Cycling to Build and Tone Muscle

One of the biggest health benefits of cycling is that it builds, strengthens, and tones your biggest and most important lower body muscles, including your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. Here’s everything you need to know about cycling for muscle growth.

The Physiology of Muscle Growth

The process of building and toning muscles involves putting a load of stress onto your muscles that makes them work harder than they’re used to—this is what working out does, whether it’s lifting weights or riding your bike. This stress then forces your muscles to repair and rebuild themselves, which generates larger, thicker, more robust muscle tissue.

Fundamentally, it’s all about pushing your muscles to complete more work than they’re currently accustomed to. And on your bike, that means pedaling harder than normal. This includes high-intensity sprinting, cranking hard uphill, and riding in more difficult gears.

Tips and Guidelines to Promote Muscle Growth

Before we get into specific workout plans, there are a number of important concepts you need to understand first. These concepts can be applied to your other cycling workouts to transform all your routines into muscle-building exercises.

1. Increase resistance - The more resistance you pedal against, the harder your muscles work, and the more growth you’ll see. Shift into more difficult gears—especially on uphills and level ground—to increase resistance.
2. Sprint more - In the world of cycling, a sprint is essentially pedaling as hard and as fast as you can, typically over a short distance. Look for opportunities to mix sprinting intervals into your cycling workouts for additional muscle growth.
3. Stand up to ride - Standing up isolates your quadriceps and stimulates serious muscle growth. Whenever you can, complete an interval while standing up and pedaling hard. This is especially effective when climbing uphill.
4. Hover above your saddle - As a variation on standing up, try pedaling while hovering an inch or two above your saddle. This will make your legs work extra hard, thereby encouraging rapid muscle growth.

See:

• Ashe-Edmunds, Sam. “How to Build Leg Muscles With Biking.” LiveStrong.com. June 13, 2019.

Workout Plan 1: Sprinting Intervals

This is a very straightforward workout plan, designed specifically to build and tone muscle. 

Workout Plan 2: Muscle Isolation

The following workouts all focus on isolating a specific muscle group. Because these routines rely fairly heavily on technique, be sure you’re confident in your cycling skills. Each workout can be completed as a stand-alone routine. Or you can combine them into a larger, more comprehensive routine—whatever works best for you.

WORKOUT 1

Based on guidelines developed by Kathryn Vera in consultation with CrossFit trainer Aubrey Bailey, PT, DPT, CHT: Vera, Kathryn. “How to Build Leg Size With an Exercise Bike.” Chron. April 29, 2019. 

Adapted from: Agur, Lee. “Will Cycling Make Your Legs Bigger?” I Love Bicycling. May 30, 2016.

WORKOUT 2

(This version requires a climb that takes at least 5-10 minutes to complete)

WORKOUT 3

(This version requires cycling shoes and clipless pedals or pedals with toe straps)