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I Love Bicycling is a website that is geared towards cycling for beginners with road cycling tips, training articles, nutrition tips, weight loss, how to’s and bike repair articles.

Anterior Pelvic Tilt: How To Correct Imbalances & Improve Performance

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Two of the most common problems amongst cyclists are knee pain and lower back pain. In fact, 94% of cyclists experienced injury during a one-year period of study; low back pain and anterior knee pain being prevalent for 58% and 36% of participants, respectively. While the causes of these issues are numerous and varied, there are several similar originating factors between them, and consequently a structured approach to relieving them short and long-term. 

One of those commonalities is the presence of an anterior pelvic tilt in the cyclist’s body. This basically translates to the pelvis, which is the bony structure that your spine sits on and your femurs attach to (it also supports the intestines, contains the bladder, reproductive organs, colon, and more), is tilted farther forward than normal.

anterior pelvic tilt

Different pelvic positions. (Credit: sumaki/Adobe Stock)

This has ramifications for the entire body, and can be the source of much pain and dysfunction in cyclists at all levels of performance, especially compared to non-cycling individuals. In this article we’re going to talk about why anterior pelvic tilt tends to develop in cyclist’s, the problems it can cause, and what we can do to prevent it from happening.

Common Causes of Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

When we look at a cyclist positioned on her bike, there are some immediate red flags that we can point out as likely contributors to this postural phenomena we’re calling anterior pelvic tilt. We’re about to see very quickly that just the way people ride their bikes in general (because of their design) is one of the biggest pieces of this puzzle. 


Use this picture for reference when reading the next section. (Credit: Artem Varnitsin/Adobe Stock)

Compressed Hips

If you look at the picture above, our rider has her left leg at the top of a pedal stroke. If we look at her left hip, it’s in a fully flexed position, accentuated by her bent forward torso. Because this happens thousands of times every time we trek out for a lengthy cruise, our poor hip flexor muscles are being subjected to a lot of short, cramped positions. Over time, this will make them tight.

Tight hip flexors are one of the main causes of anterior pelvic tilt, resulting also in lower back pain. The reason for this is because one of your main hip flexors, the psoas major, attaches to all five of your lumbar (lower back) vertebrae. When the psoas becomes short and tight, it pulls on all those vertebrae, arching your lower back, and tipping your pelvis forward.


Psoas Major. Notice its attachments to all of the lumbar vertebrae. (Credit: SciePro/Adobe Stock)

Other aspects of our modern lifestyles (mainly sitting, by way of office work, driving, and excessive leisure time) further overwork our hip flexors and encourage them to stay tight 24/7. It’s an inevitable part of riding, and something we need to address it in order to get our hips and spine back into a good position.

Weak Glutes

Having a strong backside is not only attractive, but also incredibly important for keeping your pelvis in a balanced, neutral alignment. The gluteus maximus in particular is your biggest, most powerful hip extensor, and is crucial to maintaining good posture through its action of posteriorly rotating the pelvis and counteracting the pull of the hip flexors. 

Our hips never fully extend while we’re cycling. This is largely due to the fact that we’re always hinged over at the hips to keep our hands on the handlebars, and almost completely folded in half when dropping down into the aero position. Cycling has been promoted in the past as a good activity for developing our glutes, but these positions unfortunately make that almost impossible.


Biomechanically, the positions we get into while pedaling make it hard to recruit our gluteus maximus. (Credit: Jacek Dylag/Unsplash)

Because the gluteus maximus is such a big powerful muscle, it often needs intense, full hip extension to be optimally stimulated for growth and development. Cycling doesn’t offer that, and in fact causes the body to recruit secondary hip extensors (hamstrings) to do most of the hip extension as an energy conservation method. Weak glutes = anterior pelvic tilt.

Weak Abdominal Muscles

Cycling primarily occurs in what is called the sagittal plane of movement. This plane divides the body down the middle (refer to below picture) so it is split evenly in half, and accounts for forward/backward movements. There is slight frontal plane (side to side) motion when shifting weight from pedal to pedal and leaning to take hard corners, but it is minimal.


The three anatomical body planes and corresponding motions in the human body. (Credit: VectorMine/Adobe Stock)

This is important because our core musculature needs to be challenged in all planes of movement to function correctly. We need to learn to brace and be strong while twisting, moving our legs independently of our torso, lifting loads off the ground, etc. Cycling limits these opportunities by keeping us fixed and reliant on the bike frame in place of support from our core musculature.

Muscles like the exterior obliques, rectus abdominis and transversus abdominis stabilize the back by creating intra-abdominal pressure and influence the position of the pelvis by rotating it backwards. Cycling discourages mechanisms like this from happening whilst riding, allowing our pelvis to be pulled forward by the hip flexors while the core remains relatively dormant.

Other Causes of Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

Having your bike properly fitted is essential to avoid a whole host of injuries, pain, and dysfunction, including anterior pelvic tilt. Having a saddle too high will force you to learn forward excessively to reach the handlebars, compressing the hip joint. If it’s too low, your hip will be forced into extreme flexion at the top of the pedal stroke, further tightening the hip flexors.


Our partners at MyVeloFit offer an AI powered bike fitting app you can use to adjust your bike right at home. (Credit: MyVeloFit)

There are other factors in a person’s lifestyle that are going to encourage anterior pelvic tilt, these include: Having a sedentary job, driving, spending a lot of time sitting on couches and chairs, not participating in any type of explosive movements like sprinting and jumping, etc. All of these things contribute to tight hips, weak glutes, and bad posture overall.

