Based on my experience, I see more significant change on my fitness and fatigue resistance on using low cadence as part of my training program. It definitely helps that you teach your body than you can push harder on the pedal and increased my mental tolerance for pain. Take this as grain of salt and not everyone is like me but as the expert said it worth to incorporate to your weekly training especially the time crunched individuals.
Afaik low cadence work decreases your vlamax, so it shifts type 2a fibres towards endurance (type 1). So while it has it's place, its not to be confused woth strength training.
Just ride your bicycle like you stole it. Push hard all the time, and when going easy, learn bicycle handling skills like bunny hops and manuals to avoid road hazards. Also, go for very long rides. There is no need to be too technical. Just have fun.
Jan Ulrich used to do these over geared high power efforts years ago which attributes as to why he was powerful in timetrials and in the mountains (aside of the fact he was on epo )
Another simpler option you can do anywhere: Single leg partial squats, down to almost 90 degree knee bend angle, and raise up lifting your heel from the ground (using the calf muscle) at the top.
On the trainer I do power at higher watts on tougher gears in the morning & fast spins at lower watts on easy gearings in the evenings. Than like you said, recovery is absolutely necessary. 24hrs at least for me. In between is jogging, pushups & upper body cycling on a machine for fitness. And the cycle repeats till the weekend actual ride with the gang. Hope it helps like it does for me. 😊
You are very similar to me. Except I do 1 hr on the trainer in the morning at around 20 mph, fast cadence and at night I either ride outside or an hour of low cadence tougher gears. I try for two workouts per day Monday thru Friday, long ride Saturday and Sunday we drink
This video would be much more effective (and enjoyable) if you provided a "video" that is a "how" to practice "starts"! I don't really understand the description. For example what is the passive leg doing...in the pedal or just hanging, etc etc
There's no passive leg, just start, count 7 revolutions that's it. Push evenly with both legs, but don't count left-right as it's harder (14 pushes total). That's the point about focusing on one leg. Exercise-wise you are targeting both legs at the same time
Gimmicks. The best way to become a stronger cyclist is to eat a healthy diet, strength train, core train, and ride routes with hills. This advice comes from a guy in late thirties spending evenings on the couch and nibbling on leftovers. I joined an Ironman team (not original plan) and went from the slowest guy among adults to the top 5 out of 60. Now, I ride for enjoyment and healthy activity. ✌🏼
I had a very interesting and helpful exersize on 14.november, going up Skaftafellsjökull on Rouvy. It was too steep (average 6% but large chunks at 10-18% peaking at 22%)for me so I very often was forced to pedal slow like 50-60 rpm on my lightest gear. It was so heavy on the muscles that I barely reached heartratezone 2. Think I was most in zone 1 and having a hard time. This climb I climbed in 2 hours 15 minutes. It was muscular exhausting, but not hard for heart and lungs. The payoff was fantastic. Next week I could pedal with more torque than ever before at 75-100 rpm for a long time. This Skaftafellsjökull-ride gave me both increased strenght (or maybe muscular endurance) and a good long zone 1 or 2 ride (wasnt coupled to pulswatch, only glanced at the puls now and then). The cadence was falsely measured to an average of 33, but I have an error on my two lightest gears. Looks like the wahoo does count them wrong and register half the cadence.
..... _split squats_ are far superior than _normal squats_ ....the best way to do this is to hold a kettle bell in each hand, legs together then step back until that knee touches the ground - hold for 5 seconds and repeat for other leg.....this is far superior strength training for your quads and glutes.
Can also do "bulgarian split squats" with the back foot on a chair, so there is more stability practice involved. I've been doing those lately. If you do it with knee going significantly forward as you go down, it is quad-dominant. If you have more butt-down, back leg swing towards chair, forward leg upright, it is more glute-dominant (although in either, both muscles active).
MDF is maximal dynamic force. Its on 4:18. I'm not completely sure how to convert that to 70% though but maybe if you have a power meter you can measure what power you can do on one rep then 70% of that is 70% mdf. Edit: what he sugfests is to just use the gears he says because as he says it needs gear, which makes sense as that was what my initial thought was.
