One of the most persistent myths in the mountain biking world surrounds the pedal stroke and goes something like this: " Without being attached to the pedals you can not use your hamstrings properly, which forces you to rely too much on the quads to power the pedal stroke. By not being able to curl the knee joint during the upstroke of the pedal stroke you create muscular imbalances and tire out the quads faster." That is what most of us have been told. However, this understanding of which muscles are used and how they are used during a pedal stroke is completely wrong and potentially dangerous over the long run.
When I ask why someone thinks that the muscles are used that way during the pedal stroke, I am invariably led to some variation of this picture/ chart:
According to this theoretical model of muscles used during the pedal stroke, the hamstrings are used maximally from 8 o'clock to 10 o'clock position, while the glutes and quads are responsible for the downstroke part of the pedal stroke. This paints a completely false picture of the situation and leads a lot riders to assume that the hamstrings are only there to flex the knee joint on the upstroke, which would be impossible to do if you weren't attached to the pedals. This, of course, would mean that it would be impossible to optimally pedal without clipless pedals, which is where the faulty logic that tells riders that it is impossible to pedal optimally without them stems from.
The problem with this whole notion is that this chart is completely theoretical and based on how the muscles work in isolation from each other. Unfortunately, the reality of how the muscles work together to create the actual pedal stroke movement is much different than the what this chart tells us. The model this chart is based on also assumes that all muscles that cross a joint are there primarily to flex that joint, as if the muscles on the front side mirror the actions of the muscles on the backside.
The human body is not set up so that the muscles are mirror images of each other - the hamstrings are not the "backside" quads. The hamstrings are made to powerfully extend the hips while less powerfully flexing the knee, the quads are made to powerfully extend the knee while less powerfully flexing the hip. Together they both work with and counteract each other to produce lower body locomotion. Train the hamstrings to flex the hips and stabilize the knee and the quads to flex the knee and help stabilize the hip joint - that is how those muscles function in real life and how we should train them, not based on the old model of training each muscle that crosses a joint to powerfully flex it.
In fact, trying to have a rider curl their hamstring to produce force on the upstroke is unnatural and asks the knee to produce force in an unstable position. Your hamstrings are not made to produce power by curling at the knee and instead are made to produce power at the hips while helping to stabilize the knee joint. The idea that you need to curl your leg through the bottom and upstroke portion of a pedal stroke is simply wrong and based on old and faulty logic - you want to flex the hip to push the leg through the bottom of the pedal stroke, not flex the knee.
Just like when running you don't want to produce power by flexing the knee, you simply use knee flexion to get the leg back into position for the next "push". The human body is made to push, not to pull, and trying to apply pulling (curling the knee is a pull) to lower body locomotion isn't the most effective thing to do.
You want to produce your power at the hips, not the knee joint. The reason that a lot of riders have the knee issues is because the knee joint lacks stability, not strength. On a side note this is why I am an advocate for standing up more to pedal because it forces the knee and hips joints to act and stabilize more naturally than seated pedaling does.
As an interesting side note, I came across this chart of a pedal stroke while researching this article. It looks like it was based on actual EMG readings, not a theoretical model.
As you can see the Biceps Femoris (fancy talk to hamstring) is most active on the downstroke and least active on the upstroke. In fact, where the first chart shows the hamstring to be most active is actually the place it is least active according to the EMG in the second picture. In other words, the first chart is flat out wrong and in no way represents what is actually happening during a pedal stroke.
Take another look at the second picture and you'll see how the downstroke finds all of the muscle groups lighting up and the upstroke sees very little activity by comparison. This also underscores the findings in the
Mornieux and Korff studies, which was that a powerful downstroke with the lead leg and a more passive return of the trail leg was the most powerful and efficient way to pedal. You shouldn't be worrying about trying to create power on the upstroke, which means that you can create the most powerful and efficient pedal stroke without being attached to your pedals.
What does this mean for you? 1 -
You can (and should) be able to pedal your bike very effectively with flat pedals. This myth is one of the most common ones I hear from riders as to why they don’t want to try flat pedals when in fact, flat pedals will actually clean up and improve your pedal stroke. I have written extensively about this on my site and before you assume that I hate clipless pedals, I suggest you read the article
Just Because I am Pro-Flats, Doesn't Mean I am Anti-Clipless.2 -
You should train your legs to produce a powerful downstroke using the hips as the primary power source, not the knee joint. This means that leg curls and leg extensions are bad exercise choices since they reinforce this "knee powered" pedal stroke. Exercises like
single leg deadlifts and
single leg squats are much more effective since they train the legs to drive from the hips, not the knees.