Symptoms of Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

Without getting a professional postural assessment done on your body, there are some common symptoms you may be able to relate to that point to an anterior pelvic tilt being present in the body. Some of these include:

  • Knee pain: When the pelvis tilts forward, it internally rotates the femur (your thigh bone). This puts awkward strain on the structures in your knee, resulting in pain and discomfort.
  • Lower back pain & tightness: Excessive pull from the hip flexors can arch your lower back into a posture known as lordosis, often resulting in significant ache, pain, and tightness of the lower back muscles.
  • Mid back tightness: When the lower back arches excessively, sometimes the mid back will round to compensate posturally. This chronically stretches muscles in the mid back, making them feel like they need to be stretched, when actually they need to be strengthened.
  • Distended abdomen: When the pelvis tilts forward it stretches the muscles on the front of your abdomen, making them weak over team. This results in a loss of abdominal tone, and a belly that sags forward as the organs fall against a weak abdominal wall.
  • Loss of power on the bike: If the core can’t maintain optimal stability, it can’t create a strong base for your legs to push off while pedaling, resulting in a loss of power.
  • Hip pain: An individual is likely to experience ache, discomfort, and pain in the hip if the hip flexor muscles are being overworked and holding excessive tension even in time spent off the bike.

Prevention Strategies for Anterior Pelvic Tilt in Cyclists

While the picture we’ve painted so far hasn’t been favourable to our beloved sport, hope is far from lost for those of us with a tilted pelvis! Actually, the fixes for this problem, depending on the cause(s), can be quite straightforward and easy to integrate with some supplemental training. Try out some of these protocols and see what they do for you and your cycling performance.

Hip Flexor Mobility & Stretching

It has become evident now throughout the duration of this article that the hip flexors are major culprits in cyclists with anterior pelvic tilt. To combat the stiffness that is bound to develop in our time on the bike, we can actively work to lengthen and mobilize these muscles so they rest and function in a more balanced position.

Give this exercise a try, the Reverse Lunge w/Leg Lift. It offers an amazing blend of benefits for the hips as a whole. Stepping back into a deep lunge helps lengthen the hip flexors and also strengthen them in those stretched positions at the same time. The added leg lift (and lunge action in general) also helps to strengthen the glutes and pull the pelvis back down into a neutral position.

Perform three sets of 10 reps per leg, adjusting as necessary. You can also hold a dumbbell in front of you for extra intensity.

Strengthen the Glutes

As previously mentioned, the gluteus maximus, your body’s largest muscle, is our most powerful hip extensor, and plays an important role in maintaining a neutral pelvis by rotating it backwards. If we aren’t getting enough activation of this muscle through our riding, then we need to make up for it in our strength and conditioning routine. Here are some ways to make it stronger.

Any sort of squat, lunge, or deadlift type exercise is going to stimulate the glutes and help them develop. A great bang for your buck exercise is the Jump Squat to Jumping Jack, because it combines a deep squat with a jumping jack which forces you to spread your legs and extend the hips simultaneously, an amazing stimulus for all the muscles in your posterior and lateral hip.

See how you feel doing three sets of 10 reps, adding more or less sets/reps to moderate difficulty.

Strengthen the Core

Being fixed on the bike through the saddle and handlebars discourages any significant use of our abdominal musculature. The bike does all the stabilizing for us, a much different environment than a soccer player sprinting down the pitch or a powerlifter lifting a heavy squat. Certain muscles in our abdomen help to posteriorly rotate the pelvis and counter the pull of the hip flexors. Those are the ones we are going to focus on in this next exercise.

The deadbug is a wonderful introduction to low back/trunk stability and overall core strength. The main focus is keeping your lower back flat on the ground as you move alternating arm/leg away from the torso. By keeping you back flat, you’re using your exterior obliques and rectus abdominis to counter the pull of your hip flexors, and strengthen the core in concert with your extremities.

Three sets of 10 total reps (five/side) is a good start for this exercise. If you feel your lower back coming off the ground, limit the range of motion of your limbs so you can maintain that hollow position. 

Build a Better Body With Dynamic Cyclist

The above exercises were pulled from our extensive mobility, strength, and conditioning programming over at Dynamic Cyclist! We have hundreds of follow along instructional videos and routines to help you correct postural problems, prevent injury, get stronger, and become an overall better cyclist in the comfort of your own home! Sign up for a 7-day free trial by heading over to our website.

The Best Way to Avoid Cycling Injuries

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“How can you prevent injury while cycling?”

It’s one of the first questions you should be asking as a cyclist. We all want to get faster, stronger and better on the bike, and while there’s definitely tried and true methods to attaining those things, there’s also a guaranteed way to prevent them from happening: Getting injured.

injury while cycling

Being sidelined from the saddle is a cyclist’s worst nightmare. We all know the exercise-induced-junkie-type behaviour that is all too common in ourselves and our fellow riders. We love to ride and we love to ride often. Being “injured” is almost a misnomer for many members of the cycling community, and we’re all too inclined to take a position of out of sight, out of mind. 

But that can only go on for so long. Anybody who has been riding for a while knows that the aches turn into pains if you give them enough time, and because of the repetitive nature of our sport, cycling injuries in general tend to stick around longer than others. 

This calls for action, a plan, something to have in place and fall back on. It’s not a pill, it’s not a tool, and it’s not a quick fix. It’s more of a philosophy, a necessary component. Something you need to build yourself and your cycling practice around. Something that will help you keep your status not just as a cyclist, but as an overall strong, healthy human being. 

One of the best ways to avoid cycling injuries is by implementing a strength, mobility and conditioning program into your training. 

Common Cycling Injuries

Think about it, apart from falls and collisions (which, admittedly, make up a large percentage of cycling injuries), how do we get injured in our sport? There are no rapid changes of direction that blow out our ACL’s. No violent kicks, throws or punches to tear a hip or shoulder. No lifting of heavy loads to herniate a disc…it’s just different from other sports. 

There is one word, though, that could characterize the plight of the average cyclist…

That word, is overuse.

Overuse injuries are the bane of your existence if you are an avid bike rider of any kind. The bike keeps you in a more or less fixed position while riding, which is something the body can adapt to, but only so much. There comes a time where you cross the point of adaptation and creep into the realms of imbalance; a place where lurking, recurring injuries love to dwell. 

