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Cycling performance often gets measured in how much power we can crank out. And strength training can unlock more muscle recruitment in your efforts, improve fatigue resistance, and give you even more control of the bike. Dana Huber, an athletic trainer and the race director of TRI Mountain Lake in New Jersey, says, “Simply put strength training helps create more motor unit recruitment—teaching those muscles to use more of its self to power through a stroke.” But there’s an important distinction that cyclists should note—not all power is equal. If you want to increase your speed, sail over short hills, hang with a faster group ride, or even sprint your way to a podium, you need to develop the right type of explosive power. As a fitness expert, there is one exercise I recommend more than any other to improve your explosive power, and it’s easy to add to almost any strength-training routine because it doesn’t require any equipment at all.

The plyometric lunge is one of my favorite exercises to add for athletes looking to gain more explosiveness on their bike. This is a great addition to a power improvement plan because it is a lower-body-dominant exercise that focuses on power and control, and can get your heart rate up as an added bonus. You will notice the gains from this exercise as you quickly accelerate off the line, out of a corner, or up the next roller. Many of us have a friend who can explode at the bottom of a rolling hill and seems to just drive right up the next one. The benefits that can come from this simple unweighted exercise can benefit you whether you are trying to make moves on your Thursday night group or you just want to attack a little harder rolling into that local Strava test piece.

How to do it:

  1. Start in a lunge position: one foot forward and one foot back, with both knees slightly bent and your chest upright.
  2. Bend both knees until your back knee moves toward the floor. Keep your front knee tracking over your toes, not collapsing inward. This is the bottom of your range of motion.
  3. Remember to brace your core, keeping your torso tall, shoulders relaxed, and eyes forward.
  4. Push hard through both feet and jump straight up from the lunge position.
  5. Next, you switch legs in the air. While airborne, bring your back leg forward and your front leg back.
  6. Land in the opposite lunge position with bent knees to absorb impact. I like to tell athletes you want to have “soft feet” when you land.
  7. Continue alternating sides, focusing on power, balance, and quiet landings rather than speed.

power exercises, plyo lungeTrevor Raab

Plyometric Lunge

Remember, as with anything, start slow. This is a more advanced exercise, so building the progression from the bottom is a good place to start. Start with a slow and controlled lunge when you are within arm’s reach of something like a couch or a wall. This is to see how your body does with the movement pattern. You can stick with doing a lunge next to the arm of a couch or using something like TRX bands for stability, until you get comfortable with the exercise. Once you are comfortable with the movement, you can graduate to add a more explosive movement on the upward movement of the exercise. Then, finally, if you get through those progressions, it may be time to try the plyometric lunge.

When I add these to my workouts, I typically do them as an exercise in a high-intensity interval training (HIIT) session for about 30 to 40 seconds. If you have any issues getting through the range of motion or holding your balance, that may be an indication you need to modify this exercise a bit. This exercise can be put into an existing HIIT workout, or you can incorporate it into one of your strength-training days. If you’re looking for more expert-guided strength training workouts, plans, and advice, check out our Guide to Strength Training. It’s free for Bicycling members and contains hours of video instruction that will help you reach your power, speed, and strength goals.

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