Which Muscles Does Riding a Bike Develop?
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. The motivations for cycling vary, from just wanting to get a bit of fresh air, to wanting to dramatically enhance your fitness. 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. But which are the muscles that are demanded the most of when riding.
Quadriceps (thigh muscles). 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). The muscles of the calf work just as hard as those of the thigh, and relative to their size they produce a lot of power.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. It may be the thigh muscles that provide most of the forward momentum when riding, but in order to flex the legs and prime them for the next downward push, it is the hamstrings that do the work. This doesnt 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