Get a similar simulation grade (all smart trainers can simulate climbs higher than 6%) and do the same stuff. You may want to put a higher platform on the front wheel to tweak muscle actuation pattern that resembles actual climbing.
But what do we make out of the fact that Pogacar flew most of these climbs in the tour and giro with an average of 95-100rpm and they even reduced the crank length so that he works more via rpm and not torque
Shorter crank lengths mean more torque is required. It would be tougher to spin at any RPM. (The lever is shorter). GCN showed this awhile ago. They used their tallest rider. A shorter rider would have likely been even slower. Shorter cranks means you have to raise the saddle higher, which leads to the torso being more parallel to the ground and therefore more aero. The pros are going fast enough up climbs that aero is a factor. And of course it helps to be aero on the flats and descents, as we saw with Pog's descent from Galibier to Valloire.
I think Pog (and most of the peloton) was using a 56-40 with a 11-34 for most of the stages in TdF. This would be tough for most people to pedal before even shortening the cranks.
Well if you want to use bike for exercise then do bike only if you're training for races etc then workout so the bike doesn't feel like a workout. Otherwise strength training makes your biking not feel like a workout. Its all in what you want to bike for.
@PepIM85 a 45-degree position of a pedal stroke can be described as roughly 1:30 on a clock face. Here's how it breaks down: -0 degrees (top of the pedal stroke) corresponds to 12:00. -45 degrees past 12:00 corresponds to 1:30 on the clock face. This means if the pedal arm were a clock hand, it would point at 1:30. Make sense?
@@semiprocycling Ok yes it makes sense! And does the foot relative to the pedal have to be flat or do I have to emphasize the pedaling as if I wanted to lower the heel?
My most effective training was have my rim brake bike on a dumb trainer. Elevate the front to simulate climbing angle. Then put straps on the brake handles to create resistance and push and pull hard at 30-50 rpm in 2 minute intervals. That strengthens every muscles legs, core, hips upper body that could turn the pedals and I felt strongest then. Since moving to smart trainers I can’t get the same training effect. Not much science in it but I really think the crude method was more effective.
I don’t think on bike low cadence work is a “substitute” for gym work. Neither is the opposite true. I consider it more a specific training after you improved your muscle strength in the gym. My personal experience is as follows: After strength training alone, I found I can push a much harder gear on steep terrain for sub minute duration. However, I wasn’t able to do these same for relatively longer efforts (still sub 3 minutes) until I tried a few low cadence sessions to teach my body that actually you can do this.
It shows gym builds useless muscles that in cycling requires additional oxygen. So, when you stop wasting time in a gym and dedicate yourself to cycling your gym gains will disappear and in place of that quality cycling muscles will develop. Short duration strength gives the illusion that you gained more power, while nothing robs your power more than a lack of endurance and poor neural connection and poor coordination.
@@tongotongo3143 Nice bro science. But that's not how it works. You can build stronger muscles without gaining musclemass.. Also, the more muscle you have, the more blood you will have to transport oxygen. Who would've known your body is smarter than you are..
Exactly, gym culture isn’t sport. Gym culture it’s mindset, fitness, and bro science which has been spreading faraway and has reached even real sports.
I guarantee that incorporating all these exercises will make you quit rather than make you improve. Just go to ride, enjoy the sceneries, don’t drink, sleep early and you’ll keep riding at 80!
There's no way around the benefits of diverse weights strength training which massively develop the neuro muscular power needed to improve the overall performance on the bike.
Really…twenty-five years plus of riding/racing (50 plus races a year w/53-11t), running and weight lifting with no knee issues. Training, fitness, and understand of physiology and equipment make all the difference. Sorry, comments on TH-cam don’t.
Жим ногами эффективнее приседаний ,40 повторения 20 подход + вакум во время выполнения упражнения и ноги на платформе должны находиться на 30% передней части и много еды
I lift weights, and I cycle. I cycle to work. Getting recovery time is challenging. Too tempting to press a bit harder on the bike going to work - only 20mins to get there... Bah.
Everyone in fitness generally dislikes the leg press, but single leg leg press is actually a good expercise for cycling, allowing you to maximize unilateral force production.
