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If one of your goals is to improve your ability to cruise up a hill or sprint to win a race, you might do lower-body moves in the gym to build strength, such as squats and lunges. That’s helpful, of course, but another way to crank out higher watts with ease is to focus on training your muscle power.
Consider muscle power the ability to mesh strength and speed. While muscular strength means you can lift, for example, 50 pounds, muscular power is being able to throw that 50 pounds away from your body.
“Anytime you need to put a lot of force on the pedal, you need power,” explains Renee Eastman, C.S.C.S., cycling coach with Carmichael Training Systems in Colorado Springs, Colorado tells Bicycling. “[Muscular power is] all about force over time. And in order to be able to do something in a shorter amount of time—whether it’s sprinting to the end of the race or simply sprinting to catch up with your buddy—it requires your ability to generate force [quickly].”
How Muscle Power Benefits Cyclists
Being a powerful rider can help you flip the switch between simply enduring a ride to actually enjoying a ride. Cycling coach Tom Holland, C.S.C.S., recounts a client who came to him in need of a power-boosting workout to help her enjoy her cycling-related travels. “She wanted to get up those hills faster with less effort,” Holland, author of The Micro-Workout Plan tells Bicycling. “That’s where power comes into play. Once we focused on building that power, it helped her enjoy her rides more.”
Power also trains your muscles to adapt quickly when you start and stop suddenly, which is handy when you encounter obstacles. “If you have to quickly cross an intersection if a car is coming... having powerful muscles can help you get out of the way of danger fast,” Holland says.
Aside from how muscle power can help your cycling, research has also found that it may contribute to quality of life as you age. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis published in European Review of Aging and Physical Activity found that power training is more beneficial than traditional strength training for older adults, as it helps improve performance on activity tests, therefore demonstrating it can support functional movement as you age.
Of course, you can’t move something quickly if you can’t lift it, so before you work on muscle power, start with building your strength.
“You need to have the foundational strength and movement patterns first before doing power moves safely and effectively,” Eastman says. For example, focus on mastering movement patterns such as the squat, hinge, push, pull, and lunge with weight, and then you can add power by making those moves more explosive.
Fortunately, you are likely already building power on your bike, but here are more details on how to focus on that skill both on and off the bike.
How to Build Muscle Power on the Bike
The best power-building workout is one you do in the saddle, says Eastman. “If you’re not already doing power workouts on the bike, you’re missing out on a key ingredient,” she adds.
Eastman recommends this bike workout for muscle power:
10-minute warmup of low-intensity cycling
8-10 x 10-12 seconds of all-out sprint, with 3 minutes of low-intensity cycling between
10-minute cooldown of low-intensity cycling
“These short spurts help you improve your peak force,” Eastman says. This also helps you go from minimal to maximal effort in quick duration.
Another great muscular power workout on the bike? Hill repeats, says Eastman. As anyone who has climbed multiple hills in a row knows, you rely on the power of your legs, as well as stability from your core and upper body, when fighting gravity and an incline. Find a hill near you to crank out reps, or turn up the resistance on your indoor trainer to mimic hills outside and build your muscle power.
6 Exercises to Build Muscle Power
We typically consider plyometric exercises, or explosive moves, to be the road to muscular power, because they teach you to create force quickly. According to the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy, plyometric movement enhances the ability of muscle fibers to generate more tension and force. They also target fast-twitch muscle fibers, which are crucial for sprint performance.
Some research indicates that lifting heavy loads—about 70 to 90 percent of your one-rep max or how much weight you can lift for just one rep—will also enhance your muscle power.
To add power exercises to your own routine, pick one or two below to incorporate into your strength training days, and then add more as you build more power.
1. Skaters
Why it works: This explosive plyometric move helps your body become accustomed to changing directions quickly, and builds lateral hip strength while strengthening the glutes and boosting balance and coordination.
How to do it:
Stand with feet hip-width apart, knees bent into a slight squat.
Push off right foot, to hop laterally to the left, landing softly to lower onto left heel and bend into a partial squat, right leg coming behind and across body.
Now push quickly off left foot to hop back to right side, landing softly and bending right knee, left leg coming behind and across body. Make sure to keep knees over toes and keep posture upright throughout the move.
Continue alternating. Do 3 sets of 10-12 reps on each leg.
