╔(σ_σ)╝ said:
I am lean by nature and an avid cyclist at that. I noticed that any food I eat gets put to work during my extended spinning session. I would like to gain some more muscle in my leg area to give me more power during hill climbing and accelaration in a race. I don't know what kind of muscles I have but it let's me sustain extremely high cadance for a sustained period of time.
I sort of want to exchange some of thoes muscles for short term "power house" muscles.
I have tried eating a lot and then going to bed ( I read that it is what sumo wrestlers do) that doesn't seem to be working. Any suggestions ?
To build muscle you need to change up your workout. If you repeat the same workout over and over, it becomes a matter endurance for your muscles and building those slow-twitch muscles you already have.
I'd suggest 4 things. Firstly, GoogleBing any workout website and try and find 30-35 leg workouts, working the muscle groups you want to build.
Second, make yourself a lifting schedule in Excel. Each workout with ~10 lifts, 3 times a week. You want to switch it up from week to week, like a 2 week rotation. So you have week 1; day 1, 2, 3, week 2; day 1, 2, 3. Then you'll repeat at the end of the two weeks. Maybe even mixing days up for the next cycle through. I say do it in Excel also, so you can keep track of your strength gains.
Three, make sure you are lifting to build muscle--Not tone muscle. This generally means a higher weight and lower rep number. Depending on the time you have available you can switch up the rep style on any of the work outs. For instance, you may do leg presses and put enough weight on you can only get 5 reps per lift and do that 3 or 4 times.
You may try pyramiding some of the lifts. Like doing leg presses where your reps per set look like 4, 5, 6, 5, 4. Or decreasing reps per set, like 6, 5, 4, 3, etc.
Finally, Protein, protein, protein. If you go to all this trouble to build muscle but aren't adequate in your protein consumption, you'll only end up toning muscle. I'd suggest protein supplements to make sure you're getting enough. Like on top of the meals you eat, make time for protein snacks. Either easy to digest shakes or bars (if you want to easy way) or prep your own high protein snacks if you want the cheaper, but more time consuming, alternative. Chocolate milk (none of that wussy low-fat kind either) makes a great recovery drink. I'd try to eat 2-3 protein snacks per day.
There are lots of structured routines you can find online also, if you've never made your own and are not comfortable. They'd be easy enough to find in the age of Google and also there are many, many lifting forums you could also seek customized routines as well. Hope that helps, let us know if you get the progress you are looking for!
Edit: And don't forget your stretching and warming up!
