Strength training for cyclists and runners is now part of LeCoach. You make a strength plan next to your training plan, every exercise has a 3D figure that shows how it's done, and a player with a coach voice takes you through each workout. When you finish, LeCoach sets your weights for next time.
Most riders and runners know some strength work would help them. The hard part is fitting it into a week that's already full of training, and knowing what to do once you're standing on the mat. That's the part we built this for.
A strength plan next to your training plan
Under Your plan you'll find a new tab, Strength & mobility. Four questions shape your plan: what you want to train (strength for cycling, for running, all-body, or a mix), whether to add mobility, what equipment you have, and where strength fits in your week.
That last question matters most. You can keep strength with your hard workouts, so your easy days stay easy, or spread it out over your easier days. LeCoach looks at your next four weeks of training and suggests the days and the time for each. Pick other days if they suit you better.
Then you see your week: each day's workout, how long it takes, what you need and which muscles it trains. Change anything before you save it. Swap an exercise, add a set, move a day or rename a workout. Your strength plan stays on the days you chose. LeCoach doesn't move strength around on its own, and when a race or a holiday lands on a strength day later, it suggests a move and you decide. The support article on strength plans has the details.
Workouts built for riders and runners
LeCoach has 18 ready-made workouts, built from 134 exercises. Leg strength for cyclists, Runner strength, Core for riders, Single leg and hips, a 15-minute express session, and mobility work like Hips and lower back or an after-ride stretch. No equipment at home? Your plan picks exercises you can do without it.
You can also build your own workout, or change one of ours and keep it as your version. On a day away from home, Use another workout swaps that day's workout for one that fits what you have with you.
If you want to read up on the training itself first, strength training for cyclists: what the evidence says and how to combine gym work and cycling training are good places to start.
A 3D figure for every exercise
Every exercise has its own 3D movement. Tap an exercise to watch the figure do it, turn it around to see it from the side, and read the steps and the usual mistakes next to it. You can dress the figure yourself in Settings: a cycling or running kit in one of eight designs, your hair and skin tone.
A player that counts with you
Press Start and choose how you want to train. With Follow along, the figure paces each rep while the coach voice counts, calls the rests and tells you what's next, with one form tip before each exercise. With Just log it, you tick off your sets at your own pace. You can switch between the two halfway.
Bring your heart rate strap if you like. Your heart rate shows on screen and is saved with the workout, and Intervals.icu gets it too, so your time in zones and your load count. It works in Chrome or Edge on a computer, Chrome on Android and the LeCoach app. Took a phone call or closed the app? Your workout waits for you, and Continue picks it up where you were. The article on doing a strength workout walks through the player.
Stronger from one workout to the next
When you finish, LeCoach asks how the workout was: too easy, just right or too hard. You can rate each exercise on its own as well. For cyclists and runners, strength training is about getting stronger, so the weight goes up and the reps stay the same. Too hard and the weight comes down straight away. The done screen shows you what changes, for example "Next time: 2x 12kg instead of 2x 10kg". More in how your strength workouts progress.
Your coach knows your strength training
The coach sees your strength plan, your current weights and the workouts you did. Ask it to move Thursday's session, make one easier in a heavy week, or swap an exercise you don't like. You see the change first and save it yourself, as with your rides and runs. While you're still making your plan, the Ask the coach box under it changes the plan right there on the page.
It fits the apps you already use
Your strength workouts go to your Intervals.icu calendar as weight training, and mobility as yoga, with the full list of exercises. If you record a workout on your watch as well, LeCoach links that activity to the planned workout, so nothing counts twice.
Try it
Open Your plan › Strength & mobility and answer the four questions. A tour with screenshots is on the strength training app page. Missing an exercise you like to do? Search for it in the exercise list and tell us with "Ask us to add one". We read every request.