Lower Leg Muscles in Cycling

bnmcmhn
bnmcmhn Posts: 40
edited January 2009 in Training, fitness and health
I've been training on my bike since Autumn last year. I've seen a big increase in my fitness and general wellbeing. I do some lightish weights at the gym but I never do weights with my legs because I want to focus on cycling and I have a history of various leg injuries.

My upper legs have got noticably beefier but I still have really skinny lower legs. Does cycling really make much use of lower leg muscles? I don't like inbalance so I'm considering doing some strenghtening exercises to even up my legs a bit, maybe I'll look a little less ridiculous in bibtights :P Is this necessary or will the lower legs develop as my power increases?

Comments

  • sportbilly1976
    sportbilly1976 Posts: 524
    Just from personal experience and having only been cycling properly for a few months I can feel the top of my thighs more now, and if I stand out of the saddle and climb then I can really feel the outer thigh muscles...

    for my calves I have found that sitting down on an ascent and keeping the ankle moving so that it is not at the same angle during a full rotation gets them working...
  • ColinJ
    ColinJ Posts: 2,218
    I'm sure that this is mostly controlled by one's genes. I develop large calf muscles really easily, as does one of my friends. Another friend who is much fitter and does much more training than us has skinny calf muscles.
  • Toonraid
    Toonraid Posts: 126
    It will be a good idea to include gym work once a year for 3 months or so in your training routine as means of building up your muscles and address muscle imbalances. As for on the bike excercise try to concentrate on Q1 & Q3 zones in your pedalling - i.e. that would be on the top sliding stroke and botton sliding stroke (10:30 - 1:30) & (4:30 - 7:30). During those two quadrants you are mainly using your lower leg muscles.

Categories