Body Weight...

meanredspider

Yup - I'd be happy putting in my 150-odd miles a week a bit slower than looking like something from a WWII Japanese POW camp. The body of Hoy or that of Roche? Hmm - hard one.

ozzzyosborn206

meanredspider wrote:

Pokerface wrote:

This is what the upper body of a good road cyclist should look like. Notice the 'massive pecs' 8)


Nicholas Roche

I'd rather poke my own eyes out with a sharp stick :shock:

As I said, I only do 15 miles at a shot. I just do it a lot of times. I wouldn't be able to turn the wheel of my race car with arms like that :?

i would guess your race car develops your pecs as much if not more than cycling, what do you do as a job?

meanredspider

ozzzyosborn206 wrote:

i would guess your race car develops your pecs as much if not more than cycling, what do you do as a job?

Steer a desk - I couldn't be much more sedentary at work if I tried. The race car doesn't do anything for my arms - I don't drive it enough (a couple of hours a month) - but, with very sticky race tyres and a very fast steering "rack" it takes some steering at low speeds. Working on it probably develops my arms as much as driving it.

Right or wrong, I'm sure it's the cycling that has developed my pecs. I think it's a vicious (or virtuous) circle - the more upper body weight you support, the more the muscles develop, the more upper body weight you have. My shoulders have always determined the size of tops I wear and I'm always at least a size (if not two) smaller for what bottom half kit I wear. I don't work on it and I'm not the slightest bit vain about it either. It just is what it is.

Fat Head

6 foot 5.

7 stone.

Zachariah

Fat Head wrote:

6 foot 5.

7 stone.

That is an unusual weight for one so tall - is this the result of diet and exercise or have you always been skinny?

peejay78

i think it was an attempt at humour.

Surfr

Age: 34
Height: 5"7'
Weight: 75kg (12 stone)
Chest: 40in
Waist: 34in

I was down to 11.12 stone before xmas and would love to hit 11 stone for the race season but I was starting to plateau a little after bringing it down from 15 stone 2 years ago. Hopefully I can get to around 11.6 at least.

meanredspider

I'm going to get my serious cyclist mate to look at my technique next time I ride with him. 4 out of the last 5 days I've been out getting my legs back on the hill out the back of mine and (as well as my legs burning) I can feel how pumped my arms, pecs and lats are

SBezza

meanredspider you must rock your upper body a hell of alot to even feel the upper body getting pumped. I regularly do over 1000ft in a ride, and most hills around here are short sharp ones, and after a ride the only part of my body that doesn't ache is the upper body.

secretsqizz

SBezza wrote:

meanredspider you must rock your upper body a hell of alot to even feel the upper body getting pumped. I regularly do over 1000ft in a ride, and most hills around here are short sharp ones, and after a ride the only part of my body that doesn't ache is the upper body.

He needs to turn his ipod down a touch, I reckonz...........
one of the best climbing ditties tho' but cool the humpin' shoulders on the inclines man

Surfr

Not too bad on the road bike but on the singlespeed MTB my upper body gets a hell of a workout! Not sure if this training will transfer to anything useful on the road but it's not going to stop me

ozzzyosborn206

the only thing that ever aches for me after a ride is my lower back, in some mtb rides my arms ache a bit while riding but never after, i think to notice your pecs ache you must be doing something very wrong, next time you go out, concentrate on your form, try and stay seated and keep upper body still and put hardly any pressure on the bars and see how much more your legs work

ozzzyosborn206

the only thing that ever aches for me after a ride is my lower back, in some mtb rides my arms ache a bit while riding but never after, i think to notice your pecs ache you must be doing something very wrong, next time you go out, concentrate on your form, try and stay seated and keep upper body still and put hardly any pressure on the bars and see how much more your legs work

meanredspider

SBezza wrote:

meanredspider you must rock your upper body a hell of alot to even feel the upper body getting pumped. I regularly do over 1000ft in a ride, and most hills around here are short sharp ones, and after a ride the only part of my body that doesn't ache is the upper body.

I average a 1000ft (2000ft a day on my commutes (800 in 1200 back) - 5x the height of Everest last year & that was a bad year - started late finished early). My upper body doesn't ache - only my legs and sometimes my lower back - but I can twitch individual pecs at will now & I don't know how that happened :shock: My left pec is also better developed (I'm right-handed). I'm conscious that I brace my body a lot in the climbs but I stay seated.

meanredspider

ozzzyosborn206 wrote:

try and stay seated and keep upper body still and put hardly any pressure on the bars and see how much more your legs work

Was doing that today up the 1:10 & 1:8 bits - found it much harder to power through the pedals. I try to keep my cadence above 80 - ideally nearer 90 to avoid mashing the pedals.

As I say, I'll ask my more serious cycling mate to look at my technique - he shoots up hills like a greased weasel but then he weighs about 30kg less than me and is ultra fit. He's never mentioned anything before (except how much out of puff I am - no kidding)

You can probably see from my commute profile (below) that there's not really any such thing as flat. I'm either going up or going down.

Pross

I suspect what's happening is more that the muscles are toning a bit and the body fat around them is disappearing making you more defined. Building muscle takes quite a bit of resistance in my experience and I could never manage even when trying.

meanredspider

Pross wrote:

I suspect what's happening is more that the muscles are toning a bit and the body fat around them is disappearing making you more defined. Building muscle takes quite a bit of resistance in my experience and I could never manage even when trying.

I don't have much trouble putting on muscle for whatever reason - It's never been a lot of use to me since I stopped playing rugby 25 years ago. It isn't just definition from fat loss (partly because I haven't lost that much fat in the last year) - but I can put the heel of my hand on my sternum and, tensing my pec, I can support a lot of lateral load (pushing) on it (really useful, huh?). Even the local gym instructors are quite impressed.

It's totally counterproductive except it comes in useful when working on the race car - but not driving it.

rokkala

Oh, you drive a race car? Don't think you've mentioned that before ^_-

meanredspider

Rokkala wrote:

Oh, you drive a race car? Don't think you've mentioned that before ^_-

Yeah - it helps if someone does else the races are a bit dull...