The Muscles That Are Worked Whilst Bike Riding
Cycling is one of the most popular sports in the world and it is estimated that there is over 4 billion bikes world wide now. 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. Cycling for long periods of time, but at reasonably low force, will encourage your muscles to build slow-twitch fibers and improve their endurance levels. Conversely, if you ride at a high intensity over shorter periods, you will develop more fast twitch (powerful) fibres and build muscle size. But which are the muscles that are demanded the most of when riding.
Quadriceps (thighs). The muscles that are worked the hardest whilst cycling and so need to be the most developed are the quads. These are the muscles that straighten out the leg and produce the down force on the pedals, which in turn rotate the crack. Racing bikes in fact are designed to locate the quads directly over the crack so that maximum efficiency is achieved. The quad muscles thankfully adapt quite quickly to exercise, which is lucky as bike riding forces them to work at quite a rapid rate.
Gastrocnemius (calf muscles). The calf muscle is a great deal smaller than the quads, but no less important when it comes to propelling the bike forwards.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. After the quads have forced the leg down and helped move the bike forwards, the hamstrings work to to pull it back up again and reset the leg ready for another push. 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