Cycling is a fantastic sport that is enjoyed all over the world by millions of people each day. Lots of people ride a bike just as a means of transport, whilst others include cycling heavily in their fitness regime. Generally speaking the type of cycling you do will affect how your muscles will adapt. Cycling for long periods of time, but at reasonably low force, will encourage your muscles to build slow-twitch fibers and improve their endurance levels. Conversely, it is powerful fast-twitch fibres that are built when your riding style is of high intensity but over shorter periods of time. But which muscles get worked the most when cycling.

Quadriceps (thigh muscles). When cycling, its is the muscles at the front of the legs that provide the majority of the forces and thus are worked hardest. These muscles work to extend the knee joint and provide a downward force on the pedals, which is then passed onto the crank. Racing bikes in fact are designed to locate the quads directly over the crack so that maximum efficiency is achieved. When cycling fast, these muscles are contracted and relaxed hundreds of times a minute and so they need to be in good shape.

Gastrocnemius (calf muscles). Although the calf muscles are much smaller than the quadriceps, they still do and important job of transferring power to the pedals. Flexing the calf muscles when the leg is in a straight position, points the toes towards and adds a small boost to the overall power output. Pinarello make pedals that dynamically pivot to squeeze every last bit of power juice from the calf muscles.

Hamstrings. Whist the quadriceps provide the downward power that propels the bike forwards, it is the hamstrings (back of the legs) that work to bring the leg back up into a flexed (bent) position. This doesn’t require much force on a standard bike as the rotation of the pedals pushes the leg up but when you use cycling shoes that clip to the pedals, a large amount of additional force can be generated by these muscles in the upward movement

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 at 10:31 am and is filed under Riding for Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.