Biking uphill - stand or sit?

I'm sure you'll get a lot of responses but I'll give you my take. I'll stand for short hills especially on my tri bike but standing up for very long, drives up your heart rate. For long rides, I try to stay in a certain heart rate zone and standing on long hills takes me out of that zone. Yes, you can generate more power but it comes with a bill to pay in energy expended. I've found learning or training to climb seated helps on long rides and hills. For me, standing is equivalent to sprinting on a run instead of staying on pace.

Ernie

There's a study out there that tells you to sit if you weigh X, stand if you weigh Y, I'm sure someone will cite it eventually. Meanwhile, do what feels comfortable and efficient. I prefer to sit as long as I can and stand when extra power/leverage is needed. Of course that extra power has its cost...

Personal preference counts for a lot here. I'm a stander. Even on long climbs, like 5 miles or more, I prefer to stand for the bulk of the climbing and only sit occasionally, for a break or to take a drink. I usually shift down two gears and find the turnover cadence that's comfortable for me.



Edited by max 2005-12-17 6:28 PM

i thin it is more efficient to sit down, drop it into low gear and keep your rpms above 90. I know when I mountain bike, I used to stand up and crank at low rpm and then was converted to sitting and spinning. I noticed that my legs stayed fresher longer when I started sitting the hills. It's the whole anerobic Vs aerobic argument.

I personally will sit as much as I can and try to spin it out. If I have to, I will stand up for that last burst to make it to the top. The problem I find, is that if I stand up and sprint it too much early on, I have nothing left for the end of the ride when I need it more.

another thing that is kind of off topic, but not really....once you get to the top and are no longer climbing, don't stop pedaling. Keep spinning at a fairly quick rate (90+ rpm). That hill climb just produced a ton of lactic acid, and you want to get as much fresh blood in there as you can to flush it out. Keeping your legs moving with no resistance pulls the achy, tired feeling out of them a lot faster then resting them.

Sitting and spinning a relatively easy gear is more efficient, whilestanding and hammering is the fastest way to get to the top. Questionis, do you want to have legs left when you hit T2 or just be first tothe top of the hill? If I were riding a TT I'd probably stand and powerup shorter/steeper hills since I don't care how wasted my quads arewhen I get off the bike. In a triathlon or longer bike race I'd stayseated and spin a smaller gear (85+ rpm for me).

Thedifference is what type of muscle fibers you use. Easy spinning tapsprimarily slow twitch fibers which contain more mitochondria andmyoglobin and make them more efficient at using oxygen to generate ATPwithout lactic acid build up. As a result, the slow twitch fibers can fuel repeated andextended muscle contractions such as those required for enduranceevents. The two fiber types (fast and slow twitch) generally producethe same amount of force per contraction, but fast twitch fibersproduce that force at a higher rate (they fire more rapidly). The slowtwitch fibers fire less rapidly, but can go for a long time before theyfatigue

Edited by TH3_FRB 2005-12-18 12:05 AM

Research shows that athletes who weight 2 pounds per inch of height or less will do well standing for extended periods. Those of us heavy enough that we don't have to move around in the shower to get wet will do better to sit and spin. Standing provides greater power but for disproportionally more oxygen consumption. It is useful for short hills, steeper pitches on moderate hills, or other situations where maintaining momentum is worth the extra energy cost.

Ken

That's 144 lbs at 6'. That's even skinnier then I am.....

Is that study based on cyclists or triathletes? I am just interest in learning about it...

THere is a  great article I think on slowtwitch, but I'm nto sure, explaining the differences in terms of aerobic ability vs. strength.  As others have said, spinning is more aerobic, but it takes practice as well.  Imagine sitting on a trainer with no resistance adn spinnning at 90 rpm.  This still takes effort, even with no resistance.  Spinning (as well as standing) is a skill that needs to be practiced as well.  If it feels more "natural" to you to stand up on hills, you shoudl spend a lot of time this winter practicing spinning at pregressivcely higher resistances so that you can teach yoru body how to do it.  I spent last winter doing that and noticed a big improvcement on hills when spring came around.

Still, a lot depends on your body type, you ratio of slow to fast twitch muscle fibers, your years of training at a specific technique. Guys like Richard Virenque, Ivan Gotti, and the late Marco Pantani were out of the saddle more than in it. Conversely, Pavel Tonkov and Jan Ulrich were sitters but still prefered pushing a larger gear than someone like Lance Armstrong. It's not only climbing where this is noticeable, but in time trialing as well. Look at Iroman professional Thomas Bjorn who routinely does the 112 miles with big gear cadences in the 50's and 60's.

Like the saying goes, you "dance with what brung you!"

I think the safe answer is that in general you should favour staying seated. The ideal is to try to keep your cadence as close to that nice 85-95 rpm range as possible.

The more complicated answer I think is that you want to practice being efficient and comfortable both seated and standing. The most important thing is to feel relaxed and comfortable on a climb.

At the very least it is nice to stand to give your body a rest from being seated for hours. On a very short hill (one that is < 10 secs) it can feel most efficient to stand for a few strokes in order to carry your speed over the top of the hill. On a very steep hill (one where your seated cadence drops below 50 rpm) it is nice to stand to give your lower back a rest. On a long hill (one that is longer than 15 minutes) it's nice to be able to do parts of the climb comfortably out of saddle.

I live in the mountains in Switzerland. I will sometimes practice riding an entire mountain out-of-saddle (45+ min out of saddle). My focus point for the climb will be to be as comfortable as possible. I don't do it because I think it is an efficient way to climb the mountain. I do it because I think the practice makes my out-of-saddle climbing style more efficient and comfortable. That way when I do climb out-of-saddle there is not such a huge percieved difference between being seated or not.

I learned that when standing you should shift your body forward, so you can support your weight to some extent with you arms, and keep your body low (knees always bent). This works well for me to be able to stay in the standing position for much longer.
I use this position for short hills to keep the speed and momentum going, or on longer hills to vary position from time to time.

Some research on this topic can be found at:

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=cycling+hill+seated+standing&ie...

Note that the cyclists mentioned above who excelled at extended out of saddle climbing are all of slight build ... to the extreme. My experence agrees with the research. The cyclists and triathletes I have coached who could pedal out of the saddle efficiently have all bee extremely thin - like a professional male who stands 6' tall and weighs 132.

You may benefit from a change of rhythm or a burst of power when standing for short periods, but understand that you are expending significantly more energy and this is very unlikely to be a good strategy for sustained climbs. Try it in training - especially with a run after the ride.

Ken

I do both .......

Back in the early days of my cycing career I was in southern Germany (all hills) with a running background, so it felt more comfortable for me to stand. Someof those hills were 3 - 5 mile climbs, and I just got used to being out of the saddle the whole time.

As my cycling progressed over the years I tried to work more on sitting. But if it is a brutal/steep hill, I'll still climb it out of the saddle the whole time.

As a reference, I was 6'-1", mid 170's then and I was always considered one of the better climbers by the people I rode/raced with.