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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.

The Ultimate Hill Climb Training Guide

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Hill climbs are definitely a love/hate relationship for most cyclists. We know how good they are for us, and we know how good it feels to finally reach the top and cruise through that descent – but man do they suck. We’re here to give you some tips on how to make hills the strongest part of your ride, and how you can train more efficiently and endure less suffering in the process. 

cycling hill climb

(Image Credit: Adobe Stock)

Classic Cycling Hill Climb Training

If you’re a beginner cyclist, simply experimenting with different routes and building a general foundation of fitness is your first step towards developing any level of hill climbing prowess. There is simply no point in exhausting yourself with specific climbing workouts when you haven’t yet acclimated to general volume on the bike. So that’s step number one.

Step number two is doing repeated hill climbs on the bike. This type of training is definitely effective at developing leg strength and endurance…to an extent. You have to be careful about repeating the same gradients and hill distances (for example, ones in your general area), because you are going to adapt quite quickly if you already have some level of cycling fitness.

Try to vary the routes you take and incorporate ones that involve more, longer, and different gradient-type hills. Experiment with sessions where you isolate the hill climbing component, and spend time doing 5, 10, even 20 climbs on the same hill (depending on the length and severity of it, of course). Wrestle your way to the top, recover on the way down. Repeat.

There are ceilings to this type of training, as there are with all types of training. You are going to find limits not only physically but geographically. The methods we’ve just discussed are always something that should be regularly rotated into your programming, but let’s now take a look at some more conventional techniques that will greatly supplement your time on the bike.

cycling hill climb

(Image Credit: Adobe Stock)

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

In recent years, studies from the running world have shown the efficacy of doing short, high-intensity, sprint-type workouts for improved performance in the longer distances. This is great news for cyclists, and even more specifically for the benefit of hill training on the bike. Let’s briefly explore how we can use this information to our advantage. 

A HIIT workout using hill climbs will differ from the aforementioned hill climb repeats in the following way. You’ll want to keep the hill short and steep, and you’ll want to attack the climb with as much effort and intensity as you can manage, as opposed to just steadily making your way up. Descend and take whatever other necessary rest period, then repeat. 

This form of training allows you to significantly reduce the amount of time you’re actually riding, but still get a massive benefit in the form of improved maximal oxygen uptake, cycling economy, and other physiological adaptations both muscular and metabolic. Let’s now extrapolate this method to an even more intense variation that you can do off the bike. 

Sled Training for Hill Climbing Strength

(Image credit: Adobe Stock)

Pushing and pulling a weighted sled is enormously transferable to cycling, mainly because of the lack of eccentric contractions in both. Refer to these brief definitions:

Concentric Contraction

The concentric phase of muscular contraction is when the muscle is shortening, thereby pulling on the tendon and moving the joint. This is typically seen in the lifting part of the exercise. For example, when you push yourself out of the bottom of a squat, your quadriceps (thigh) muscles are working concentrically to extend the knee joint.

Eccentric contraction

The eccentric phase of muscular contraction is when the muscle is lengthening under load, storing energy in the tissues and resisting the force that is being applied to it. This is often seen as the lowering part of a lift. In the squat example, when you are lowering yourself down into the bottom, the quadriceps are working eccentrically and resisting the force being applied to them. 

In cycling, there are virtually no eccentric contractions, only concentric contractions. You’re never resisting a load under stretch, muscles are either working concentrically or are relaxing and going through a passive stretch. When you push a sled, it’s the same thing. You press your leg into the ground, but as soon as you lift it to take the next step, that leg relaxes. 

The benefit of the sled is you can grossly overload the leg drive that you need to push a pedal, which will make those hill climbs feel so much easier by the time you’re doing them. It also gets you off the bike to train in a new and invigorating way, helping to reduce the likelihood of overuse injury. Try different sled pushing and pulling variations in your next workout.

Overall Strength & Conditioning

Similar to the use of a sled, performing separate strength training sessions, mobility, and other injury prevention work while off the bike is going to contribute massively to your hill climbing strength on the bike. By bringing up the weak points that cycling misses, your body will be in a better balance and more able to produce force when the incline gets tough.

Focus on building up your glutes through exercises that forcefully extend the hip, such as hip thrusts, deadlifts, and lunges. Also, having a strong core gives your legs a stable foundation from which to push off of. Challenge your abdominal muscles in various ways by doing exercises that flex the trunk, rotate the torso, lift the legs, and bend your body in all different directions.

Our programming over at Dynamic Cyclist has all the strength and mobility workouts you need to ride pain-free and become a force to reckon with when it comes to hill climbs. Simply press play, follow along, and do your best, no matter where you are. Included in the membership is a BONUS 4 week training plan specifically for mastering hill climbs. Try it out for 7-days free by clicking here.

