Sprinters have really big thighs

cemmac

Hi

I 've notice that usually best and the fastest sprinters have crazy (almost ugly) big leg thighs/ rest body is climber skiny. My collegue is also pro cross-country skier in the winter, his legs are huge.

What is that eathing carbs to much, we actually train alot together but i'm more climber type, but I also want to make bigger thighs. It must for sure helps with heavy pressed watts, maybe at least quadriceps. Should i start consume more whey protein ( i actually not use it never).

In 4 years i drop from 75kg to 67kg, loss alot of muscle on whole body, but i climb like a rocket now...

Ben6899

Paging @imposter2.0

imposter2.0

I’m not even sure what the question is..

bompington

Depends what you want bigger thighs for innit?

If it's so you can stand in front of a mirror and admire yourself, I'm sure there are better forums than this one full of people who think that taking roids and spending all day in the gym makes them awesome.

cemmac

How to achieve this, only with cycling?

pblakeney

Get a 56x11 gear and ride up hills.

imposter2.0

cemmac said:

How to achieve this, only with cycling?

Not possible. Assuming you are talking about track sprinters (the pic you used appears to be Forstermann's legs), all of that bulk is acquired in the gym through squats, deadlifts, etc.

Track sprinting is a very specialist discipline within cycling and sprint training is not really compatible with endurance cycling (and especially climbing) in any shape or form.

cemmac

I was talking about road sprinter - andre greipel, kittel, ...

probably fittness workouts must be involved yes.. i was just thinking to eat something and gain musles below

pblakeney

cemmac said:

I was talking about road sprinter - andre greipel, kittel, ...

probably fittness workouts must be involved yes.. i was just thinking to eat something and gain musles below

What you are looking for is steroids.

imposter2.0

cemmac said:

I was talking about road sprinter - andre greipel, kittel, ...

probably fittness workouts must be involved yes.. i was just thinking to eat something and gain musles below

It's very likely that the legs in that pic do not belong to a road sprinter. Greipel, Kittel, etc probably do some gym strength work to help to help with the initial big gear accelerations.

I doubt if there is any legal or safe supplement you can take which will give you legs like that. If vanity is the only criteria, then maybe you could get implants, or something.

cemmac

No not steroids or implant god sake

Upper picture is only from google images..just as example pic


What i was thinking here is. If you train daily(every day) like MTB or Road racer, and after training eat proper food, chicken, fish, suplements whey, gainers, creatin, bcaa... you may get increase of muscles in thinhs and calfes..am I correct.

imposter2.0

cemmac said:

What i was thinking here is. If you train daily(every day) like MTB or Road racer, and after training eat proper food, chicken, fish, suplements whey, gainers, creatin, bcaa... you may get increase of muscles in thinhs and calfes..am I correct.

Well, most elite riders train like that anyway. But the pic you posted is not compatible with endurance cycling. If you want to look like that, you are on the wrong forum.

webboo

No they may get fitter/stronger/more powerful but whether they get bigger is down to your genetics. They may get smaller but leaner.

singleton

It depends on things like your own personal build and muscle makeup.

A road sprinter is a tough combination of endurance (to get to the end near the front) and explosive power, but they won't be squatting 200-250kg like track sprinters.

MattFalle

Essentially do you want big legs for looks or for riding?

#OPmassive

yorkshireraw

Bradley Wiggins in his peak road years had legs like a stalk. It didn't stop him winning a group sprint in Romandie or putting out 460 Watts for 50 minutes in the Olympic TT, or leading out Cav at the end of the TDF final stage.

As has been covered multiple times on here - cycling 'power' (in road cycling terms) has nothing to do with 'strength' (muscle mass) and nearly everything to do with aerobic capacity. Even road sprinters are basically still endurance athletes compared to track riders.

Pros do use the gym because they have time and it's a useful part of an overall training programme (in terms of injury prevention, and alleviating the impact of spending hours a day in a wholly unnatural sitting position).
For the rest of the cycling world any time you've got spare would be best used in riding your bike more.

bompington

No point going over all that stuff again, he really sounds like his primary goal is to look at himself in the mirror.

singleton

To be fair I suspect my Mrs would prefer me to have rather more substantial thighs instead of the chicken / stork legs I currently have. LOL.

elbowloh

Lots of serious replies herem. You guys don't think this is a joke/troll thread then?

🤪

cemmac

elbowloh said:

Lots of serious replies herem. You guys don't think this is a joke/troll thread then?

