| coachfelipe |
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| Joined: 23 Feb 2007 |
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Pedaling Technique
by Rich Strauss
By becoming more aware of your pedal stroke, you can choose to manipulate where and how you activate your leg muscles as your foot traces the circular trajectory at the cranks.
1. The bike goes faster when you apply more watts to the rear wheel, period. The rear wheel doesn't care in what manner that power is generated or applied to the pedals. What matters is what that power is when it reaches the wheel.
2. Your feet are attached to the pedals, which are attached to straight cranks, which are attached to circular chain rings and a round axle or bottom bracket. You have no choice other than to pedal in a circle. All you are really in control of is what muscles you fire when your legs spin through this circular trajectory.
3. Your legs have been engineered to apply the most power most efficiently by pushing against the ground (running, jumping, walking), not by pulling up (activating the hip flexor). Contrary to product claims, there has been no evidence to suggest that the "way" to pedal a bike is by applying power in pretty little circles.
4. If you are thinking about this or that area of the pedal stroke and firing/relaxing different muscles at different times, but the power at the rear wheel is the same or less, you haven't accomplished anything. If you are doing all of this AND applying more watts, then we can talk, but my next question is, ā€¯How long can you sustain this?ā€¯ Another point in here is that nothing is free. If you're applying more watts to the bike, that work has to come from somewhere. It is not gained by efficiency, energy savings, etc. You must do more work in order to output more work. Period.
So how should I pedal a bike?
What I'll now discuss is how you should apply your leg power to the pedals as they trace the circle of a pedal stroke. Divide the pedal revolution into hours of the clock, as seen from the right side of the bike, and into four sectors of three hours each:
11-2pm: Imagine you are "rolling a barrel" under your foot. At 11pm you begin to push forward across the top of the pedal stroke/clock face until your foot is in the 2pm position.
2-5pm: This is the power phase of the pedal stroke. You're pushing relatively straight down on the pedals, in the manner your legs have been designed to apply force most efficiently. Most beginner cyclists pedal straight up and down, like pistons, applying power to the pedals from 2-5pm. I feel they are missing the opportunity to apply that leg strength across more hours of the clock face.
5-8pm: Imagine you are "scraping mud" from the bottom of your shoe. Transition from pedaling down to following through, activating the hamstring and pulling your foot rearward.
8-11pm: When your right leg is at 8pm your left leg is at the beginning of the power phase, 2pm. We want 100% of the power applied by the left leg to be transferred to the rear wheel and move the bike forward. However, if your right leg, at 8pm, is "dead" on the pedal, then a percentage of your left leg power is not applied to the rear wheel but instead is used to lift the right leg. Now, this lifting effect is probably less than you think, as your right leg, spinning at 90+ rpm, does have a significant amount of momentum to "throw" it over the top of the pedal stroke.
Instead, from 8-11pm we want to "de-weight" the pedal, applying just enough lifting force to make our foot weigh zero on the pedal, so 100% of the work performed by the opposite leg is used to propel the bike forward. Notice that I'm not counseling you to activate the hip flexor and apply power on the upward phase of the pedal stroke. |
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