Pedal Stroke Reality CHeck?

[jmeloy]

So, I'm old and don't get to ride enough due to a heavy travel schedule. Never been certain that my pedal stroke was as effective as it should be. Tend to be more of a "flat-footed" peddler I think, with only a very little amount of "toe down". Also have noticed that my lower legs have never really gained the definition that others have. Thighs are ok.

Recently noted that if I get the toe down to say "8:30" on the clock, I feel more power (but also more pressure on the knee). Do I need to drop the toes and see where it takes me?

[Izalco Expert]

When you pedal, your foot should be too low as in your toeing, but what my coach said was to keep my foot flatter because I toe a lot, and imagine there are lights on my toes and that I always want to keep them facing forward with the light always hitting the wall. If that makes any sense, any knee pain is no good! :)

[thegunner]

i always thought heel down was the preferred pedal stroke?

[stephenmarklay]

You will get a lot of answers on this depending on who you ask. Watch the pro's they are all over the map.

I did read lately that a heel down position fatigues the calf muscles to a greater extent however.

Myself, I position my saddle on the high for leverage and naturally my foot is close to neutral if not a bit toe down. It also depends where you are on the saddle, elevation of road etc.

[oldpotatoe]

So, I'm old and don't get to ride enough due to a heavy travel schedule. Never been certain that my pedal stroke was as effective as it should be. Tend to be more of a "flat-footed" peddler I think, with only a very little amount of "toe down". Also have noticed that my lower legs have never really gained the definition that others have. Thighs are ok.

Recently noted that if I get the toe down to say "8:30" on the clock, I feel more power (but also more pressure on the knee). Do I need to drop the toes and see where it takes me?

Pedal stroke is more physiological than psychological. If your bike fit is correct, you pedal like you pedal, particularly when you are tired. Really hard to 'think' of pedaling and changing the natural way you pedal.

[sw3759]

one legged pedaling drills on a trainer went along way toward cleaning up my pedal stroke.it was bad enough my right knee needed surgery from all years of bad form favoring my right leg.fixed gear bike didnt help since it seemed to push me thru the stroke more than teach me pedal circles.i suspect power cranks would be best way to perfect your stroke but expensive and some folks cant get used to them.i still may buy a set.i'm guessing there are some on this forum that use them.maybe they'll chime in

Scott

[mike p]

+1 on the one legged pedaling drills. Set your bike up in the trainer with very little resistance and begin with 1 min on each leg and just keep rotating legs. Build up to 2,3,4,5, minutes per leg it really helps to find dead spots in your stroke. Winter months are a good time for this.

Mike

[Ti Designs]

You will get a lot of answers on this depending on who you ask.


Not that anyone asked me, but...

If you're going to break down the pedal stroke into muscles used (and you should), there are two things you need to understand first. 1) muscles don't like to be under tension for extended periods of time. Blood flow doesn't happen under tension so it can't continue to be an arobic state - this has nothing to do with muscle strength. Lots of people find that one muscle burns, and they assume it's because of strength - probably not. If you're sore the next day, that's due to tension on the muscle fibers, the burn means you're doing something wrong or asking too much. 2) Muscles recruit other muscles, and your body wasn't really designed to ride a bike. For example, if you were to set up your bike on the trainer and stop the pedal at 3:00 (I use a stool under the pedal), there are a lot of things you can notice about which muscles are used. If you just try to push down the quads (vastus lateralis) fire, and you probably notice you're getting pushed back in the saddle. If you do the same and push down you notice a whole series of muscle groups come into play. They're not the ones you want, for example the medialis gets recruited to stabalize the knee, but for all the work it's doing it adds almost nothing to the pedal stroke.

I can't tell you where or how your feet should be pointing while you ride - too many variables. Think about this, setback and femur length have a lot to do about the angle of the tibia, thus they change the angle of the foot. Range of motion at the ankle is as varied from person to person as any joint could be, and the pivot itself was never designed to generate power about a single axis. If you take a quick look at the bottom of a walking shoe you've had for a while, you'll probably notice the wear is not linear. You'll see a heal strike on the outside, but where the wear line is at the ball of the foot is anyone's guess. Now look at the pedal, it's designed to rotate around a single axis while holding the cleat flat, and maybe it has rotation of float - there's a mismatch there and exsessive movement causes problems.

As a basic guide, use the trainer, stop the pedals at points and see which muscles are used - that's a static case. Use the one leg pedal stroke drill to test the dynamic case. Use a bit of caution here, the drill is great for pedal stoke work if done well, good for injury if not. First, you're tracing a circle, not powering the bike. That means it's always slow and it never speeds up or slows down - should sound like an electric motor. Small gear to start with, you're looking to gain a muscle firing order first, not power the bike. Most people find keeping it smooth at zero resistance is much harder. That to me says it's worth doing, resistance just masks problems. My advice on the one leg pedal stroke is just like my advice on Power Cranks - start easier than you think you have to, build up over time. Once your hip flexors don't scream at you while doing this, and you can pedal in clean circles, it's time to add some resistance and emphasize one muscle group at a time. The hamstrings are the easy place to start, from 4:30 to 7:30 think of pulling your foot straight back out of the shoe, you'll notice the hamstring working. Now try the same thing with the toe pointing down, the calf comes into play, but limits the function of the hamstring. Try this for about 30 seconds and you'll soon understand why most coaches try to flatten out the foot at the bottom of the pedal stroke. Working the quad is much harder 'cause two muscles have to fire at the same time. The quad fires from 11:00 to 2:00, but the hip flexor has to pull all the way to 12:00 or you're trying to cut across the pedal stroke which will never work (the top of the pedal stroke will "thunk" as you go over). Think about pushing the pedal up and forward, stop before it gets to 3:00 or you're just pushing against the bottom bracket. Note: This is where a video camera or big mirror helps, what you think your foot is doing and what it's really doing are often two different things. I tell my riders "start early, end early" 'cause there's a lag between when you tell your body to do something and when that something happens.

Now that I've typed all that, the one leg drill is great for some things, but if you're looking to best use large muscle groups it's not the drill you need to be using. Large muscle groups need lots of resistance to get a grasp of what's going on. My drill for isolation of the glutes, along with adding quads (the two largest muscle groups in cycling) is what you really want to be using. Well, it's not really an either/or, it's both...

[Ken Robb]

this discussion sort of kills the old saying "it's as easy as riding a bike" doesn't it? :)