🤪

It is no a joke thread. i'm just need some point of view..i didn't have before. It is also not for a look in the mirror, it's just that more evolved muscle prevent injuries and maybe put more explosive power.

I can't sprint small road ups if i want them in 10seconds for like more than 800watts...just can't no matter how fast cadence i have or how hard i push pedals if i stand up....that would probably solve more powerful thighs and other muscles...

imposter2.0

cemmac said:

I can't sprint small road ups if i want them in 10seconds for like more than 800watts...just can't no matter how fast cadence i have or how hard i push pedals if i stand up....that would probably solve more powerful thighs and other muscles...

Another example of the confusion between 'strength' and 'power' - they are not the same thing.

If you lack the power, it does not follow that more strength will help. What is likely to help is an improvement in your FTP, threshold and VO2 max numbers - none of which will be improved by hitting the gym weights.

cemmac

Ok, tnx.

My thinking was, that if your leg muscles are not developed enough and if you are nature stubborn... want to hold some massive watts you mehanically destroy legs....bone problems overuse, muscle strains, etc...

Ok now my winter indoor season is done, doing some great base trainings before and now is zone 2 and adapting time. maybe i'll mix some threshold and VO2 intervals in my rides...

MattFalle

nah. Boring. Dull as.

'Roids, transfusions, shed loads of eating and some massive weights. Then some more 'roids.

OPmassive

briantrumpet

imposter2.0 said:

cemmac said:

I can't sprint small road ups if i want them in 10seconds for like more than 800watts...just can't no matter how fast cadence i have or how hard i push pedals if i stand up....that would probably solve more powerful thighs and other muscles...

Another example of the confusion between 'strength' and 'power' - they are not the same thing.

If you lack the power, it does not follow that more strength will help. What is likely to help is an improvement in your FTP, threshold and VO2 max numbers - none of which will be improved by hitting the gym weights.

Feeling left out here, just popped back for old times' sake...

imposter2.0

briantrumpet said:

imposter2.0 said:

cemmac said:

I can't sprint small road ups if i want them in 10seconds for like more than 800watts...just can't no matter how fast cadence i have or how hard i push pedals if i stand up....that would probably solve more powerful thighs and other muscles...

Another example of the confusion between 'strength' and 'power' - they are not the same thing.

If you lack the power, it does not follow that more strength will help. What is likely to help is an improvement in your FTP, threshold and VO2 max numbers - none of which will be improved by hitting the gym weights.

Feeling left out here, just popped back for old times' sake...

Brian - try to be more punctual next time...

briantrumpet

Popped back in the Tardis to 2011, and one of the shorter epic threads...

(Sorry, the Tardis messed up the quoting a bit)

indjke said:

Alex_Simmons/RST wrote:

meanredspider wrote:

The point that I've still never got a clear answer on is where the extra "power" comes from. You studiously avoid "force" and "torque" (rotational force) yet they are the foundation of power.


I'm not arguing just trying to understand.

That's because the foundation of power is not force, but rather our ability to generate the volume of ATP (click link to see what that is) required to meet the energy demand in the time required. ATP is the "unit of energy currency" in our bodies.


Force is just what we measure and is a result of contractions in our muscles which occur due to the energy released by available ATP.


We can produce ATP in a number of ways, through either anaerobic (without oxygen) processes (which supply ATP very quickly and as a result, quite inefficiently* - that's the trade off for speed of supply) and/or aerobically (with oxygen) processes (which can be maintained pretty much indefinitely, provided we eat, since a limitless supply is available in the air we breathe). When exercising we are using both processes all the time, just the proportions vary depending on what we are doing.


We are only capable of maintaining anaerobic processes for a very short time, beyond that and we need oxygen to keep on supplying the ATP demand (and to replenish any anaerobic work capacity we have used up).


Hence, we are not limited by the maximal force we can produce, rather we are limited by our ability to generate sufficient ATP via aerobic processes to meet the ongoing demand to sustain the repeatedly applied (sub-maximal) forces involved in cycling. It is those underlying aerobic processes that we need to improve in order to go further, faster.


Once the ATP demand from any activity exceeds that which can be supplied by aerobic metabolism, then the activity has either a short lifetime, or it must reduce in intensity eventually (which might be seconds to minutes), i.e. we are forced to slow down.


And the best training to enhance aerobic capacities are those that stimulate the body's underlying infrastructure to supply the inputs (sugars and oxygen), perform the chemical reactions and remove the waste (water and carbon dioxide). In particular this is dictated by the number and size of mitochondria in our muscle cells (in which the chemical reactions that supply ATP are performed) and the proximity and density of the blood supply network (capillaries inside the muscles) to those mitochondria which provides the oxygen & sugar (glycogen) required to produce energy.


