maverick31210

Deng! lol....that's power. Just doesn't look very good. Especially the middle.

Palomar01

I was born with massive legs because I'm just short and stocky. I'm same height as you but I'm just over 200 lbs. My legs are big and powerful and I can sprint like a Cheetah. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean I can keep up with guys with chicken legs either. I may be able to outsprint them but when we have the climb hills the lightweights just kill me.

My riding buddy is 6'5" and I weigh more than him!!!! He's built like the Schleck brothers though so I feel kind of bad for him. He always tells me he wish he had my legs. Well if he did he would be 6' not 6'5"! LOL! He also routinely outclimbs me every time.

So yeah, genetics help a lot!

zigmeister

Robert Forstemann

BrainInAJar

Ride track, trackies always have ridiculously disproportionate looking quads

robbie_vlad

Eat a LOT, practice sprints/hill repeats more often, hit the gym, eat MORE, and get tons of rest. Oh, and eat.

Carbon Unit

Track racing and sprinting will have more benefit for growing leg muscles. If you want bigger legs, you need to hit the gym. Then, your limiting factor will be your genetics. No doubt doing squats and leg press will prove the look of your upper legs and may make them bigger that there is no guarantee that they will get bigger without doing steroids.

I have lifted for many years. I build muscle easily in my upper body--chest, shoulder and arms but my legs have hardly grown at all.

guadzilla

All your guads are belong to us.

shadoman

I was just waiting for that. +1

Really, if you want big quads, spinning/high cadence will actually work against you.
Out of the saddle hill climbing in a big gear will help though.

DScott

But this only works if you happened to pick the right parents.

Because, maybe, people pick track when they have those abilities to start with?

rodieartist

+1

texx2step

You are fairly slender and will probably stay that way. Look at your parents. What do their legs look like? One suggestion, exercise the muscles that you want to build up every other day instead of every day.

sqharaway

Correction, keep cycling and hit the gym.

JayhawKen

There is a distinction between mass and vascularity. Most of the really strong cyclists I know are indeed very lean and quite vascular - but size of quads (or guads - thank you RyanF) is rarely an indication.

Besides, I would rather be able to ride the pack off my wheel than win the beach posing competition.

ILUVUK

I don't think my guads have gotten any bigger, but they sure as hell have gotten a lot more defined, which I actually prefer...same for my calf muscles. the shaving makes them look even better.

ilovecycling

It's funny how people always want what they don't have. I wish my legs weren't as bulky. I'm 5' 11" and 180 lbs, so I don't look stubby like the middle guy in that picture, but I do look like they guy on the left. I've always had thick legs..upper and lower leg.

I don't think it matters on the bike though. More mass = more energy to move the mass = less efficient for long hauls. I'm sure it's great for riding track though.

eippo1

I never got large quads after 20 years of biking, but my calves are to the size where they look out of proportion being almost as wide as my quads. I guess I ankle too much, but it really helps the smoothness of my pedal stroke.

HigherGround

If you were around in the ryanf era.

abstractform20

proper form negates the need for a belt. also, form over weight. too many people going for "more weight! less form!"

OldsCOOL

Just ride hills and intervals all the time. And consume mass quantities of steak and protein powder.

Terror_in_pink

zigmeister beat me to it. trackies have massive legs. Probably because they push big ass gears. If you really want big guads, why not lift weights?

OldsCOOL

That's what happened to me when I was a competing powerlifter....huge guads. But now with laying off the squats and leg presses I look like a well defined skeleton in comparison.

theVelvetLie

My legs are 27.5 inches in circumference. I used to be a lineman on my high school football team. All I ever did was squat. That's probably why I sucked.

Dannihilator

You sure about that?

I don't have long legs and I ride track and am fast on it. Also know a kid who was national champion in his age group back in 2009 and has short legs as well.

The trick is finding a gearing that will benefit your leg size, once you get stronger you can then go to a harder gearing.

Reynolds 

Not only trackies:

John_V 

There's currently an article on Bicycling Magazine's web site that addresses this. I was reading the exercises that you need to do to get large legs. Not really sure all of it is worth it.