Standing during a climb
 

"Whoosh whoosh woosh", or "whoooooooooooosssssssssshhhhhhhh...."?

By that I mean, do you still pull on the upstroke (pedal in circles) when you get out of the saddle on a hill? I pretty much just stomp if I'm out of the saddle, and I find that if I do try to pull on the upstroke I burn through my reserves in about 10 seconds. I go a lot faster though.

When seated, I pedal in circles on hill climbs.

Am I doing it wrong?

I don't pull. I just push. But that's just me.

I've had my cleat come out of the pedal a couple times on the upstroke when standing. It has made me a little worried lately about putting force on the upstroke when standing.

I pull. It helps get me up and over the hill.

How much energy are you really putting into pulling upwards, even seated? I don't know, but I bet it's pretty minimal.

correct.......our muscle structure is not built in such a way for us to make much power when pulling up. A little yes but not much. You are making power from around the 12oclock position to almost the 6 o'clock. Do as Lemond said and pedal like your scraping mud off the bottom of your shoe.......

so one could say you're really just lifting the leg, rather than pulling the crank, so that the other leg can focus on pushing the crank, and not lifting the other leg?

when standing on a climb your mostly using your body weight to crank over. only if im trying to jump a gap or i really need to ill stand. i get more power out of staying seated.

I pull when standing to give the muscles that have been pushing a break. It seems to work but it does speed me up even though I'm not necessarily trying to go faster so I end up using more energy. I think it's something that takes training to be able to sustain. Kind of like training to maintain high cadences.

I'm still new to all these techniques so I'm not sure if I'm doing it right because I have to usually change about 4 or 5 gears up in order to make it hard enough to effectively pull up instead of push down. If I'm in my 30/27 gear, it's to easy to try to pull up, I have to be in 30/17 or even switch to the big chain ring after shifting 3 gears up.

I've heard about changing one gear up to stand but changing one gear doesn't allow a slow enough cadence to use my pull-up muscles.. not sure..?

pretty much. As your left leg passes the 6 o'clock position it is basically being driven up and around by your right leg that is know it's power position........as your left leg passes over the top it is now in its power production phase and the right leg gets its free ride.
For the folks who do not believe this go out side and go for a ride but don't push down at all, just pull up on your pedals and see how fast you can go :)

^What if you're in such a high gear that you do feel yourself pulling up. Is it bad for your knee to pull up such a low gear on a climb? That's what I've been doing every now-and-then when I get up. I can feel I'm pulling up the gear, not just lifting weight off.

your cleats might be worn out

You are adding very little power to the rear wheel while your pulling up. I am not saying don't do it I am just saying that your not going to climb any faster by pulling vs not pulling up.

I think you mean you get more power when standing.
Why else would you stand to jump a gap?

You're less efficient when standing, that's for sure. But sometimes it's worth it in order to jump the gap.

I don't understand how it's less efficient. Isn't standing just another technique for climbing?

Is it?

Based on some computrainer sessions I can say that I pull up a little bit when sitting. I can't speak for standing because the computrainer doesn't allow me to rock the bike properly.

I pull up more when standing, for short periods, if I'm powering over a short hill (100-400 meters or so).

For longer hills (8 miles) I stand to stretch and such, and I don't exert much/any pulling up motion. A little, I think, but not much.

Not consciously but my foot is almost vertical at the top of the pedal stroke. I pull forward over the top of the stroke, starting at maybe 11 PM (if looking at the right side). I realized this (again) looking at a picture of me in a race this year. I checked while on the trainer. I do this standing as well (based on an old, old picture). It seems that many people do this, not just me because you'll see a lot of vertical feet at the top of the pedal stroke.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TbmplkIYLx...merock1986.jpg
Circa 1987?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_TbmplkIYLx...ynn-Tucker.jpg
2010. I lost.

http://gallery.me.com/coreylynntucke...12693714920001
2010. I lost.

cdr

*edit* that picture is huge. how do I shrink it?

Less energy efficient, i.e. you use more energy. But you can exert more energy too.

I suppose a really light person could stand for a long time. I used to be really light (110 lbs in the first pic above) and stood a lot on climbs.

We've been through this before, so worth it to search a bit.

Briefly: on long climbs, some people can stand for much longer than others, and those folks are obviously working in an aerobic range. They also practice in that position alot. <------ This is 'a clue'. ;)

If you tire after 10 seconds or so, you've obviously gone anaerobic. Fine for climbs of, say, 9.5 seconds or so.

I think to consciously make the effort to forcefully pull your legs up during standing is odd, and probably exhausting.

Oh, and I have to shift at least three gears up when going from sitting to standing. One or two isn't nearly enough.

But you're making the face, dude. Looking good!

What you described it not energy efficiency. You exert more energy standing but a considerable part of that goes to the pedals and to the road. However usually your close to your limit and therefore you will eventually just blow up or have to sit back down before you blow up. It would be hard to figure out energy efficiently compared to normal riding since often you switch to anaerobic when you stand up on a climb so even measuring O2 consumption or HR will not give you a really accurate result I would guess.

Things I've found out in the last 4 weeks or so:

dmalvarado, Even if sitting and riding one legged to practice pedaling circles, the upstroke is only really powering from 6 o'clock to 9-10 o'clock with very little power after that. There are a confusing number of ways to look at pulling up, but the "scraping mud off of your shoe" is the closest to how I pedal.

When standing there's just less of the pull stroke, perhaps just enough to help the leg that's about to go into it's downstroke.

Brad

I pull.

do you push or do you pull?