Cycling: February 2007 Archives

They make such a big deal about bike fit. You sit for hours with someone at a bike store, or you pay big bucks to go to a professional to make sure you're maximizing power output with the most efficiency and minimal energy waste.

But little is known about about shifting your bike positioning during cycling. And I don't mean actually sliding the seat. I mean that you can actually engage different muscles for different terrain based on where you put your butt!

This article in Triathlete magazine talks about this:

http://www.dshen.com/training/bikepositioning.pdf (7 MB!)

Sorry for the huge file size. I wanted the images and text to come out nicely.

I tried this today in my long ride outdoors, which today consisted of hill repeats. I found myself naturally sliding back and forth and experimented with best positioning on the hill repeats. By sliding my butt all the way back on the seat, I could really engage my glutes and got some real nice power while on my seat going up the hill.

Down on the flats, I found myself sliding forward more to engage a wider range of muscles for making lots of revolutions while on the aerobars.

Along with the article on pedaling from Bicycling magazine, working on both pedalling and bike body position, I've been able to boost power output this year by another 5-10 watts.

When I started cycling for racing, I never could have imagined how complex cycling really was. Cycling technique has so many little nuances it's hard to keep track of all of them when you are cycling. Only through extensive training and practice to reinforce technique can you unconsciously perform optimal cycling technique...and prevent injury.

A great article on pedaling was published in Bicycling magazine, March 2007 Issue. I scanned it in:

The Perfect Pedal Stroke, Bicycling Magazine, March 2007, pg. 108

After looking at the fantastic illustration, I noted that I wasn't letting my heel drop on the downstroke but instead I was pointing my toe downward. By letting the heel drop, I could engage my large glute muscles and hamstrings which I probably was not in the past. I set out to try this.

Definitely a difference. My glutes are more sore in my Computrainer workouts, and I can definitely feel my hamstrings getting hit more as well. Overall, I think my power output has gone up another 5-10 watts on workouts that I did last year. Very cool. Definitely more to work on here because I still get messy and revert to old habits when I get tired.