DeVore Jacques - Maximum overload for cyclists : a radical strength-based program for improved speed and endurance in half the time

ALSO BY ROY M. WALLACK

Bike for Life: How to Ride to 100And Beyond

Run for Life: The Injury-Free, Anti-Aging Super-Fitness Plan to Keep You Running to 100

Barefoot Running Step by Step (with Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton)

Healthy Running Step by Step (with Robert Forster, PT)

Fire Your Gym (with Andy Petranek)

Be a Better Runner (with Sally Edwards and Carl Foster)

The Traveling Cyclist: 20 Worldwide Tours of Discovery

Notice: The information in this book is meant to supplement, not replace, proper exercise training. All forms of exercise pose some inherent risks. The editors and publisher advise readers to take full responsibility for their safety and know their limits. Before practicing the exercises in this book, be sure that your equipment is well-maintained, and do not take risks beyond your level of experience, aptitude, training, and fitness. The exercise and dietary programs in this book are not intended as a substitute for any exercise routine or dietary regimen that may have been prescribed by your doctor. As with all exercise and dietary programs, you should get your doctors approval before beginning.

Mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities in this book does not imply endorsement by the author or publisher, nor does mention of specific companies, organizations, or authorities imply that they endorse this book, its author, or the publisher. Internet addresses and telephone numbers given in this book were accurate at the time it went to press.

2017 by Rodale, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any other information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher.

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Book design by Joanna Williams

Note: The page number listed below refers to the print edition of this book.

Photographs by Haldane Morris, except for page 100 by Roy M. Wallack

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the publisher.

ISBN-13 9781623367749 paperback
ISBN-13 9781623367756 e-book

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Jacques:

To my mother, Madelyn DeVore, who always told me to seek knowledge

Roy:

To my irrepressible dad, Norm Wallack, 88, whos never lifted a weight but says he might start now

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Maximum Overload offers all-day Maximum Sustainable Power (MSP) on reduced training time by taking cyclists to a place they never imagined theyd go: the weight room.

In March 2013, in the steep Pyrenees Mountains that separate Spain and France, pro bike racer Dave DZ Zabriskie was ecstatic. Although not a top-10 finisher at any stage of the 7-day Volta a Catalunya (Tour of Catalonia), which included 2 days of tough summit finishes above 6,500 feet, the 34-year-old had raced far above his early-season expectations. A champion time trialist and the first American to win stages at all three of the biggest European tours (France, Italy, and Spain), DZ was never in great shape early in the season, was not a great natural climber, and was coming off a 6-month suspension for doping a decade earlier on one of Lance Armstrongs teams. But when he got on the phone, he was beyond happy.

I kept up on the climbs! he raved. I wasnt gassing out on the hills. Im sustaining my power. Ill be ready for the Tour of California [an upcoming race hed previously finished second in four times]. The weight lifting is working.

What? Weight lifting?

Yes, you read that correctly. Zabriskie had been pumping ironsomething competitive cyclists simply dont do, and cycling coaches have expressly warned against for a century. Riders ride. Weights make a cyclist heavy and slow, they say, advising riders to stay away from weights at all costs (except maybe a little core work in the off-season). But Zabriskie, at the tail end of an impressive career with little to lose by trying something new, took a leap of faithand something crazy happened: His power in watts on the bike jumped upway up, a whopping 15 percent in just 4 monthswhile his body weight went down. Not surprisingly, his climbing was way better. On hilly training rides in the Santa Monica Mountains, he wore out Christian Vande Velde, one of his Garmin-Sharp teammates, normally a much better climber. At an age when improvement simply does not happen to the normal pro cyclist, DZ was getting better, all because he was doing two or three workouts a week of weight liftingwhile riding less!

But he wasnt doing just any old three sets of 10 reps in the gym. Trying to improve his ability to sustain power longer, Zabriskie was using Maximum Overload, the worlds first weight-lifting program designed specifically for cyclists.

Maximum Overload establishes a new paradigm that promises to revolutionize how people train for cycling. Using heavy weights to fire and harden the key mover muscles of cycling in short, taxing, and methodical workouts that increase the riders ability to sustain power longer, it offers the Holy Grail of training: better performance in less workout time. And the benefits dont end there.

Specifically, Maximum Overload gives you:

Improved powerso you get more out of each pedal stroke.

Sustained power from start to finishknown here as Maximum Sustainable Power (MSP). By building more powerful muscle fibers, you stay fresher all day. More MSP means you are able to work less in the first half of the race and keep your speed on second-half hills and surges without gassing out in the last miles.

Less total workout time. A 40-minute Maximum Overload workout can replace hours of saddle timeand improve upon it. You can cut your total training time dramatically.

Quick results (often within a month or two), which keep motivation high. Grinding it out in the gym for hours is no ones idea of fun. Between massage and physical therapy, who has time? Maximum Overload gets you in and out in an hourand in as little as 40 minutes once youre fully trained.

Faster recovery than typical weight workouts. The unique combination of heavy weight and small clusters of reps is less taxing on your muscles than traditional high-intensity, high-volume programs.

Better form. Fresher muscles maintain a more efficient body position and pedal stroke.

Fewer injuries. The Maximum Overload protocol reduces the risks of traditional heavy weight lifting. It focuses not just on the weights, but on straightening out and protecting the whole infrastructure from overuse injuries through a step-by-step warm-up and injury-prevention movements before the big lifts.