subject: Cycling Uphill And Its Methods [print this page] Cyclists all agree on one thing when it comes to cycling. Climbing is one of the hardest skills a cyclist can acquire. But when you have it, it will bear prove to your months of training of riding the bike effectively. Climbing is often deemed difficult, especially by beginners.
A person might get discouraged immediately when he or she sees a very steep and uneven ground surface even before climbing it. Climbing can be done with a road or mountain bike. It takes time to develop such a skill (climbing). It also takes much practice.
The number one mistake that people make is cycling with big gears when going up a hill. This will only induce fatigue in the long term when going uphill. What will happen is that your legs will be pumped up and your heart rate is elevated beyond normal.
The problem is that the human body has a limited time period where they are performing beyond normal. This is known as the anaerobic state where oxygen is not used to supply energy. The solution is to maintain a constant cadence. Instead of measuring your uphill adventure by using speed, you should use cadence.
The key is to maintain a specific cadence throughout your uphill journey. This could be as low as 50 rounds per minute or as high (recommended if you are fit) as 65 rounds per minute. But a high cadence like 65 rounds per minute is only possible (in most cases) if you use smaller, lighter gears. Sure, you could use them. It is fine to do so as long as you maintain a high rather than low cadence.
Remember that cycling uphill with big gears will tire you sooner than you know it. Using big gears will force your cadence to become low. Unless you are a cycling monster, you should shift to lower gears. As another tip, you should use alternate your muscles when cycling uphill. How to do this? The answer is simple. Stand up from time to time.
Instead of sitting down, standing up while cycling will enable you to leverage your body weight into transferring energy for your pedaling efforts. What about the thought of standing up all the time? This will leverage all my body weight all the time when going uphill, right? Still, the logical answer to that question is no. There is no difference if you just cycle using big gears and standing up all the time while cycling uphill. It will cause you to get tired much faster and this is a bad thing.
