Upper Body and Power

n crowley

Power is applied from the hip through the leg and from the shoe to the pedal from 11 to 5 o'c in a line that feels parallel to the arm resistance pulling line, the rotating pedal, crank and full range of ankle movement extend and convert this line into a semicircle which with both pedals gives almost continuous power application. There is the same power application from start to finish of the power stroke, so generated power appliction would be the same at 11 as at 3 but due to total unweighting of rising leg, overall power application at 3 would be greater than at 11, 12 and 1 o'c. That video has been offered for sale in most magazines , "cycling weekly" is one of these.
Apart from seeing the smoothest possible pedaling action, you will learn nothing from the video, experts have been studying it for years. You need off the bike examples of how the power is generated and applied to the pedals and even what your main objective is. So that calls for a demonstration of the whole technique.

germanboxers

Dr. Coggan, I presume that you don't lift weights with the specific intent on improving your speed on the bike? If you were to lift weights, would you be doing so to correct/stabilize/balance joints and/or would you be doing so to provide weight-bearing activity to your routine to offset reported loss in bone density among avid practioners of non-weightbearing activities? Wow...that was a mouthful!!

Also, if one had limited time to spend on the bike/trainer due to weather or an extreme disgust with pedalling in place, do you think that resistance-training would be as good/better than/worse than some other forms of cross-training such as running?

Thanks for your input!

Jordan

n crowley

It is the same video that you refer to, there is only one that I know of. In that video, some believed that Anquetil's high gear power came from his strong back but I am confident that the reverse was true. While all other riders had their backs under continuous pedalling strain, Anquetil's lower back enjoyed a relaxing beneficial massaging effect during all hours spent on the bike and the higher the gear used, the more beneficial it was to his back.

RapDaddyo

To wrap up this thread, I've concluded that the source of my back pain was probably my gluteus medius muscles, just from the result of beginning to do intervals and climbing and, basically, pushing harder. I trained through the discomfort and have no problems now. The experience did force me to think about the role of my upper body and I have concluded that, for now, it's only role is to keep me stable on the saddle and that upper body weight work may make me more attractive to the opposite sex but will not affect my power on the bike one iota. Maybe some day I'll figure out how to do the "magical" Anquetiel pedaling style, but for now I just push and, if I can think of it, unweight on the upstroke.

Thanks all for your input. Happy cycling.

mezzinator

Just as an aside...

I discovered when I started riding that I was terrible at endurance riding and long hills. So I decided to focus on track sprinting.

I've been pushing a lot of weight in the Gym and got stronger very quickly and have found that yes, the long hills and long rides are still a killer. BUT, I'm becoming a good sprinter on the group rides and can absolutely power up smaller hills better than all the comptetive riders I know.

Unfortunately I'm a wreck on anything over 30 kilometres....