Knee pain, neck pain, lower back pain, groin pain, hamstring tightness, headaches, shortness of breath and so much more can all be the result of overworked muscles. Not necessarily just in the area of pain, but somewhere in the chain of the human body’s unbelievably complex web of connectedness.

How do we restore function? How do we get rid of pain? How do we find balance? It is something we have to achieve in our time spent off the bike. 

Strength Training for Cyclists

prevent injury while cycling with strength training

fizkes/Adobe Stock

Exposing your body to exercises that work opposing muscles from the ones you use while cycling are going to help pull joints back into alignment and strengthen the tissues that get neglected through our sport. It is common for cyclists to think that any time off the bike is wasted time, but going back to the beginning of this article, if you end up injured, you might not be spending any time on the bike at all.

Some people fear the idea of strength training because they don’t want to get too bulky, and are afraid it will actually hinder their performance on the bike. Nothing could be further from the truth. Several studies have shown that in both men and women, one of the best things you can do to increase cycling performance is to increase the cross sectional area (size) of your muscles. 

Remember this as well, building muscle is a slow and tedious process. It requires weeks, months and years of consistent week-in-week-out effort. So the idea that you’ll wake up one day and be too bulky to ride efficiently is a myth you should be all too willing to dispose of.

What Should My Program Consist Of? 

Dedicating time to bringing harmony back into your body is the only way to counter everything we put ourselves through on the bike. A strength training program isn’t all about lifting heavy weights, there are several other components as well to ensure it remains balanced and complimentary to your body and the sport of cycling. 

We can not only increase our strength, but our endurance as well. The higher our fitness level the less likely it is that our form will break down while riding, which can lead to our muscles being used improperly and adding significant stress to our joints.

We can also work on our mobility and flexibility to help keep tissues supple and vascular. Too much cycling activity can really start to limit our ranges of motion due to its relatively minimal amount of movement. The pedal stroke doesn’t take our hip or knee through a full range, and the rest of our body doesn’t move that much at all. Resultant stiffness can lead to constriction, which means less blood flow and nutrients delivered to the area, and an increased risk of injury.

How Do I Start? 

Starting to exercise off the bike can be the most intimidating part of the process. We’re taking you away from what’s familiar and plunging you into a whole other world that applies to not just cycling, but every other sport and activity that there is. Sometimes the best thing to do is hire a professional, but coaching costs can be discouraging. That’s why we decided to come up with something better…

Dynamic Cyclist is our partnered training platform designed by cyclists, for cyclists. We’ve integrated mobility, conditioning and strength training into one, easy to use, 100% online user interface that our members can use 24/7 to fit their schedules. There’s no need for a gym membership, because all of our routines can be done at home with little to no equipment!

Everything has been prepared for you with high quality instructional videos led by world class coaches. All you need to do is press play and follow along!
For a fraction of the cost of a single physio appointment or personal trainer session, you can become part of our community of cyclists who want to ride pain free and be the best version of themselves on and off the bike. Try it for yourself by signing up for our 7-day free trial!

9 Tips on How to Build Your Own Cycling Training Plan

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Whether you just bought your first rig or are an experienced road racer, a cycling training plan is going to be (or become) that friend who always tells you the truth, no matter how ugly that truth is. Saying you want to do something (increase your fitness, be a better cyclist, lose weight, etc.) is something entirely different from actually seeing your progress written down on a piece of paper. 

Perhaps that’s why most people never do it.

It can be both heartbreaking and encouraging to look down at a planned workout or multiple week program, and then to see how you’ve been succeeding (or failing) throughout it. There’s no sense lying to ourselves, though. It’s better to see it in front of you than live in the delusion of doing better than you actually are. 

This is one of the most important reasons to have a cycling training plan. It keeps you on track, makes you responsible for something and holds you accountable. While all that sounds great, actually building a training plan can be another monster all on its own. There are a lot of variables and areas of focus that you need to consider, all depending on your experience and current state of fitness.

Today we’re going to give you three tips and/or things to focus on whether you’re a beginner, intermediate or advanced cyclist. These ideas can be combined with any current training program you’re working through or currently building, and can be used for reference whenever taking consultation from a coach, training template or fellow rider.

Beginner


Source: jul14ka/Adobe Stock

Beginner cyclists can vary to a wide degree. You could have zero experience on the bike, or, be a once avid cyclist who hasn’t rode in a long time. This is the only stage out of the three that has a sliding scale, especially due to the cardiovascular fitness and muscular endurance required for our sport. But whether you’re fresh to the bike or revisiting it after a prolonged absence, the beginner cycling training plan principles will remain the same. 

1. Build Consistency

Getting used to regular riding is something your body needs time to adapt to. The pressure from the saddle, the energy requirements, the time allotment…all these things add up, and they’re just a few of the components required to build on more advanced levels of cycling. So focus on getting on the bike often, at least 3-4 times a week.

2. Try Different Intensities

This can be explored in a number of ways, one of the most freeing and encouraging for someone new to the sport would be to try different routes and terrains wherever it is you live. This will present a number of challenges depending on how many hills there are, the contours of the ground, etc. Start learning where your boundaries are in terms of pushing yourself.

3. Increase General Strength & Conditioning

In many ways, as a beginner, you are most susceptible to injury. You’re going to be asking your body to do a lot of things it’s not used to. This is why it’s important to carve out some time in your training schedule to develop overall strength and conditioning. It will help balance you on and off the bike and prevent injury long term.

Intermediate

Intermediate cycling training plans typically include training for races around the five hour mark.

Source: Friends Stock/Adobe Stock

If you’ve built up the discipline and capacity to put in six to eight hours/week, and have been doing so consistently for at least six months, you might be able to call yourself an intermediate cyclist. People in this range are typically training for races around the five hour mark, and will aim to put in around eight to 10 hours/week of training.

1. Learn to Use Fat as Fuel

Don’t really, this isn’t really a conscious thing, but more of an experiential one. When people talk about “hitting the wall” in long duration aerobic exercise, the sudden halt in energy is often the point at which their body is switching from carbohydrates to fat as the primary fuel source. It’s a jarring feeling, one that takes getting used to. Longer rides will help you adapt to this.

