Ross wants to know if carrying an extra weight will help him to get fitter and be a stronger rider and climber. His method is to carry a full Camelback and extra water bottles to make things harder for him when he is training; we have some knowledge on the subject and are happy to pass it on

Question:
I have a question in regards to training. Will carrying extra weight such as full camelback, extra water bottles etc help me to be a stronger rider/climber. I have done this occasionally if I ride with others who are not as strong as I am. It does slow me down on climbs but am I getting any benefit from it?

Hi Ross,

Your training plan will work, any extra weight that you carry will make riding harder, so will make you stronger and give you more power, but your speed may suffer.

There are other ways of doing the same thing and these methods have been used by professionals for many years. Ankle weights are another way of making your riding difficult and in the end when you remove them riding feels so much easier.

The second method is to use heavier wheels or heavier tires; any weight you add to the wheels is felt much more than any weight on other parts of the bike. One of the tricks riders use during winter training is to replace the normal inner tube with a tubular tire (a stitch-up tire) in side the high pressure tire. This makes the tires drag as well as adding more rolling weight to the wheels, this is very hard work and it is probably not a good idea to try this with a group ride as you will be getting a very hard work out and might get demoralized.

So weights are one way of making your body work harder.