Cyclists loose muscle easily because they are working it up then working it off trying to maintain endurance. A cyclist will rarely have big gains . That's gym rats.
@theEINSTEININHO Step 2: Grip the top of your bars and slow right down (almost stopping). Step 3: Start (and stop) with your dominant leg and crank at 45º (just over the top of the pedal stroke).
Comparing on bike exercise with squats isn’t fair. Single leg exercises are just on another level to increase your single leg strength. A two leg squat is useless to pedal your bike.
@@kiuk_kiks Agreed! it boggles the mind that people are writing "exercising a cycling-specific muscle and making it stronger is useless for cycling (ie double leg squats)". Like. WtAF?
@@aarondcmedia9585 I was a bodybuilder and could squat 200 kgs/ 442 lbs for reps and it had a very good carry over to cycling power. It was extremely bad for endurance but I’ve built that up over a year or so of cycling.
@@semiprocycling Just to make sure I wasn't crazy I googled wind sprints to see if it matched what I thought and it did. Running coaches have taught them for decades if not more. Be warmed up, sprint hard for 6 to 8 seconds, rest for a few minutes, repeat 3 to 4 times, once a week, approximately speaking.
@@jprelock I was thinking more about this and the running version of what I've proposed is sled pushes rather sprinting alone. Again just a different stimulus for a different outcome.
@@uramis00 yeah I totally get it. Lifting weights is very rewarding though! Professional (or professional-esk) riders need to do strength training whether they like it or not. Non professional riders can just do whatever they want as long as they are happy about it 👌🏻 Aka in my opinion - If you want to truly improve your cycling performance, you’ll lift weights. If you don’t want to lift weights then just be happy with not getting every last bit of power you can out of yourself and just enjoy cycling 🚴🚴♀️
Collectively, the taller you are, more free power you can get compare to short person (consider same training routine & diet). Whatever it is, to be better you from yesterday is consistent well planned training, ride alone, last but not least listen to your knee 😂
Citation to the presentation and background study? Searching the journal by author failed.
@jc10747 science-cycling.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/David-Barranco-ppt.pdf
Based on my experience, I see more significant change on my fitness and fatigue resistance on using low cadence as part of my training program. It definitely helps that you teach your body than you can push harder on the pedal and increased my mental tolerance for pain. Take this as grain of salt and not everyone is like me but as the expert said it worth to incorporate to your weekly training especially the time crunched individuals.
Afaik low cadence work decreases your vlamax, so it shifts type 2a fibres towards endurance (type 1). So while it has it's place, its not to be confused woth strength training.
Just ride your bicycle like you stole it. Push hard all the time, and when going easy, learn bicycle handling skills like bunny hops and manuals to avoid road hazards. Also, go for very long rides. There is no need to be too technical. Just have fun.
Copy, up mountains work too 👍🏽
😂😂😂😂i swear every training related discussion has at least one of these guys
100% plan a route longer than you can handle and struggle through it
The only way to get home is to keep pedalling
Jan Ulrich used to do these over geared high power efforts years ago which attributes as to why he was powerful in timetrials and in the mountains (aside of the fact he was on epo )
yeah screw the training and give me that juice baby
Another simpler option you can do anywhere: Single leg partial squats, down to almost 90 degree knee bend angle, and raise up lifting your heel from the ground (using the calf muscle) at the top.
On the trainer I do power at higher watts on tougher gears in the morning & fast spins at lower watts on easy gearings in the evenings. Than like you said, recovery is absolutely necessary. 24hrs at least for me. In between is jogging, pushups & upper body cycling on a machine for fitness. And the cycle repeats till the weekend actual ride with the gang. Hope it helps like it does for me. 😊
You are very similar to me. Except I do 1 hr on the trainer in the morning at around 20 mph, fast cadence and at night I either ride outside or an hour of low cadence tougher gears. I try for two workouts per day Monday thru Friday, long ride Saturday and Sunday we drink
This video would be much more effective (and enjoyable) if you provided a "video" that is a "how" to practice "starts"! I don't really understand the description. For example what is the passive leg doing...in the pedal or just hanging, etc etc
Yeah same, the description was a bit too brief and googling "starts" isnt the easiest thing to get a search engine to understand
There's no passive leg, just start, count 7 revolutions that's it. Push evenly with both legs, but don't count left-right as it's harder (14 pushes total). That's the point about focusing on one leg. Exercise-wise you are targeting both legs at the same time
So to summarize: climb hills !!!
