well worth it to pay for a VO2Max and LT test if you are doing any kind of competitive cycling.

Anyway, if you know what your LT is, then you can train against it, as I said. For a time trial effort, you want to be right around your LT the entire time. Your lactate threshhold is a trainable number. You can do a variety of drills to increase it, such as 30/30 intervals (30 seconds slightly above your LT, 30 seconds slightly below, repeat five times, take a one minute rest, and repeat the cycle). You can also do that on a trainer (which is another good investment for a cyclist in Canada).

If you want to train muscular endurance, like arnthorla said, you will need to put some time in doing steady state, near lactate threshhold efforts.

Once you get over your LT you are anaerobic and then your training becomes more about power output and recovery times.

I used to be a competitive cyclist myself.

What are your goals?