The Muscles That Get The Most Work From Bike Riding
Bike riding is one of those sports that anyone can enjoy and the benefits are almost limitless. Some use cycling as a means of getting from A to B, whilst others cycle to boost their fitness and tone up their muscles. Generally speaking the type of cycling you do will affect how your muscles will adapt. If you cycle very long distances at relatively low intensity, your muscles will become very good at endurance and will build many slow-twitch fibres. 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 are the muscles that are demanded the most of when riding.
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 are the muscles that provide the rotating movement of the crack by placing down-force on the pedals. Racing bikes in fact are designed to locate the quads directly over the crack so that maximum efficiency is achieved. When travelling at speed the quadriceps contract and relax at an incredible rate and a great deal is demanded of them.
Gastrocnemius (calf). Although the calf muscles are much smaller than the quadriceps, they still do and important job of transferring power to the pedals.When the leg is straightened by the quadricep muscles, there is still a percentage of power that can be gained by flexing the calf muscles and pointing the toes downwards. 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
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