I ride to increase the size of my legs and I also do weghtlifting once a week for legs size.
I wonder how can I use the bike to meet my goal. How often to ride, the cadence, the gears, the intensity, and even the position on the seat and the pedals.

I ride two times a week with hills, high gears and sprinting and resting for about 30 minutes, that has shown some results, but I want to hear some advice on other issues and experiences.

Although biking can help somewhat with increasing leg size, it's much quicker/easier to do it through weight lifting. Do you ride your bike for any other reason other than increasing your leg size? Cardio benefits? Because it's fun? If not, I'd suggest focus more on weight training than biking.

Probably best to do both. Per Carmichael (sp?, Lance's coach), endurance training will make your slow twich muscles grow, resistance training will make the fast twich grow. Which will help more is probably dependant on which is more predominant in your physical makeup.

(edit) In actuality the resistance training will most likely do the most, endurance training will add to it.

I think it somewhat stands to reason that high cadence and low gear is cardio and low cadence in a higher gear is more muscle development.

For building mass weightlifting is the best option. It is a good idea to vary your training and what you are doing will definitely help. However everyone will respond differently and some people can build more mass faster so there is no way to tell you how much this will help. Just keep at it and enjoy!

Andy

A structured weights program is the only way to achieve muscle hypertrophy.


What are your goals in cycling? Or is your goal simply bigger thighs?

lift more often than once a week. eat more. maybe cycle a little less (temporarily).

https://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_index.html

To grow legs: squats (free, not in the machine), deadlifts, clean and press, calf lift (as a cyclist you ought to be able to push silly weight on this one). On the bike, push a heavy gear and do sprints and hill attacks. Ankle, so you're using your calves in the power stroke. And leave time for your legs to recover after both - rest and adequate dietary protein will be needed to grow.

While the most effective way to gain leg size is weight training, the body will add some muscle mass by cycling. If you ever observed avid Runners their upper bodies are normally very thin (very little muscle mass) but their legs have retained muscle mass or even gained size making a few look almost out of balance. Runners normally wear shorter shorts than cyclists so you can see the muscle mass more easily.

Rick

Errr.....I don't think so.

try opening your eyes

What's you point?

Just depends on who you look at. Long distance runners tend to be very skinny, even in the legs. Sprinters tend to be more muscler (sp?) even in the upper body

You've just posted a pic of someone who probably spends 10 hours a week in the gym. Good work.

What's the correlation you make between Maurice Green (who's event lasts 10 seconds) and endurance cycling?

One photo dosen't set it in stone. I help a freind thats has a race timing company and I'm around lots of runners. A fairly high percentage of runners have more muscular legs when compared with their upper bodies.

Rick

The orignal poster is asking about increasing his leg size. I agree that gym work is the best way to go to increase leg size and muscle mass. It seems that everyone who has posted agrees on the gym work part.

I am not making any correlation between Maurice Green and Endurance cycling. Just a different type of runner then the one you posted.

Same thing can be done with cyclist. Some cyclist are very skinny others are more muscled. Everyone is different.

Okay....let me help you.

All elite runners and cyclists are incredibly lean. This helps with muscle definition/vascularity and may make musculature more apparent or appear larger.

Sprinters on the track and velodrome combine a lot of weight training with their sport-specific training. This is why Maurice Green has massive thighs/chest etc and Florian Rousseau has freakish legs.

Endurance runners and cyclists at elite level do little or no resistance training. Hence the wasted upper body look and stick legs. Increased muscular cross-section is detrimental to performance in endurance sports.....I'm happy to explain why if you want.

Wow, I've sorta noticed a trend with your posts, what's with all the hate and general discontent and dickery towards others?

Hate? I don't think so.

Just facts.

"just the facts"

The fact is we really don't need to hear from you again.

How come? Have I been misleading or ill-informed?? Slanderous or hostile??

ed073 hasn't flamed anyone for no reason - he's just been calling people out when they say something stupid. So what if he's not warm and fuzzy - for the most part he's been right.

I'd rather have someone tell me the right thing in a direct if curt way than have someone cheerily spouting off asinine crap.

Daily dose of hills & plenty of healthy food.

I was wondering if you can post a picture of your legs? I mean do they look like you are riding a chicken? Do you just want huge tree trunks for thighs?
No ones legs are bigger than serious weight lifters, but can you imagine them trying to ride a bike?
Bike sprinters and ice skate sprinters, running sprinters all have big legs. Usually, the runners' upper bodies are also larger, specifically their shoulders, pecs are larger because there is a corolation to how fast they move their arms in relationship with their legs.
Big gears and hills will get your thighs bigger, but if you are riding too long, and just plain overtraining, and undereating (right foods of course), you will begin to burn your hard earned muscle.
Just my dimes worth.

10 to 15 reps to failure in each set has been shown to increase muscle size the most. Very few reps, less than 6, is for power lifters. Tons of reps just looks silly, get your but on a bike or cinder track.

Also endurance cyclists have stronger arms than endurance runners, I forget just how much stronger, there was a study on this.