Customer Reviews

Maximum Performance for Cyclists

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This is the best book on this subject that I have ever seen. The chapter on bike fit alone is worth the price of the book. Dr. Ross has done meticulous research, footnoted every fact, and yet writes a very accessible, readable book. The only drawback is that there is so much information that one reading is not enough. You would also have to be a truly dedicated cyclist to follow all of his advice, but this book is an excellent compendium of state of the art training tecniques.

This book is written by a US sports and emergency medicine physician who provides excellent physiological explanations as to what happens to the body in cycle training, and uses evidence to explain how to force these changes by targeted training in the shortest time.

For muscles, fitness for cycling comprises of increased mitochondria in each muscle cell (the cells 'batteries') and increasing the blood supply to the muscles by growing new blood vessels (angiogenesis) to optimise oxygen delivery and waste removal. A compelling argument as to why muscle fibres type IIa are optimal for cycling is given, and then ways in which to train so as to increase mitochondria, angiogenesis and performance of type IIa muscle fibres are provided, all referenced.

The author makes the point that traditional cycle training aims at volume of many hours riding to develop base endurance, then adding intensity and recovery. This is proven with many outstanding athletes having world championships and gold medals from it. This long slow miles approach is based on the then revolutionary training techniques of late Arthur Lydiard who produced a group of world champion middle-distance runners in the 50s and 60s. So why change a good thing? Citing referenced research, Ross contends, however, that long slow base miles can actually hinder performance by working only type I muscle fibres.

In essence what the book says is that to optimise performance intensity and recovery are the keys. This means hard work, intervals with maximal effort accompanied by recovery periods. Improved cycling performance is body adapting to vigorous exercise, and he defines how to optimise the adaptation. He contends that improving mitochondrial numbers in muscle is attained by starving the body of carbohydrate during a ride, and suggests riding for an hour on an empty stomach and taking a protein/carbohydrate meal with you to eat at one hour. Likewise starving the body of oxygen (anaerobic training) optimises new vessel growth (angiogenesis). An excellent chapter on determining lactate threshold and personalised heart zone targets is perhaps one of the best available in the current crop of training books. Other chapters include an excellent summary of flexibility and stretching techniques and the expected chapters on bike fit, workouts, nutrition and training plans

The book is referenced and sensible in approach. A must read for those serious about cycle training who want a sound scientific approach to maximising your time on the bike.

I am a family doctor who cycles. I don't know Dr Ross or have any financial interest in his work. No competing interests.

Okay, first of all, 90% of this book is just a rehash of Morris's better-written Performance Cycling. See my review of that for more specific criticisms than you're going to get below.

What seems to be happening here is that about every 2 years, some amateur coach looks at a few lab studies and cries "Eureka! High intensity training is more effective than low intensity training!" Then they write a book, which quickly goes out of print.

Ross basically wants to you to do a modified Conconi test to figure your Critical Power which he (and no one else) defines as the power you can sustain for somewhere between 50 seconds and two minutes, depending on who you are. Then he bases his whole philosophy on that rather arbitrary number. Essentially, you will have to do intervals at some percentage of that power output for 4 days in a row, then take 3 days off.

He seems to think that long endurance training reduces type1 fiber size and that this reduces your endurance. So in his world, training endurance makes your endurance worse. I think the actual theory is that the reduction in fiber size allows for more efficient oxygen diffusion, but why get bogged down in all that complexity? He also still seems to think that lactic acid causes muscle fatigue--an embarrassingly outdated notion. Of course, there is also no discussion of things like Intensity Factors and Training Stress Scores that have become so important with the advent of power meters.

The idea here is that coaches like Michele Ferrari and every pro endurance athlete on the planet are just wasting their time and that they'd be much better off reducing their total training volume to about 3-4 hours/week. Of course, neither he nor Morris seem to have ever actually coached a top athlete (for obvious reasons) so there is no real-world basis for this belief.

You should do a search on "Understanding Intervals Stephens" (I'd give you the U R L, but Amazon blanks them out) and read the article that comes up. While admittedly outdated and perhaps even a bit naive, it's probably a fundamentally correct explanation of why Ross/Morris are wrong.

If you really want to reach your potential, it's not going to be this easy. You're going to have to study Friel's book, buy a power meter with Cycling Peaks software, and put in a whole lot of time. I wish it weren't true, but if you're going to succeed in an endurance sport, you're gonna have to, well, work endurance...

