Butt Muscles involved in the power stroke in cycling?

Fatamorgana

In this w/end's Telegraph, there's a number of give-aways from Mark Roberts.

In the booklet, there's a circular graph (for want of a better word) showing which muscles come into play during which part of the 360 degree rotation of the leg.

It shows that on the pedal stroke from the 12:00 to 3:00 (what he terms the hip Extensor) that the glutes are the only muscle to be involved at which point, at 3 o'clock, the quads share then take over the power duties to 5 then it's the calfs from 5-6. From 6-8 it's the front part of the calf (shins) pull the toe back up to 8 when the knee flexor or the rear of the quads take over duties to 10 and from there it's the hip flexors, above the front quads, that see you 'round to 12 again.

1/4 of the movement down to the power of the buttocks?
Is that correct?

ajmitchell

here is a more detailed anatomical study (http://ukpmc.ac.uk/articles/PMC2621103/ ... 2LiIWoJ.80 fig 7). And perhaps more interestingly what muscles are most involved?

"The energy production relationships between the different major muscle groups were computed and the contributions to the total positive work were: hip extensors, 27%; hip flexors, 4%; knee extensors, 39%; knee flexors, 10%; and ankle plantar flexors 20%." ie 40% quads and 30% glutes see http://www.springerlink.com/content/g4v570818nk81258/

miss notax

No idea, but my chiropractor told me off last week for not using my glutes enough - apparently i'm over-using my back muscles which is causing all sorts of painful problems :?

I think basically she was telling me to tone up my bum :oops:

composite

At least she did it in a nice way, she might have said "sort out that saggy lump of lard you call an arse!"

On a slightly more serious note I have added the Glute Bridge and Bird Dog exercises in to my core work out recently and although I could bounce pennys off my butt already, I'll be cracking wallnuts soon. They are a couple of really good exercises, although you need to make sure that you don't over extend upwards on the glute bridge as that's really easy to do and put pressure on the lower back.

miss notax

Will look those up - thanks