10 mins of utter waffle reduced to 10 seconds. 🤣
Climb hills for 7 sec?
Yup, just do XY sets with 2 min recoveries @@Jj88Im
Thank you 😁
Gimmicks. The best way to become a stronger cyclist is to eat a healthy diet, strength train, core train, and ride routes with hills. This advice comes from a guy in late thirties spending evenings on the couch and nibbling on leftovers. I joined an Ironman team (not original plan) and went from the slowest guy among adults to the top 5 out of 60. Now, I ride for enjoyment and healthy activity. ✌🏼
Totally logic and I do believe that's the way to go!
I had a very interesting and helpful exersize on 14.november, going up Skaftafellsjökull on Rouvy. It was too steep (average 6% but large chunks at 10-18% peaking at 22%)for me so I very often was forced to pedal slow like 50-60 rpm on my lightest gear. It was so heavy on the muscles that I barely reached heartratezone 2. Think I was most in zone 1 and having a hard time. This climb I climbed in 2 hours 15 minutes. It was muscular exhausting, but not hard for heart and lungs. The payoff was fantastic. Next week I could pedal with more torque than ever before at 75-100 rpm for a long time. This Skaftafellsjökull-ride gave me both increased strenght (or maybe muscular endurance) and a good long zone 1 or 2 ride (wasnt coupled to pulswatch, only glanced at the puls now and then). The cadence was falsely measured to an average of 33, but I have an error on my two lightest gears. Looks like the wahoo does count them wrong and register half the cadence.
My training is climbing 20km moderate elevation with my single speed 52x14 gear with 20-50 rpm. on zone 2-3 and never push harder.
Can science explain walking on water? Riding uphill is all that matters and weight training will help you. Ride upgrades
..... _split squats_ are far superior than _normal squats_ ....the best way to do this is to hold a kettle bell in each hand, legs together then step back until that knee touches the ground - hold for 5 seconds and repeat for other leg.....this is far superior strength training for your quads and glutes.
Can also do "bulgarian split squats" with the back foot on a chair, so there is more stability practice involved. I've been doing those lately. If you do it with knee going significantly forward as you go down, it is quad-dominant. If you have more butt-down, back leg swing towards chair, forward leg upright, it is more glute-dominant (although in either, both muscles active).
Or same exercise with the barbel if you don't have kettle! However, with kettle you train stability as well.
Fascinating regarding the 40 rpm “magic” cadence
Concerning 8:27 min - what does 70% MDF mean? I don't find any explanation for this on Google.
MDF is maximal dynamic force. Its on 4:18. I'm not completely sure how to convert that to 70% though but maybe if you have a power meter you can measure what power you can do on one rep then 70% of that is 70% mdf. Edit: what he sugfests is to just use the gears he says because as he says it needs gear, which makes sense as that was what my initial thought was.
@@uramis00 not sure if you are right. I’m 8:27 it’s about good old squads not the gears or what’s on a bike.
Medium density fiberboard
Is this type of training done in seated position and is it supposed to be a sprint style of Intensity
I'm interested I want to learn how to go fast I have a mountain nisiki bike
So? 7 Full pedal strokes? Or just the upper 45 ⁰ or first just the 45⁰ and then the 7 full strokes?
I live in a cold climate, so off season training is done on the trainer. How could these starts be adapted to the trainer?
Get a similar simulation grade (all smart trainers can simulate climbs higher than 6%) and do the same stuff. You may want to put a higher platform on the front wheel to tweak muscle actuation pattern that resembles actual climbing.
But what do we make out of the fact that Pogacar flew most of these climbs in the tour and giro with an average of 95-100rpm and they even reduced the crank length so that he works more via rpm and not torque
Shorter crank lengths mean more torque is required. It would be tougher to spin at any RPM. (The lever is shorter). GCN showed this awhile ago. They used their tallest rider. A shorter rider would have likely been even slower.