3 -
When riding don’t worry about "spinning circles" or "keeping equal pressure on the pedals" or whatever else someone has told you that essentially means you need to curl the hamstring through the return portion of the pedal stroke. While a good, efficient pedal stroke may feel like you are spinning circles the reality of what your muscles are doing to produce that feeling are much different. Your body has one way to optimally produce lower body locomotion and you simply want to apply it to the pedal stroke.
The idea that you can not optimally use your hamstrings during a pedal stroke without clipless pedals is based on faulty logic and theoretical models. Now that we have a more accurate insight into what is actually happening we see that models like the first picture/ chart need to stop being used as a way to think about pedaling our bikes. The hamstrings are one of the more important muscles used during the pedal stroke, but it is how they work in concert with the other muscles of the lower body on the downstroke - not by themselves on the upstroke - that form the reality of pedaling your bike.
About James Wilson's MTB Strength Training Systems is a leader in integrated performance training programs for the unique demands of mountain biking. As the strength and conditioning coach for World Cup teams and 3 National Champions, his programs have been proven at the highest levels. James has helped thousands of riders just like you improve their speed, endurance and skills on the trail. Visit
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the great thing about the body is that its design, although fixed, applies the same principles effectively across an array of situations. pedalling is pedalling, the action and muscles involved for the best outcome are the same regardless of what the ground is doing. are you able to re-wire your tendons on the fly? cause thats what you're say. and why would you need to pull on pedals to turn the rear wheel just because the things get tricky? I can understand pulling on the pedals to manoeuvre the bike around but thats just like bunny hopping with clippless ped's cause you couldn't get pixie dust for your shoes like everyone who can hop on flats. Clippless have their place, I dont disagree but twisting the truth with ignorance...
thanks for the article James
The biceps femoris is only half of your hamstring muscles, and attach laterally to the fibula which reinforces your LCL (opposite your MCL). The semimembranosus (which is for some reason omitted in the graph) and semitendinosis attach medially on the tibia. You do NOT want to overdevelop ONE portion of your hammy as it will create a torsional force that will stretch your ligaments and lead to early degeneration.
I find it interesting that the graph shows that the biceps femoris and semitendinosis were NOT working together to stabilize the knee.
" Train the hamstrings to flex the hips and stabilize the knee and the quads to flex the knee and help stabilize the hip joint - that is how those muscles function in real life and how we should train them, not based on the old model of training each muscle that crosses a joint to powerfully flex it."
, which is absolutely wrong from a kinesiological stand point. Hamstrings are hip extensor, they can't flex the hip joint! Quadricep extends the knee, so these muscles can't possibly flex it. Looks, that at the end the author was confused on the topic and proper muscle actions and terms describing body movement.
Needs more information, less conclusions.
And the in-depth nature of how we "brace" with certain muscles in an isometric fashion to stabilize the joints, while concurrently moving them precisely concentrically/eccentrically. I like where he's going with it, analyzing EMG's with biking, but a real study is needed.
completely agree
I only use clipless (shimano 520 SPD) on my road bike for commuting
for serious riding on my mountain bikes its Nukeproof flat pedals and 5-10 Sam Hill flat shoes with the sticky rubber soles
never had any issues with "power", I ride very quick whether its climbing, zinging along singletracks or fast descending...tried clipless for about 4 months last season and hated the way it changed my pedalling stroke and my approach to aggressive, technical ride (either going up, along or down!)
with the flats I feel much more connected to my bike (more body 'english'), have a better pedal stroke off road and can attach technical sections with real convinction
and yes, I used and raced clipless pedals in XC at National Level for 5+ years before anyone accuses me of being 'anti clipless'...bearing in mind I still use them daily on my road commuting bike, where its lots of track stands at traffic lights and short sprints between sets of traffic lights where the pedal stroke is probably terrible but its all about moving quickly
With the road setup I kinda like using hamstrings for "power starts", when you want to get back to cruise speed asap (stops signs, red lights). Even though I have relatively strong hamstrings (315lbs deadlift at 145lbs bodyweight), I find that using the hamstrings for every pedal strikes tires your legs way too fast. I don't do it anymore once cruising speed is reached as it's quite devastating on energy consumption for a longer ride.
Bought a XC bike this year and set it up with clipless to give it a shot. It's true that you get a short boost by using hamstrings going uphill, but I find it greatly overshadowed by hurting you more often and destroying your bike a lot faster when you run out of speed in steep sections or get stuck on an obstacle if you can't unclip in time. I put my DH flats pedals on my XC bike and I'll try it this week. Akrigg seems to ride the nastiest stuff using flats, so I don't think you really need clipless to power through obstacles.