2. Develop Your Muscles

The intensity and length of road races favours your slow-twitch muscle fibers. These are highly oxygenated muscle fibers that are capable of producing low amounts of force over long periods of time, which is exactly what needs to be done on the bike. They are workhorses, and can only be developed through sustained, long duration, consistent time riding.

3. Improve Your Cycling Economy

Your economy on the bike refers to the amount of oxygen required to move your body at a given speed or power output. As you build up higher training volumes, the capillarization of your muscles increases, you produce more mitochondria and your aerobic fitness goes up. All contributors to how well you will use your oxygen intake while riding.

Advanced

Advanced cyclists have completed several races and are used to putting in a lot of volume on the bike.

Source: Charte Photography/Adobe Stock

Advanced riders have been training for a bare minimum of one year. They’ve completed several races and are used to putting in a lot of volume on the bike. Because of the adaptive changes their body has made in terms of fitness and resilience, they’re able to push their bodies much harder than a beginner. This opens up new possibilities for training, especially at higher intensities.

1. Develop Your Anaerobic Threshold

Anaerobic threshold is the highest exercise intensity you can sustain before lactic acid starts to quickly build up in the blood. In other words, your submaximal effort. A place that tilts on the edge of serious discomfort. To become a serious competitor in cycling, you need to become very comfortable with that discomfort, because you’ll be spending a large portion of your races there.

2. Changes in Intensity

Advanced riders are more free to play with interval training, and expose their bodies to large scale changes in intensity over short periods of time. This can help mimic race conditions when going over varying terrain, hill climbs, attacking for and defending position. Your body should be built up by this point to where you can throw anything at it without worrying about injury.

3. Improve Your VO2 Max

Cyclists have some of the highest VO2 max scores ever recorded. It refers to the maximum amount of oxygen you’re able to utilize during intense exercise. The combination of aerobic base training (long duration, low intensity) and maximum effort training (short duration, high intensity) is key. This should become a prime goal in the last phase of training before a race.

Ready to Ride Pain Free?

Our partner Dynamic Cyclist is a world class training resource for cyclists worldwide. They have a comprehensive library of follow along instructional videos with routines for stretching, mobility, strength and injury prevention. We invite you to join the community and try their programming in a FREE 7-day trial that can be accessed here.

How To Get Stronger Legs For Cycling

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When it comes to your muscles, cycling is a predominantly lower extremity exercise. Not including your heart, your legs are pumping harder than anything else in your body. Everything else remains relatively fixed in certain positions for prolonged periods of time, so it only makes sense that our training off the bike pays special attention to leg exercises for cycling.

You might be thinking…shouldn’t a cycling leg workout just consist of…cycling? 

Well, unfortunately our time on the bike will only take us so far in terms of output and overall performance. The fault of which lies in something called the S.A.I.D. principle.

Source: Maksym Protsenko/Adobe Stock

S.A.I.D. Principle

Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands (S.A.I.D.) is a guiding principle in exercise science that the body is always following. What it means is that the body will change only in relation to the demands you are placing upon it… 

For example, if you do push ups, you will get stronger arms and chest muscles. You will also get better at pushups.

If you start running, your ankles will get stronger and you’ll lose weight. You’ll also get better at running. 

If you sit at your desk, your glutes will get weak and your upper back will start rounding forward. You’ll also get better at sitting.

If you ride your bike, you will increase your cardiovascular fitness and tone your legs. You’ll also get better at cycling.

All these things are true…to an extent.

An important component of the S.A.I.D. principle is that the imposed demands have to be adequate enough for the body to make the continual corresponding specific adaptations. In cases where you’re getting weaker (such as the sitting example), this has to be thought about slightly differently. We will focus on getting stronger for the remainder of the article.

If you ride your bike 10 miles (and that is difficult for you), you will see improved fitness and strength adaptations in your body each repeated time you complete that distance. Once you are strong and fit enough to easily do 10 miles however, it is going to take a different or more intense stimulus to see new fitness/strength gains.

Source: Justin/Adobe Stock

How Does This Relate To Cycling?

Time on the bike will only get you so far. There are few ways outside of changing gears and the level of incline your riding that will make pedaling more difficult. It’s near impossible (and honestly, would be a bit strange) to try and replicate the reps and sets of a strength or muscle building focused gym workout whilst on the bike. 

Leg exercises for cycling should focus on building more muscle in the correct tissues, and also increasing their force production capabilities over extended periods of time. Luckily for us, these things can go hand in hand. It’s a matter of choosing the appropriate exercises and performing them in the right order to give us the maximum benefit. 

The S.A.I.D. principle is always at work. So what demands should we place on our bodies to get the adaptations that we want (i.e. faster, stronger, better cycling performance)?

Cyclist Legs Workout

By creating routines with exercises that are both similar and complementary to the positions and muscular contractions we see in cycling, Dynamic Cyclist is a wonderful resource for anyone looking to increase their leg drive on the bike. 

We’ve taken some of the exercises from one of their lower body routines to show just how beneficial the right movement selection can be. Each exercise includes a link to our coach Alisha teaching and demonstrating each movement, as well as a quick explanation about what makes it so powerful for you as a cyclist.

These are just a few exercises from a library filled with hundreds of videos and routines to help you ride pain free and be better on the bike. We hope you enjoy them and consider signing up for a FREE TRIAL with Dynamic Cyclist HERE!

Squat w/Band

Click here to try this exercise with Alisha!

Why It Works

It wouldn’t be a lower body workout without squats. It’s a fundamental movement we’ve been doing since we were kids, and it is one of the best leg exercises for cyclists. The force produced in the power phase of your pedal stroke is produced primarily by your quadriceps (front thigh muscles), and that’s exactly what this exercise focuses on.

