Home workout – no gym fees: Try these strengthening exercises for cyclists to stay injury free

Riding your bike without supplementing the pedal strokes with strength and conditioning training is a sure-fire route to injury. Here’s how to bulletproof your body on just one hour a week

Image shows a rider completing a home workout to stay injury free
(Image credit: Getty Images: Justin Paget)

"If you want to get fit, ride your bike." That old saw is true enough, in a rudimentary sense, but it ignores a number of important truths. Riding your bike won’t protect you against common cycling injuries, nor ensure good full-body condition, nor guard you against developing physical imbalances.

Of course you want to spend as much time as possible on your bike, but a little time spent doing strength training in the gym — or working-out at home for free — is well worth the small investment of time. Here, physio Sam Mak sets a 30-minute circuit that, if completed twice a week, promises to keep you supple, strong and resilient.

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David Bradford
Senior editor

David Bradford is senior editor of Cycling Weekly's print edition, and has been writing and editing professionally for 20 years. His work has appeared in national newspapers and magazines including the Independent, the Guardian, the Times, the Irish Times, Vice.com and Runner’s World. Alongside his love of cycling, David is a long-distance runner with a marathon personal best of 2hr 28min. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) in 2006, he also writes personal essays exploring sight loss, place, nature and social history. His essay 'Undertow' was published in the anthology Going to Ground (Little Toller, 2024).