Shorter cranks means you have to raise the saddle higher, which leads to the torso being more parallel to the ground and therefore more aero. The pros are going fast enough up climbs that aero is a factor. And of course it helps to be aero on the flats and descents, as we saw with Pog's descent from Galibier to Valloire.
I think Pog (and most of the peloton) was using a 56-40 with a 11-34 for most of the stages in TdF. This would be tough for most people to pedal before even shortening the cranks.
Because he needs to save the legs for another climb/another day. Low cadence work will surely fatigue your muscles more.
Why dont you post all the links to the stidies in the bio?
Hi @rala5892 the pinned comment has a link to the presentation.
Well if you want to use bike for exercise then do bike only if you're training for races etc then workout so the bike doesn't feel like a workout. Otherwise strength training makes your biking not feel like a workout. Its all in what you want to bike for.
What a mean 45 degree? At hour 3?
@PepIM85 a 45-degree position of a pedal stroke can be described as roughly 1:30 on a clock face. Here's how it breaks down:
-0 degrees (top of the pedal stroke) corresponds to 12:00.
-45 degrees past 12:00 corresponds to 1:30 on the clock face.
This means if the pedal arm were a clock hand, it would point at 1:30. Make sense?
@@semiprocycling Ok yes it makes sense! And does the foot relative to the pedal have to be flat or do I have to emphasize the pedaling as if I wanted to lower the heel?
@@semiprocycling shouldn't the top of the pedal stroke be more like 11 o'clock since the seat is angled back 27 degrees?
Sorry i never heard of MDF? what it is cheers
My most effective training was have my rim brake bike on a dumb trainer. Elevate the front to simulate climbing angle. Then put straps on the brake handles to create resistance and push and pull hard at 30-50 rpm in 2 minute intervals. That strengthens every muscles legs, core, hips upper body that could turn the pedals and I felt strongest then. Since moving to smart trainers I can’t get the same training effect. Not much science in it but I really think the crude method was more effective.
Heck yeah! Rude and crude and gets the job done!
Just curious. Which GIRO helmet are you wearing in this video? Thanks.
Hi @michaelsin8707 Giro Atmos II
I don’t think on bike low cadence work is a “substitute” for gym work. Neither is the opposite true.
I consider it more a specific training after you improved your muscle strength in the gym.
My personal experience is as follows:
After strength training alone, I found I can push a much harder gear on steep terrain for sub minute duration. However, I wasn’t able to do these same for relatively longer efforts (still sub 3 minutes) until I tried a few low cadence sessions to teach my body that actually you can do this.
It shows gym builds useless muscles that in cycling requires additional oxygen. So, when you stop wasting time in a gym and dedicate yourself to cycling your gym gains will disappear and in place of that quality cycling muscles will develop. Short duration strength gives the illusion that you gained more power, while nothing robs your power more than a lack of endurance and poor neural connection and poor coordination.
@@tongotongo3143 Nice bro science. But that's not how it works. You can build stronger muscles without gaining musclemass.. Also, the more muscle you have, the more blood you will have to transport oxygen. Who would've known your body is smarter than you are..
Exactly bro science is built around gym culture and gym routines.
@@tongotongo3143 Bro science is a mindset. Not a place or sport.
Exactly, gym culture isn’t sport. Gym culture it’s mindset, fitness, and bro science which has been spreading faraway and has reached even real sports.
Great concise video. Thanks.
I guarantee that incorporating all these exercises will make you quit rather than make you improve. Just go to ride, enjoy the sceneries, don’t drink, sleep early and you’ll keep riding at 80!
There's no way around the benefits of diverse weights strength training which massively develop the neuro muscular power needed to improve the overall performance on the bike.
Very low candence work at high power is a good way to damage your knees
Really…twenty-five years plus of riding/racing (50 plus races a year w/53-11t), running and weight lifting with no knee issues.
Training, fitness, and understand of physiology and equipment make all the difference. Sorry, comments on TH-cam don’t.