By adding the mini band around your legs, it forces you to press your knees outwards throughout the entire movement. This helps to engage your glute (butt) muscles which play an important part in your overall hip health and lower body strength. 

Hamstring Curls

Click here to try this exercise with Alisha!

Why It Works

The hamstrings (particularly the biceps femoris) play a crucial part in cycling because of their dual function, knee flexion and hip extension. Both of these things occur in the transition between your downward and upward stroke, and because of the position of the hip while cycling, the hamstrings end up doing the majority of the extension work (as opposed to the glutes).

This exercise is simple, easy to do and all you need is a mini band. Because of the anatomy of the hamstrings and their crossing of the knee joint, they are an important stabilizer of the knee and contribute to its overall health. Many people experience knee pain while cycling because of an imbalance between the quadriceps and the hamstrings, this exercise helps correct that.

Tick Tocks

Click here to try this exercise with Alisha!

Why It Works

In a way, cycling is a partly unilateral exercise (one side, one legged). Not entirely of course, because you have the support of both pedals at the same time. However, there are varying degrees of emphasis on each leg depending on which one is in its power phase. 

This can create an odd strength/timing imbalance if one side is stronger than the other, because one leg might be pushing faster and with more force. The tick tock exercise helps work on the strength of each leg independent of the other. It also places tremendous demand on your gluteus medius and minimus through the standing leg and dynamic abduction of your free leg. Both these things contribute to pelvis stabilization and overall hip health.

Now It’s Your Turn!

Give these exercises a try and see what you think! Adding some strength training into your routine can go a long way towards improving cycling performance, reducing injury and keeping your body healthy long term. If you’re not sure where to start, Dynamic Cyclist has put it all together into one simple package available for you HERE.

This Will Make You Faster On The Trails

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Mountain biking is that unique brand of our sport notoriously responsible for its abrasions, broken bones, banged up shoulders and the odd concussion from time to time. Strength training for mountain biking should prepare us for what can sometimes be a winding trail of hostility and potential danger. That doesn’t, however, mean it’s something we should avoid.

The chance to get into nature, explore new technical paths and take in the beautiful scenery are what biking outside is all about. Preparing our bodies to handle the sudden drops, body jolts, jagged turns and unorthodox terrain means we can enjoy ourselves with a built-in insurance policy that protects us from injury and improves our cycling performance as a whole.

Becoming a better, faster mountain biker is always going to be a dynamic, ever changing goal. There are so many areas we can pay attention to for a sport that shifts focus quickly depending on where we are and how we’re riding. We have some universal tips to help and a special routine excerpt from our Dynamic Cyclist training program at the bottom for you to try!

Build Your Confidence

Source: Simona

It’s one thing to preach this idea, it’s a whole other to actually go out and do it. Especially when you’re careening down a mountain at God knows what speed, with every tree and boulder just waiting to stop you dead in your tracks. Exposing yourself to those situations though is precisely the way you get better at mountain biking.

The mitigation of fear is a competitive mountain biker’s innate advantage compared to the amateur rider. They have dealt with almost every situation, and understand how to control the forces that are going to be applied to them. They know their bike and they know their body, so they’re free to let go of the brake and use it all to their advantage.

Riding on different terrain, paths and trails will help educate your mind and body to be more comfortable amidst all the chaos. High confidence has been shown to be one of the few differentiators in downhill mountain biking performance. Other factors included hand grip endurance and aerobic capacity which, if you lack, could be significant performance detractors…

Improve Hand Grip Endurance & Aerobic Capacity

Source: marchsirawit/Adobe Stock

Surprise! In case that last sentence wasn’t a clue. Imagine the feeling of losing your grip on the handlebars or gasping for air with nature’s every creation flying by you at lightning fast speeds. That doesn’t sound to us like optimal conditions for the intense concentration required under such circumstances. 

One of the best ways to get direct functional cross over from your mountain bike training to the trails is with the use of cables. As you can see above, the woman has her arms angled similarly to the position you’ll find yourself in on the bike. Cable machines can challenge the hands, forearms and shoulders to stabilize in a similar way to biking but with progressive loading.

For aerobic capacity, making sure to challenge yourself with lots of uphill riding is a surefire way to get your heart pumping. It’s important to remember too that your aerobic capacity and overall cardiovascular health are the first variables of fitness to decrease upon taking a break from physical activity. Quick to gain, quick to lose, so make sure you train it regularly!

Adjust Your Gaze

Source: yanik88/Adobe Stock

Where you look actually has a significant influence on your overall body position, and this plays an important part in getting the most out of your muscles on the bike. Our eyes have a stimulating effect on the muscles in whatever direction we look, which is built into our nervous systems to help anticipate movement in that direction

The pelvo-ocular response is a reflex that orients our pelvis and lower extremities based on where our eyes are looking. Because of the positions we find ourselves in while mountain biking, there can be a tendency to crane the neck upwards to keep our eyes level with the horizon. This is indeed necessary sometimes, but not all the time.

Tilting the chin too far up will cause our lower backs to arch as a result of this pelvo-ocular response, this in turn will stretch the core muscles and cause them to disengage, which is not something we want. It is instead better, when possible, to keep the spine and neck in a neutral position, retracting the chin and letting your gaze fall naturally in front of you for a tight, stable core.

Deadlift Position & Mountain Biking

An interesting parallel to the fitness world is deadlift positioning in the gym. It has been shown that retraction of the neck and chin into a straight, neutral position helps a person to engage the erector spinae (back) muscles and exterior obliques in their core when lifting. Transferring this activation to the bike would result in far superior force production and absorption.

Ready To Get Stronger On The Bike?

Dynamic Cyclist offers an all around training platform for cyclists of all disciplines worldwide. We have comprehensive strength training workouts, injury prevention sessions, mobility and warm up routines all available with the click of a button! 

Give it a try by following along today with our coach, Alisha. This is just one of the hundreds of videos from our library that is available for a low monthly subscription. Our goal is to make you a better, stronger cyclist who enjoys being on the bike and rides pain free. You can sign up here for a 7-day free trial and see what you think! 

