which uses less hip muscles, standing or sitting?
 

I am wondering which position uses less hip muscles when biking. I have broken both hips so they tend to get sore, I am basically wondering if it is easier to stand and sprint uphill or sit and go uphill with a higher cadence. I see videos of lance standing and sprinting uphills more than sitting. Is it really preference, or is there something more? I am thinking of just getting good at standing and sprinting uphills and getting better at doing it that way. Any comments?

If it helps it was double avulsion fractures. Where the muscle that comes from the inside of the theigh to the hip on the outside, I think on the illiac crest.

Not an expert
 

I'm no expert, maybe you'll benefit from talking to a sports trainer but I'll put in my two cents. I think climbing with either standing and sitting will use lots of muscles in the legs and hips. However I think the sitting with high cadence will be better for you if you've had hip injuries because you would be putting less instantaneous power into the hip flexors and extensors with each step. I think it will decrease the chances of re-injuring yourself. Hope this helps, I must say that a more professional opinion will probably be better!

I agree with orion_hunters - sounds like you need some professional input here, to help understand whether working those muscles would be a good thing to improve strength, or a bad thing increasing risk of injury.

I can't go anywhere round here without taking on a hill, from my own perspective sitting is a lower stress way to climb than standing - when I'm thinking about stress on your pelvis/thighs. When I'm standing, I'm moving more of my body and putting stresses directly through my hips and knees to push the pedals down, when I'm sitting it's still hard work but it feels as though the work is coming more from my quads and calf muscles.

Yeah, if you don't have a triple you might want to get one just to stay on the safe side and make sure that you don't injure yourself while climbing.

I have worn out a lot of the cartilage in my left hip such that I cannot run anymore and walking can be a bit iffy at times, and, for many years, I could not cycle. I am not familiar with your condition and I have no idea whether my situation is similar enough to yours. However, I am now cycling without pain for the most part since October, 2007, when I decided to make a slow careful go of it (and after years of work with a muscular therapist who helped me get out of state of constant pain -- not kidding, couldn't sit, sleep, etc without some element of pain). I did have to very carefully work through some pain (i.e., when I felt pain, I pulled back, and then would advance again carefully) and I can now go 60-70 miles at 18-20mph average speed.

Along the way as I've progressed, I did not feel pain sitting. However, I could feel pain when standing and pushing hard during a steep part of a climb. And when I felt this pain, I would sit, get into a cog with more teeth and push back in the saddle and push hard -- when doing this I did not feel pain. Although, I now feel no pain when standing on these very same climbs; of course, I am in better condition, but, I also believe my form is better when stressing the muscles with greater effort.

I can't say what your experience will be and whether my experience is material to yours. But, you might think about testing stuff out and being careful. You might also want to talk to a health professional; also, look up the surfacehippy group on yahoo groups; you may find people with similar background there.

As an aside, I find that standing during a climb tends to tire my legs more in the long run. I stand when I want a burst of high speed. For example, there is a short steep climb on one of my regular routes that can drive me nuts on occasion; on some rides, I will purposely stand and blast to get over it more quickly (i.e., get it done and out of the way).

Good luck!!!

I use to not be able to do sit ups. It hurt to do 3 sets of 10!! Now I have a full ab routine. I have found that just pushing my hips to the limits, until they scream it works best. Then I take breaks when my hips get really sore and come back stronger. I hope it helps with biking.

When you said before was it after your injury? because the reason you could not do sit ups might be caused by the scar tissues. Just make sure when you do any exercise to not push yourself over the edge and be careful!

Seated spinning generally involves less stress and muscle recruitment. Part of it is balance, part of it is simply changing the mechanics of the pedal stroke between positions. Also understand that cycling tends to use specific muscles in the legs and not others. This imbalance will likely not assist your recovery unless you take steps to address it. Talk to your PT and work out a plan. Is cycling part of your goals or simply a method to achieve them?

Honestly, I want to get into the competative part of cycling. I have one of the biggest drives that anyone has ever seen! Any time I dedicate my time and skill to something I become very good at it. I broke my hips due to strong muscles and weak bones during a growth spurt. I'm nearly 20 so I am almost done growing.

When I first started biking 5 miles a day was unbearable. Now I can do 30 miles in a day and be fine the next day, as far as hip soreness goes.

Where's hip?

is it the iliopsoas? -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliopsoas

i would think standing would be better, since the angle of your upper leg would be more vertical. you wouldn't be using your muscle to move against gravity as much

Spinning is gonna be much less strees then standing and sprinting.

[QUOTE=kmac27;6413820]Honestly, I want to get into the competative part of cycling. I have one of the biggest drives that anyone has ever seen! Any time I dedicate my time and skill to something I become very good at it. I broke my hips due to strong muscles and weak bones during a growth spurt. I'm nearly 20 so I am almost done growing.

When I first started biking 5 miles a day was unbearable. Now I can do 30 miles in a day and be fine the next day, as far as hip soreness goes.[/QUOTE]

Incorrect -- you are almost done growing vertically, you have many years of horizontal growth ahead of you.