@@ChromeLuxx The only thing that damage your knees is falling on them
Bull
youre weak
Even if I'm not strong that endurance bike make me strong😂
Жим ногами эффективнее приседаний ,40 повторения 20 подход + вакум во время выполнения упражнения и ноги на платформе должны находиться на 30% передней части и много еды
Жим ногами повредит глаза
@@richards4422 Why is that? Increased eye pressure?
Let me be a Pro - semi at least! I pushed the record button, people are scared!
thank you great info sir
I lift weights, and I cycle. I cycle to work.
Getting recovery time is challenging. Too tempting to press a bit harder on the bike going to work - only 20mins to get there...
Bah.
オールサンデイの老人だと，回復は可能ですね．
毎日3時間サイクリングして、すぐに爆睡しています．
Just lift weights. Best use of your time. High torque on the bike has been shown to cause more injuries.
that's what an old cyclist told me to do 30 years ago
Everyone in fitness generally dislikes the leg press, but single leg leg press is actually a good expercise for cycling, allowing you to maximize unilateral force production.
We used to call this doing "squats on the bike".
Cyclists loose muscle easily because they are working it up then working it off trying to maintain endurance. A cyclist will rarely have big gains . That's gym rats.
I might be completly dumb but I didn't understand the step 2 and 3
@theEINSTEININHO
Step 2: Grip the top of your bars and slow right down (almost stopping).
Step 3: Start (and stop) with your dominant leg and crank at 45º (just over the top of the pedal stroke).
@@semiprocycling So step 3 is just training one leg and you just do one pedal stroke ->stop -> one stroke --> stop... ?
@@theEINSTEININHO Nope. Continuous pedalling just count 7 left and 7 right.
@@semiprocyclingI don't get it either. Slow ride down? Meaning downhil? How can I ride slow going down? Or maybe 🤔 I don't understand 😢
@@aldrinclementina4297 maybe it’s the accent? Slow right down and nearly stop, then start pushing.
Comparing on bike exercise with squats isn’t fair. Single leg exercises are just on another level to increase your single leg strength. A two leg squat is useless to pedal your bike.
...that is why _split squats_ are far superior than _normal squats_ .
@@blaze1148 I agree......split squats are so effective. It hits the entire leg and glute.
Squats are extremely effective for increasing power in cycling. There’s no shortage of very strong squatting track cyclists.
@@kiuk_kiks Agreed!
it boggles the mind that people are writing "exercising a cycling-specific muscle and making it stronger is useless for cycling (ie double leg squats)". Like. WtAF?
@@aarondcmedia9585
I was a bodybuilder and could squat 200 kgs/ 442 lbs for reps and it had a very good carry over to cycling power. It was extremely bad for endurance but I’ve built that up over a year or so of cycling.
So science just invented wind sprints?
Hi @jprelock I’ve never heard of wind sprints? Can you explain what they are?
@@semiprocycling Just to make sure I wasn't crazy I googled wind sprints to see if it matched what I thought and it did. Running coaches have taught them for decades if not more. Be warmed up, sprint hard for 6 to 8 seconds, rest for a few minutes, repeat 3 to 4 times, once a week, approximately speaking.
Got it. Yes a similar idea but of course the devil is in the details including what running on the flat is optimizing versus these efforts.
@@jprelock the running analogy here is probably closer to uphill bounding. As developed by Lydiard a long time ago...
@@jprelock I was thinking more about this and the running version of what I've proposed is sled pushes rather sprinting alone. Again just a different stimulus for a different outcome.
Why not just lift weights?
He kinda mentions this, it's because people don't want to, they want to go cycling.
@@uramis00 yeah I totally get it. Lifting weights is very rewarding though!
Professional (or professional-esk) riders need to do strength training whether they like it or not.
Non professional riders can just do whatever they want as long as they are happy about it 👌🏻
Aka in my opinion - If you want to truly improve your cycling performance, you’ll lift weights. If you don’t want to lift weights then just be happy with not getting every last bit of power you can out of yourself and just enjoy cycling 🚴🚴♀️
Collectively, the taller you are, more free power you can get compare to short person (consider same training routine & diet).
Whatever it is, to be better you from yesterday is consistent well planned training, ride alone, last but not least listen to your knee 😂