Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

Apparently, cycling legend and come-backing cyclist, Lance Armstrong, has plans to do an Ironman triathlon once his cycling comeback is over. That’s some serious training, even for a guy who’s known to be a training beast. An ironman consists of a swim of 3.8 km (2.4 miles), bike of 180 km (112 miles) and a run of 42.2 km (a full 26.2 mile marathon). The best of the best finish in around 8 hours
 
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would you guys say that the way he does the step-ups would be a good replacement for deep single leg squats?

Looks like his knee is shifting all over the place which confirms Mike’s opinion that the step is too high.

Step Up is a good exercise but I would prefer seeing it done in addition to exercise with more eccentric muscle action.

mr glove - 16 January 2009 01:25 PM

Looks like his knee is shifting all over the place which confirms Mike’s opinion that the step is too high.

Step Up is a good exercise but I would prefer seeing it done in addition to exercise with more eccentric muscle action.

How much eccentric work do you believe a cyclist needs?

I wasn’t so concerned with eccentric work as I was from the fact that he basically has to cheat the first 4 inches of COM movement up (rock back, jump up off the non-support leg, lots of varus-valgus action going on in the support leg) that I thought it would be better if he lowered the box about 4-6”.

Mike Young - 16 January 2009 03:06 AM

...If you were in charge of Lance’s weight workouts, what would you have him do?

Hire Mike to work on his hang clean form.

Few observations.

1) His hang clean is worse than “not so hot” imo.  And why does he walk so far out?
2) The no shirt is odd, but why isn’t he wearing shoes?  I’m not aware of a good reason to do cleans without shoes on (or any exercise), so if there is one please correct me.  It just seemed to “Pumping Iron” to me.
3) When I do step ups I try to work the hip flexor at the top of the exercise.  Explode on the way up and really drive the trailing knee.  Lance seems to really just be doing a modified one leg squat to me.
4) At 2:10 after he finishes the rows: Is tossing the dumbbell necessary?  I mean it’s funny to watch, but do you really need to pimp your lift like that?

This whole thing looked moderately staged.  Is he oiled up or really sweating that much?

mathius43 - 17 January 2009 11:40 AM

Few observations.

1) His hang clean is worse than “not so hot” imo.  And why does he walk so far out?

I agree. I thought I’d keep the criticism mild since a recent blog post caused a huge dustup that I didn’t want this post to return to.

2) The no shirt is odd, but why isn’t he wearing shoes?  I’m not aware of a good reason to do cleans without shoes on (or any exercise), so if there is one please correct me.  It just seemed to “Pumping Iron” to me.

It will definitely strengthen the feet more but there’s a little bit of a safety issue (not from weights falling so much as from stubbing your toe or slipping) as well as a sanitation issue. If one wanted to get the benefits of barefoot lifting I’d suggest using vibram five fingers shoes. I can’t say I’d ever recommend OLing barefoot.

This whole thing looked moderately staged.  Is he oiled up or really sweating that much?

I’m sure it’s at least partially staged.

Hang cleans always help my Ironman…

dbandre - 16 January 2009 01:50 PM

mr glove - 16 January 2009 01:25 PM

Looks like his knee is shifting all over the place which confirms Mike’s opinion that the step is too high.

Step Up is a good exercise but I would prefer seeing it done in addition to exercise with more eccentric muscle action.

How much eccentric work do you believe a cyclist needs?

Considering all they do is dope and ride, dope and ride, dope and ride, that’s a good question.

Is a step up a good replacement for single leg squats was what I was addressing.