Note on Mental Strength & Cycling Hill Training

A benefit to isolating hill climbs in your training and focusing specifically on them is learning how to deal with the negative self-talk and self-defeating programming you may or may not have already worked through. Tackling a nasty hill can make for some of your darkest moments while cycling, and learning to conquer that beast is something that usually takes a fair bit of practice.

By incrementally progressing to tougher, longer, and steeper climbs, you will gradually learn the limits of your body, and build confidence in your abilities on the bike (which will transfer over to the rest of your life, as well). 

Remember this, you are far more capable than you think, you can always do one more pedal, and the pain will be all but gone just minutes after stopping. So, are you going to quit? Or are you going to keep going? Only you know that answer.

How to Treat & Avoid Shoulder Pain While Cycling

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In cycling, the shoulder doesn’t get challenged in many ways, apart from the load we bear as a result of leaning on the handlebars. Many of us have experienced shoulder pain while cycling, and it can be largely due to a number of factors, including the inadequate stimulation of all the tissues that surround, support, and move this complex joint.

shoulder pain cycling

(Image credit: anut21ng/Adobe Stock)

Shoulder injuries are one of the most common gradual onset injuries in recreational cyclists. This means that they develop slowly over time, usually as a result of the overuse of some muscles to the neglect of others. It often starts as a dull, aching sensation that gets worse with further use, as opposed to a sharp, acute pain that we really only see as a result of falls and accidents.

It’s important to know that the most mobile joint in the human body is the shoulder joint. Several bones, muscles and other tissues have influence on its structural integrity and movement capacity, which can make the causes of non-specific shoulder pain from cycling hard to identify. However, there are some common issues cyclists face simply due to the nature of the sport.

Poor Bike Fit & Prolonged Riding

Making sure your bike is fitted properly to your body is always one of the first things you should check when addressing pain. This is because as cyclists we stay more or less in the same positions for long periods of time, making us incredibly susceptible to overuse injuries and muscle imbalances.

If your handlebars are too low or too far away from you, it will force you to lean more forward, and you’ll resultantly have to support more of your bodyweight over the handlebars than you would otherwise. Think of an incline pushup (where your hands are elevated on something), and how the pushup gets harder as you move your hands lower towards the floor.

The constant weight bearing on the arms has a significant effect on the shoulder, and can often result in something called shoulder impingement syndrome. Pain when lifting the arms, pain while trying to reach overhead or behind you, pain in the front/side of the shoulder, arm weakness and stiffness are all symptoms of shoulder impingement syndrome.

Two of your four rotator cuff muscles (infraspinatus, supraspinatus) have tissues that pass between the humerus (upper arm bone) and acromion (top outer part of the shoulder blade). Constant load bearing on the arms, like you see in cycling, can compress, rub against, pinch or otherwise impinge upon these tissues, resulting in the symptoms previously listed.

(Image credit: VectorMine/Adobe Stock)

How to Fix It

  1. Get a professional bike fitting: Find a local shop that can do it in person or use an AI app like MyVeloFit to do it yourself at home. Either way, ensuring your bike is fitted to your body will immediately reduce your likelihood of injury and increase comfort while riding.
  2. Reduce cycling intensity: If you are dealing with some sort of shoulder impingement syndrome, you can see, just by its nature, how it’s not a problem you can simply work through. The body needs time to let this irritating condition settle while you work on creating more balance throughout the joint (next step).
  3. Strengthen the rotator cuff muscles: Cycling doesn’t challenge the shoulder in many ways, which is a disaster for shoulder health. It needs complex stimulation from a variety of exercises. Having a well-balanced program that trains the shoulder from all angles and in all positions is key to avoiding shoulder pain from cycling.

Faulty Breathing, Tense Neck & Shoulders

These three things are all related, and commonly found in the average cyclist. Because of the intimate and complex relationship between the humerus (upper arm), clavicle (collarbone), scapula (shoulder blade) and all their attaching tissues (which collectively form the shoulder joint), compromising any one of them can negatively influence the others.

x-ray showing shoulder joint

This x-ray shows the complex arrangement of bones that meet to form the shoulder joint. (Image credit: Nut/Adobe Stock)

Cyclists are prone to inefficient breathing and excessive stress on the neck through their positioning on the bike. The head juts forward and back the more you bend over on the bike, this can place a load of 60+ pounds on your cervical (neck) spine, because the head’s weight gets multiplied every inch it moves forward in front of the body.

A forward folded position can also inhibit movement of the diaphragm, your primary respiratory muscle. This encourages you to breathe through the chest, which strains small secondary respiratory muscles in your neck responsible for lifting the ribs. Because cycling is such a cardio-intensive activity, this type of breathing can cause significant irritation.