The type of training that best induces these changes is hard aerobic exercise, especially exercise which uses the specific muscles in the manner desired for performance.


Training to increase maximal force (i.e. strength) has the opposite effect on the size and number of mitochondria and it decreases the proximity of the blood supply to the mitochondria. This is roughly akin to making bigger highways between the cities to deal with the large short term traffic flow but closing off many small distribution roads so the trucks can't get the resources to the factories in the towns nearly as quickly (and so ongoing production slows), nor remove their waste.


That's why are high force athletes like say weightlifters are not also champion aerobic athletes (runners, swimmers, cyclists, rowers, X-country skiers etc). Training to apply high force is about the release of a vast quantity of ATP in a very short time. That however is not what limits an endurance (racing) cyclist, who needs ATP supplied in an ongoing manner, the more one can do this, the more sustainably powerful you can be. And it also means you can recover far more quickly from anaerobic efforts and be able to repeat them more frequently and more often.



* Aerobic production of ATP (using carbs as fuel) is 19 times more efficient that anaerobic processes. IOW, anaerobic efforts "burn" carbs at 19 times the rate for the same energy output as an aerobic process.


See this link and video for an intro to aerobic/anaerobic processes:
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Aerobi ... espiration

Ooh, seems like I do kinda necroposting, but this is incredible post, Alex!

Things have never been so clear for me before.

Thanks!

imposter2.0

I miss Alex - although I doubt if he misses threads like this

briantrumpet

imposter2.0 said:

I miss Alex - although I doubt if he misses threads like this

His patience was extraordinary.

brundonbianchi

yorkshireraw said:

Bradley Wiggins in his peak road years had legs like a stalk. It didn't stop him winning a group sprint in Romandie or putting out 460 Watts for 50 minutes in the Olympic TT, or leading out Cav at the end of the TDF final stage.

As has been covered multiple times on here - cycling 'power' (in road cycling terms) has nothing to do with 'strength' (muscle mass) and nearly everything to do with aerobic capacity. Even road sprinters are basically still endurance athletes compared to track riders.

Pros do use the gym because they have time and it's a useful part of an overall training programme (in terms of injury prevention, and alleviating the impact of spending hours a day in a wholly unnatural sitting position).
For the rest of the cycling world any time you've got spare would be best used in riding your bike more.

The power is generated mostly in core and glutes. The legs simply transmit the power. It’s a bit like having a gigantic electrical power generation station. There’s no point in having it, if the high tension cables can’t transmit all the power. Likewise, there’s no point in having really good transmission infrastructure, if the generation station isn’t producing enough power to utilise it fully. If you have massive legs, but no power from the core and glutes, you’re just adding weight for no particular purpose. There is a German track sprinter with massive leg muscles, they are actually overkill, as he could never hope to produce the power to do them 100 percent justice. You also need to have good aerobic endurance, that’s how you keep the power coming.

imposter2.0

brundonbianchi said:

The power is generated in core and glutes. The legs simply transmit the power. It’s a bit like having a gigantic electrical power generation station. There’s no point in having it, if the high tension cables can’t transmit all the power. Likewise, there’s no point in having really good transmission infrastructure, if the generation station isn’t producing enough power to utilise it fully. If you have massive legs, but no power from the core and glutes, you’re just adding weight for no particular purpose. There is a German track sprinter with massive leg muscles, they are actually overkill, as he could never hope to produce the power to do them 100 percent justice. You also need to have good aerobic endurance, that’s how you keep the power coming.

That's just a load of rambling nonsense - and another example of someone who doesn't understand the difference between strength and power.

MattFalle

imposter2.0 said:

brundonbianchi said:

The power is generated in core and glutes. The legs simply transmit the power. It’s a bit like having a gigantic electrical power generation station. There’s no point in having it, if the high tension cables can’t transmit all the power. Likewise, there’s no point in having really good transmission infrastructure, if the generation station isn’t producing enough power to utilise it fully. If you have massive legs, but no power from the core and glutes, you’re just adding weight for no particular purpose. There is a German track sprinter with massive leg muscles, they are actually overkill, as he could never hope to produce the power to do them 100 percent justice. You also need to have good aerobic endurance, that’s how you keep the power coming.

That's just a load of rambling nonsense - and another example of someone who doesn't understand the difference between strength and power.

well he's a total nob isn't he? he wouldn't understand the difference between a fish and an aeroplane....