Cycling already fires up all the muscles of your lower half. Is it really necessary to squeeze in strength training on top of all your time in the saddle?

“You can finish your ride without focusing on strength training, yes—but when you start incorporating strength exercises into your workouts, you’ll quickly realize you’ve been robbing yourself,” says Donnell Goss, a road cyclist and indoor cycling instructor. “From recovering more quickly in between rides and preventing injury to improving muscular endurance and strength on your hill climbs, it’s vital that cyclists focus on strength training.”

Here are six benefits of strength training for cyclists, including how it can help you ride better and more comfortably, with expert tips about how to work strength into your routine to get the most out of it.

1. Improved Mechanics

Lifting weights can make your cycling form better. “In the clinic, I see the most benefit from cyclists strengthening the gluteal muscles,” says Ellen Foster, a physiotherapist and cycling specialist. “As stabilising muscles, they help with proper knee alignment and improve bike handling skills.”

Along with squats, hip thrusts, and Bulgarian split squats for targeting your glutes, some of the other moves Foster recommends to fine-tune your cycling form including rows, for strengthening the back and shoulder muscles, which help with posture, and reverse lunges and step ups to replicate the form of your pedal stroke.

Goss also advises working on core strength to support your posture on the bike and keep your body stable while out of the saddle. “While cycling, your core will operate as your body’s anchor the whole time,” he says. “If that foundation is weak, you’ll notice it in your form right away.”

Your pedal stroke is one aspect of your form that strength training can enhance, per a 2014 article in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, involving 16 cyclists. Researchers found that 25 weeks of heavy strength training (along with endurance training) improved performance in a 40-minute all-out test—as measured by various power metrics—and that improvement was associated with achieving peak torque earlier in their pedal stroke, compared to before the strength sessions.

2. More Efficient Riding

Heavy strength training is most beneficial when it comes to making yourself a more economical rider, according to a 2013 review article in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports. Researchers suggest the benefits of heavy strength training may come from how it helps create more fatigue-resistant muscle fibres.

Similarly, researchers found that doing four sets of four reps of half squats three times a week for only eight weeks led to significant gains in cycling economy among 13 competitive road cyclists in a 2010 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

3. Boosted Power and Speed

Pairing strength training with sprint work on the bike for 12 weeks led to faster finishes in a 200-metre time trial and improved 10-second sprints at peak power among 25 road cyclists in a 2019 Australian study.

Going back to your glutes for a minute: Strengthening your backside is crucial for kicking speed and power into high gear. “The glute max and glute medius specifically are powerful hip extensors that contribute to the pedal stroke, especially when sprinting and climbing,” notes Foster.

To power up hills, Goss also advises getting in squats to target your glutes and quads, along with deadlifts to work your lower back, glutes, and hamstrings, “which you’ll need when going up a steep incline,” he says.

To make the most of these strength gains for performance, Foster suggests implementing a periodised training plan. “Just as your volume of riding ebbs and flows through a year when you are targeting a big race or event, your strength training needs to be planned months in advance,” she says.

Foster recommends starting strength during your off-season when your riding is at a lower volume. “Focus on strength for six to eight weeks while your riding is on the backburner so you can build a foundation of strength,” she advises. “If you are training at a high volume and intensity on the bike, you will blunt the results of both your riding and lifting.”

4. Reduced Risk of Injury and Pain

“Even small doses of strength training will be beneficial for injury prevention or rehabilitation from conditions like back pain or knee pain,” says Foster, adding that 30 minutes three times a week is all it takes to make a real difference. She especially loves planks for improving abdominal and scapular strength and helping to prevent back pain, plus rows to boost back and shoulder strength and nix neck pain.

Strengthening your glutes can also help protect your knees. “Glutes’ secondary action is hip external rotation,” Foster adds. “Through their attachment to the IT band, they will help prevent your knee from collapsing in on the downstroke, a common pedaling fault we see on riders with knee pain.”

RELATED: 7 Expert Tips for Banishing Lower Back Pain

5. Increased Time to Exhaustion

It only makes sense that the stronger your muscles are, the longer and farther they’ll be able to take you. And research backs that up: Resistance training also boosted cyclists’ endurance at maximum aerobic power by 17.2 percent in that same 2010 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research study we mentioned earlier.

How to Schedule Strength Training for the Biggest Gains

Along with lifting heavy, Foster says that cyclists can really benefit from prioritizing rest. That goes for both midworkout and afterward.

“One mistake I see cyclists making is choosing methods of strength training that include too much aerobic work or metabolic conditioning,” she says. “Bootcamp and HIIT can make you stronger, but if you are struggling with fatigue and injury, you’ll see much better gains from a traditional weightlifting routine with plenty of rest between sets. Let your heart rate recover between sets and you’ll actually be able to lift more.”

Postworkout, don’t skimp on R&R. “Protect your recovery,” says Foster, who advocates pairing a ride day with a strength day and leaving rest days to truly let your body recuperate. But at the end of the day, she says: “Whenever you have time to train is the best time to train.”

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