Weight training and cycling

Triathlon Forum
46

It’s actually efficiency that is measured within cycling, and leaving aside any arguments/discussions about Power Cranks, or Rotor Cranks, efficiency varies very little in cycling, primarily because your legs/feet are fixed to the pedals, and can only move in a fixed manner – thus, cycling is a very simple motor control sport. ================================================= ================================================= There you go astray like all the other experts who concentrate all research on expensive equipment, powermeters and legal or illegal performance enhancers, all overlook or ignore the most important aspect of cycling which is the pedaling. Just because the legs/shoes are attached to the pedals/cranks which can only go round in a circle, you do not have to always think circles when applying chaindrive power to the pedals. Biomechanically it can be applied in very different ways and by using a simple but very different (mental) linear technique which makes the discreet combination of arm/leg power possible when riding at speed in the saddle, you can extend the area of very effective pedal power application into the dead spot area and increase overall pedal power for smooth relaxed use of the higher gears, but most important of all, you eliminate the root cause of all (on the bike) chronic lower back pain i.e. continuous lower back strain. If Anquetil’s linear technique had been thoroughly researched, there would never have been a need for biopace, rotorcranks, etc. High gears need not be a cause of back pain but they magnify the existing faults and dangers in the style of pedaling that you are using, just like heavy weights do when weightlifting.

Ric Stern

ric@cyclecoach.com

47

As i understand it, He states that pedaling is “simple” based upon experimental evidence that shows that overall efficiency is pretty much the same for novices or experts and the main difference between these groups is how much they have trained, not how much they have improved their pedaling.

You seem to think that you have somehow been able to transform your pedaling to be able to apply “linear force” the entire stroke whereas studies that have looked at pros since the beginning of studies have never shown that anyone actually pedals in this fashion. If you are actually able to do so then you should have no trouble riding on the PowerCranks (which force one to do what you say you do) and your first ride should last 4 hours and be no more difficult than what you are doing now. Why don’t you see if you can find a pair and try them out and see what you think if you pedal like you think you do or if you pedal like everyone else.

It is this problem that makes the PC’s so difficult as it is trying to actually change the way people pedal. Once people who have actually been trained on them are studied for efficiency I think the science will be turned on its head, but it hasn’t been done yet.

Not all “scientists” are ivory tower goofballs unaware of the real world. The original post was regarding weight training and cycling and the fine (in my opinion) review of this written by Ric Stern. The only objections that have been put forward to this view have been suppositions by those who think it should help (for any of various reasons). Until there is some scientific data to refute these conclusions it seems to me that those who are primarily interested in improving speed (and not some “overall” goal) can safely ignore weight training.

48

He is correct in all he said about weight lifting, it was the brushing aside of the importance of pedaling that I disagreed with. You said studies on

all the pros never showed any of them pedaling linear style. Was

Anquetil included in these studies. I can show you live pedaling action

of Anquetil on the video of his racing years and he is clearly using the

identical linear technique that I use. I cannot use normal round pedaling

for very long because I have the weakest lower back in the sport and

lower back pain prevents me from using it. There are three different

pedaling styles stomping best for track sprinting, linear best for time

trialling, track pursuit and the round pedaling style best for road racing

when in the bunch. To successfully acquire Anquetil’s, you first need

to have perfected round pedaling and that is where your PC’s could be

of assistance but as I have already perfected it, the PC’s would be

of no benefit to me. I solved the mystery of Anquetil’s pedaling when

I attempted and succeeded in biomechanically combining the upper

body arm power of a " hand cranked " trike rider with the lower body

power of a normal road racer.

If I do manage to get a set of PC’s I will give them a try but apart from

helping a beginner to get using a good technique from the start, I can’t

see them being of further use because I don’t believe there is anything

to be gained from pulling up with the returning leg, offloading the weight

yes but not pulling up.

49

WOW, this guy IS Perfection. If PC’s would be far too much of a digression in his hierarchy of pedalling technique, he’s got to be, in actuality, perfect.

Oh, well! For the rest of us beginners, I guess Perfection would recommend we work hard on PC’s for a while before trying out his obviously superior pedalling techniques. Since PC’s are very difficult for me, I’m liable to be dead before I get as good as Perfection at pedalling! I guess I’ll just have to slog along at about an hour for a 40K TT until I figure it all out…