On Your Bike!..
Summer is here and so is the lycra! London is a city of passionate cyclists and after this year’s successful Tour de France, we thought what better time to give you some top tips for training those legs to help reach your cycling goals. Whether it is to make your journey to work more pleasant on your body, or you have a big challenge you are working towards, then have a quick look at our short videos broken up into two posts to make sure you are developing the right muscles to help build strength and stamina like an athlete.
To start you need to understand a little anatomy (don’t worry we will keep it simple) of the muscles which are worked when you cycle. The motion of pedaling can be broken up into two sections, the Power Phase and the Recovery Phase. The Power Phase is where you pedal down towards the ground with the leg almost full extended (12-6 O’clock) and the Recovery Phase is lifting back up towards the bike again (6-12 O’clock) diagram below alongside a more in-depth explanation.
- From the top of the pedal stroke, a cyclist utilizes their hip extensors (gluteus maximus muscle) which initiates the Power Phase of the pedal stroke until point at 3 on a clock face
- From the point of 3 to 5 on the clock face the knee extensors activate: vastus lateralis and vastus medialis. Many cyclists associate this point with generating the most force for their pedal stroke; this is particularly prominent while climbing out of the saddle on steep gradients.
- From positions 5 to 6, plantar flexion occurs, thanks to the gastrocnemius which causes the toes to point outwards.
Diagram and bullet points via https://skyaboveus.com/cycling/Muscles-groups-used-while-cycling. Author Liam Hallan
In the video below we are helping to target Hip Extensors, Knee Extensors & Ankle plantar Flexors (Power Phase)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD0SGvJyRpY
In the next video we will be exploring exercises which can improve the Recover Phase. Combine both workouts to receive maximum results from exercises.
P.S If you are interested in finding out about personal training at PT Workspace you can contact [email protected]. In addition why not take a look at some of the personal trainers who already work with us /ptworkspace/trainers/.
