Originally Posted by grolby

That's what people are saying, yes. The reasoning is that pulling up on the pedals isn't "free," there's a significant proprioceptive cost to trying to force your body to do something very biomechanically unnatural. And the price you pay is reduced power.



This is KEY, and it's kind of shocking to me that pedaling "technique" still gets so much attention in cycling training. I think it's been a couple of years since I gave my opinion on single-leg drills specifically and pedaling technique generally on BF, so here it is: the pedal stroke is one of the most outrageously, laughably over-analyzed athletic movements in any sport. It is essentially a 100% prescribed movement, and the efficiency of the pedal stroke is affected almost entirely by fit. There's very little good reason to believe that there's anything much to improve about the way a naive cyclist pedals. I think it is true that we become smoother with experience and there are benefits to being smoother, but I don't think a really good smooth pedal stroke indicates that the rider is applying power more evenly through the circle, only that they are adapted to moving their legs in the unnatural rotary movement of pedaling vs. simple reciprocation. But it's also clear, if you look at the pros that, despite decades of cycling coaches insisting that we must pedal in circles, there's a huge variation at the top level of how smooth the fastest guys look! Look at Jens Voight - the guy is all elbows and jackhammers on the bike. But he goes pretty fast.

I'm going to remain just agnostic enough to say that there may be some reasons in some cases to do one-legged drills, but I'm pretty unconvinced that they make sense as a general-purpose training tool. When you actually ride a bike, you pedal with both legs. A one-legged drill seems a little bit like doing running form drills by hopping on one foot. Is that what runners do? No! You run with both legs, and the form drills are about coordinating movements being made with both legs at the same time.