Cycling is a fantastic sport that is enjoyed all over the world by millions of people each day. 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, if you ride at a high intensity over shorter periods, you will develop more fast twitch (powerful) fibres and build muscle size. So which muscles get worked the hardest when you ride a bike.
Quadriceps (thighs). Without doubt the muscles that produce most of the force when cycling are the quadriceps. 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 cycling fast, these muscles are contracted and relaxed hundreds of times a minute and so they need to be in good shape.
Gastrocnemius (calf). Although the calf muscles are much smaller than the quadriceps, they still do and important job of transferring power to the pedals. Flexing the calf muscles when the leg is in a straight position, points the toes towards and adds a small boost to the overall power output. 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
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