Strength Training Considerations For Different Types Of Biking

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Whether you’re on the road, a velodrome or carving up mountain trails, your bike riding is going to be significantly improved with a proper strength and conditioning routine. Strength training for cycling is often overlooked because it takes you off the bike, but with a small shift in perspective we’d like to suggest it will actually pack more riding into your life over time.

Source: 24K-Production – Adobe Stock

Strength Demands of Different Rider Types

Depending on the type of bike riding you choose to participate in, the demands on your body will also change from style to style. While there’s certainly cross over amongst the three types we have categorized below, they all have distinct differences that are unique to that particular discipline.

 Mountain Biking

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Diverse terrain, varying depths, hard corners, jumps, rocks, roots and everything the outdoors has to offer are factors that every mountain biker must deal with. The movement is much more dynamic than road or track cycling, and in terms of force absorption this is most definitely the hardest type of biking on your body. 

It is well known that adult road cyclists are typically at a much higher risk for osteoporosis than other athletes. Some studies actually show their bone density to closely resemble (and in one case, even be lower than) sedentary control groups. This is not encouraging news for the cycling community.

Conversely, related research has made note of mountain biking being a possible cycling alternative that doesn’t so negatively affect a person’s bone density. Operation of a heavier bike, turbulent jolts and violent carving all translate to more load being put through your body. Strength training for mountain biking should prepare you to handle these types of forces.

Road Cycling

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As mentioned above, road cyclists tend to have a lower bone mineral density compared to other athletes and even the general population. This is because the bike is supporting you while you’re riding, so even though your legs are pumping hard and your heart is beating fast, your bones are sitting there wondering what all the huff and puff is about.

Another factor to consider with road cycling is the prolonged, folded over postures you’ll often find yourself in. The hips have to work in a less than optimal range, the lower back is in a vulnerable position and the neck gets craned back (only some of the issues unfortunately). Low back problems, faulty breathing patterns and tight hips are often the result.

Strength training for cyclists should focus on correcting these postural and functional shortcomings. Introducing load through the body off the bike will help you become stronger on the bike. Not only that, a properly designed program will actually make riding more comfortable and lower your risk of injury despite the less than optimal positions you might find yourself in.

Track Cycling

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Track cycling is a unique discipline within the broader realm of our sport. There are many types of events and formats, but for the purpose of this article we want to focus on the particular differences in sprint cycling. These are races performed over short distances where maximum power and force production is required. 

Athletes who are successful in sprint cycling tend to have a higher composition of type II (fast twitch) muscle fibers. Individuals with more fast twitch fibers are capable of producing quicker movements and generating more strength in a shorter period of time (power). There is a direct correlation between muscle fiber composition and sprint cycling performance.

Different muscle fibers react to different training modalities. An explosive athlete like a sprint cyclist will likely be doing a lot of jumping and sprinting exercises. Training with heavy weights for low repetitions will also be common in order to teach their body to produce as much force as possible in as little time as possible. Long, leisurely rides will be for nothing more than recovery.

Lifting Weights For Cycling

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Incorporating weight lifting into your cycling training plan is a great way to make yourself stronger on the bike, balance your pedal stroke and most importantly reduce the risk of injury. The #1 goal of any athlete in the gym (unless you’re a powerlifter, olympic lifter or bodybuilder) is injury prevention, because nothing else matters if you can’t actually do your sport.

Determining how to train, what exercises to do, in what rep range and at what weight can all be tricky variables if you don’t have much experience in the gym. This is where the help of a one-on-one coach becomes valuable, as they’ll be able to provide you with the guidance necessary to ensure you’re not wasting your time doing something counterproductive. 

As we’ve already seen, the type of riding you’re doing is going to determine the bulk of your strength training routine. You might be wondering though, is there anything I can do for strength training outside the gym? Regardless of whether I’m a mountain biker, road or track cyclist? The answer is yes!

At Home Strength Training For Cyclists

Dynamic Cyclist is our fully immersive training platform that combines mobility, stretching, injury prevention and strength workouts all into one, easy to use interface. We’ve taken care of all the programming, technical work and coaching so that all you have to do is follow along!

To give you a taste of the world class instruction and workout quality we provide, we’ve included below one of our FULL BODY routines that is going to work you from head to toe. Everything at Dynamic Cyclist is designed to make you better on the bike, regardless of what discipline you most participate in.

Follow along with Alisha, Dynamic Cyclist’s certified coach!

Unlock Your Glutes For More Cycling Power

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Does cycling work your glutes? How do you use your glutes when cycling? What are some good glute exercises for cyclists? These are all questions we will address in today’s article which focuses on everything glutes and how we can put them to work for you, on and off the bike. 

Introduction

Your butt. Your bum. Your glutes. We are, with all these terms, describing more or less the same group of muscles that surround the posterior and lateral aspects of the hip. They are the inspiration of gym goers and fitness enthusiasts worldwide. They extend the hips, keep us balanced and make us attractive. An enigmatic area to say the least.

Glutes and cycling have a love/hate relationship. We ask them to initiate movement on this vehicle we’ve invented, and they try desperately to help us through unspeakable numbers of repetitions. All this while sitting on said vehicle; sitting being a known contributor to a modern condition sometimes called “glute amnesia” (a term first coined by Dr. Stuart McGill).

Glute amnesia, where the glutes are inactive and become consequently weak, occurs for a number of reasons, three of which are relevant to cycling:

  • Pain and tightness in the front of the hip, which is common for the avid cyclist. 
  • Pressure is put on the glutes while riding the saddle, which inhibits their neuromuscular response (the same way that a massage relaxes muscle tissue). 
  • Lack of explosive/intense movement, which is what the largest glute muscle (gluteus maximus) is most responsive to.

Source: Antonio Diaz – Adobe Stock

For these reasons and more, we have to pay special attention to this area. Not just for cycling performance, but overall health and balance. Let us start with a brief introduction to the muscles we’re talking about.

