Plyometrics for Cycling Performance

Visiting the gym (or setting up a gym at home) and completing a range of strength and conditioning exercises season round, should have a place in your training program as it really improves cycling performance, science has proven it.

Strength and conditioning can mean a number of exercises which will vary depending on the individual goals, strengths and weaknesses of every cyclist. One area of strength and conditioning we refer to is plyometrics. 

Plyometrics are primarily jumping exercises which are focused on enabling your muscles to exert maximum force fast. Whilst pure strength exercises will help you push bigger gears, pushing bigger gears fast requires power and speed elements and that’s where plyometrics enter the equation. 

In addition to enhancing balance and coordination, plyometrics enable your larger muscle groups to work with synchronicity which are benefits that you don’t usually get from standard lifting regimes. 

There’s a number of exercises and ways you can introduce plyometrics into your training regime, some prefer to have it as a standalone session where others might incorporate plyo jumps into their gym program.

There is no wrong or right way to incorporate plyometrics into your training, but when you pull your training program apart and look at where you might include them - you should look for times within or external to gym sessions where you are most fresh and recovered from the previous session. This will enable you to gain maximum benefits from the jumps. 

There’s a whole range of jumps that you might include into your training, if you’re looking for specific session advice, check out our Box Plyo Drills product or speak to your lifting coach and ask for a plyometrics program to suit your training needs. 

In this video, our Strength & Conditioning coach Max Dal Santo demonstrates ‘Triple Bounds’, a plyometric jump that Max incorporates into the training of some of our Elite track athletes.

As you’ll see in the video, Max gains a good amount of height and forward propulsion. It’s important to scale the height and width of the box, along with the length of the jump to suit your own physical abilities, and a vital tip we can offer you to save your shins (in case of a missed landing) is to wear shin guards (you can buy them at most sporting stores).  

If you have any questions or comments, please leave them in the box below.