Both of these things can carry over into daily life, and both can contribute to shoulder pain while cycling. By compromising the head, neck and upper back through poor breathing and positioning, the shoulder will have no choice but to try and compensate. This is one example of how shoulder pain is not always directly linked to the shoulder itself, but its surrounding parts.

How to Fix It

  1. Strengthen the neck extensors & upper back: The muscles that pull your head back, as well as extend (flatten) your upper back, tend to get very weak if all you do is cycle. This is because they are constantly being stretched out on the bike. This article will show you what exercises to do and why they work for less neck and shoulder pain while riding.
  2. Practice diaphragmatic breathing: This means breathing into your belly. Most neck and head pain in cyclists can be attributed to faulty chest/neck breathing patterns. A good exercise is lying back over an exercise ball and taking long deep breaths. This stretches the abdominals while stimulating the diaphragm and forcing it to be more active.
  3. Relax the neck: Stretching the neck muscles prior to and even during your ride can force them to relax while you focus on breathing more into your belly. Being conscious of how much tension you’re holding in your shoulders will also be beneficial. Try to catch yourself while riding if your shoulders get shrugged up close to the ears.

Note on Nutrition & Cycling Shoulder Pain

Many people fail to consider the role of the organs when it comes to shoulder pain in cyclists. The phrenic nerve is a major nerve that originates from the third to fifth cervical spine nerves (C3-C5) in the neck. It descends through the thorax (chest cavity) and travels between the lungs, in front of the heart and along the surface of the diaphragm. 

You have two phrenic nerves, one going down the left and right side of the body. If the stomach, which is on the left side of the body, gets too distended or inflamed, it can press on the diaphragm and irritate the left phrenic nerve. Similarly on the right side, if the liver becomes enlarged, it can press on the right phrenic nerve via the diaphragm.

When these tissues become irritated or inflamed, they can send pain signals to the spinal cord through the sensory fibers of the phrenic nerve. In the spinal cord, the incoming pain signals from the phrenic nerve can activate nerve cells (neurons) that also receive sensory input from other areas of the body, including the shoulder. This is called referred pain.

Attention should be paid to the diet of a cyclist who is experiencing shoulder pain, especially if physio/massage interventions are proving ineffective. Stomach problems can contribute to left shoulder pain/weakness, and liver problems can do the same for the right shoulder. Common irritants like dairy, gluten and alcohol should be looked at as initial culprits.

Phrenic nerve

Phrenic nerve, highlighted in yellow. This is a frontal view. The diaphragm is the large dome-shaped muscle at the bottom. Under the elevated right side would sit the liver, and under the left side would sit the stomach. (Image credit: vesalii/Adobe Stock)

Eliminate Cycling Shoulder Pain!

By incorporating a well-rounded strength, mobility, flexibility and injury-prevention plan into your training, you can greatly reduce the risk of injury to your shoulders and every other part of your body. That is exactly what the programming at Dynamic Cyclist is designed to do. Try us out for 7-days FREE by clicking here!

The Ultimate Guide to Cycling Neck Pain: Causes and Solutions

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Cycling neck pain is one of those nagging issues that can really hinder the other aspects of your life. The muscles in your neck are constantly supporting your breathing, interacting with your shoulders, holding up your head, and countless other important functions liable to irritate any pain, soreness, or injury that could be developing or already present from cycling. 

The reality of our sport means that the neck is going to have to sit in some uncomfortable positions from time to time. In fact, up to 60% of cyclists experience some sort of discomfort in this area. Whether our necks are prepared to go into those positions, how we can prepare them, and what we can do to optimize our necks on the bike will be the focus of this article. 

Neck pain from cycling doesn’t have to slow you down, and we’re here to help you fix it once and for all.

neck pain

(Image credit: SciePro/Adobe Stock)

Causes of Cycling Neck Pain

Does cycling cause neck pain? The short answer is yes, but the reasons behind it can be complicated. We have to approach the topic of cycling neck pain through a wide-angle lens, because it’s seldom a single factor causing the problem. 

Forward Head Posture (FHP)

FHP is an epidemic not just amongst cyclists but the general populace as a whole. The term is referring to the forward position of the cranium (head) relative to the shoulders and spine. Also commonly called text neck, scholar’s neck, or computer neck posture because of its correlation and likelihood of development after prolonged texting, reading, or spending time on a computer.

What many people don’t realize is that their head, on average, weighs 10-12 pounds, and that this weight gets amplified tremendously as the head moves/tilts forward from the midline. For every inch of FHP, it adds roughly 10 pounds to the head. As you can see in the below picture, this can equate to the neck having to support 60+ pounds of sustained pressure throughout the day.


