Increasing Power to Weight ratio

SniperX

Anyone knows how to go about reducing weight while retaining or perhaps even increasing muscle strength and hence increasin the P to W ratio?

ric_stern/RST

depending on the type of cycling you do (i.e., endurance) muscle strength has little or no bearing on power output, i.e., trained endurance athletes are no stronger than age and sex matched sedentary controls.

Depending on how much fat mass you have to loose, might or might not make any difference to your cycling performance (unless you happen to race up somewhere like Alpe d'Huez!). If you have large amounts of fat to loose it might make a difference, however, if it is a small amount it'll make little or no difference.

It's virtually always better to think about increasing the amount of power that you can produce, it's generally easier to increase power rather than loose mass, has added benefits (you'll be faster on the flat and uphill) and is more trainable.

However, if you are looking at weight loss, then aim to loose no more than 0.5 kg per week, which is a kcal deficit of 500 kcal/day.

Ric

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SniperX

How do i increase power?