You simply work your physique otherwise with the 2 varieties of coaching. With biking, your muscle tissues work repeatedly, however you’re not stressing them with main load. This can assist your leg muscle tissues construct muscular endurance, NASM-certified coach and Peloton teacher Jess Sims tells SELF. So hopping on the bike can assist construct your leg muscle tissues’ capacity to maintain working onerous over an extended time period.

However, says Sims, “If the objective is to get sturdy, I might not suggest to simply take a biking class.”

To try this, you’d want power coaching: Throughout your working units, you place your muscle tissues below plenty of load for a comparatively fast period of time: these 5, eight, 12, whatever-it-may-be reps. Then you definately give them relaxation earlier than you do it yet again. This trains them to realize the sort of power wanted to deal with these main masses—it’s what train scientists name the precept of specificity.

Even in case you crank up the resistance as excessive because it goes throughout a hill exercise whereas biking, that may’t evaluate to doing hip thrusts or lunges with heavy weights. “Take into consideration the resistance you placed on a motorbike: I simply did 10,000 reps—you’ll by no means try this with weights,” Schneider says. For those who’re in a position to pull off 10,000 pedal strokes in a biking class, the load is clearly going to be very totally different from a power session that asks for simply 10 reps.

All in all? Biking “is unquestionably not an alternative to a leg day,” Sims says.

However power coaching will make you a fair higher bicycle owner.

Research present that cyclists of all genders can profit from power coaching. “If you wish to be a stronger bicycle owner, then you need to power practice,” Schneider says.

Sims factors out that people who solely cycle miss out on unilateral motion, or workouts that problem one facet of the physique at a time. That is necessary as a result of it’s simple for one facet to choose up additional slack in actions like biking or rowing that use each legs. “Over time, in case you do not right that, then you might be simply including to the dysfunction,” she says. And that may result in damage or pressure for the reason that stronger facet will tackle greater than its justifiable share of the work.

Then again, in case you single out one facet of the physique at a time, you may be deliberate about strengthening each equally so that you don’t find yourself with imbalances. “And when you have stronger quads and hamstrings and glutes, you are going to have extra energy on the bike,” Sims says.

Power coaching additionally forces you to maneuver in greater ranges and in additional instructions than the one repetitive movement you do throughout a standard biking session. “If all you do is cycle, you don’t have any lateral motion,” Schneider says, for instance. That implies that your physique is much less ready to deal with the numerous actions you may encounter in a Zumba class, or on a hike, or while you’re attempting to keep away from tripping over your youngsters’ toys.

Power coaching and biking can complement one another—in case you’re strategic.

As Sims places it, “Biking is cardio and power is power.” The Bodily Exercise Tips for Individuals suggest getting at the least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio (or 75 minutes at vigorous depth) and two or extra days of power coaching per week. That means: You should do each sorts of exercises to realize well-rounded health.