(Image credit: New York Spine Surgery & Rehabilitation Medicine)

The big ropes you see on the sides of a person’s neck are called your sternocleidomastoid muscles. These muscles get overdeveloped and tight as a result of FHP, and can also flatten the natural backwards curve in your cervical spine. These conditions strain the neck, reduce blood flow to the brain, and weaken the extensors of the neck resulting in reduced stability. 

Cycling naturally puts us in positions of FHP, and trains us to hold those positions for long periods of time. Leaning over the handlebars causes the head to protrude forward and the neck to crane back in order to keep our eyes level with the horizon (righting reflex). Because these positions are unavoidable, we have to find ways to correct them in other parts of our training.

cycling neck pain

Notice the position of the head and neck of this cyclist; protruding forward, craned back. (Image credit: Artem Varnitsin/Adobe Stock)

Improper Breathing

Breathing and neck pain are intimately connected. Optimal inhalation is accounted for primarily by the diaphragm, a large, thin sheet of muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity. When contracted, its dome shape flattens out to pull air into the lungs and create room for them to expand. If it’s stiff or not functioning properly, however, other muscles get overloaded.

A muscle group in this category is known as the scalenes. They work as accessory respiratory muscles to help you inhale by lifting the first two ribs. When a person breathes through their chest as opposed to their diaphragm, these muscles get overworked and start to become irritated as a result. Chronic neck pain is often improved by addressing these kinds of faulty patterns.


The three muscles of the scalene group; anterior, medial, posterior. Notice the insertions on ribs one and two. (Image credit: Mikael Häggström/Public Domain)

Because cycling is a cardiovascular intensive sport, coupled with the positions we find ourselves in while riding, make it probable that we will develop a faulty breathing pattern that overworks the neck. Being folded over on the bike can discourage movement of the diaphragm and push our breath up into the chest, where we are only able to inhale ⅓ of the oxygen we could otherwise.

Opening up the breath through breathing re-education exercises, fixing the posture, and corrective stretching are all tools we can use to help combat this issue. By now you’re probably starting to see the links between these causes and how they all can contribute to cycling neck pain.

Upper Cross Syndrome (UCS)

Upper cross syndrome (UCS) is a postural imbalance that occurs as a result of prolonged sitting or standing in a forward head and rounded shoulder posture. It is characterized by tightness in the upper trapezius, levator scapulae, and pectoralis major muscles, as well as weakness in the deep cervical flexors, lower trapezius, and serratus anterior.

upper cross syndrome (UCS)

(Image credit: art4stock/Adobe Stock)

Cycling requires a sustained forward head and rounded shoulder posture, which can exacerbate UCS. The tightness in the upper trapezius, levator scapulae, and pectoralis major muscles can cause increased tension and compression in the cervical spine, as well as inhibit your breathing, which all further contribute to the problem.

Additionally, weakness in the deep cervical flexors, serratus anterior, and lower trapezius muscles can lead to decreased stabilization of the cervical spine. This can be especially problematic for cyclists who spend prolonged periods in a forward head position, as the neck muscles are required to maintain stability and support the weight of the head.

Poor Bike Fit

Having an improperly fitted bike is going to exacerbate all of the above causes of neck pain in cyclists. Symptoms of a poor bike fit include:

  • Handlebars too low or having to reach too far forward
    • Rounds the back/shoulders and closes the chest, encourages forward head posture
  • Arms locked out in extension
    • Having a soft bend in the elbows allows force from the handlebars to be cushioned while riding, otherwise reverberating up into the neck
  • Saddle tipped too far forward
    • This increases weight bearing load on the arms and increases the likelihood of the previous point occurring
  • Poor adjustment of helmet and/or eyeglasses
    • A helmet too low on the head will cause a cyclist to crane their neck excessively, the same problem will occur with eyeglasses sitting too low on the nose

Solutions for Cycling Neck Pain

The causes of neck pain in cyclists are often co-contributing to one another, sometimes making it difficult to pinpoint the exact root of the problem. However, there are some common preventative/corrective measures we can take to help alleviate the above causes and more by following the advice below.

Strengthen the Upper Back & Neck Extensors

To combat forward head posture and upper cross syndrome that develops as a result of cycling (and other modern activities like office work and driving), we can do exercises in our supplemental training to strengthen the muscles that get weak and hyperactive as a result of improper positioning/loading. 

Here are two exercises to help address this:

Prone Cobra/Cobra Hold

Instructions:

  1. Lying prone on your mat, pull your shoulder blades down and together so your arms are in a position like our coach Alisha’s (pictured above)
  2. From here, lift your chest as high as possible off the ground
  3. Squeeze the shoulder blades together, flatten and extend the mid back, and contract the glutes and lower back muscles as well
  4. Keep your neck in a neutral position by pulling it backwards (think of making a double chin)
  5. Hold this position for 30 seconds
  6. Rest for 30 seconds
  7. Repeat three times

This exercise works the mid/upper back, as well as the extensors of the neck in a static hold, which is important for postural endurance. Increased strength in these areas has multiple benefits, including a significantly reduced risk of concussions.