I found this much easier to read that than The Training Bible for some reason. It serves up some very non-traditional training ideas. For example, it rejects the idea of doing extended LSD training, arguing that it doesn't stress the right muscles enough and that it can actually hinder your fitness development! He has some easy-to-understand science to support this. Very thought-provoking at least.

I found the scientific explanations of how the aerobic engine gets built and the functions of Type 1/2 muscle fibers to be much easier to understand yet more in-depth than other resources I've read.

Very much worth a read for someone with some fundamental knowledge of periodized training for racing.

Dr Ross has done an impressive job of putting the research into a usable resource for cyclists. His ideas are newer and different than some of the traditional training approaches. For example, he talks about making training more effective by using intensity in workouts instead of just slow base miles. He explains how his theories maximize the body's natural ability to maintain hormones that improve performance. My performance has improved due to this book, and so has the performance of many of my friends. Additionally, my bike fit is much better. This is the only book of its kind written by a physician and is a worthwhile investment. Any serious or competitive cyclist should have this book in their library. I also highly reccomend Dr Ross' other book Sports Medicine for Endurance Athletes.

This is a fantastic book for all cyclists who are serious about improving their performance on the bike. The book is written using easily understood terms and analogies, and in my opinion, will save many hours of otherwise wasted time on the bike, doing what would equates to merely turning one's legs over.

Although I haven't finished reading the book all the way through, I have found the information fantastic. I am a Triathlon coach and and the information is extremely useful in developing programmes which are very scientific and get great results. I am looking forward to the forthcoming season to see the results gained from the advice from this book.

This book is sure to create quite a bit of discomfort for those emotionally wed to the traditional notions of bicycle training and fitness. Most cyclists are familiar with the traditional concepts of base building with long base miles followed by a build and a peak cycle with progressively harder interval efforts. This book turns a lot of that traditional orthodoxy on its head, and in the process is sure to generate some backlash (just read that K Mills rant above).

I read up on Ross. He's not some hack, but was the team doctor for the Jelly Belly professional team. Even more important, everything he discusses is cited and footnoted and based on current research by current sports med luminaries such as Veronique Billat, who is currently one of the most prolific and ground breaking scientists in the sports med field. And it's not as if the notion of High Intensity Training came out of left field. Dave Morris, another influential researcher and coach has been successful with the HIT approach for a long time. Ross and Billat simply add a new twist and a level of precision to techniques that have been proven to be successful for many athletes.

My criticism of the Ross book, and applying Billat or Larsen to training protocols for that matter, is that it applies what I feel is an unnecessary level of complexity and rigidity to interval training. For example, an athlete has to go through two maximal intensity ramp tests: one to determine their max power, and then another to determine their max time at max power. The interval durations are then set at exactly that max time with equal rest intervals. I tried this approach with one of my athletes and we got a TMax of 1:50. Why not just 2 minutes at maximum RPE for that time duration? It seems to me to be a distinction without a difference, as they both will target anaerobic capacity and VO2 max when used with 1:1 work/rest ratios. Just picking the arbitrary 2 min time duration just seems a lot simpler, and you don't need an ergometer to perform two elaborate and grueling step tests. It also eliminates a lot of creativity you can have with slightly different work durations and rest intervals.

Endurance training has its schools with its own gurus and acolytes, and is very cliquish in that sense. You'll have the Coggans and the Friels with their devotees who scoff at anything outside their sphere of devotion. Nevertheless, this is important reading for the serious coach or self-coached athlete who wants some insight into alternative and cutting edge training methods.

Dr. Ross's book has been invaluable in my training. It explains "the how" and "the why" in a very straightforward manner.

Instead of being based upon tradition and anecdotal evidence, this book presents the athlete with training methods rooted in solid science. This is evidenced by the numerous citations that complete each chapter.

I have personally experienced significant gains in my abilities since I've been following Dr. Ross's advice.

"He seems to think that long endurance training reduces type1 fiber size and that this reduces your endurance. So in his world, training endurance makes your endurance worse. I think the actual theory is that the reduction in fiber size allows for more efficient oxygen diffusion,"

Both concepts are nonsense. The strength of a muscle unit is directly related to it's cross-section size. The larger the muscle per unit, the stronger the muscle. The reason type I fibers may get smaller when endurance work is done is because endurance work is low-resistance so requires low strength. We have known this for at least 40 years (since I got my degree in exercise phyisiology!). If you do heavy resistance work you can incrase the strength, and size of type I fibers.

Anyone who claims their single method, ie high intensity intervals, is the key to overall success at everything is either lying or is ignorant. ANY type of athletic edeavor requires a mix of training methods to gain success. The key is to get the mix right and that takes loads of experience.