my legs are huge!

[mhay]

SO I just started cycling about 3 months ago. All the sudden my legs are a lot bigger. (They were already slim, but very musclular) I also don't go very fast. I think my resistance is too high. Can anyone give me pointers as to how to keep my legs from getting much bigger and also help me improve my speed?

Thank you

 

[FrankBattle]

SO I just started cycling about 3 months ago. All the sudden my legs are a lot bigger. (They were already slim, but very musclular) I also don't go very fast. I think my resistance is too high. Can anyone give me pointers as to how to keep my legs from getting much bigger and also help me improve my speed?

Thank you

One obvious answer would be to get off the bike, but that might not do much for your speed.

I say this somewhat fascetiously. You do use your leg (thigh) muscles when you ride, so it's understandable that they'd get bigger. I'm going to guess that you are relatively new to [road] cycling. One common mistake people make early is to push bigger gears than they have to in search of speed versus smaller gears and more spinning. This is akin to doing leg presses with heavier weights versus high reps and low weights. In general, bigger gears will help with short-term speed, but to go faster, longer, use lower gears and just increase your cadence; this will strengthen your slow twitch muscles and increase your cardio fitness, which help you maintain a high enough cadence and an easier gearing (say, 53/19, 53/17 or even 39/13, 39/15 .. of course these are examples as your mileage will vary)

Overall increase in speed will only be helped by increasing your cardio fitness allowing you to spin fast(er) for longer, thereby increasing your speed.

All this said, ride more and you will soon figure out what works for you as no amount of advice from these boards can substitute for actual riding. Enjoy your rides.

 

[wiredued]

I agree stay in the saddle and spin if you don't want big legs.

 

[Lord Vader]

I'm missing something here. Whats wrong with big legs??

 

[Spunout]

Nothing wrong with big legs.

If you've just started, go ride your bike. Use easy gears and spin.

 

[mitosis]

YOu only need to start worrying if your legs get longer.

 

[SaintAndrew]

one thing you might want to experiment with is use comp. or stationary bike that shows you rpms and set it up like you normally ride and see how many rpm's you are doing. i've heard that alot of people will to be able to spin more than 70rpm's even, but if you are in the 50 range or so you know you wanna try aiming for higher gradually.

another thing you can do is go out for some LONG rides. start at about 3 hours and try to go up from there. but i guarantee you won't be able to push your biggest gear for 3 hours strait and this will automatically force you to learn how to spin better - if you wanna get home that is

 

[zaskar]

I'm missing something here. Whats wrong with big legs??

Nothing wrong with big legs, but cycling doesn't make big legs. maybe if you ride track or you are a sprinter your legs may get bigger.

 

[Catabolic_Jones]

please tell me your regimen; i could use some huge legs.

seriously, what you might be noticing is a drop in body fat % which is giving your legs a more defined look; this might actually make them appear larger. but from just riding the bike, it would be unusual to develop larger legs in three months. unless, of course, you are rolling it over at 20 rpm or something.

 

[otb4evr]

My thought about any kind of muscle increase is that it has almost nothing to do with how you perform your exercise and everything to do with your genetics.

In other words, if you are going to have big legs, you will have big legs. It does not matter if you spin at 120+ or grind at 50...

I tried looking on the net for some supporting papers, but most of what I found pertained to body building.

Jim

 

[whoawhoa]

My thought about any kind of muscle increase is that it has almost nothing to do with how you perform your exercise and everything to do with your genetics.

In other words, if you are going to have big legs, you will have big legs. It does not matter if you spin at 120+ or grind at 50...

If we're just talking about cycling, the I would agree. The forces are too low, whether at 50rpm or 120 rpm, to spark too much hypertrophy. That said, cycling will result in some hypertrophy of slow-twitch muscle. I would guess that hypertrophy is fairly small and tapers off pretty quickly. (http://www.cyclingpeakssoftware.com/power411/levels.asp)

 

[snaps10]

Nothing wrong with big legs.

If you've just started, go ride your bike. Use easy gears and spin.

big legs are heavier thus more weight to lug up hills. however, id kill for some big legs. ill trade you my skinny chicken legs for your big muscles.

just get off of riding in the big ring for a while. you may slim up. if nothing else, you will gain real nice spinning form and impress all the cycling ladies with your professional style spin.

 

[mhay]

Hey thanks for all the advice! I've tried cycling in lower gears for the last two days and I can definitely feel that its less leg work and more cardio.

By the way, I'm a girl so I don't want the big legs that impress all the cycling ladies haha

 

[ishiwata]

By the way, I'm a girl

hey there, you come here often?

 

[kuan]

Normally, rapid growth like that is associated with elevated quantities of testosterone and human growth hormone. Other symptoms include calcification of the brow area and excessive chest hair growth.


















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