Squats

[Incontinentia Buttocks]

I was using Froomes quote to support your argument.

 

[Citius]

I was using Froomes quote to support your argument.

ok - so we must be in agreement

Ironically though, there are also quotes from Cavendish which state that he does do gym work. That's why it's always a better idea just to stick to the science and the facts.

 

[Cuchilo]

Just to add to this . I went and did a few hills today and to my surprise they where all a doddle As I said earlier in the thread , I have not been riding as much as I used too but the riding I have been doing is pretty much all at max effort in TT's or training at max effort but not for lots of miles as I've not had the time .
To me this shows that getting the breathing right to give a maximum effort for longer is probably the best training you can do . Its a shame I haven't had the time to get the riding part in as I could have been so much better this season .

 

[Drago]

My brain hurts .

Some squats will cure that.

 

[ayceejay]

A bit off topic I guess but I just remembered this, purely anecdotal I'm afraid.
A frequent visitor to my LBS was Sean Yates, he was on the cusp of turning pro. Sean would do press ups, lots of press ups and ride his bike a lot as well as his full time job landscaping. The story goes that when he turned pro he had the widest shoulders in the peleton and the director of the Motorola team ordered him to stop doing the press ups.

 

[Drago]

I'd have told the director of the team to get bent. I don't care if it would cure world hunger and end all wars, there's no way I'd want the upper body of a pro roadie.

 

[ayceejay]

unless you were a pro roadie like Sean eh?

 

[Drago]

Even then...no. Not being able to visit a beach without someone kicking sand in your face is a real ballache.

 

[Citius]

Conversely, I doubt if there's many pro roadies that would want your upper body either...

 

[Cuchilo]

Or amateurs

 

[Drago]

Rubbish. They'd kill for moobs and saggy back fat like mine.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

Squats are also good for increasing the strength of connecting tissue around the knees and the ankles (when done well), and could lead to reduced injury, especially at the distances covered by pros.

With regards to strength and power for those I think missing the point @Citius is making, Power is defined as the rate of work done. That is work/time

Strength could loosely be defined as as the work from the power equation. You can increase "power" by either doing work harder, or by doing work quicker.

So yes, technically, more strength COULD increase your power, but we all know the issues of a low cadence and the effects on the cardiovascular system. The most effective way to improve power cycling is to reduce the time it takes to do the work.

If there's anybody here that runs a power meter and cadence meter it is quite possible work out the exact amount of force put through the pedals, and you will be surprised at how little it is.

 

[Citius]

As I've said before, the average pedal forces while the pros are riding up a mountain is around 15-20kg per pedal stroke - a massively reduced number from the amount that can be squatted. Most untrained individuals could probably already squat in excess of their own bodyweight, and given that it is technically impossible to push more than your own bodyweight through the pedal stroke, the strength argument kind of fizzles out.

In gym terms, strength is generally defined as the amount you can push/squat/lift in 1x rep max.

 

[PhilDawson8270]

If there's anybody here that runs a power meter and cadence meter it is quite possible work out the exact amount of force put through the pedals, and you will be surprised at how little it is.

In fact, I'll give it a quick go as an example.

Using information from Stage 18 of the 2013 tdf available here http://velonews.competitor.com/2013...sis-stages-18-19-at-the-tour-de-france_296653 with over 4km of climbing on the stage.

Using Normalised power as the power

Power = 314W
Cadence = 82rpm
Crank Length = 172.5mm (No crank length data so we will just use this)

So Power = work/time

314W = work/time

To find the time we know the crank has radius 172.5 so has diameter 345mm Which has circumference pi*d which comes out to 1083.84mm, since this crank length is already an assumption, I'm quite happy to call this 1.1m for simplicity of calculation.

With a cadence of 82rpm it takes 0.73seconds per revolution

Rearrange power = work/time to work = Power*time

work = 314*0.73
= 229.22 Nm of torque

Which is 23.4 kg m Since 1m is quite close to our full revolution, half of that is what is put through 1 pedal.

So the best cyclists in the world, on a stage that involved much climbing were only putting 11.7 Kg through each pedal stroke.

The amount is tiny, in fact, the weight they put on the pedal is less than some bicycles weigh.

As you can clearly see, strength won't be a limiting factor, and squatting really won't help to get up those hills

 

[Citius]

Great post Phil - it deserves more than one 'like'..