Climbing out of the saddle

Actually I almost never come out of the saddle to climb at all.... and I am down in WV... I climb a fair bit. 

I cannot remember which thread it was in, but I read at some point that getting out of the saddle was only beneficial if your height to weight ratio was at a particular level.... For my weight I remember calculation I would only need to grow to 7.5 feet for it to work. 

I go to the gear that allows me to keep a decent cadence going up and then crank it going down the other side.  But... others will have differing opinions to be sure.

It sounds like working on your balance would benefit you. imho

Yoga is good for balance, doing different balance drills on a balance ball, do some balance drills on your bike with tennis shoes going very slow and trying to hold a specific line at low speed.

The replys to this thread have already covered good points.  I will just add - keep an eye on your cadence.  Make sure it is not too fast when you get out of the saddle.  You might need to go up one or two gears when you stand on the pedals to maintain a smooth pedal stroke.  Also make sure you are positioned well on the bike.  Your weight should be over the pedals, with your bum about level with the nose of the saddle.

Other than that, just practice.

Squat 650 lbs!!! I doubt that very very very much!!!!! I played  D1 college football as TE and I couldn't squat close to that. In fact my max squat was 525lbs at a playing weight of 225lbs. Sure on a hipsled or box squat yes.... easy, but true squat NO WAY.


I probably could not even do 350 lbs now.

Unless your name is Sven or Magnus you ain't squatting 650!

I found that spin classes really help me correct my balance for climbing out of the saddle...I'd brought some bad habits from the mtn bike to road riding when I started late last year.

Also, as someone's sig line says, 'the only way to get better at climbing hills, is climbing more hills'.

650 isn't inconceivable.... There's no way I could squat that much (I can barely squat my own body weight, lol), but people who (for example) have a background doing construction work or something have tremendous lower-body strength.  My family are all Italian peasant-type construction dudes, and I remember watching my dad squat well over 600 lbs. when I was a kid.  Of course, he spent the better part of his youth carrying 200-lb. sacks of cement up scaffolding, so...

It's kind of rude to assume someone's lying just because you can't do what they say.   Training for tri is different from D1 football training, which is different from powerlifting, which is itself different from just being really f-ing strong from doing hard physical labor for a long time.  I mean, you can't give birth, but would you tell someone they were BS-ing if they said they'd been in labor for 24 hrs?

I trashed my knees for several weeks last spring by standing up too much in my bike workouts. The owner of the bicycle shop I raced for said the knee is the weakest link in the leg. He said to only stand up for 5 or 10 pedal strokes to crest a hill (in a race) to "leave" the person climbing behind you, i.e. get a head start on the downhill.