Why is it....

[Ray]

...that after a long hard day in the saddle, with alotta climbing, I can literally bound up a flight of stairs with no apparent effort, but I can barely limp down the damn things? This makes no sense to me - I trash my muscles doing a move VERY similar to climbing stairs and I don't hardly use my legs at all descending. But the damage seems to be backwards.

What up?

-Ray

[bironi]

I can't tell you why, but I can confirm the same for myself and others. The details don't matter; I just want to know my buddies are suffering also. What really hurts is suffering alone.

Byron

[rodenmg]

...that after a long hard day in the saddle, with alotta climbing, I can literally bound up a flight of stairs with no apparent effort, but I can barely limp down the damn things? This makes no sense to me - I trash my muscles doing a move VERY similar to climbing stairs and I don't hardly use my legs at all descending. But the damage seems to be backwards.

What up?

-Ray


As a kid did you ever stand in a doorway with your arms straight and pressing out against the doorway as hard as you can for several minutes, and then step out of the doorway and relax your arms??? :)

[Ray]

As a kid did you ever stand in a doorway with your arms straight and pressing out against the doorway as hard as you can for several minutes, and then step out of the doorway and relax your arms??? :)
I don't think I ever did that actually. Is that why my legs hurt? :cool:

[znfdl]

Ray I am not sure why it happens, but I am feeling your pain right now. Did a century yesterday with over 10K feet of climbing. Longest sustained climg was maybe 1.5miles....

[Rover-Rich]

...that after a long hard day in the saddle, with alotta climbing, I can literally bound up a flight of stairs with no apparent effort, but I can barely limp down the damn things? This makes no sense to me - I trash my muscles doing a move VERY similar to climbing stairs and I don't hardly use my legs at all descending. But the damage seems to be backwards.

What up?

-Ray
Ray the phenomenon is call post activation potentiation (PAP). During strenuous activity which require speed and power, our muscles typically responsed with a sensation of fatigue however, this sensation can co-exist with PAP. What really happens occurs on the cellular level, but the perception of "bounding up a flight of stairs with no apparent effort" is probably one of the best descriptions I have heard of the sensation. Literally our muscles are fuctioning in a more efficient manner because of the temporary cellular changes which have occured. It is actually a very cool feeling.

As far as going down stairs, this activity requires what is called an eccentric muscle contraction which means a muscle contraction while the muscle is lengthening. Typically when muscles contract, they shorten, however when we go down stairs our muscles, especially our quads, actually are working like little shock absorbers to let our knees flex in a controlled fashion. This type of muscle contraction generates the highest forces, higher even then while we are going up the stairs which, incidently is being fascilitated by PAP. So, after a hard ride, our muscles are already damaged and this further injury to the muscle compounds our perception of fatigue/pain.

Does that answer the question?

[znfdl]

Rover thanks for the explanatoin.

[Ray]

Does that answer the question?
Yes, it does. But it doesn't explain why I ask a question when I know full-well I'm not gonna understand the answer. I actually did sort of understand it, though. So, thanks!

-Ray