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You are here: Home / Blog / Only 28 Minutes of Riding Improved Power by 6%

Only 28 Minutes of Riding Improved Power by 6%

by Victor 14 Comments

Thirty Second timer setting for interval training
30 second sprints can give a big boost to your power

Adding a few sprints to your weekly workouts may give you an edge over the competition.

When scientists compared trained cyclists who did their normal endurance sessions with riders who added a series of sprint sets twice a week, they found the intense efforts helped the riders become more fit.

Sprints vs Endurance Training

To do the study, the scientists recruited 17 male cyclists, each with at least two years of training experience, and measured their height, weight, body fat, maximum aerobic capacity, or VO2 max, and the number of hours of they practiced per week.

Testing Protocol

The researchers then randomly broke the cyclists into two groups and tracked their training over a four-week period. The first group maintained their endurance workouts, training about 8 hours per week. The second group trained 5 hours per week outside of the lab and then performed 2 sprint sessions at the Human Performance Research Center at Brigham Young University in Utah.

The sessions included a warm-up and then a series of 30-second all out efforts followed by four minutes of easy spinning. By the end of four weeks, the cyclists in the sprint group were performing ten 30-second all-out efforts twice a week.

Short Fast Sprints Improve Fitness

Running a battery of tests on the cyclists as they practiced, the scientists found that the cyclists adding sprints to their training regimen improved their peak and mean power and overall total work by six percent. The cyclists doing only endurance training improved their peak power by four percent their mean power by three percent and their total output by only two percent.

One of the tests the scientists did was to collect the cyclists’ blood while they were riding. Analyzing the samples from before, during and after a workout, the scientists found that the sprinters had more lactate in the plasma of their blood than their endurance-only counterparts, which suggests the sprinters’ metabolic system improved with intense training.

Along with blood draws, the scientists also hooked electrodes to different parts of the riders’ legs. The electrodes measured when muscle fibers were firing, a signal that originates in the brain. Based on the readouts, the sprinters appeared to be better able to recruit new cycling-specific muscle fibers after adding intense efforts to their workouts. In other words, the sprints improved a rider’s conversation between the brain and working muscles.

The results of the experiment suggest that adding intense, all out sprints improves a cyclist’s overall power and fitness, metabolic efficiency and even the connection between the cells in the brain and the muscles in the body that control the riders’ movements.

Only 28 Minutes of Riding Improved Power by 6%

In the experiment, the sprint group performed only 28 minutes of intense effort over a four weeks, along with their regular endurance practices. Here’s the set:

Warm up: 5 minutes at 100 Watts
4×30 second all-out sprints, w/ 4-minute recovery at 50 Watts at a cadence <75 RPMs
5 minutes Cool Down

You can add 2 sprints per week, so during the fourth week, you’ll do 10×30 second all out sprints.

Do you do sprint or interval training?

Even if you are a recreational cyclist you should be doing some sort of interval training. The sprint or interval training outlined in this study is very taxing on your joints and body. Many riders may be better suited for less intense intervals to avoid injuries.

Have a sprint set you love? Share it below.
Have you done the types of intervals in this study? Have you seen improvement? Please leave a comment.

Citation:  Neural, metabolic, and performance adaptations to four weeks of high intensity sprint-interval training in trained cyclists. Creer AR, Ricard MD, Conlee RK, Hoyt GL, Parcell AC. Int J Sports Med. 2004 Feb;25(2):92-8.

Ashley Yeager is a science writer and a triathlete. Follow her on twitter at @tri_science.

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Filed Under: Blog, Cycling Technique, Guest post Tagged With: athletes, bicycle, bike, coaching, commitment, cycling, cycling coach, faster, fat loss, intervals, ironman, Sports, Time trial, training, Triathlon

Comments

  1. BicycleLab says

    February 29, 2012 at 10:24 am

    @cyclereve Thanks for the mention

  2. BicycleLab says

    February 29, 2012 at 6:52 pm

    @rgerdon Thank you Becca!

  3. RGerdon says

    February 29, 2012 at 11:18 pm

    @bicyclelab You’re welcome Victor!

  4. BicycleLab says

    March 20, 2012 at 3:38 pm

    @festofsport Thanks for sharing!

  5. BicycleLab says

    April 10, 2012 at 7:28 pm

    @sprinting4signs thanks for sharing the post!

  6. BicycleLab says

    April 11, 2012 at 3:00 pm

    @sprinting4signs thanks rich

  7. sprinting4signs says

    April 11, 2012 at 3:21 pm

    @BicycleLab an interesting read. Tried incorporating it into my commute.

  8. funrunrobbie says

    April 11, 2012 at 3:24 pm

    @sprinting4signs was riding with Richard Shuberts Dad on Sunday , he is some downhill kamakazi rider

  9. BicycleLab says

    April 17, 2012 at 2:00 pm

    @samreklam thanks for sharing the post

  10. samreklam says

    April 17, 2012 at 2:10 pm

    @BicycleLab You’re welcome #usefull

  11. BicycleLab says

    April 18, 2012 at 9:11 am

    @Math_Anka let me know how it works for you

  12. BicycleLab says

    June 5, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    @mudruninfo thanks for the RT!

  13. RandyRoubaix says

    July 14, 2012 at 8:49 am

    @BicycleLab is climbing a bridge of 6% grade at 10-13mph for 30-45secs considered the same as sprint work? My H.R. is in the 190’s (I’m 43)

  14. BicycleLab says

    July 15, 2012 at 8:10 am

    @RandyRoubaix yes it would work out the same. But you will engage differently on hills. Mix it up a bit

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