Glute Muscles & Cycling

Gluteus Maximus

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The gluteus maximus is the largest and most powerful muscle in the body. It is very misunderstood, particularly when it comes to cycling and glutes. It’s a major hip extensor and stabilizer of the pelvis. It tends to have a significant percentage of fast twitch muscle fibers, which are responsible for quick, explosive movements like sprinting and jumping. 

Where we get into trouble as cyclists is the long, low intensity and high repetition nature of the sport. Our hips don’t fully flex or extend while pedaling, which makes it hard for us to recruit our gluteus maximus at all. In fact, electromyography studies show very little activation of this muscle while cycling.

Source: Electromyographic Analysis of the Lower Extremity during Pedaling

In the above graph, you see far more activation of a muscle called the biceps femoris (your outer hamstring). That’s because in low intensity activities (where the load is minimal, i.e. cycling), the body will recruit secondary hip extensors (hamstrings) as opposed to primary hip extensors (glutes) to save energy. 

This same phenomenon, known as synergistic dominance, is what makes our elderly population so vulnerable to falling injuries. Falls are one of the leading causes of injury and even death in seniors, and lack of gluteal strength is a significant component of that. 

Gluteus Medius

Source: SciePro – Adobe Stock

Gluteus medius is our primary hip abductor, which means it is responsible for moving the leg away from the midline. It is also extremely important for the side to side stability of our pelvis (frontal plane). Any exercise or activity performed on one leg places significant demands on the gluteus medius; walking, running and any single leg weight bearing exercise.

When we put our weight onto one leg, the gluteus medius contracts on the standing leg to neutralize the height of our pelvis on that side. This lifts the opposite side of the pelvis where our leg is off the ground, which allows our foot/leg to swing through without hitting the floor. 

Failure to do this is called a positive Trendelenburg Sign in physiotherapy.

Source: Kyungmin – Adobe Stock

There is some activation of the gluteus medius while cycling, particularly when riding out of the saddle. The lack of hip abduction however suggests we need additional exercises to keep it strong and healthy.

Gluteus Minimus

Source: SciePro – Adobe Stock

Gluteus minimus is the smallest of these three gluteal muscles, and has a similar function to the gluteus medius. Hip abduction and unilateral stability of the pelvis. 

Interestingly, marked weakness occurs in the gluteus minimus/medius around the time of puberty in females1. This creates a “wagging” motion in the hips, the same motion purposely used by experienced runway models. It has been theorized that this rocking of the pelvis is attractive to males because it’s a biological signifier of potential gene reproduction.

Good for the propagation of human beings (hooray), not so good for the health of your hips. Display of this hip tilting in adulthood is known as a Trendelenburg Gait, usually meaning weakness or inhibition of the gluteus medius/minimus. Or a great runway strut.

Source: Dmytro Flisak – Adobe Stock

Why Are We Obsessed With Glutes?

Have you ever wondered why we are so drawn to these muscles? After all, despite their allure, they also house our inner pathways for…evacuation. Interesting contrast. Well despite all this there are actually biological reasons for our infatuation that reach far into the archaic roots of human evolution.

Well developed glutes mean power. They align our pelvis and help us stand up tall. For men, adequate glute muscle mass (and a certain degree of lumbar curve) on a female means she can effectively carry and bear a child. For women, a man’s backside indicates strength and the ability to lift heavy objects, making him more useful for fighting and protection. 

Our cultural obsessions can always be traced far into the past.

Does Biking Build Glutes?

Unfortunately, cycling is not going to play a big part in developing a big booty. The lack of heavy load and explosive movement makes recruitment of your gluteus maximus, for example, almost non-existent. 

However, the glutes do work while riding and you may notice some slight toning around your hips, especially with the integration of hill climbs and/or interval workouts. It doesn’t mean they’re not important, it just means we have to account for this lack of stimulation in our strength and conditioning routines.

What follows are some great glute exercises for cyclists that can be performed anywhere with little or no equipment. Click on the accompanied links to watch Alisha, our Dynamic Cyclist coach, teach and demonstrate each exercise in detail!

Glute Exercises For Cyclists

Lateral Leg Lifts

Click here to try this exercise with Alisha!

Benefits

We don’t really get any hip abduction or single leg stability work while on the bike. This exercise tackles both and with zero equipment. All three of the aforementioned glute muscles are being worked, with specific emphasis on the gluteus medius and gluteus minimus. 

Single Leg Deadlift w/Mini Band

Click here to try this exercise with Alisha!

Benefits

This exercise works hip extension both on the standing and non-standing leg. Alisha is using a mini band for resistance, but you could also hold any type of weight in your hand to increase the exercise’s difficulty. This resistance forces your muscles to work hard and pass the threshold of activation in a big muscle like the gluteus maximus.

Clamshell Hip Lift

Click here to try this exercise with Alisha!

Benefits

This is a truly well designed and valuable glute exercise for cyclists. Not only are both sides of the hips working hard to press and open up, you’re also integrating core musculature in the sides and lower back through the obliques, erector spinae and multifidus. Having the core and hips work together is crucial for force absorption and production while cycling.

Glute Pain & Cycling

If you experience glute pain when cycling, a number of factors could be contributing. You might have tightness on the opposing side of the hip, your glute muscles might be weak or not firing properly, or perhaps the problem resides farther up the chain somewhere inside your abdomen. Whatever the problem might be, Dynamic Cyclist can help.

The above exercises are just a snippet from one of our glute focused strength training routines. We have built a comprehensive library and systematic training program to help make you a better, healthier and stronger cyclist. 

Mobility, strength training and injury prevention all under one umbrella. High quality videos led by world class instructors and an interactive athlete interface make training fun and easy to follow. We hope you consider joining our community and being a part of the mission to RIDE PAIN FREE!

