One Legged Spinning

ArmyOfNone

ArmyOfNone

Well-Known Member
I did some one legged spinning today on the trainer. Going into it i thout it was going to be a pretty easy session. WRONG! it was pretty tough. Just like everyone says, never realized how many muscles you dont use. Especially in my hamstrings.

20 min warmup

5x Repeats
1 min- right leg
1 min- left leg
1 min- both legs

15 min cool down

I felt pretty worked. Seem good enough guys?
 
Personally I don't buy it, but a lot of coaches do. I guess if it keeps you in the saddle.
 
ArmyOfNone said:
I did some one legged spinning today on the trainer. Going into it i thout it was going to be a pretty easy session. WRONG! it was pretty tough. Just like everyone says, never realized how many muscles you dont use. Especially in my hamstrings.

20 min warmup

5x Repeats
1 min- right leg
1 min- left leg
1 min- both legs

15 min cool down

I felt pretty worked. Seem good enough guys?
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just so Im understanding this correctly, right,left,both, right,left,both,right,left,both,right,left,both,right,left,both, then cool down?
any specific speed/cadence?
 
ArmyOfNone said:
please do explain. id hate to be wasting my time. it was kinda fun tho!
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Well if you like it that's good.

With road riding for sure you waste your time trying to spin in circles. This has been shown with studies I don't have at hand. But we're concerned with off-road riding.

For me, the only time I really get into the "pedaling circles" thing is when I'm going up hills, and not long griding hills. When you ride you get all you really need for that, IMO. As a SS rider, your hills are often going to be standing, which throws the whole concept out the window since you don't exactly pull up when you stand.

To me this just falls into the realm of the iffy biking lore that's out there. At the end of the day you just need to ride early, ride often, and do your best to enjoy it.
 
I like your mindset of keep it fun, do it often.

Good point also, when grinding up a hill not so easy to make pretty circles. 😀

How you feeling btw?
 
ArmyOfNone said:
How you feeling btw?
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Definitely better, thanks. Trainer and road riding is fine. But I took the SS out on some local crap trails today and every log was a major jolt to my ribcage. Not ready for the bigtime yet for sure. I'm going to try and hit LM next week to see how that goes. I think there are 3 or 4 rocks there so it shouldn't be too bad. Some roots but I have a week to make more progress.
 
I just read about the one-leg thing in MBA today and thought I might give it a whirl.

I've been grinding up a hill before now and have switched from pushing down on the pedals to pulling up on them as I complete the full pedalling circle - it gives my quads a rest for a bit.

I hear about the circles-technique and am working on that but this light relief half-way up a climb really comes in handy. I'm sure the one-legged spinning will help that too...
 
the one-legged thing works for me, but i just throw it into the workout during the warm up, not dedicate a whole session to it.
 
As with most of this stuff, nothing is carved in stone, other than riding our bikes as much as possible and having fun.

My viewpoint is that pedaling dynamics are an important element of the serious cyclist's arsenal. Spinning smoothly means applying as little wasted motion as possible to the act of turning the pedals, which translates to maximizing the energy available for moving the bicycle forward. I think that a significant net effect of smooth pedaling is in cumulative energy conserved over the course of the ride, which may be pretty hard to quantify scientifically, though I can't testify to seeking out any data one way or the other.

One-legged drills, spin-ups, riding rollers, fixed gear riding- all of these will contribute to the development of muscle memory and more fluid pedaling, and are worthwhile activities, in my experience, particularly during base and early build periods.
 
Shaggz said:
chris - what are spin ups?
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Cadence drills.

Warm up for 10-20 minutes, then do some 1x1 intervals, 30 seconds on/off in a moderate gear. During the work interval, you should be spinning as fast as you can w/o bouncing or losing pedaling form. Adjust the gear accordingly to achieve this. These are not meant to tax you too much aerobically, though your heart rate will come up some, but to teach you to pedal. Concentrate on form and keeping a quiet upper body. The number of sets is a personal thing, but once form begins to deteriorate, it's time to do something else. 5 sets is 10 minutes all together, which is plenty for most.

These are really good done on the rollers, even better on a fixed on the rollers.

Combine with some longer, climbing-effort (AT) intervals and warm-up/cooldown, and you can do a productive hour on the trainer.

Have fun!
 
i got rid of the rollers, i used to be pretty good at it. i was on it one time for an hour and just lost my concentration and down i went. After that it was trainer time.

this guys is a bit nuts and has some pretty good balance too
 
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