[00:00:00] James Breese: Strength Matters Media. Video. Print. Podcasts. 

[00:00:05] Josh Kennedy: Today's topic is the simple secret for improved cycling performance. Now we train quite, or we have over the years trained quite a number of cyclists, including road cyclists, mountain bikers, stuff like that. And everyone kind of wants the same thing, don't they?

[00:00:18] They want obviously the best training plan, and of course we do try and give them the best training plan that we can. Or, and you know, they want the best bike and the best clothing to make them slicker and faster through the air, etc. But what we know, and this is all driven by data, is that It doesn't necessarily come down to that.

[00:00:37] Isn't that right, James? 

[00:00:39] James Breese: Exactly. They can make the little 1 percent difference markers, your bike, your clothes, your helmet, everything like that makes a difference for the 1 percent if you're operating at the very top level, if they're nice to have things, great. I know I'm, I'm a bit of a cyclist myself. I love cycling.

[00:00:54] I grew up on great cycling roads back in mid Wales with all my mates who are excellent cyclists. I did other [00:01:00] sports, but I always loved going out on the bike quite regularly. So it's something that's not, I say I'm not competing in it, but it's always been part of me growing up in Wales and how I've done it, but it's so funny.

[00:01:10] I'm going to use my mate Andy as a good example of this. He's just bought himself a bike. It's cost him about 12, 000 pounds. He is a lawyer. Joke, 12, 

[00:01:17] Josh Kennedy: 000 pounds. Well, he can afford it. He's a lawyer, I suppose. He can 

[00:01:20] James Breese: afford it. He's the head of, he's the head of, head of a big law firm and yeah, he can absolutely afford it.

[00:01:25] And it's great. He always asks me, every time I meet up with him, see him quite regularly, Hey James, any tips for me to improve my riding and keep up with the rest of the boys? I go, yeah mate, drop 20 kilos. So like, and he looks at me and he goes, yeah mate, stop drinking, drop 20 kilos and you'll be way better.

[00:01:43] Makes no difference what you're doing. And he does hundreds of, the interesting thing is he does hundreds of miles a week. Literally 100, 150 

[00:01:49] Josh Kennedy: miles a week. Obviously you got like, obviously, you know, you'd have a pretty good aerobic base, etc. So he's got the basics are in place, but there's one key factor missing.

[00:01:58] James Breese: He's just too [00:02:00] heavy. And I think this is important to caveat this. So the secret we're going to share with you guys is stats and numbers. So when we do this, when we get any athlete coming to us, we're going to look at what the best are. What are the numbers? What are the, what's the anthropological data?

[00:02:14] That we need to know about to get us in that ballpark. Now I'm not going to say they're going to become elite athletes, but we need to know that data. So in cyclists, who are the creme de la creme? Who are at the very, very top? They are the Tour de France, uh, Tour de France riders. Okay. So what do we know from them?

[00:02:33] Well, quite simply. They don't weigh very much. In fact, they have a BMI of about less than 20. Right. If we're talking about BMI. So it is incredible to see these, these numbers and go, wow. So what we, what is it? The average height is 180 centimeters. Is that right? Of the 

[00:02:50] Josh Kennedy: cyclist? 180. 5 centimeters. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:02:55] 180. 5. So it seems that over the years, cyclists are getting [00:03:00] slightly older, uh, but also slightly lighter as well. 

[00:03:06] James Breese: Yes. So we're looking at the average height is 180. 5 centimeters. The average weight is 70. 8 kilos. So we have a formula. We've used it with so many different people. So it's a height in centimeters minus 100 gives you a healthy ish weight to be in a ballpark figure.

[00:03:24] Plus five kilos for more power based sports. You're going to put on more muscle like CrossFit or minus five kilos for more endurance based, uh, sports. Now in this terms, this blows it out the charts. This is literally you're looking at minus 10 to minus 12 kilos. 

[00:03:39] Josh Kennedy: These people are outliers. 

[00:03:41] James Breese: Yes, complete outliers, but it's the data.

[00:03:44] It's what you see across the board. Professional soccer players and football players. They're minus five kilos if you look at the same data. However, professional cyclists are at minus 10 to 12 kilos. Again, 

[00:03:55] Josh Kennedy: this data is scarily accurate, isn't it, James? Scarily accurate, because we've looked at it [00:04:00] for football players, soccer players, uh, tennis players, and they all generally fit this equation almost perfectly.

[00:04:08] And again, like you say, American football players, they're outliers. Uh, cyclists, they're also outliers. 

[00:04:14] James Breese: But they have data within their own sport. So you've got to look at it with your own sport. And this is what we're doing here. Now we're looking at the data within the sport. So therefore, if you want to become a top end cyclist, whether it's a mountain biker or road cyclist, what we know is if you want to compete at the Tour de France levels, in some respect, You've got to weigh in that ballpark because you've got no chance of competing if you don't.

