Pedaling Technique Myth Busting - The Practice (Part II)

Hi 👋, happy Sunday! A big welcome to all the new faces who joined us recently! I am excited to have you & hope you are taking the time to dive in and go through the growing archives.

Before we jump right in, did you know that you can listen to this post instead of reading it? I am more of a reader myself, but I know some people prefer listening. If that is you, download the Substack app so you can listen to this post!

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Bike of the week #4 - Ribble

AS LOUD AS IT GETS 🔥

If you are new here, the bike of the week feature is to showcase some of the awesome bikes I have the privilege of fitting.

I have known the owner of this bike for many years and have been fitting a lot of his riding friends and teammates, but it wasn’t until a few weeks ago when this he finally dropped by for a fitting session. If you are a Vancouver local you have definitely seen this one (and it’s twin with the orange handlebar and fork) around town and you might know who it belongs to. You seriously can’t miss it, and I think it’s awesome. You can see more photos and details by clicking the button.

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Pedaling Technique Myth Busting. The Practice (Part II)

Last article, I highlighted the science we currently have about pedaling technique, mostly around pulling up, foot position, up hill riding and a few other relevant considerations. This week, it is time to get take the science and put it into practice!

If you skimmed through the science part, that’s OK, you can always refer back to the article if needed, and if you joined us here since (welcome!) and you want the science as a primer before diving into this article, you can do so by clicking below.

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As a side note - I am behind right now. I am behind on a few articles I had planned and, well, basically everything else too… If you follow me on Instagram and Strava, you have probably seen my posts over the last 5+ weeks sharing some details on a current injury I am dealing with. It didn’t happen as a result of a bike crash, an accident, an overuse injury or anything that you might expect. Initially we thought that while correlation is not causation, it happened after seeing an RMT who both overworked my hip / leg and then did a manipulation (out of scope) that ended up sending me to the ER. After tests and an EMG, we now know for sure that it was caused by the treatment. Its a long story that I will share at another time, but I had no reflex response on my right knee (the knee jerk test) and there was numbness on the medial side of my right knee, along side a substantial amount of pain on my right quad and glute. I was pretty immobile for close to 4 weeks, but I have seen improvements over the last 10 days and I can walk with very little limping, but even after 5+ weeks, I am still not doing great on several levels. So… I am behind, but now that the pain is more manageable (I can finally sleep and focus), I am playing a fierce game of catch up (it’s not a fun game).

Alright, back to the topic at hand.

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I got my first road bike when I was 11 or 12 years old and 30+ years later, I still hear people dish out the same advice that I was given way back then, in the early 90’s. Most of that advice is centered around pulling on the pedals and/or dropping the heels pretending to ‘scrape mud off the bottom of the shoe’.

Fast forward to 2003 - First year undergrad, an assignment for one of my classes (can’t remember which one). We were to take a movement pattern of our choice and break down the muscle groups used during the full movement. I chose cycling (surprise, surprise). I was quite happy with my work, but when I got my assignment back, my professor’s feedback was something along the lines of ‘good work but what about the opposite leg? The cranks are connected’.

Riiiiiight. Oops. That stuck with me. Obviously, since both legs are used for cycling and the cranks are coupled (connected), coordinated muscle recruitment between the muscles of the left and right legs play an important role in cycling efficiency.

Is there a perfect pedal stroke?

In theory, yeah sure. Maybe there is the perfect pedal stroke (Right next to that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow). The reality is that muscle power to the pedal is produced by humans, all different, so they tend to achieve the same tasks slightly differently, depending on a a fairly wide variety of factors like imbalances, strengths, weaknesses and more. It can also be circumstantial, therefore dynamic depending on the particular task at hand.

I shared a story about pedaling in circles in part one… That was a result of outdated thinking and we now it is (almost) biomechanically impossible and highly ineffective. At the end of the day, there is no prize for the ‘best looking pedal stroke’ (unless you happen to have the best looking pedal stroke AND you also happen to win races. In that case, yay you 🥳). It’s all about what produces power and speed in the most effective way, with a goal of maintaining momentum by making sure power production is not wasted and it all goes into propelling you forward without wasting energy (and watts).

You can stop reading here if that’s a good enough answer for you, but unless you are new here, you definitely know I am about to get into a whole lot more detail.

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The Basics

There are quite a few factors affecting muscle recruitment during the pedal stroke, depending on how you are positioned on the bike, riding discipline (ie. TT vs road), the intensity, etc. That said, I want to stay on task here so I won’t get into it in too much detail. I just want to mention that your main power generators are the quads and the glutes, while the hamstrings and hip flexors are generally for stability. Realistically, trying to engage the hip flexor more (for example) is a wasted effort, as it is a stabilizing muscle not meant to generate a lot of force, not to mention that it is typically tight and/or weak on most of us who pay to play.

The general idea of the pedal stroke is pushing forward when the crank is up, at approximately parallel to the downtube, pushing down when its at 3 o’clock, pulling back at 6 o’clock, pulling up, then repeat again and again and again. This is all nice and well in theory… But in the real world? Not so much. We established in part I that it is indeed possible to become more mechanically efficient over time with proper training, but also that it is a very small improvement and that it does come at the expense of gross efficiency. So… you’ll actually fatigue faster which will negatively affect your performance. Hardly a great idea for an endurance activity, if you ask me.

I think the first part is somewhat appropriate, with a few corrections that I found to be more effective. I think the force generation should start a bit higher, closer to 12 o’clock - I like to cue that as over, forward, down. Use those glutes, people! And if you need help in that department, that is done with strength training (off the bike). Also, something to keep in mind, your saddle fore-aft position matters for this.