Wall Lean

Instructions:

  1. Start with your feet about one foot away from the wall
  2. Place a towel behind your head and lean into it, keeping the body in a stiff, neutral position (straight line)
  3. Support yourself with your neck in this position, if it is too easy, you can place your feet farther away from the wall
  4. Hold for 30 seconds
  5. Rest for 30 seconds
  6. Repeat three times

The wall lean is a simple exercise to work the neck extensors, which get weak if the head is constantly protruding forward. Strengthening these muscles will help correct forward head posture and pull the head back into better alignment.

Stretch the Sternocleidomastoid, Shoulder & Chest

It is important to couple the following stretches with the above strengthening exercises. These muscles are getting tight and causing neck pain because they’re working hard to try and support us in unnatural positions on the bike. If we stretch them without providing support through corrective strengthening we will only further our risk of pain and injury. 

Try these three stretches to counter the muscle tightness that develops from cycling and contributes to neck pain in cyclists:

Lateral Neck Stretch

Instructions:

  1. Stand in a relaxed and comfortable position
  2. Tilt your head gently to one side, make sure to avoid tilting forward or backward
  3. Rest your hand on the top side of your head
  4. Don’t pull, but let the weight of your hand gently stretch your neck to the side
  5. Hold for 15-30 seconds
  6. Repeat on other side

Cyclists with neck pain will help release a likely hyperactive sternocleidomastoid muscle by performing this stretch. Coupled with the neck and upper back exercises listed above, you’ll be offering multiple modes of relief to the painful areas.

Dynamic Shoulder Rolls

Instructions:

  1. Stand with your shoulders relaxed
  2. Roll your shoulders up high towards your ears, then back (squeezing your shoulder blades together), and finally back down and pulling away from your ears
  3. Complete these circles continuously for 30 seconds
  4. Reverse the motion, rolling your shoulders forward
  5. Repeat for another 30 seconds

This simple exercise helps loosen up and mobilize your shoulder blade and trapezius muscle. The upper trapezius and levator scapulae muscles often get tight as a result of cycling. This movement helps loosen them and is great to do pre/post ride.

Single Arm Chest Stretch w/Wall

Instructions:

  1. Start facing the wall with your arm straight out to the side (shoulder height), palm against the wall
  2. Staying close to the wall, slowly rotate away from your arm until you feel a stretch in the chest and front of the shoulder
  3. Hold here for 30 seconds
  4. Switch to the other arm and repeat

Tight chest and shoulder muscles are common with faulty breathing patterns that often develop as a result of cycling. By opening up these tissues we also open up our lung capacity so that the muscles in our neck don’t have to work so hard as we inhale. 

Professional Bike Fitting/ AI Bike Fitting

To avoid exacerbating all of the aforementioned causes of neck pain in cyclists, it’s recommended that you find a reputable local bike fitter to help optimize the positioning on your bike to your unique body and proportions.

Another option is to use an at home bike fitting app like MyVeloFit. This app utilizes the power of AI to analyze your bike fit and make recommendations on how to correctly adjust different components of the bike and ensure your joint angles fall into the optimal range.

The money and time you spend on a bike fit, whether it’s at home or in person, will most certainly be returned in the form of saved physiotherapy, chiropractic, and massage therapy appointments long-term.

Prevent Cycling Neck Pain & Become A Stronger Cyclist!

The above solutions were borrowed from our programming over at Dynamic Cyclist, a fully online and interactive training platform designed for the health and well-being of people in our sport. We address mobility, strength training, injury prevention and more in routines that are fun to follow-along with! Try it out FREE for 7-days by clicking here!

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 Reasons Behind Your Cycling Knee Pain

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The two main areas that cause cyclists the most headache are the lower back and the knee. Ride long enough and you are almost guaranteed to experience some sort of pain, discomfort or injury in one or both of these parts of the body. Today we are going to focus on the knee, why cycling knee pain occurs, and what we can do to prevent it from happening.

Man with cycling knee pain

Halfpoint/Adobe Stock

When a particular sensation is prevalent amongst athletes participating in the same sport, it can be tempting to throw the baby out with the bath water and think that the sport itself is the problem. Take running for example. A large percentage of the population believes running is bad for the human body, when in fact the evidence supports an entirely opposite hypothesis, that human beings are actually the best and most efficient runners in the animal kingdom. 

Cycling also carries some of these stereotypes. 

