Strength training and mobility for cyclists: "Most people do far too much at the beginning"

TOUR: Many people think: I ride a racing bike or go jogging - everything fits with my fitness. Are they right?

Mark Lauren: It's definitely better than doing nothing - it's even great that people are cycling or jogging. But if you want to get fit and healthy as you get older, you need something more comprehensive.

TOUR: What does more comprehensive mean?

Mark Lauren: Ideally, you train all your joint functions. This means that you are strong and flexible in your joints. Take your spine, for example. When you sit on a bike, your spine is bent. And you stay in this bent position. But you want to train your spine much more comprehensively - you want to stretch it, bend it sideways and rotate it. The same applies to the shoulders and hips. When cycling, on the other hand, you stay in one position and only stretch and bend your legs.

>> The road bike training planner: get in top shape in three months!
>> Incredible: Tadej Pogačar's impressive performance data
>> Interview with Dr Froböse: It's all downhill from 55!

TOUR: What advice would you give us cyclists?

Mark Lauren: I recommend a workout that strengthens and mobilises all the movements around the joints.

TOUR: I don't have many problems at 20 - I'm as limber as a kitten. It might be different after 40. What role does age play?

Mark Lauren: When you're young, you can get away with a lot. You can neglect your joint functions. But the older you get, the more important it becomes to strengthen and mobilise them. This is the only way to ensure that you stay healthy and fit in old age and, above all, that you can move without pain. If you want to move without pain for the rest of your life, you have to exercise - full stop!

As a beginner in particular, you only need a small training stimulus for your body to adapt.

TOUR: A few years ago, cardio was all the hype. Now muscles are all the rage. It is said that you should start training with weights from the age of 40 at the latest to stay fit, healthy and mobile. What is true now?

Mark Lauren: Trends come and go, swinging from one extreme to the other. At first, cardio training, endurance and jogging were the big thing. Then came flexibility with the yoga craze. And now it's the turn of strength. In truth, it's about everything: cardio, flexibility and strength. In other words: a bit of everything - as is so often the case, the middle way is the best.

TOUR: And what about the much talked about weight training?

Mark Lauren: Strength training becomes more important the older you get. But it doesn't have to be with weights and certainly not on weight machines. If you can't do 25 to 30 good push-ups at 40, 50 or 60, why should you train with weights? If you can't do 20 one-legged lunges, there's no reason to get on a machine and train.

TOUR: Do you think your own body weight is enough?

Mark Lauren: Your body is enough. The good thing about bodyweight exercises is that you learn to use your body instead of fitness machines. With bodyweight exercises you train your balance. And you train coordination. It is perhaps the most important aspect of training. But it's rarely talked about - everyone talks about strength and endurance.

TOUR: Why is coordination so important?

Mark Lauren: Good coordination is the basis for all movements and for your mobility. You improve coordination - and this brings us back to the starting point - by flexing, extending, rotating, stabilising and so on. If you can coordinate your joints well and have a full range of motion, you will find it much easier to learn new sports and movements.

TOUR: You can see that in older people who are becoming increasingly clumsy.

Mark Lauren: Yes, these people find it difficult to control the transitions between lying, kneeling and standing. As we get older, we lose the fundamental ability to get up from the floor or lie down - something you did all the time as a child and teenager - because we no longer practise it, specifically: rolling from a supine position to a prone position, then coming to your knees and finally standing up.

TOUR: Do you practise these transitions yourself?

Mark Lauren: All the time. I have integrated these exercises into my everyday life. There are so many different ways to stand up. It's not just training, it's also fun.

TOUR: You are an advocate of micro-training, you call it the nine-minute workout. But critics say that's rubbish. They claim that there is a lack of intensity to trigger a training effect at all. What do you say to that?

Mark Lauren: I don't agree with that at all. I think that most people do far too much at the beginning. Then they have monster muscle soreness for a week and stop training again.

TOUR: So the mini-training is the solution?

Mark Lauren: Especially as a beginner, you only need a small training stimulus for your body to adapt. Logically, the more advanced your training level, the greater the stimulus needs to be. In other words, an Olympic athlete won't make any progress with my nine-minute workout. But for the average person who has not done any specific training, has only cycled or jogged, the nine-minute workout with their own body weight is sufficient. They don't need any more. Otherwise you'll just waste energy and end up with sore muscles.

TOUR: Especially as people don't have time anyway ...

Mark Lauren: Exactly. For example, if you set yourself a timer in the office and get up every 30 minutes and do an exercise with 10 to 20 repetitions, that's a great way to train. Especially if you don't just do, say, push-ups, but different exercises throughout the working week.