2. Bulgarian Split Squat
Why it works: Holland swore by the Bulgarian split squat to help him build power and reduce fatigue in his quads during Ironman training (he’s completed 26!). Because you are relying on the strength of one leg to power up, driving force through that leg, it builds power in the glutes and quads, along with the hamstrings and calves.
How to do it:
Start sitting in a chair.
Extend standing left leg out, and place heel on ground.
Stand up, keeping left leg in place and planting foot.
Place back right leg on the chair behind you.
Hold a heavy dumbbell or kettlebell at chest, making sure to keep shoulders down and back. Look straight ahead.
Lean slightly forward at hips and with left front foot planted firmly on ground, take an inhale and bend left leg to lower toward floor. Lower until back knee hovers just above the floor or as close to it as you can go while keeping left knee tracking over toes.
Exhale and drive left foot into floor to stand up, straightening front leg.
Repeat. Do 3 sets of 5 reps per side.
3. Plyo Lunge
Why it works: This plyometric move helps build explosive power and proprioception, which is your awareness of your body in space. Also, the burst of movement that you use to switch your stance mimics moves—and uses the same muscles—that you use to pedal.
How to do it:
Stand tall, arms at sides and feet hip-width apart.
Jump up and land with right foot forward, both knees bending 90 degrees with right knee tracking over toes and left knee hovering just above floor.
Now jump again, reversing the position of legs.
Continue alternating. Do 3 sets of 5 reps per leg.
4. Medicine Ball Slam
Why it works: This move provides a dynamic, explosive total-body exercise and utilizes the same foundational muscles that help stabilize you when cycling, such as your core, back, and chest, as well as your lower-body muscles.
How to do it:
Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hold a medicine ball in both hands.
Squat down by sending hips down and back.
Then drive through feet to stand up, lifting ball above head and coming onto toes.
Slam the ball down as you lower back into a squat.
Catch the ball and repeat. Do 3 sets of 6-8 reps.
5. Kettlebell One-Arm Swing
Why it works: The one-armed kettlebell swing strengthens your lower body, and requires serious power from your hips to get the bell to swing forward and up. It also targets your core.
How to do it:
Start standing, feet slightly wider than hip-width apart, kettlebell in front of you, about arm’s length away.
Hinge at hips and grab the kettlebell with right hand.
Drag it back and up, behind you, right at groin.
Drive feet into ground and powerfully extend hips to swing the bell forward and up. Hit a plank-like position at the top, shoulders right over hips. Avoid leaning back.
Allow momentum of the bell to swing back down, send hips straight back for the hinge as it lowers.
Repeat. Do 3 sets of 5 reps per side.
6. Burpee
Why it works: There’s a reason burpees have been standard gym-class fare for a long time: The burpee is a full-body, plyometric move that builds core stability, too. You’ll work everything from the shoulders and arms to core, glutes, and legs.
How to do it:
Stand with feet hip-width apart.
Squat down and lower hands to floor in front of you, just inside ankles.
Put weight on hands as you jump feet back into a plank position, shoulders over wrists, forming a straight line from head to heels.
Bend elbows to lower body to floor.
Press back up, keeping body in one straight line.
Jump feet back up to hands.
Jump quickly into air, arms reaching overhead.
Land softly.
Repeat. Do 3 sets of 5 reps.
How to Safely Train Muscular Power
Ready to put some power into your pedaling? Keep these tips in mind first.
1. Build in recovery time, both between sets and between days of power training. If you’re doing an explosive move, you want to give your muscles enough time to recover for the next set, says Eastman.
Don’t hesitate to rest between moves. A small study with 10 male basketball players found that one minute of recovery between sets was effective, but Eastman says you can rest for up to two minutes.
Finally, your muscles need 48 to 72 hours to recover from plyometric moves, according to the International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.
2. Build a base. “Power is like icing on the cake in terms of strength training, like a finishing touch,” says Eastman. “Before you build power, though, you need the movement patterns, you need to build the stronger connective tissues and muscle volume, and the foundational work.” You should be comfortable and experienced with weight training for at least six months before you start plyometric training.
3. Don’t do it all at once. “If you’re doing a strength day, you might do two power moves and three or four strength moves. It’s not all or nothing. And I certainly wouldn’t suggest that someone starts with five to eight power moves, you really only need two or three in a workout,” says Eastman.
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