pinetreeforest1

It seems as though after I get done with a ride, there are specific muscle groups that are usually exhausted (mainly around the hamstrings), and to a lesser extent my quads. However, I rarely "feel the burn" in my calf muscles, which is strange. I wonder if my form is wrong, or? It's odd, also, I was fitted for my bike so nothing wrong int hat respect.

recursive

I get sore in different ways after different rides. I wouldn't worry about it.

BetweenRides

I don't think it's that abnormal. The only time I feel my calf muscles are in heat, and it's usually an indication of dehydration, ie cramping. Your quads, glutes and hams are the major muscle groups used in cycling.

terrymorse 

Unlike quads and hams, calf muscles aren't doing any work while pedaling. They merely stabilize the ankle joint.

Ryanf

^^^ wrong. Learn to pedal. No offense.

recursive

This could get good.

Barca

Uh oh.

Ryanf

Calfs are working arn't they?

VegaVixen

Mine do. But I like to point my toes and do the dog-doo scrape on the "recovery" side. Personal preference, feels good, and it helps on long uphill grades when I'm sitting vs out of the saddle.

terrymorse 

^^^ No content. Stay in school.

https://draco.acs.uci.edu/rbfaq/FAQ/8h.8.html

VegaVixen

Hey, terrymorse! You Climbing Fool, you!

I wanna pick your brain sometime about training tips for climbing. Ok if I PM you later? <hopeful Vega look>

terrymorse 

Sure, ask away. I'll make an effort to give lucid answers.

RiPHRaPH

VIVA Liverpool!!

slowandsteady

So how come people who ride bikes end up on BF posting pics of their awesome calves?

terrymorse 

Isometric exercise

palesaint

I'm just not sure I agree that biking doesn't work the calves. On a nice flat stretch of road, sure the calves don't do a whole lot. But on a killer 5 mile climb, mashing out of the saddle, MAN do my calves burn. An even more exagerated example is tackling short but STEEP sections of singletrack on a mountain bike. On more than one occasion, I have had difficulty climbing stairs after one of these brutal sessions. You might call these examples "isometric", but they are still excersises done on a bicycle.

terrymorse 

I'm sure calf muscles can get a workout on the bike. Isometric exercise can still be difficult, but the calf muscle is doing very little work during the pedal stroke. The only work (isotonic exercise) that can be done is the flexing and pointing of the foot, and that typically doesn't happen when pedaling normally.

Rocky Mountain

My calves have grown 3/4 of an inch since I took up cycling at the start of the year...

chubakabra

I think there is some confusion with regards to some terms. Isometric contractions performed in the calf muscles during downstroke (to avoid a passive dorsal flexion of the ankle joint) are indeed muscle work, and will give your calf muscles a workout.

Regards

slowandsteady

What do your calves look like?

terrymorse 

Thanks, that was a good clarification. As a mechanical engineer, I'm trained to think of work as a specific force times distance thing.

No doubt muscles get a workout during isometric contractions, but that's different than "doing work".

DannoXYZ 

On the downstroke, the calves have to exert the exact same amount of force as the quads in order to maintain the same shin-to-foot angle. If they exert more force than the quads, then yes, you would point the foot down. If they exert less force than the quads, the heel would descend faster and the foot would point up as the downstroke occurs. So basically while the calves may not ADD power to the stroke over what the quads provide, they still have to do quite a bit of exertion just to transmit the force from the quads to the foot.

Try this exercise, stand in front of a cupboard or fridge and reach up for something high and lift your heels just barely off the ground. Hold that position for about 30-seconds. The calves may not be moving your foot and body anymore, but they are still working out, like in contracting the muscle-fibres...

If calves didn't do any work on the pedal stroke, we'd have to hook up the pedal to our ankles.

slowandsteady

You might be a great mechnical engineer, but you would be a horrible physiologist. DannoXYZ explained it well.

terrymorse 

If you choose to redefine work as muscle contraction, then I agree. But let's try to keep muscle contraction and work as separate concepts. i don't want anyone coming to the wrong conclusion that strong calf muscles can produce useful work or increase power.

To summarize: Yes, calf muscles must contract during the pedal stroke to maintain the shin-foot angle. This is isometric exercise, since the joint is not moving. Isometric exercise can make muscles bigger and stronger if the force is high enough, but it does little for muscle endurance. Calf muscles are relatively small on cyclists because they aren't required to be terribly strong. The forces they have to produce when pedaling are not high enough to produce much muscle growth, even when pedaling out of the saddle.

DocRay

and they do get bigger when they ride.