Balanced and relaxed body posture are the most basic skills for riding. The correct riding posture can not only achieve better fitness results, but also the most critical step to prevent injury. Always remind yourself of your body posture not only to relieve fatigue, but also to bring more riding pleasure.
About riding posture
Generally speaking, for road bicycles, there are mainly three contact points of hands, buttocks, and feet, and the corresponding contact points include handlebars, bike saddles, and pedals. The height, front and rear positions, and widths of these three parts are And so on will affect the correct riding posture of the bicycle, so a correct riding posture starts from the head to the feet.
- The elbow angle
In the process of riding, the elbows are bent at a certain angle, hanging in the air, do not stretch out like you spread your wings, if you encounter potholes or road bumps, your arms can absorb the impact and reduce the pressure on your shoulders. At the same time, bending the elbow can also increase balance and reduce the risk of falling off the bicycle.
- Shoulder
If the shoulders are not lowered and relaxed during the ride, you will feel discomfort in your back and neck. In order to facilitate the flexible rotation of the neck, and to prevent back discomfort, keep your shoulders relaxed during the ride, and do not let your shoulders extend toward your ears.
- Toes and knee joints
You can consciously keep your knees and toes in a vertical line, and you can maintain a good riding posture. Excessive knee bending will only reduce efficiency and overall comfort.
- Neutral spine
An important technique when riding a bike is to keep your back straight, but don’t over-straighten it to the point where it causes back pain. Relax your spine a bit. In order to prevent yourself from bending your back unconsciously, you can focus on the strength of your abdomen. When the abdominal muscles are in a state of exerting force, it will naturally straighten the back and relax the other muscles of the arms and shoulders.
- Wrist
There should be a straight line from the elbow to the fingertips. If you find it difficult to maintain during riding, there may be a problem with the position of the bicycle components. Observe and adjust the bicycle to ensure that the positions of the various components are suitable for you.
- Move your knees up and down
When pedaling, consciously avoid knees inward and outward. They should move up and down instead of sideways. Many cyclists move to the side when pedaling, and this is the main cause of patellomalacia when cycling. If you find that you have a corresponding problem, you can train your knees to move up and down and keep them in a straight line.
- Method of pedaling
Should you ride a bicycle with your heels, soles, and toes? Is it better to ride with the forefoot?
(1) Pedaling on the pedal with the heel. Basically, the ankle joint cannot be moved due to the restriction of the stressed part. Therefore, the muscle groups that control the wrist joints cannot give full play to their strength during riding. During long-distance riding, not only can the wrist muscles not be able to exert their strength, but it may also cause cramps due to prolonged tension. Therefore, this may be an incorrect posture. 80.2% of riders would choose to ride on the forefoot.
(2) Pedaling on the pedal in the middle of the sole. In this position, the wrist joint is in a certain state of activity, and it will not cause the wrist to try its best to keep the front of the foot at a certain angle. Most cyclists in the city adopt this posture. Relatively speaking, this is a relatively labor-saving posture, but this posture is not conducive to mobilizing all lower limb muscles to participate in riding sports. Since the lower limbs cannot be fully extended, naturally there is no chance to explode its full strength. In addition, the bike saddle must be lowered to force the middle of the foot, and people will feel uncomfortable when encountering bumpy roads.
(3) Pedaling on the pedals on the toes. Using your toes can train yourself to have a high cadence, which is helpful for the smoothing of lactic acid. But pedaling for a long time makes it easy to get tired. The muscle strength of the calf is required to be high, and the calf will feel sore after riding for a long time. Pedaling on the pedal with the forefoot, this posture can increase the up and down swing of the foot, thereby driving the Achilles tendon to pull the muscles on the back of the calf to move the entire muscle group. It does not feel difficult, it is easy to use force, and it is efficient. In general, the design of the lock pedal is to lock the shoe on the forefoot.
When riding a bicycle, you should pedal with the forefoot and cycle smoothly. When riding a bicycle, you should relax your upper limbs and keep your arms relaxed. Use even force when pedaling, so that it rotates at a constant speed instead of simply pressing it down.
- Knee angle
To check this, keep the pedals in a horizontal position. The plumb line from the center of the knee joint should be just perpendicular to the center of the shaft or behind the center of the shaft. If the knee is in front of the axis of the pedal, the rider’s knee will deviate from the correct position.
About bike pose
- Bike saddle angle
The angle of the bicycle saddle should be roughly level. But there is no need to be too rigid, you can adjust it according to yourself. For example, some men feel pain when the front end of the bike saddle presses the perineum during cycling. You can adjust the front end of the bike saddle slightly to reduce the pressure, about 10°.
- Bike saddle height
The height of the bike saddle is the most important part of the bicycle setting, especially related to the knee joint and pedaling force. Too high a bike saddle will affect the efficiency of pedaling. Because the straight-line distance of pedaling is too long, it is easy to overstretch the muscles and cause cramps. At the same time, the too long pedaling force line will affect the elasticity of the muscles and do not use the muscles’ own potential energy. The most important thing is that a too high center of gravity may cause safety problems; a too low bike saddle height may cause muscle fatigue and affect the efficiency of riding. Generally speaking, the adjustment of the bike saddle height has a customary calculation formula: the length of the lower straddle ×0.893=The distance from the bottom bracket’s central axis to the center of where is install the bike saddle. For general cyclists, when sitting on a bicycle, when the pedals are at the lowest point, the riding legs are not completely straight, keep 25°; bend left and right is fine; otherwise, if the rider is on the saddle, it will go back and forth Shake, then the saddle is too high. The most suitable saddle height is 109% of the inner leg length, and then some adjustments are made according to the thickness of the shoe.
For novices, raising the bike saddle may feel unsafe. You can lower the saddle height when you first adapt, but this time should not be too long. After the adaptation process is over half an hour, you should try to restore the saddle height according to the standard as much as possible, otherwise The riding time will not last too long, and there is no way to persist for long distances such as a one-way ride of more than 50 kilometers. Riding in this posture can prevent knee injuries.
- Handlebar height
Finally, adjust the height of the handlebar, which needs to be adjusted to match the height of the saddle. Generally speaking, the drop between the handlebar and the bike saddle is less than 5 cm. When you first come into contact with a road bike, if the drop is greater than 5 cm, the body will lean forward too much and the wrist will be overloaded, and it will be easy to fatigue. Before you get used to it, try to keep the drop within 5 cm as much as possible.
In the same life, some cyclists who are a little older and have mountain bike riding experience will deliberately raise the bike saddle too much and cause a big gap. In fact, there is a big safety hazard. Long-term development of the habit will also cause harm to the body, too much is too late.