Because so many cyclists have knee problems, the conclusion must be that cycling is bad for your knees – right? We don’t think so. In our view, the fact that it’s a commonly experienced problem simply means that most people’s knees are not prepared to do the work that they’re doing on the bike, and/or perhaps are doing that work improperly.

Just like running, everybody thinks riding a bike is just riding a bike. Something you learned when you were a kid and kept with you for the rest of your life. How could you mess it up? But they fail to consider the differences between these two time periods. The truth is cycling as an adult is far different from riding your bike as a kid, and our bodies are quick to remind us of that through the telltale signs of pain and injury.

Let us consider these differences, and take into account everyone from beginners to professionals, by analyzing some of the causes of knee pain from cycling.

Increasing Volume Too Quickly

A classic mistake of anybody entering into a sport or trying to regain their fitness after injury is doing too much too soon. It doesn’t help that many people are recommended or even prescribed cycling as an activity that is low impact that they can do despite their lack of overall strength, health and wellness (this is the case for several elderly people, for example). 

Our sport is indeed a great way for people to get their health in check, but that doesn’t mean its unique demands on the body can be disregarded and instantly capitalized upon. You have to earn a healthy body, and the price is not small. Going from zero to 50 miles a week on your new road rig is an approach that is going to humble you very quickly.

The knees are uniquely positioned to cause you agony in this scenario. Because of the tremendous forces produced by our quadriceps (front thigh muscles) while pedaling, and our position on the bike in general, the knee joint is susceptible to the bulk of those loads being constantly transferred across it. If it has not had the time to slowly adapt to such loads, you could be in for a painful awakening. 

Cyclist’s knee is a broad term used for conditions such as patellofemoral pain syndrome, patellar compression syndrome, patellar tendinitis, and a host of other names that are describing pain on the front of the knee, just below or above the kneecap, and even inside the knee joint itself. Often increasing with use and subsiding with rest. 

It is outside the scope of this article to go into each of these with detail, but it should be noted that they can all be exacerbated by an unprepared knee that the athlete is asking too much of in their training. Like any sport, jumping on the bike is going to have you using your muscles in new ways you’re not used to. You have to give the body time to adapt to these new demands, by slowly and thoughtfully increasing training volume when it is ready to do so.

knee anatomy

Axel Kock/Adobe Stock

Weak Hips

A sport can be looked at as a more advanced level of physical activity, just like going to university is a more advanced level of education. To get into university, there are prerequisites; the attainment of certain grades or passing of certain exams, for example. In sports, there are also prerequisites, we just don’t usually consider them before participating. 

One of these prerequisites for a new or current cyclist should be having strong hips. Having strong hips not only stabilizes the pelvis and contributes greatly to the overall function of the body, it also helps keep the knees in good alignment. Strong hips are not going to develop on the bike, however, adding to the importance of this particular tip.

Hip abduction (moving the leg away from the midline) and hip extension (moving the leg behind you) are severely limited when cycling. The saddle immobilizes the pelvis, and the degree to which your hips flex and extend is nowhere near their full range of motion. This, played out over a long enough period of time, is likely to get us hurt.

When doing a squat, for example, one of the functions of your glute (butt) muscles is to keep your knees from collapsing inward. In fact, a common cue when having someone squat is telling them, “push your knees out”, this activates the gluteals and helps you maintain balance and activation in the hips when squatting. If you see a person’s knees falling inwards during a light-moderate intensity squat, they likely have weakness in their hips.

Why does this matter for cyclists? If you have weak hips, your knee is likely collapsing inward while you pedal. This is a problem, because you are going to further exacerbate this imbalance the more you ride your bike, and this can lead to your muscles developing improperly, pulling structures like your patella (kneecap) out of alignment. 

Supplementing your time on the bike with a balanced strength and conditioning program is going to help ensure that you maintain balance throughout your body, and reduce the chances of your cycling causing knee pain down the line.


Rido/Adobe Stock

Saddle Height

Your bike fit can have a tremendous amount of influence over how your body feels and functions while riding. The saddle height in particular can be a culprit when it comes to cycling knee pain, because the loads on, and angles of, your knee are going to be different depending on where your seat is positioned. 

Having a seat that is too low is going to be the most detrimental when it comes to developing pain in the front, sides and inside the knee. This is because it’s going to keep your knee in a more bent position throughout the whole pedal stroke, and you’re going to be pushing from a mechanically disadvantaged position that puts huge force right through the knee joint. This also leads to quicker fatigue and overall breakdown of form in the athlete.

Having your seat too high isn’t good either, however, because now you’re going to be at risk of hyperextending the leg, and putting excessive strain on the internal ligaments of the knee (ACL/PCL) as well as the hamstring tendons and calf musculature in the back of your leg. The lower leg will also take more load than necessary, putting tissues like the achilles tendon at risk of developing further problems.

