General Cycling Discussion - sitting vs. standing

if you sit while cycling.. does your *** get bigger?
jus wondering.
=)
thanks

hmmm, I dont think so

Originally posted by ehdooween
if you sit while cycling.. does your *** get bigger?
jus wondering.
=)
thanks
No, but the muscles in your *** sure get a lot stronger so you can make it up the next hill. :D

If you spin, you will probably not bulk up your gluteus maximi. If you slog the high gears, you will probably add more bulk to your quads (and pain to your knees) than anything else.

If I sit in front of a bowl of pasta, my rear end will get bigger. Otherwise, it seat it on a saddle as often as I can.

I stand a lot when climbing-it helps me keep my rev's up. I already have very large quads, and sitting while climbing just feels slow to me. I do kill a lot of BB's, though, but I'm almost always the first up a hill on a club ride-even quicker than guys half my age. My knees were bad to begin with, but I haven't noticed any deterioration.

I almost always stay seated when I am climbing.

Especially if the hill is a really long, I tend to climb faster if I scoot way back on the saddle and just keeping grinding, taking maximum advantage of my cleats so I can really focus on cranking circles instead of just mashing the pedals.

Occassionally I do stand up but only if my quads are burning so bad I can't take it anymore. I'll shift up 2 cogs (say from a 21 to a 17) and stand up for 50 yards or so, then sit down and shift back to the easier gear.

Standing for a climb is actually tougher than I expected. Not that it takes more strength or aynthing like that, but getting the technique down is tough. For awhile I couldn't climb out of the saddle to save my life, but I kept working at it and now I climb out of the saddle for any kind of short climb. I have climbed out of the saddle for a few long climbs, but the problem with that is I feel my self slowing down when I sit, plus I have to readjust my gears and pedalling cadenc for sitting. Both of those things drive me crazy and tend to destroy my mental war on pain and becoming demoralized.

Howdy Fubar,

Actually climbing out of saddle consumes considerably more energy than seated climbing because each up-stroke requires quickly lifting the full weight of that leg to get it off the pedal. Otherwise you end up working against yourself, which will probably happen anyway.

Out of saddle cllimbing is most useful in 2 situations:

1) when you need a quick burst of speed to regain lost momentum on a really long hill. This requires shifting up two or three cogs for maximum effect. Don't forget to shift back down when you sit.

2) it can let you power over a short hill without shifting down.

I have also found that a too-long reach to the handlebars will make standing an awkward affair. Switching to a shorter stem has made standing less awkward so I do it more than I used to.

I sit when climbing (or get off and walk ;) ) and only tend to stand on the pedals when going over sleeping policemen, cobbles or rough ground.

Richard

This requires shifting up two or three cogs for maximum effect. Don't forget to shift back down when you sit.


Great advice, this is what I do also. I live in the hills so I have no choice but to be good at climbing or I would never be able to ride anywhere. For any road under 8% I will sit and pull/push (pedal in a circle) at a cadence of 80, over 8% I will stand in a higher gear and maintain a good cadence for 2mins, then sit for a minute or so and stand again, it all depends on the hill and the gradient. If it is very steep >10% then I will stand the whole way, keeping my heart rate at a comfortable level by riding very smoothly and very rhythmical. I use my breathing like a metronome to keep everything working in time. Breath out every 1.5 pedal strokes, keep the bike in a straight line and only rock the bike as much as necessary, no more. It's all about efficiency. Just watch someone like Lance Armstong and you can see how fluid and rhythmical he is, he doesn't lurch the bike all over the road, he has great cadence and good timing. The best way to learn is to watch a Pro and try to copy their style.

CHEERS.

Mark

As far as sitting vs standing goes, it depends on the hill. There's a short 14% job near here that I do quite often. I get out of the saddle and attack that one because it's short. On the longer climbs (one that is 15km long) I tend to stay in the saddle and concentrate on maintaining a reasonable cadence. This is something that comes with practice.

I'm the same as Chris (by the way, nice to have you back:))

If it's a short climb, I attack, and on the longer climbs, I try and spin...

It doesn't seem to do too much to my butt though.....which is a shame :(

Rich

This ended up OK, for a topic I was sure was a troll. :o

Cheers...Gary

Some discussion of Tour de France climbing styles might also fit into this thread. Lance seems to be bringing "dancing on the pedals" back into vogue.

Snapping a crank during an out-of-saddle climb has caused me to sit more, to stand less, and to replace cranks, chains, stems, etc. more frequently.

I usually sit down (way back on the saddle) during climbing. Sometimes I attack short climbs out of the saddle, but my legs don't like it for much more than a couple of minutes at a time. It has happened that I have run out of gears (despite having a 28/28) and then it is a must to climb standing every now and then (without changing gears) to relax the muscles a bit, usually the speed drops 2-3 kph due to the reduced cadence.

/Csson

Originally posted by John E
Some discussion of Tour de France climbing styles might also fit into this thread. Lance seems to be bringing "dancing on the pedals" back into vogue.



Snapping a crank during an out-of-saddle climb has caused me to sit more, to stand less, and to replace cranks, chains, stems, etc. more frequently.

Owwwwwww...

If I'm cycling hard and fast I stand up A LOT. A stand to power up short hills, as someone suggested earlier, and on the flat when I'm getting tired and the pace starts to drop I'll stand up and get back up to speed.

It takes a bit of getting used to, standing up when going fast, its quite different to standing up to climb hills.

I rarely climb seated, I find it much easier to stand up and rock the bike.

I've suspected its because I've been a runner for years before I took up cycling?? probably all in the mind.

Stew

I have to admit that when I first read the subject of this thread, for a moment I thought it was about this (http://www.publicdebate.com.au/is/423/bg.html) very important issue, but I guess that'd be more suitable for the Lounge.

On the actual subject: I rarely get out of the saddle other than to push over small rises when I'm attemtpint to keep my average speed high, but otherwise I sit and spin. I've kept pace with roadies grinding up hills out of the saddle in much too high a gear, burning three times as much energy as me for the same speed and wondered what on earth they must be thinking.

Well, with this thread in my head I headed for the hills and have decided that climbing techinque, like everything else in cycling, is personal preferance. Seated climbing may work for one person, while standing works for the next.