On the DH bike though, the very rough/steep stuff tends to knock my feet of the pedals (DMR V12 + 5-10s, the grip is insane). I don't fall often and like 75% of the falls I get are due to feet getting knocked out of the pedals, so I'm gonna try DH clipless this week also.
Gave a chance to clipless in DH too. The little performance gain and having your feet glued to the pedal really doesn't overshadow the fact that crashing at high speed while clipped is just not fun.
I'm not an anti clipless fanatic and I plan on revisiting them later on as my trail riding skills increase but right now flats are just a lot more fun.
After all, most of us are weekend warriors and performance means absolutely nothing... it's all about fun.
the thing I really dig about running flat pedals on my MTB is the ability to really push the performance of my tires, especially in loose, flat corners
to the point where I lose grip from extreme cornering angles / speeds and have to "dab" my foot to stop a crash
there is no way that a clipless system can allow me to dab in the same minimal time-frame it takes to pull my foot off my flat pedal, stomp my foot on the dirt and adjust the bike trajectory to stop a crash
on my road bike I have had situations where I take a corner in the wet to turn onto a cobbled stone street, the front tire loses grip and I start to slide, and end up stubbing my toe because its taken me too long to unclip my SPD setup before I can "dab" compared to the MTB with the flat pedals where there is no unclip but just a sideways movement from pedal to the dirt..
Also, when you're clipped and you had to dab in steep and technical rock climb, it's often quite a mess to clip back in and resume the climb. That's a non-issue with platforms. Just bought a pair of Straitline AMPs for my xc bike, can't wait to try them.
I gave up after a couple of rides and went back to flats. About a year later I tried again. This time I made myself ride in them through the winter. Again it felt unatural and sketchy at first. I just couldn't get over the fact that I was attached to the bike and was very tentative on the downhills. After a couple of crashes I realized that my feet come unclipped on their own. So that alleviated some of my "being clipped in while crashing" fear.
It took about 4 months of riding clip less before I finally became 100% confident riding in them. I have now been riding clip less for almost a year and must say that I prefer it now. Tried going flats again a couple of weeks ago and couldn't deal with it. Felt like I couldn't get my feet positioned right so I was constantly adjusting them. Noticed my feet bouncing around and coming off my pedals in the rough.
I used to to talk sh!t about clip less and now I am all about them. I think some people that try to switch to clipless don't give themselves enough time to get used to them and the fear of not being able to come unclipped scares them.
From my personal experince I would have to disagree with James. I feel that I have more power and more control of the bike clipped in.
I went back to clipless for awhile after giving up flats, but I read a lot on riding technique and tried to apply flat pedal techniques and other good overall riding techniques while riding clipless. Then I went back to flats and within about 2 rides I could keep my feet in place much better. Eventually you also just stop caring about small differences in your foot placement and you just ride it out. The better and more comfortable on flats you get, the less your feet come off and when they do you naturally put your foot right back into a good position. Flats take more work so I can see why the average rider doesn't want to take the time when they can just slap on clipless and only have to get over the clipping out fear and they're good to go forever.
I agree that people only think that the hamstrings cause knee flexion and the mis-conception of being quad dominant using flats, the downstroke will always out power the upstroke but I think that muscular recruitment would differ if you are just spinning or grinding the pedals. I've found that good grippy flat shoes, a decent set of flat pedals and my saddle at the right height is just as good as riding clips for me but that's my preference for my riding style. At the end of the day 99% of competitive road riders and triathletes ride clipped in for a reason, I personally think it depends on what/how you ride....
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3396551
James is featured on pages 202-203 of Lee's book.
Firstly, that paper I linked too was the wrong one. It was done by the same guy, but it was 'Mechanical muscular power output and work in different muscle groups during ergometer cycling', not 'Power output and work in different muscle groups during ergometer cycling' (research paper titles.. phew!).
The paper I should have cited was this:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3732250
Now, the above paper is similar to James' first graphic - the ones where the hammy is purported to 'pull' the pedal on the beginning of the upstroke, which is contrary to James' point about the hammies being used to push the pedal to a greater degree than we think. The above articles used biomechanical modelling, so I'd be going with James'/Thordarson's methods if they used EMG.
So for me the question is not "which pedals make me faster" but "which pedals help me to become a better rider".
" Train the hamstrings to flex the hips and stabilize the knee and the quads to flex the knee and help stabilize the hip joint - that is how those muscles function in real life and how we should train them, not based on the old model of training each muscle that crosses a joint to powerfully flex it."
, which is absolutely wrong from a kinesiological stand point. Hamstrings are hip extensor, they can't flex the hip joint! Quadricep extends the knee, so these muscles can't possibly flex it. Looks, that at the end the author was confused on the topic and proper muscle actions and terms describing body movement.
