I was recently asked about cadence and climbing and how it can be used to build leg strength

Its common knowledge that if you want to build muscle you need to push/pull against some some of resistance. Just like body builders do at the gym we can do the same with our bike

This topic is partly covered here, so i am going to be brief this time round. The previous version was for purposes of building power for sprints. Climbing hills uses the slow twitch muscles fibers so building them is slightly different.

To build power you need to ride at a cadence of about 50 to 70 RPM. Any lower than that and you will be damaging your knees. any higher and you get into what i call the sweet-spot. This lower candence helps create the resistance required to build muscle. You need to feel like the legs are burning. normally this requires you to climb in a gear higher than normal. Remain seated as seated climbing utilizes the bigger muscles in your legs.

You can break this up into a few sets of about 3 minutes. Normally i would do 5 sets. i like to finish the training session with a climb in my sweet spot

What is normal climbing cadence?

Sweet-spot as i call it is between 75 and 85 RPM. I find i climb my best at about 81 or 82. Often the gradient a gears don’t allow you to be this precise but when they do you need to milk your sweet spot. Any higher and your heart rate starts to get a little out of control, any lower and you putting too much strain on your legs and will most likely blow up before you summit, or on your way home

This post is tagged Cadence, Climbing, sweet spot, Training