For the back side, the heel will change its position (the toes should not be down at this point), but realistically, you do not need to excessively drop it (see ankling section) or pull up, (see coupled crank section) because all you need to do is make sure your heel is stable in the shoe and is pushed towards the back of it (shoe fit is key) - that is why the movement is an over → forward → down → back and repeat.

Re-thinking ‘Ankling’

Lets just say I am not a fan. If the term is new to you, this is referring to lowering the heel at the bottom of the pedal stroke and then lifting the heel as the pedal starts its upwards movement. It is also explained as pretending to ‘scrape mud off the bottom of the shoe’ at the bottom of the pedal stroke. In theory, it is suggested that ankling allows for constant force production through the whole pedal stroke, eliminating dead spots and engaging additional muscle groups, like more calf muscle recruitment. In reality, when you drop the heel you are more likely to create a dead spot, loosing momentum. It is also more likely to lead to less stability through the foot, negatively affecting power transfer, as well as over engaging muscles that are not supposed to be big force generators (I have seen cases where this leads to muscle camps, for example), potentially leading to injuries. Either way, it won’t make you faster.

Your foot and ankle will indeed move throughout the pedal stroke, and that is a good thing. But I have seen far too many cases where that movement is excessive, so I have that working with people to make is a more natural movement pattern instead of a forced one a step in the right direction (barring any injuries or limitations that need to be addressed off the bike)

I want to highlight that some athletes will use different pedaling motion like heel up of heel down for a variety of reasons. Heel up can be a result of a bike fitting issue (saddle height that is too high, fore-aft position, cleat position) or a result of ankle range of motion limitation or other issues around the foot. Heel down is more often a result of not so great habits, but can also be a result of saddle height (too low) and cleat position.

It is important to first understand why the riders has developed those riding mechanics and go from there, especially if the mechanics are different left from right. This is where a good bike fitter comes handy… Remind me to one day share a little case study of a rider who came to me with very bad Achilles issues on one side as a result of excessively dropping his heel on that side only after someone else unnecessarily added a 6mm+ lift under the cleat on that side… Sadly, that was a mess that took a bit of time to resolve. Ugh.

It depends (on the task)

Your pedaling mechanics will change depending on the task at hand, including low cadence, very high cadence, riding out of the saddle, etc.

Cadence can be personal, depending on fitness and skill level, but try to pedal between 85 and 105 rpms (not including specific training sessions where the goal is to ride at various cadences, very low or very high for example). Much lower or much higher than that will lead to excessive foot / ankle movement and negatively affect power and stability from the foot, and up the kinetic chain.

Sprinting for 10-30 seconds for example means different pedaling mechanics (and more of a pull up on the pedals), and so does riding up a very steep hills (short duration, max power). Trust me, when you are sprinting, you have bigger technique things to focus on anyways!

The higher the cadence, the less ankle movement you’ll probably have. In sprinting, or when sitting a bit more forward on the saddle pushing bigger watts at a high cadence, you’ll likely yo have a higher heel, mostly because of how your body is positioned over the bike. You can control how and how much the foot moves by changing fit related things like cleat positioning and with feedback on how to apply force through the foot.

Your cranks are coupled

Pro cyclists make the most of the push down on the pedals (lets call this a positive force). Because the cranks are coupled, and every action has the opposite reaction, when one leg generates a positive force, there is negative force on the other leg. The larger the positive force is in one direction, the smaller the negative force is on the opposite direction. If the cranks are coupled, why would you bother pulling up when you are pushing down with the bigger movers?

Whenever I hear people suggesting endless one leg pedaling drills to isolate your leg movement while riding, I instantly get flashbacks to those de-coupled power cranks from way back in the day 😵‍💫. Boy, am I glad they haven’t made a comeback! The theory was that because the cranks were not connected leading to using each leg independently, it would allow the rider to develop a better, more balanced pedal stroke and I personally know people who thought that was effective. Of course, as soon as the rider went back to their regular cranks, it didn't seem like there was any adaptation at all (probably because it is an ineffective and inefficient way to pedal a bike).

You are basically going against normal biomechanics and that can lead to more problems than positive outcomes. In reality, you will likely overuse stabilizing muscles (ie. hip flexors) and increase the ankle movement, which we already established to be a not so great thing. And before you go there, if you have a large difference between the left and right legs, you are better off addressing it off the bike with physiotherapy and a proper strength training program (and with your bike fitter).

Elliptical chainrings get an honorable mention. It’s a bit of a bigger topic and this post is getting long enough. I will just say that I have seen them work very well for some riders, and very poorly for other riders. One size does not fit all and if you are curious about them, talk to a bike fitter you now and trust before installing them on your bike.

Practical Tips

• Don’t overthink it, but do focus on the connection from your foot to the pedals, especially through the 1st metatarsal, as well as delivering power to the pedals, so there is both stability and fluidity

• Make sure your fit is solid so you are able to produce power effectively, while minimizing excessive movement and preventing issues

• Work on becoming a better overall rider, working on stability and control riding at various cadences and intensities. Some might add some sessions on the rollers, others love the track, and there is always technical off road riding on bumpy terrain, etc which is my personal favorite. It makes sense that solid off road riders produce a more balanced power delivery because there is a need to maintain traction over rough terrain. Different types of cycling are not only fun, they could also help you become a better cyclists by being a more well rounded one.

• Remember that efficiency is the name of the game in most cases. Don’t make things harder for yourself when you don’t need to!

• Force generation should start a bit higher, closer to 12 o’clock - I like to cue that as over, forward, down. Same left and right.

• Also, please don’t pull up on the pedals. Just… Don’t.

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Bike fitting and pedaling technique

What do I pay attention to when it comes to pedaling technique during a bike fitting session? There is more info that expands on what was discussed above, specifically from my perspective as bike fitter (The section is for paid subscribers, but you get one freebie on me, or there is a 7 day trial. Thanks for being here 🙏)