Muscle Tension Intervals: Secret Pro Training Trick

High torque, low cadence, or muscle tension intervals are all popular right now. But what are they? How should we do them? And when are they best used in our training?

Hey everyone, this is Sierra. I'm a coach here at Fasca and I have my mers in exercise physiology from the University of Tennessee. And I use this background to dive into research that's being done in the cycling field and overall exercise science to pull out what's important and effective to use in your cycling training. Today, we're diving into muscle tension interval.

We're going to talk about what they are, why they pair so well with strength training, and how pro teams use them during the on season and during the off season. At the end of the video, I'll show you two practical ways to do these intervals both indoors and out so you can get them no matter where you live and no matter what type of riding you enjoy during the winter. And if you subscribe to the Coach Cat app, we have over 15 muscle tension interval workouts that you can do and we're adding more in all the time. Please ask me any high torque or muscle tension questions in the comments below and we can get to them in the next video or I can respond in the comment section.

So first, what are muscle tension or high torque intervals? Muscle tension intervals are low cadence efforts done in a big gear that force due to produce higher pedal torque, which is why they're called high torque intervals as well. Essentially, more torque means more force. So, we need that low cadence to be between 40 and 60 RPM.

Try to find some number in between that that is most comfortable for you and a number that you can effectively utilize your entire muscle in your leg. So, we want the hamstrings, the glutes, the quads all working in unison during these intervals. When they're all working in unison, it feels more like controlled effort rather than you just smashing the pedals. These sessions train your neuromuscular system to produce more torque throughout the pedal stroke.

This system that created will directly translate into better climbing, stronger accelerations on the bike and better sprints. Muscle tension intervals are important, but we need to have them paired with gym work that produces even greater forces. We then can translate those very controlled movements onto the bike and train those systems to work in unison and effectively in the pedal rotation. So the muscle tension intervals will directly apply this new capacity that you've created in the janam to pedal stroke.

I can't say that enough and I know it's going to get super repetitive, but that's that's why they are so important. We need to teach our legs and our nervous system to work together to produce this high torque throughout the pedal stroke because then that saves us energy on the bike by training our brain fire the muscles that are utilized throughout the pedal stroke at the correct time and fire into those muscles and neuromuscularly activate as much as that muscle mass as we can, which then creates a more durable and a more efficient and energy saving pedal stroke, which is important because we're doing a pedal stroke so many times in training, in racing that we need it to be super efficient, save energy, and allow us to fight fatigue in long events. In research, there's a lot of studies done on combining muscle tension or high torque intervals with gym work. And it's shown that when they are combined, they better transfer this overall strength capacity to sprint power and overall bike performance.

It's shown that the gem creates the engine and the high torque intervals teach the engine to accurately deliver the force throughout your time on the bike. Specifically in this control and clinical trial done in 2019, it is said concurrent strength with sprint program training proved lean mass leg power and on bike performance compared with just endurance alone training. In this paper done in 2021 titled maximal muscular power from sprint cycling reads that strength measures are strongly associated with sprint torque development on the bike meaning gym strength work predicted on bike explosive ability. So how do pros use muscle tension and high torque intervals?

When a professional is getting back into their base training, they're not only adding volume, they're adding these torque blocks. Specifically, world tour riders use low cadence, high torque work, and high torque sprints to develop both the raw force and the ability to apply the force quickly. Most pros are utilizing these torque workouts from October to February. And they're doing about one to two big gear sessions a week.

Then in the pre-season, so at the later end of this offseason block, they're adding on that one torque of explosive start work. Once racing begins, they may do one fork session per week depending on the athlete and depending on their role in the tea. They almost always do this work in one of two ways. Either on an outside long climb or a controlled indoor setup.

So, they're going to walk through those two methods. I'll give one for instance that I actually did yesterday. So, I found a route locally that has a lot of climbing. It's about 60 miles with about sixk of climbing and there's a lot of steady climbs throughout this ride that are over four minutes long.

What I did was by 4 minutes of high torque work aiming for around 55 RPM. The effort is around zone 3. The whole goal is to create the torque. So you need to have enough power output to create force to enable these adaptations.

