Thigh Muscles

[jasonmccullum]

I have been riding for around 4 weeks and have finished my first 15 mile ride which i am pleased with, as well as doing a 10 mile ride each morning.

I am ok on the flats and averaging 15mph overall, but i am still feeling the hills in my thighs.

any training ideas to help the hills become easier and less heavy on the muscles??

 

[cheadle hulme]

The only training for riding hills is riding hills my friend!

People may offer various leg exercises, but experience is all that matters.

ps If you must do a specific leg exercise off the bike, do the squat.

make sure you have a gym spotter or you know what you are doing though.

 

[ed_o_brain]

Just keep cycling. I'd probably try and keep your intensity the same, or even drop it off a bit but increase distance steadily, by about 10% a week.

Get a good base level of fitness.

Make sure you are climbing in a nice low gear and spinning. Once you have that good base level, then increase intensity, work a bit on sprinting and climbing. It does come naturally.

Make sure you are eating a good range of fruit and vegetables and allowing your body chance to recover between tougher rides.

 

[cheadle hulme]

As Ed says, keep increasing the distance gradually.

If you're feeling the strain on the top of you're thighs (ie your quads) then thats good. The strain is them breaking down and rebuilding. Make sure you're getting enough protein during the rebuilding process. (milk, cheese, fish, meat or protein shake if you need).

 

[Banjo]

In the first month or so that i started regullar cycling I had a lot of pain in my upper thighs .Initially my seat was much too low.Raising it to the correct position helped a lot.

Couple of times a week try riding shorter routes that involve a few good hills as part of your training mixed in with longer rides.

 

[Stud]

small hills more often

 

[Farky]

On the flats; get out of the saddle, put the weight on your thighs and pedal fairly quickly without rocking the bike (it's important you do not rock the bike and keep it straight). You'll be surprised how much that works the thighs and is useful on rides where you don't get many hills (like my commute to work). p.s. You can't be image conscious as when I do it, I feel like a t!t...

 

[jimboalee]

The way to make hills 'easier' ( which is a misnomer ), is to make your muscles more powerful.

The way to do this is to work them for a low number of repetitions until failure.
The way to do this is to ride up a steep hill in as high gear as you can until you have to stop because you can no longer summon the power to move the bike forward.

As CH says, eat lots of protein. Also it is important to rest, then your physiology will sort the muscles out.

You will get DOMS, Delayed Onset of Muscular Soreness, but don't worry, you will be stronger than before.

After a week, repeat the exercise.

 

[Globalti]

Yep. What he said. I've been road riding seriously now since March and I'm amazed how, after 20 years of mountain biking, my thighs are suddenly bigger than they have ever been and hills just don't seem like hills any more.

I'm 53 BTW so there's hope for anybody!

 

[Banjo]

The way to make hills 'easier' ( which is a misnomer ), is to make your muscles more powerful.

The way to do this is to work them for a low number of repetitions until failure.
The way to do this is to ride up a steep hill in as high gear as you can until you have to stop because you can no longer summon the power to move the bike forward.

As CH says, eat lots of protein. Also it is important to rest, then your physiology will sort the muscles out.

You will get DOMS, Delayed Onset of Muscular Soreness, but don't worry, you will be stronger than before.

After a week, repeat the exercise.

Wouldnt grinding to a halt like that put a lot of strain on your knees?

 

[jimboalee]

Wouldnt grinding to a halt like that put a lot of strain on your knees?

I've won a fiver.

 

[Banjo]

oops I walked onto that one. Plotting revenge.....

 

[jimboalee]

Building muscle on a bicycle is much the same as doing weights in a gym. In the gym, there is a method to determine the 'starting point' of each exercise for the person who has never lifted weights before.

Let's take for example the Squat, preferebly on a Smith machine.

Warm up by doing 20 reps at minimum weight ( bar only ).
Warm up a bit more by increasing the total weight by half the weight of the bar.
There is a logic sequence to follow where =IF( Reps>=2, increase weight by 10%, increase weight by 10% ) until weight is added where the client can only manage ONE repetition. This is called 1RF or One Rep to Failure.

The starting weight for the client's next session will be 75% of his/her 1RP.

Relate that to a bike. Climb a hill to failure. Note the gear inches.
At the next attempt, use a gear which is 75% of the length.

eg. On a 12% hill, the cyclist failed on a 48" gear. Next weekend, use a 36" gear.
No prizes for saying 36" up a 12% is for a 25lb bike

A short amount of strain like this will not damage your knee ligaments and tendons. In fact, it will encourage them to strengthen in sympathy with your muscles.

 

[zacklaws]

Is the pain occuring during the ride or after?

I have experienced both. For years I suffered it on my old road bike and thought it was just part of cycling as after a few miles it would go away but stiffen up afterwards. Then when I bought a new road bike, I never suffered it, apart for a short while as I set my saddle position up etc which made me think, so I tried to set my old bike up to get a comfortable position but never managed to do away with the pain. This morning riding home from work on my old bike up just a 1% gradient according to my Garmin, my thighs was killing me like it does everyday almost. What I did find though on my new bike was just moving the saddle very small amounts made one hell of a difference, but on my old bike, its just never worked. The only difference size wise between the two is I have longer cranks on my new bike but I doubt that would make such a difference. Anyway when I can afford it my old bikes is off in the skip when I get its replacement

As a rule though about 48 hours after a ride over 30+ miles, the tops of my thighs ache like hell, but just another ride out cures it.

 

[jimboalee]

Is the pain occuring during the ride or after?

I have experienced both. For years I suffered it on my old road bike and thought it was just part of cycling as after a few miles it would go away but stiffen up afterwards. Then when I bought a new road bike, I never suffered it, apart for a short while as I set my saddle position up etc which made me think, so I tried to set my old bike up to get a comfortable position but never managed to do away with the pain. This morning riding home from work up just a 1% gradient according to my Garmin, my thighs was killing me like it does everyday almost. What I did find though on my new bike was just moving the saddle very small amounts made one hell of a difference, but on my old bike, its just never worked. The only difference size wise between the two is I have longer cranks on my new bike but I doubt that would make such a difference. Anyway when I can afford it my old bikes is off in the skip when I get its replacement

As a rule though about 48 hours after a ride over 30+ miles, the tops of my thighs ache like hell, but just another ride out cures it.

This is called D.O.M.S. Delayed Onset of Muscular Soreness.

A good stretch and an ice bath immediatly after the ride would ease this.