A correct saddle height will leave you with a slightly bent knee at the 6 o’clock pedal position. If you straighten your leg in this position your heel would drop 1-2 cm below the pedal. This position keeps the knee stable, and allows enough extension to properly utilize the force of the quadriceps, hamstrings and lower leg, but not too much to overextend and strain the ligaments of the knee.

Knee Rehab Program for Cyclists

Looking for a program that will help you address the muscle imbalance that is likely causing your knee pain? Dynamic Cyclist is an online training platform designed to help cyclists become stronger and faster while riding pain free for years to come. Complete your regimen with an all-inclusive program that addresses mobility, flexibility, strength and injury prevention, all for a fraction of the cost of one physiotherapy appointment. Try out their 6 Week Functional Rehab Program and experience the results for yourself. Click here to try 7 days free!

How to Eradicate Shin Splints in Cyclists

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“Shin Splints” is a term often used to describe any sort of pain that runs along the lateral part of the shin bone. It usually starts to occur after prolonged activity and/or training in sports that involve a lot of impact, running or other repetitive movements. Shin splints and cycling have an interesting relationship, because cyclists experience very different forces through the lower leg as opposed to someone like a runner. 

Even more interesting, the two sports often overlap, with participants cross training in each for triathlons or the complementary health benefits in general. This leaves the often undertrained area of the shin vulnerable to excessive impacts and contractions it might not necessarily be prepared for.

woman with a shin splint

lzf/Adobe Stock

What Causes Shin Splints?

If we think about shin splints as pain along either side of the shin bone, it begs the question…

“What is causing the pain?” 

The answer is, it could be a number of things. 

While many people think this pain is primarily caused by tiny stress fractures in the shin bone (tibia) itself, this is actually unlikely, especially for cyclists, because the impact on your lower leg while riding is very minimal. There are several other lines of defense if you will that tend to be the culprits in a condition like this that develops over time. 

Your body uses pain to alert you to a problem that needs addressing, and the muscles of the lower leg are likely to be causing these problems far before the integrity of your shin bone is compromised.

Lower Leg Muscles & Shin Pain While Cycling

When people train the lower leg (and this includes cyclists), they often focus only on the back of it, where your calf muscles are located. Your calf muscles are responsible for plantar flexion, i.e. pointing the toes down. You use these muscles repeatedly while cycling, every time you press down on the pedal (particularly near the end of your downward stroke).

The front of your lower leg also has a huge muscle which performs the opposite function, dorsiflexion, i.e. lifting the toes up. This muscle is called your tibialis anterior, and it runs from just below your knee joint all the way down your shin before actually wrapping underneath the arch of your foot. All that to say, it has significant influence over a number of areas in your body.

tibialis anterior

maya2008/Adobe Stock

As you can see from the image above, dysfunction in the tibialis anterior might cause pain at the knee, at the ankle/foot and anywhere in between. It’s a muscle that can get incredibly overworked in our day to day lives and activities of all kinds, including cycling. Because of its function to lift up the foot, we are constantly using it unknowingly while walking, running and even pedaling.

Everytime you swing your back leg forward while walking or running, your tibialis anterior is the muscle that lifts the foot to avoid it from hitting the ground. Everytime you press through the first half of the downstroke and start to transition to the upstroke, the tibialis anterior becomes engaged (especially if you’re wearing cycling shoes or are strapped into a stationary bike).

The countless times that the tibialis anterior will contract leaves it open to overuse and irritation if it’s not prepared for that kind of exertion. As previously mentioned, because of our neglect for this part of the lower leg, this often seems to be the case in individuals who develop shin pain while cycling. 

Another function of this muscle is to help us decelerate when walking, landing from a jump or running. It absorbs a huge percentage of our impact and helps us to slow down, change direction and also to keep us from overextending in the direction of inertia. This is one of the key reasons why runners develop pain in their shins, and could be a factor in cyclists who experience shin pain and also cross train with running.

How Do I Prevent Shin Pain While Cycling?

There are two things that commonly need to happen in any athlete who is experiencing shin pain. One is to stretch and mobilize the area so it can relax and better receive blood flow and nutrients. And two is to strengthen it to the point where it can handle the forces you’re asking it to absorb so you can continue your sport without irritation and injury. 

Stretch

Here is a simple ankle/shin stretch from one of our daily stretching and mobility routines available at Dynamic Cyclist. This routine focuses on the calf and ankle. We have hundreds of routines available like this for every area of the body to address mobility, strength and injury prevention for all levels of cyclists.

