Top 10 tips for cycling and staying fit

Ten simple ways you can build your body strength – and reduce pain – with these exercises between long commutes
Bike blog fitness tips
You don't need Bradley Wiggins's fitness levels – but staying in shape helps reduce pain when cycling. Photograph: Gustau Nacarino/REUTERS

Cyclists' squats

If you ride around a lot, most likely you're going to have pretty tight calves, which can make squatting well fairly tricky. Elevating the heels about 5 cm by placing some weighted plates (if you are in the gym) or books or magazines (if you are at home), allowing you to squat deeper with an upright torso. Keep the feet parallel (as you would if you were cycling). Try three sets of 12 repetitions, with enough weight to mean the 12th repetition is very hard indeed.

Core training

Just because cycling seems to use mostly leg muscles doesn't mean you should neglect your core strength. A strong core will help you to keep good posture while you ride, especially when you're out of the saddle, going uphill for example. The plank is an exercise you can do at home, outdoors, or under your desk: lie chest-down on the floor. Push yourself up onto your elbows (kept directly beneath your shoulders) and tuck your toes under. Hold this position, keeping your back straight, for as long as you can.

Tricep dips

The back of your arms can take a bit of a thrashing on bumpy rides so it's good to keep them strong. Place your hands behind you, fingers pointing forward, on a bench, block or step. Keep the knees bent and thighs parallel to the ground. Bend the elbows until your bottom nearly touches the ground. Extend the elbows. Repeat 12 times. Rest one minute and go again.

Lower back

It's usually around 26 miles (marathon distance, interestingly), that it kicks in for me when I'm doing a long ride: the lower back ache. Now I'm sure it's partly because I haven't spend hundreds of pounds on the best bike in the world and getting it set up by an expert (another tip, get the ergonomics right), but it's also just because the back gets tired. And it gets tired because it's not strong enough. So keep the lower back strong by performing weighted row movements with dumbbells or kettlebells.

Stand with feet hip-distance apart. Bend down until your torso is as close to parallel with the floor as you can manage and make sure your back is straight, shoulders pulled back into their sockets. Tilt your pelvis slightly forward so that you hips point upwards a little. Holding the weights in either hand, bend at the elbows and pull the arms up until the weight brushes your chest, keeping elbows close to the body. Extend the arms and repeat! Start with three sets of 12 repetitions, with a minute's rest in-between. It should be heavy enough that you struggle to get out the last repetition.


Increase your cardiovascular fitness quickly by including intervals in your training. Start with basic repetitions of one minute hard, say 80% of maximum effort, one minute easy, around 40% of maximum effort. Obviously this isn't very conducive to commuting so try to do it either on a stationary bike in the gym, or in a park where you can let rip for a minute! Also, spinning classes or similar are basically just one long interval and hill session.

Add power

Pat Leahy is a professional ironman coach and athlete. He says: "You should do at least one very hard power session each week. This is best done on a spin bike indoors where you know you won't have to stop for any reason. Start with, say, 4-6 minutes on a high resistance, then take 1-2 minutes recovery. Repeat it 4 times and build it up each week."

Hit the hills

Find a hill, any hill that's long enough, hard enough and pretty enough to keep you challenged and interested, and set yourself a goal to get up it a certain number of times. It's simple, it's effective and you'll feel amazing (and be fitter) after: it's hill training.

Stay flexible

If you're a regular rider, the likelihood is that your hamstrings are tight and, let's face it, how many of us stretch for at least five minutes every time we get off the bike? One great way of ensuring that you do the flexibility work necessary is to do a couple of yoga sessions every week, ideally heated (where you practice in 35-38C) as that helps the muscles to warm up quicker and allows for safer stretching.


Take at least one day off per week. It sounds counterintuitive but actually rest is the only way to get stronger. It has to be rest in between training sessions (or long commutes by bike) of course, rather than just never-going-out-on-your-bike kind of rest. But when you train hard the little microfibres in your muscles (called mitochondria) actually break down, and when they rebuild they do so stronger. That's how you get stronger. But they can rebuild a lot better and quicker if they are given some time out every now and again.

Eat well

The same goes for what you eat. The microfibres will rebuild much faster if you feed your body well. Eating the right things, at least 70-80% of the time will ensure that you can recover well between sessions. Athletes and bodybuilders, or those with special dietary needs (suffering from diabetes for example), do need to take more care over the detail of their diet, but for regular, active people, good nutrition remains fairly simple. Eat regular meals and snacks, ideally consuming something every 3-4 hours. Lots of green leafy vegetables, fruit and meals consisting of protein, slow-release carbohydrates and vegetables.

Lucy Fry is a journalist and published author as well as being a personal fitness trainer, boxing and kickboxing instructor