In the last Cycling Sessions column, we looked at optimizing your position with regard to seat height and seat position along with proper knee function to reduce bad form and overuse injuries. In part two of our look at improving your efforts on your bike, we will look at the pedal function and developing constant resistance along the whole circumference of the pedal stroke.
Like a gear motor, your crank is a lever that ideally functions when smooth, even force is applied throughout the full rotation. This requires calf, quad, and hamstring muscles working to succeed.
Most novice bicycle riders use their quads only to pedal, aka: Mashers. Without clipless pedals, the downward stroke is about all you can do. Investing in clipless pedals is almost mandatory in order to pedal in a way that eliminates any dead spots as the crank goes completely around from 12 o’clock and back again.
For those who have been using clipless pedals, let’s look at developing our applied energy along the rotation broken into three sections. Visualization exercises will help you improve this ability.
Section One: The downward stroke from the 12 o’clock to the 3 o’clock is where most people are strongest so we will not focus on this now.
Section Two: From the 3 to the 9 o’clock point we need to visualize a downward motion to 6 o’clock followed by a pull of the foot as though you were skating or cross country skiing. Another visualization that Greg Lemond uses is trying to scrape mud off your shoes. This engages other muscle groups, namely the muscles surrounding the ankle, calf and hamstrings.
Two things happen when you do this:
1. You create a transfer of forces, eliminating a dead spot.
2. By engaging your hamstrings, you are forced to relax the quadriceps, which aids in recovery, sharing the load, and helping the legs endure longer duration activity.
Section Three: From the 9 o’clock location back up to the top of the pedal stroke. This area is very important as it avoids the tendency to rest the leg that is rising, forcing the other leg to not only drive the rear wheel, but also have to lift the other leg that is resting.
The visualization for this exercise is picturing pulling you knee to the sky, or jogging with your knees coming up toward your chest. You turn the resting leg into a contributor to the pedaling. You also increase output wattage by as much as 30% as this takes away the added weight! This balances power output and makes each leg work less. We use more muscle groups, instead of just the quads.
As you return to Section One you provide a natural transition back down again. You can never really pedal in circles since our joints, etc. are not that machine like, but you are maintaining constant force, which is just as effective.
A good drill to do on a stationary bike or trainer or a parking lot is one legged spinning. Place one leg in the clipless pedal and turn to crank. Try to visualize constant force. You can also just focus on one of the drills for the different places to improve those weak spots. You will notice right away where you may be weak by feeling the force. Is it on, then off? Do you feel weak in an area like the 9 o’clock area? The feedback you get will help you improve as well as strengthen those weak areas.
Be patient as habits are hard to get rid of, good ones or bad ones! In part three, we will look at the finer points of spinning and ankling and how we can improve power and efficiency in our drive train called our legs.
Portland Velo Member Gary Stafford lives - get this - in Rhode Island! He comes to Oregon frequently on business and when he does, Ty lends him a bike and he rides with the club. Gary does a lot of writing - and riding - for his local cycling club, and has been gracious enough to allow us to reprint his articles on the Portland Velo website. Please give Gary a big "thanks" the next time you see him on a ride.