Strengthen

An easy way to strengthen your tibialis anterior muscles is by performing an exercise called Tibialis Raises. It involves leaning flat against a wall with your heels slightly away from the wall (the farther from the wall the harder this will be). While keeping your legs locked straight, lift your toes up as high as you can, slowly lower, and repeat. 

Performing high repetitions of this exercise (20-25 rep sets) will train your shin muscles to work under load, and will strengthen them up to be able to better handle the repetitive nature of pedaling and any other exercise/activity you might involve yourself in.

Do You Want to Become a Better Cyclist?

Dynamic Cyclist offers comprehensive, all-inclusive, balanced programming designed specifically for cyclists. Our mission for ourselves and everyone in our community is to ride pain free, and we do that by addressing strength imbalances and mobility restrictions that hinder cycling performance in a systematic and well thought out way. 

If you’ve ever wanted to take the guesswork out of your training and be part of something professional and easy to follow, try signing up with us for FREE with a 7-day trial that you can find here! 

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!

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.

The 4 Best Explosive Exercises for Cyclists

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Explosive exercises for cyclists are one of the most underused forms of training in our sport, this despite the fact that it’s actually one of the best physiological indicators of overall performance. If you’re wondering how to get stronger legs for cycling, then this is going to be the article for you!

You could define explosive training as any type of exercise that requires you to use maximal power or speed in the shortest time possible. The term plyometrics is often interchanged here, which can be defined as jump or sprint training. 

While you can certainly use weighted exercises to train explosively, today we’re going to focus on exercises that cyclists can do at home with zero equipment. But first, why should cyclists train explosively at all?


David Fuentes/Adobe Stock

Why Should Cyclists Train Explosively?

Cycling performance is dependent on a number of factors. This is such a dynamic sport, and sometimes it can be hard to determine where we should focus our training. Beyond the influence of our ability to consume and utilize oxygen (VO2 max), additional variance in cycling success can be attributed to maximal strength, psychological factors (like perseverance) and power.

Any short-medium duration burst of speed while cycling – for example climbing a hill or sprinting for better position – is going to challenge your body in a different way than maintaining a steady pace on flat ground. This is something we need to train and build up as a part of our toolkit so that it’s a demand we’re capable of and have been exposed to.

Explosive training for cyclists is good not just for performance but overall health as well. Certain muscles, like the gluteus maximus (your butt) and rectus abdominis (your six pack), respond better to explosive training and are crucial to the overall strength and balance of your body. So let’s try doing it!

Explosive Exercises For Cycling Power

The following exercises are excerpts from some of our Advanced Strength Training programs at Dynamic Cyclist. We’ve built this online platform specifically for cyclists who want to ride pain free, get stronger, prevent injury, improve mobility and increase performance on the bike. If you like these, you might want to consider signing up and joining our community!

You’ll notice that each exercise is performed for short periods of time as part of a longer, more comprehensive circuit. That’s because you want to try to imitate the cycling environment within your workout for a higher direct carry-over to performance on the bike. We have to be able to explode for short bursts and ride for long periods all within the context of one ride.

Important Note: Explosive training is very demanding on the body, specifically your joints. In the videos below, our instructor Alisha gives a modified version of each exercise that you should consider starting with if you are overweight, have a low fitness level or have not tried this type of training before.

Squat Jack 

The squat jack mimics the same pumping power that lifts you off the saddle on a steep hill climb or speedy sprint. Your thighs and glutes will be screaming in glorious agony. One benefit of the squat jack is it takes us into a deep squat position that really stimulates the gluteal muscles. Try exploding off the ground as hard as possible for maximum effect!

Sprinter Skips 

Just looking at the sprinter skip you can probably see the cross-over it has to cycling. It’s almost like going through one pedal stroke but with bigger, more exaggerated movements that really challenge the muscles. The hip drive, knee extension and calf muscle activation at the end range of this exercise will help you produce more force as you’re pedaling. 

Single Leg Square Jumps 

Unilateral (one-sided) leg exercises are excellent for hip activation, balance and overall explosive power. By stabilizing the pelvis you create a stronger platform for your legs and core to work off of. These single leg square jumps are a serious challenge to your hips, knees and ankles that can help make those tissues more resilient to injury long term.

Running man (mountain climbers) 

Almost like cycling horizontally! This exercise trains your core to stay stable while your legs pump vigorously through a big range of motion (just like when you’re riding). Because the legs are attached to the torso through the hip flexors, your core muscles have to work extra hard to keep the lower back from extending (one of the causes of lower back pain in cyclists).

Strength Training For Cyclists

If you’re looking for more explosive strength training that will help you get stronger legs for cycling, try signing up for Dynamic Cyclist! Available at a fraction of the cost of seeing a physiotherapist, trainer or coach, this online training platform has a HUGE library of routines and exercises programmed just for cyclists. Try it out today for FREE! 

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! 

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