Why Strength Training is Important for Cyclists

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You may think strength training is meant for bodybuilders and gym buffs, but it is now almost universally accepted as a vital training component for all athletes. Not only that, but as we age, resistance training becomes increasingly important for overall health and quality of life. So why do so many cyclists avoid it? It may be the thought of spending time at the gym when you could be out on your bike. Here’s why strength training for cyclists is important.

 

Why Strength Training is Important for Cyclists

We all know that leading an active life is the best thing you can do for your long-term health. As cyclists, we may be more active than most, but it is a mistake to just focus on cardiovascular exercise and exclude everything else. Cycling is a low impact activity, which means it’s great for your joints, but not so great for supporting your bone density and postural deficits. Strength training can help fill the gaps left by pure cardio exercise and build stronger bones, improve coordination, prevent injury, and give you more power on the bike.

Retain Muscle Mass & Correct Imbalances

Depending on where you live, you may have to take a few months off cycling during the dead of winter. Whether you take your training indoors or not, this is a great time to incorporate a strength training circuit into your routine. You don’t have to lose the muscle mass you’ve working so hard for over the cycling season, and you can work opposing muscle groups to bring muscle balance. Cycling is a repetitive motion, often overdeveloping the quads and glutes while the hamstrings and hip flexors lag behind. A good strength training program will take this into account and work on creating muscle balance.

Enhance Balance & Coordination

There is no doubt that cycling itself requires coordination and balance, but through the years it can become so second nature that it no longer challenges our intramuscular systems. Strength training with things like free weights, bosu balls, and resistance bands can help improve your balance and coordination. Again, this is particularly important as we age as it keeps the connections within the nervous system strong.

Improve Bone Density

As mentioned previously, this one is especially important for cyclists. Past studies have shown that the bone density of some competitive riders is lower than their sedentary controls. Unlike running or walking, cycling is a non-weight bearing activity, which is why it is so great for people with orthopedic injuries. However, this means you have to be doing something else, like strength training, to maintain healthy bone density and combat things like osteoporosis.

More Power on the Bike

Who doesn’t want more power on the bike? This is a bit of a no brainer, as the stronger your muscles are, the more power you’ll be able to exert within the cycling motion. It can be a difficult thing to develop on your bike, so using strength training is actually one of the best ways to become a stronger climber and overall rider.

Injury Prevention

Some of the most common injuries for cyclists include ITB syndrome, neck pain, low back pain, and knee pain. Some of these may be unavoidable, but most are caused by muscle imbalances. A combination of strength training and routine stretching can  strengthen your muscles and connective tissues to help prevent these injuries.

Although strength training my not make your faster in a direct sense, there are plenty of reasons to get into a strength training plan, whether it be in a gym or your living room. Check out “4 Of The Best Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists” for some exercises to get you started.

4 Of The Best Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists

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Almost every cyclist wants to be able to produce more power and go faster on their bike. It’s a natural instinct, for amateur and professional cyclists alike. Strength training exercises for cyclists can help build up the muscles used on the bike, but it’s not a shortcut or a replacement. To increase the force of each of your pedal strokes and improve your technique you have to ride. A lot. However, strength training can be a great addition to your cycling training plan, or get you through the winter months when you can’t ride as much as you’d like.

We all know that cycling involves the legs in a big way, but having a strong core is also extremely important for cyclists. Your core acts to stabilize your body and help you control your bike. It also allows you to pedal with a smooth and powerful action, maintain a strong upper body position, and prevent lower back pain. Here are some of the best strength training exercises for cyclists that target areas that will make your stronger on your bike.

REMEMBER: The goal of strength training exercises for cyclists is to build strength to use on your bike, not to bulk up. This is especially important if you are training in a gym. Just keep in mind that you probably have different goals than the person next to you, so just focus on what you’re doing and how it can improve your cycling.

Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists

Plank

Planks are simple and effective when it comes to increasing your core strength. They can be done almost anywhere, so no need to hit the gym. When done correctly, planks will target your shoulders, abdomen, and lower back.

Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists

Place your forearms on the ground with your elbows directly below your shoulders and arms parallel to the body. Keeping your back straight and in line with your bum, resting on your toes. If you find yourself arching your back or sagging your hips toward the ground, try modifying by dropping from your toes to your knees. Start by holding for 30-60 seconds per round. Repeat 3-5 times.

Lunges

Lunges are specifically great for cyclists because they work one leg at a time, just like pedaling. They target your quadriceps, hips, glutes, and hamstrings, which are the major players on your bike.

Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists

Keep your upper body straight with your shoulders back and head facing directly ahead of you (resist the urge to look down). Step forward with one leg and lower your leg until both knees are at a 90 degree angle. Make sure your front knee does not extend beyond your ankle, and keep the weight in your heels as you push back up. Start with 15-30 reps per set, or add weight and do less reps. Try for 3-5 sets.

Burpees

Everyone’s favourite full body exercise! The burpee may be painful, but the movement involves all the major joints through explosive movements. Plus, there’s plenty of room to modify the movement to ensure you are getting all you can from it while maintaining proper form.

Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists

Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, focusing on placing the weight in your heels. Push your hips back, bend your knees and lower into a squat ensuring that your knees do not extend beyond you ankles. Place your hand on the floor in front of you, shift your weight onto them, and jump or step back your feet back into plank position. Keep your body straight as you would in a typical plank. Lower your chest and do a push up. Jump your feet back so they land just outside your hands. Stand up, raise your hands above your head, and jump up into the air. Start with 10 reps, working your way up to 20 per set. Complete 3-5 sets.

Crunches

Crunches are another classic, but effective exercise that you can do anywhere. They target the core like nothing else, so get ready to feel the burn.

Strength Training Exercises for Cyclists

Lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent and feet flat on the the floor. Place your hands behind your head so your fingers are just behind your ears. Tilt your chin slightly so it is off the ground, but leaving a few inches between your chin and chest. Pull your abdominals inward and curl forward so your head, neck, and shoulder blades lift off the ground. Hold, then lower slowly back down. Do 15-25 reps per set, completing 3-5 sets.

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