[ire]

I'm going to post this in the road forum because you guys/gals give great feedback....I became really busy with school and halted my XC season so now that I'm getting back into training I'm going to focus my efforts towards cross season. I need a descent amount of upper body strength, but I want to keep my weight down so I don't have to go through the effort to lose weight come next XC season, so my questions is: How do I lift weights in such a way to build strength but not add weight? Should I be doing low weight and high reps? Or maybe low reps but high weight?? Any help is appreciated

 

[Westy]

I wouldn't worry too much about weight gain. If you target the right muscles it won't add much and by doing higher reps with lower force people typically don't add as much mass as the other way around, your genetics may differ. I think the real key is to hit the right muscles. The CX or roadie position doesn't require strength from a lot of upper body muscles. I'd hit the lower core like abs and back with a little shoulder work.

 

[ire]

Cool, thanks for the info....I was going to do some forearm work as well. Do you think tri/bicep work is worth the effort?

<edit> I worry about the weight gain because last year I did a general fitness upper body regime and I packed on a fair amount of weight