That's why we aim for zone three. If you're having knee pain, obviously back off the power or just completely stop doing during these intervals. That's super important because we don't want to create an injury down the line. But you can go from low zone 3 to high zone 3 during these intervals.

We're just really focusing on torque of the pedal and not as much the wattage that you're creating. Between each 4-minute piece, I had four minutes off. And sometimes that was pushed a little bit further out just because of the rolling terrain I chose to ride on. Pros will also flip those two numbers.

So they'll do four by 6 minutes of high torque work in RPM between 50 and 70 and zone 2 and zone three depending on where they are in their week and also where they're comfortable producing torque. The second method was indoor. So you can honestly create this 4x6 or 6x4 workout indoors on a trainer. We went up a zipped world climb and we went up that on a low cadence or we just were at a three power cadence between 50 and 70 RPM.

Another thing that we do inside is the high torque sprints. So, these are also quickly recruiting the entire muscle, which is super important. And something that I also do when I do muscle tension is I'll do five of these high torque sprints, muscle tension intervals, and then sometimes I'll do five more high torque sprints. I do want to put a disclaimer here.

When you're doing a lot of gym work and this muscle tension work, really, really, really want to make sure that you're not hurting your knees or your back. I tend to do a little bit more yoga and stretching during this time just to make sure my back doesn't get tight. But a rule of thumb is to progress slowly through these muscle tension and start the gym work slowly because you want to allow your body to get used to the work for overloading it immediately. So here are some practical tips.

Don't do high torque intervals every single day. Neuromuscular work is very demanding on the body and it takes a couple days to recover from. You have knee pain during these intervals, stop doing the high torque work. Consult a PT.

They may have you do some type of strengthening in the knee area or tell you that another body part is tight which is causing this stress. You could also go beyond this and you might have to see a medical professional or it could be something with your bike fit that is causing this knee pain to occur. So seeing a bike fitter is always something that us coaches tell our athletes to do if they are ever mentioning any discomfort on the bike. Another practical tip is use the Coach Cat full foundation plan to slowly ease yourself into this type of work and then you can jump into the 10-week weightlifting plan or the 30we offseason plan.

To wrap up, muscle tension or high torque intervals are one of the most effective ways to turn this gym work into real life power on your bike. When you pair the weightlifting and muscle tension work, you should start to feel a difference between the riding in between these workouts. So, typically you're going to surround this riding with easy zone two riding, maybe some tempo, but you should tell that your pedal stroke is becoming more effective and more smooth. If you can't tell, maybe dive into or ask a coach what is preventing you from feeling these adaptations and feeling the benefits of this type of work.

Thanks for watching. If you found this helpful, please subscribe. Let me know how your muscle tension intervals are going. Mine are going great.

We ran try to answer all the questions that you comment below. So feel free to do that and of course reach out to us here at FastCat if you have questions about your offseason training. We're happy to help and I'll see you in the next video.

Low cadence. High torque. Big gains. Train this way with us /

Pro Coach Sierra Sims (M.S. Exercise Physiology) breaks down the science and technique behind muscle tension intervals: one of the most effective ways to turn gym strength into real power on the bike.

Whether you're building your base, coming back from the off-season, or looking to climb stronger, these workouts teach your neuromuscular system to produce MORE torque and apply it efficiently across the pedal stroke.

You’ll learn: ✔️ What muscle tension (high-torque) intervals actually are ✔️ Why low cadence is so effective for force production ✔️ How to combine torque work with strength training for maximum gains ✔️ How WorldTour pros use torque blocks from October–February ✔️ How to structure these sessions indoors or outdoors ✔️ Real-world workout examples you can try this week ✔️ How to avoid knee pain and progress safely

Watch till the end where Sierra shows you two practical ways to perform these intervals so you can do them anywhere — on Zwift, on climbs, or on rolling terrain.

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The CoachCat App includes: • 15+ muscle tension interval workouts • 600+ cycling workouts • 100+ training plans • Daily AI coaching • Human coach in-app support!