11-08-20 10:04 AM - Post#904364    

Sometimes for variety or to give my back a rest from squatting I blast my quads by pedaling an exercise bike with the resistance set very high so it is very difficult to pedal and have to rest after 30-45 seconds and repeat for several sets. My quads are on fire after this but I am wondering if one can get a decent amount of hypertrophy from this? Also wondering which would be better for hypertrophy--pedaling on a bike with friction or magnetic resistance with the resistance set very high where the cadence is a slow grind or pedaling on a bike with fan resistance where the resistance increases the faster and more explosively you pedal?--both ways done in short intervals. I've been trying to decide on an exercise bike for the house and the Concept2 BikeErg has been highly recommended to me however it has the fan based resistance and I'm not sure it would be as effective for a leg workout as I described above--so your answers will help me decide--Thanks.

11-08-20 10:28 AM - Post#904366    

Pretty sure slow RPM's peddling at high resistance puts a lot of shearing force into knee joint which is not good. But if you can keep the RPM's up... I don't know what else they were doing but when I lived in Durango, CO which has bike race festival every summer, I used to see racers w/ legs so thick they walked "funny"!

11-08-20 10:48 AM - Post#904370    

Track racers and to lesser extent bike messengers have some bitching thighs. What they have in common is the fixed gear bike.

Without going into any detail, a fixed gear bike doesn't coast.

Mark it Zero.

11-08-20 10:54 AM - Post#904372    

I would use a bike for cardio and squats and lunges for quad strength and size.

Log

11-08-20 12:17 PM - Post#904374    

Concept2 do make some bombproof kit. My Erg is 15 years old and is in great condition.

Owen Brown, a Biomedical Scientist from Pontyclun, Wales.

Re: Leg hypertrophy from exercise bike
11-08-20 12:37 PM - Post#904375    

• Armand Said:

Hip belt squats: all legs, no back. Truly wonderful exercise.

"I think we often spend too much time focusing on max fitness and not nearly enough on maintaining our minimums. It seems we need to think sustainable rather than obtainable. Meaning whatever we do today, we can do it again tomorrow. Never taking so much from ourselves that we can't." Dan Martin

11-08-20 12:40 PM - Post#904376    

This is something I simply don't know. Sorry.

Daniel John Just handing down what I was handed down... Make a Difference. Live. Love. Laugh. Balance work, rest, play and pray (enjoy beauty and solitude) Sleep soundly. Drink Water. Eat veggies and protein. Walk. Wear your seat belt. Don’t smoke. Floss your teeth. Put weights overhead. Pick weights off the floor. Carry weights. Reread great books. Say thank you

11-08-20 01:46 PM - Post#904379    

I ordered an exercise bike when the current UK lockdown looked imminent, and it's arriving tomorrow morning. I was having trouble doing more than 4-5 runs per week before something would start to ache. I'm looking forward to putting some meat on the legs again, as well as on that heart muscle.

11-08-20 03:06 PM - Post#904380    

My quads were pretty developed back when I use to ride a single speed mountain bike up hills. Geoffrey is right that you have to watch the knee shear, however that seemed less of an issue when you stood up on the pedals as opposed to staying seated. This type of riding would be more akin to a slow grind.

John Mc

John McDonough Rolling, Bouncing, Crashing And Occassionally Getting Into The Flow On The Singletrack Of Life http://www.iamcurious.net

11-08-20 09:07 PM - Post#904384    

• GeoffreyLevens Said:

Is the shearing force on the knees from slow rpm peddling at high resistance any different from the shearing force on the knees from heavy squats, lunges, leg presses,etc.?--Thanks.

11-08-20 11:54 PM - Post#904385    

• DanMartin Said:

as a former messenger who rode fixed, yes, I had humongous quads. I eventually switched to single speed because it was bothering my knees after a few years. But the general idea was the same; it got harder when there was an incline, it was only super easy going down hill. I did no other lower body exercise at the time. bikes do not develop the quads evenly at all, though. Make sure to foam roll regularly and do your mobility.

in terms of the original post, yes, you can get quad development. I wouldn't recommend putting resistance on super high all the time. I suspect its the same as anything else: time under tension. So "spin class" or steady state low gear ain't gonna cut it, but you also don't want it to be so hard that you can't sustain it for a long time. Is this the best way to develop (part) of the quads? Probably not. Can you? yes.

11-09-20 07:44 AM - Post#904387    

Like anything, it all depends on the parents you picked. I still have my T-Rex physique from my bike racing days 25 years ago. Big legs and tiny arms. Now I've found bodyweight squats or goblet squats for the movement is all I need to keep my legs in shape.

But on the flip side, I had a teammate that got picked up by a European pro team and raced in the big Spanish three week stage race La Vuelta de Espana. He came back to the states with his legs so skinny he had to safety pin his lycra shorts to keep them from flapping around.

11-09-20 09:47 AM - Post#904393    

• John Mc Said:

Standing up you gain fore and aft mobility of the hips, the upper attachment of the load, so you can shift without even thinking about it to less shearing force to knees and more direct drive vertical drive to the pedals

• Armand Said:

I think so, yes. Squats etc you will shift your weight automatically to as advantageous a position as possible by moving torso forward and backward over feet. Sitting (not standing) on a bike, both torso and feet are locked in position and part of the cycle tends to put your knees into a shear force position in relation to the weight. As Armand mentioned, standing on the peddles alleviates this.

11-09-20 08:12 PM - Post#904409    

My Dad or Father In Law (just as good as a Dad) is 85, has played Aussie rules football from the age of 15 to 45 plus other sports and most of his life delivering mail on a push bike in the country, in that time they won 6 GF’s for the last 20 years he’s had the same exercise bike with the pressure wheel every day he’s spent on it so - long term- just the other day he described how he does it.

Minimum resistance counts 100 revolutions then turns the dial to “ 1 o’clock, 100 revolutions of the pedal then turns the dial to 2 o’clock and continues this process to maximum resistance but buy the end it’s 50 revolutions and then reverses the process.
No this is extremely strenuous work and the benefit he receives is obviously very productive.

My feeling is that this is an activity he does to tell him “everything is ok”.

I love him to bits, the greatest bloke I’ve ever known.

In terms of best method of muscle growth I think that any! For of activity will produce very quick growth is a very short space of time.

And it will always be the last 120 or so seconds of and activity where the work is maximum where this happens.

So having said all that it looks to me as though the dial method might provide a more controlled method of exercise which would suit .

Nice legs-shame about the face

11-10-20 03:43 PM - Post#904441    

I'm on day 2 playing with my new exercise bike. Flywheel and a screw knob that applies a brake, no obvious way to set a repeatable intensity, so I was trying to figure out a repeatable session. Please thank your father-in-law from me, that sounds just right.

11-10-20 06:01 PM - Post#904443    

I’ll pass that on thanks.

Nice legs-shame about the face