Equinox

I'm a new roadie and i admit I am improvising my cycling technique. Occaionally when I am riding up a hill, I stand almost fully erect, I lean forward with my center of gravity over the stem elbows locked to support my upper body. In this posture I feel like I am recruiting my quadriceps and pulling myself up the hill. I feel my chest open up by standing up straight and I feel a lot more air getting into my lungs. I don't think you can maintain this posture for an extended climb, but it is a refreshing change of pace. I often feel invigorated after "attacking a climb" like this. Comments or criticisms from experienced riders?

cydewaze

Elbows locked? Yikes...

GuitarWizard

Keep relaxed, hands on hoods and gently rock the bike back and forth in rythym with your pedalstrokes while standing. Standing is not nearly as efficient as climbing seated, so typically I/most people will climb most everything seated, unless it's a short, steep roller. On longer climbs, I will occasionally stand to break up the monotony and recruit different muscle groups.

Attacking climbs are fun, but then I realize there's another climb right afterwards, and then I get to work on recovery techniques.

cydewaze

I rock the bike 45 degrees each way when I climb, and I stick my knees out like I'm riding horseback. I stick my elbows out too, and I bounce up and down as violently as possible.




(not really)

toshi

I alternate between standing and sitting, depending on grade and duration of the climb. When out of the saddle I have my hands on the hoods (sometimes in drops depending on headwind) and toss the headseat lightly from side to side, coordinated with each pedalstroke. I think this helps to get the most out of each downward stroke, but it's mostly mental and gets my rhythm going.

One thing that I find helps a great deal is to really exaggerate the feeling of pulling up on the pedal. I just think to myself, "up, up, up, up." The downstroke takes care of itself when you're climbing.

dstrong 

I was surprised a couple months ago when I was following a guy up a hill. He stood and immediately slowed by a couple MPH. It could have been that he was building base miles and getting his "standing" muscles in shape but it reinforced to me that standing <> speed.

VosBike

Standing on a climb is a good way to switch things up and use some alternate muscles. Locking your arms (anytime) is a good way to crash and fatigue yourself.

dstrong, it is quite typical for people to slow when they stand for a climb. In fact, it is considered proper ettique to warn teamates behind you if you're going to stand for a climb.

If you're following someone's wheel and they stand to climb they will appear to shoot backwards a couple of feet. When you stand up you lose speed temporarily because you're not pedaling for the second or so it takes to stand up.

'nother

Yeah, generally, climbing while seated is the most efficient. Coming out of the saddle to power over a small rise, or to rest your lower back/man-parts/etc. on a long climb is fine and necessary in some cases - but you generally don't want to make a habit of climbing while standing.

The feeling of getting more air when you stand is probably a kind of placebo effect: it feels a little better for a short while because you've changed your posture, taken some stress off of some muscles and offloaded it to others. But you'd soon tire of that if you did it for a long time. You can get the same effect while seated by switching your grip to the bar tops and sitting up as straight as possible.

rcapilli

Another thing that I have found that helps on really steep climbs is the 6 method.. Okay, MY 4 method. When your body is about to break and your standing up, each down stroke is a count. So when you hammer down with your left it is 1, then hammer down with your right is 2 then back with your left, 3. etc.. When you hit 6 then rest 1 or 2 seconds and do it again. Most here may scream at me but what it does is creates a since of security of "I can do this, I can make it". At the same time your breathing will slow a little and you will start to gain a bit more life. Then you can sit back down and find that you have a bit more power.... Another thing you can do is take your water bottle and squirt a little water on your legs.... Yup, The water is colder than your legs and it will tighten up your muscles for about 20 seconds to where you can get a bit more power out of them. If you are on a straight or just starting to go downhill you can use some water on your legs and the wind will actually cool your legs, so when you get back to peddling again, you will find a bit more life in your legs. I know that this may sound funny but it really does work and I have told people I have rode wit before about this and they were a bit suprised.

Equinox

I've noticed that. I did a small hill seated upright with just my fingertips touching the handlebars. I felt I opened up my chest and recruited different muscles. The bad thing was that it didn't give my tender parts a break.

VosBike

These days the only reason i really get out the saddle on training rides is to make sure the man-parts are getting adequate blood flow. For any other reason it is just too inefficient. But for a stretch and a break nothing beats standing and hammering a bit.

merlinextraligh

Sounds like a recipe for falling (in a rather painful way). Locked elbows = tension = energy loss= less control.

Also when you do climb out of the saddle you want your center of gravity over the pedals, so that your body weight is helping to push down on the pedals.

Jet-man

Question: Have you ridden by yourself on every ride involving a hill that you've been on?

Here's an idea - look through any of the cycling racing websites and look at some pics of what techniques the pros use. Idea #2, go on a ride w/ someone who's not clueless and see what they do.

Equinox

I like watching the pros on OLN and I don't think I've seen any of them use this exact technique, but some come close. Truthfully, none of my club riders do it. But I have to admit that the really good climbers in my club seem to be out of the saddle a lot-more than I would expect. I don't use the technique I described for extended periods. It is just for times when I want to switch from pushing with my hams to pulling with my quads. Does this make sense?

toshi

Getting out of the saddle can give you a power and mental boost. Here's one of the better climbers the tour has ever seen (pantani) overtaking Ullrich.

Different for everyone though. Pantani rode heavy ascents in the drops lots of the time, while out of the saddle.

webist

That's a great picture. I tend to stand as little as possible. I like the marked pull upward on the pedal while standing as an earlier poster suggested. Most of my out of saddle time is to reset muscles and releive pressure. I try as much as possible to do most of my work while seated.

Mo'Phat

The main reason (I believe) to stand for climbing is because of mechanical advantage. Standing allows you to use your body weight and more-forward center of gravity to literally 'fall up the hill'. The sacrifice is cadence. You simply cannot pedal as fast. Many riders will downshift a gear or two just before standing because they know their cadence will drop about 20 rpms. They'll grind away for a bit, resting glutes and hammies, taking advantage of their body weight and gravity, then upshift as they sit down.

There's a parallel to this technique for runners as well. Some endurance runners will sprint at times just to bring other muscle groups into play and allow the slow-twitch muscle fibers time to reload.

I did a hill yesterday (not bad: 5% for 4 miles), and did a form of interval training where I sat for 50 pedal strokes and stood for 50. It was amazing how fast the hill was climbed and how good I felt after.

FormerBMX'er

I'm just about to complete my first year of cycling and I've noticed that as my fitness improved, I climb from the saddle more. I use come out the saddle for every climb, rocking the bike back and forth but now I just sit and spin. On occasion I'll pop up to polish off a climb or to close a gap. I must say that I can feel more lactic acid in my thighs after stand-up climb.