Build The Perfect Pedal Stroke
You peddle up the long hill, gasping for breath looking for the top of the ridge. How much longer you’re thinking? Am I almost there? Out of the corner of your eye you notice the breathtaking scenery below. You’ll have to enjoy that later…too much pain right now.
What if you could get to the top of the hill faster with the same fitness level? You can you know. Many XC mountain bike riders are not aware they are losing power below their knees…in their pedal stroke.If you focus on making small changes to your pedal stroke, your XC MTB race times will improve. And on those weekend rides, you’ll be able to enjoy that stunning scenery at the top of the mountain a bit sooner. We all hit our genetic limitations as some point, so why not maximize our potential with the perfect pedal stroke. You ready? Let’s go…
If your pedal stroke consists of pushing down and waiting for the pedal stroke to spin back around to the top, there is good news, you have plenty of horsepower sitting in the tank. A perfect pedal stroke is 360 degrees of constant power using your hips, legs and other supporting muscles throughout your body.
When the trails get tough, your quads are your primary pedal pushers at the top of the stroke. Near the bottom of your stroke, your glutes and calves take over with your hamstrings pulling to the 9:00 o’clock position. To finish off the fun, your hip flexors sweep your stroke up and to the top for another round.
To find your perfect pedal stroke, here are five tips to take your XC mountain bike racing to the next level:
1. You need clipless pedals to maximize the pull up from the 6:00 o’clock position. This is a give me for the seasoned XC mountain biker but many beginners may hesitate on this upgrade due to the cost. If you’re serious about XC mountain bike riding, investing in clipless pedals is a wise investment.
2. Practice your pedal stroke on a spin bike or trainer. To find the perfect pedal stroke, it’s best to focus on it…and nothing else. It’s not easy when you have distractions like obstacles, hills, friends or scenery, which take your attention away from developing your perfect pedal stroke.
Devoting one to two days a week developing technique will pay big dividends on race day, and your weekend rides with friends. Practice your perfect pedal stroke for 30 seconds to a minute at a time and spin easy in between each drill. Do drills for at least 20 minutes per session.
Apply resistance but don’t overdo it to the point where you can’t focus on training your body and mind to apply power throughout the entire pedal stroke. There are some muscles you may be using below their potential that need to be trained to fire at a deeper level, and at the correct point in the pedal stroke cycle.
3. Point your toes down a bit and keep the ankles relatively stable on the down stroke. Some mountain bike riders raise their toes below 90 degrees (give back) due to the hard push from the quads then push down using the calves to greater than 90 degrees. The result of this action is the dissipation and loss of kinetic energy in the pedal stroke at its greatest strength.
To keep it simple, any overuse in your calf muscles on the down stroke will dissipate the energy generated by your quads. A stable ankle on the down stroke keeps the energy where it needs to be…in your pedal stroke.
4. Practice your pedal stroke one leg at a time. Focusing on pressing down, stabilizing your ankle, sweeping it back, pulling up with the hamstrings and toes, and up to the top with your hip flexors can best be done when you focus on one leg at a time.
When you add resistance to your bike trainer, this allows you to see which leg is your weakest and gives you the opportunity to equalize both legs with additional sets. Put it in a larger gear and pedal between 50 to 60 RPM. This additional resistance will allow you to recruit more muscle fibers into your pedal stroke.
Remember to always finish off your training session with a few high rpm sets. If you train your muscles to only go slow, they will always go slow. Punch the rpm over 100 in an easy gear to polish up your perfect pedal stroke.
5. Keep your core stabilized. When riding, relax all of your muscles except the ones you need to get up the hill, or propel yourself forward. Stabilize your core when you ride. Any excessive movement at the core will dissipate kinetic energy at the pedal stroke.
The action is similar to the difference between a hardtail MTB and a dual suspension MTB. A hardtail MTB transfer’s power more efficiently to the pedals stroke as compared a dual suspension MTB where more power is dissipated in the suspension system.
With a little practice, you can take your pedal stroke efficiency to a new level. If you can get 5% more power out of each stroke, how fast will you be? How will that affect your performance at the next race?
The best XC mountain bike riders know that winning is in the details. Why not join them today with a perfect pedal stroke.
Tagged with: mountain bike pedal stroke • Mountain Bike Training • mtb pedal stroke • pedal stroke • pedal stroke efficiency • perfect pedal stroke
Filed under: Mountain Bike Training
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With this understanding of how the mechanics of bike pedal strokes work, and a little concentrated effort with off road practice, making the tops of those hills should be a breeze. Great info; thanks!
I think keeping the core stabilized is a really good piece of advice. I used to have a lot worse overall performance until I realized I was letting it sag and not fully using those muscles.
I’m glad to have read these important pointers. I always wonder why I get tired quickly when climbing up no matter how often I practice. Sometimes practice is not enough to make something perfect. We should practice properly to make it perfect.