The first time I read his stuff I was intrigued. And I was compelled to scour and find whatever else he has written to learn more about his non-conventional ideas.
However, the more I read his stuff, the more I came to the conclusion that he is more of a hack than fact. He goes on and one adamantly about his theories, without really attempting to come with solid evidence to support his claims. We have generations of professional grade athletes that far surpass people like me and people like Wilson himself who have trained on the principles he calls "myths" and they have excelled.
Just as an example, check out his videos on youtube. For every 3 hours of video he has uploaded talking about theories and techniques, there is only 0 minutes of him actually on a bike demonstrating their application. There is a 10 minute video of him going on and on in excruciating detail about the pedaling principles he talks about in this article and talking about how everyone else has had it wrong all along, but not one second of him actually getting on a bike to show us how the proper technique he is selling actually works. Hell, you will not find a pedal and two wheels in any of his videos. He says flat pedals make you a better rider for blah and blah and blah reason. Fine. I'm not saying that is right or wrong, but for love of god, he should get on a damn bike, and actually show for two seconds how it helps with technique and why. The only video of him I found doing anything was a basic instruction on how to do basic cornering.
Seems not like scientific working method or quotation to me. So it still remains theoretical...
I ride dh, am, xc and the odd day on a road ss. First of all, the myth of getting stuck in during a fall are grossly misrepresented. I fall a lot. More than most because I always outride my abilities and I've always unclipped in time. I haven't made the switch on my dh bike. But that will happen soon.
James forgets one simple thing, and that is that while riding techy bumpy shit, some of us like having our feet stay on the friggin pedals.
James is on a crusade against clipless, it's undeniable after reading his website and the posts he makes convincing advanced riders to switch. I agree newbies shouldn't start with them, but often his articles convince people to go back after being on them for years. Which they have no need. There are no benefits to flats for xc if you're an advanced rider.
And before you neg prop me... Have you tried clipless yet and are making an informed decision? Or just married to your flats? And for the record... I do ride both and switch my pedals regularly to see the difference.
typically XC riders are pretty good about efficiency because it means a lot to rear wheel traction... although top level riders in any discipline can be counted upon to be efficient pedalers... you cant ride at the world level if you are really sloppy...
so good to see this on pinkbike...
But thats just my opinion and what do I know?!
I think this is one of those situations where the field and the lab don't match up super well. Edge cases are always tough to account for in studies; the researchers often have to restrict their focus in order to have any hope of producing a meaningful study. Something as variable as pedaling style is tough to account for. Do you restrict the riders to 90rpm or not? Use roadies or mtn bikers? In the lab or on the trail? Treat the test like a ride or a race?
Further, clipless doesn't offer any disadvantage over a platform. If out does turn out to be true that gaining on the up-stroke ifs dangerous (which you don't use your knee for, btw) then simply don't do that. They do, however ensure that you maintain pedal contact over all terrain where platforms do not which compromises control. Sure, you can by sticky shoes and platforms with studs but you wind up right back at trying to get your foot stuck to the pedal...
BIKING IS BAD FOR THE KNEES ? NO SHIT!
Please back up your statements with references! where are the published studies on this? it must have been studied at least once in the history of cycling....
[quote]Steve Thordarson is an Level 1 USA Cycling licensed coach, certified mechanic and competitive cyclist. He has been coaching since the 1980s and has worked with athletes of all levels from juniors to professionals. He teaches at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and has taught Expert coaching classes all across the country. Currently Steve is working with members of the US Paralympic team and coaching at their training camps around the country, most recently at the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.
-USA Cycling Level 1 Coach
-Carmichael Training Systems Expert Coach
-USA Cycling Licensed Mechanic
-USA Cycling Official
-American Sport Education Program Instructor
-Contributing author for Performance Conditioning for Cycling
-Co-author of 4 USA Cycling coaching manuals
-USA Cycling Expert Level coaching instructor
-USA Cycling Elite Level coaching instructor
-Author of 9 books on racing and training
-1995 Illinois Cycling Association Person of the Year
-1996 USCF Expert Coach of the Year
-Team coach for West Suburban Wheelmen
-Team coach for Pepsi/PowerBar Cycling Team
-Founder and coach of Illinois Bike Racing School
-Founder and coach of Smart Cycling Team
-Competitive cyclist since 1984
[/quote]
Based on this I think the source is reliable. A lot of published papers in sports science and fitness in general can be a load of male bovine excretion because the study they are based on is sponsored by a group with a vested interest and uses a research group that is too small or has a bias. I like to trust experience and results and this "Stephen Thordarson" guy seems to have both. Plus, what he's saying seems to make sense physiologically. But if someone can produce a credible study proving the opposite I'm all for it. I ride clipless for other reasons besides pulling power anyway.