[00:04:36] So what does it mean for the recreational cyclists we work with and the cyclists you work with? Well, you've got to have that conversation with them because if you want to improve their performance on the bike, it comes down to weight loss and body fat percentage. Quite simply, no matter how much.

[00:04:51] Workout and fancy training plans you want to do with them. They've got to be better in terms of their weight management and have lower body fat percentage so they can ride faster and [00:05:00] easier and have more Endurance on their rides and let them cycle more because when they cycle more they can be better at the sport no matter what.

[00:05:07] We just help them Keep them going. Essentially. 

[00:05:10] Josh Kennedy: Here's a special message from our sponsor. 

[00:05:12] James Breese: One more client, without breaking the bank on ads. Google is your ticket. Imagine being the first name. Clients, see when they Google your services near them. Sound impossible. It's not. When you've got strength matters on your side, we'll build your website and get you ranked high on Google.

[00:05:26] For free. You'll save thousands on ads, web design, and SEO services. Plus get a suite of business tools to help you grow your business effortlessly. All you cover is our bulletproof hosting that comes with a full 90 day money back guarantee. Ever wonder how many new clients you're losing by not being Google's number one?

[00:05:41] Don't wonder? Act now. Book your free strategy call at strengthmatters. com forward slash website 

[00:05:46] Josh Kennedy: today. Yeah, I mean, you could literally do, give them no training plan and just tell them to carry on cycling as much as possible, but help them lose weight and boom, they'll be way better. Then, you put in the ultimate training plan for them, get them stronger, fitter, better [00:06:00] aerobic base, etc, etc, etc.

[00:06:02] And they'll fly, they'll fly. Were you gonna share your screen, actually, James? Anything you wanted to share? 

[00:06:07] James Breese: Uh, that was it. It was just, it was basically, if we share the screen now of, uh, where is it? Where's my share screen? Oh, share, here we go. Screen. Let me try and pull it up now. Could you sing a song and do a little dance for me?

[00:06:19] Uh, well, I 

[00:06:20] Josh Kennedy: was going to say, while you do that, actually, uh Talking about optimal fat, uh, body fat range for world class cyclists, uh, 5 11 percent for men and 8 15 percent for women, uh, however, and this is a caveat which we know is true in elite sport, while a low body fat percentage is, you know, Significant lever in achieving elite performance.

[00:06:42] It may also harm your overall health. Because as we know, when you are elite, you are closer to death. Essentially. And it's all about strain on the body. Yeah, 

[00:06:54] James Breese: go for it. If you look at this graph and ignore the little random adverts I'm getting on the right hand side. So, Beermeyer Tour de France [00:07:00] cyclists from 1990.

[00:07:01] Which was literally at just above 22. It has dropped considerably to 2000. In the year 2000 again It's a constant line down and by the end of 2019 you're looking at just under 21, BMI of 21, 20. 9 Right and interesting because the BMI of Bradley Wiggins was only 19. 1. 

[00:07:25] Josh Kennedy: I mean, that's That's like nothing.

[00:07:27] There's nothing of him, isn't there? 

[00:07:30] James Breese: Exactly. So it's, it's crazy. And the heights of the horizon are different, but you look at all the correlation here now, and there we go. This is the data here. This is all analyzed for us. So we're not making random stuff up. We're literally showcasing you guys and showing, here you go.

[00:07:43] This is what we're working on. This is what we base our standards off. And yeah, so any cyclists coming to us. We're literally having this conversation with them and they don't like it most of the time because in their world they just buy fancier bikes and fancy equipment to make them go faster. But we have to have that [00:08:00] conversation and they trust us long term.

[00:08:01] So again, anyone working with cyclists, want to help them with cycling, start with weight management, show them this data, show them these numbers, tell them that's what they need to get towards, have the conversation and it's promised you most of the recreational men in lycra are going to be literally, what's the word?

[00:08:17] I think they're going to be Unhappy to let go of a few beers and all the social cake. It's all about social eating and cakes But if they want to keep up with their mates and go faster Yeah, 

[00:08:28] Josh Kennedy: it's not necessarily about, you know, 10, 12 kilos under that calculation under our, under the formula. That's a lot.

[00:08:34] Most people aren't going to want to be elite or are not capable of being elite. But if you just get them closer, closer to that equation, like think of your friend. He's, you know, what do you say? 20 overweight or something? Yeah. 20, 20 kilos overweight. Okay. So if he dropped 15 of those kilos, he's already going to be a better position.

[00:08:54] You 

[00:08:54] James Breese: know, exactly. So it's all in moderation. So it's. Like I said, we're not, if you want to aspire to be elite, yes. Get to the [00:09:00] amylase. If you want to be a good cyclist, it'd be more like minus five. If you want to be in a good, healthy weight range, then again, literally height in centimeters, minus a hundred.

[00:09:07] That's 

[00:09:07] Josh Kennedy: it. Uh, or for women height in centimeters, minus 110, uh, for, for the ladies out there listening, that is it for today, please don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. And if you want to find out more about our system of training, go to strengthmatters. com forward slash system.