Seated hill climbing vs out of saddle for quad strengthening

[dennis]

Looking for information about strengthening quads on the bike. Always have used seated climbing for building strength on the bike, but know how painful out of the seat climbing is as well. Guessing that seated climbing builds all the quads as well as where out of the seat riding focuses more on the medial head (basing that on medial burn when doing it).
If this has been covered already, my apologies.
Thanks,
Dennis

[CXinNH]

You climb with your gluts and core muscles, not with your quads.
Unless you are not doing it right.

Looking for information about strengthening quads on the bike. Always have used seated climbing for building strength on the bike, but know how painful out of the seat climbing is as well. Guessing that seated climbing builds all the quads as well as where out of the seat riding focuses more on the medial head (basing that on medial burn when doing it).
If this has been covered already, my apologies.
Thanks,
Dennis

[bcm119]

You climb with your gluts and core muscles, not with your quads.
Unless you are not doing it right.

A bit of an exaggeration. A strong core allows you to hold a position that maximizes your power output, but the actual power comes from the major lower body muscle groups, inlcuding the quads and glutes. Standing stresses the glutes or the quads more depending on fore/aft position over the pedals. It's not that complicated so I wouldn't assume the OP is doing it wrong.

[boots2000]

I don't find that practicing out of the saddle climbing makes me any better at it.
Sit most of the time. It is efficient and you develop good hip extension.
Stand once in a while to change position and muscles- but learn how to sit.
Stand to start an attack- then sit back down.
I used to say that the 1st guy to stand was the 1st guy to get dropped.
But Horner changed all that- now riders can stand entire climbs and feel good about it.
Frontal area goes up a bunch when you stand so it is pretty inefficient at more than 10 mph.
At 8mph or below it probably does not matter.
If you have to stand a lot because you are out of gears, get lower gears.

[Peter Polack]

If you want to strengthen the quads on the bike, then seated climbing will do so through a greater range of motion than standing.

However, if the gears used are too large and thus the cadence too low, knee damage could be a factor.

I think I read that when Moser was preparing for his world hour record, he rode a his large chainring and 15T cog seated up some lengthy Italian climbs.

One problem I see with seated climbing and developing quad strength is, typically the fore/aft position on the bike is slightly rearward to provide a power output which feels balanced between the hamstrings and the quads such that it doesn't engage the quads as directly in the pedal stroke as you're intending to develop that quad strength. This may be done to utilize the benefits of both muscle groups in providing a smoother pedal stroke, although this is all conjecture on my part from analyzing my own pedaling and power output, which is pathetic. ;-)

You may want to experiment with your fore/aft position so that the quads feel more like the prime movers in your pedal stroke. For me, the difference between my standard position and a quad dominant position on the bike is as little as 2.5mm on the saddle rails.

The off-season is a good time to experiment with such training. Make your winter training program centered around changing your saddle position if it's not already quad dominant and develop a trainer program with seated climbing simulated resistance and cadence.

I think some of the new pedal based power meters can produce downloadable readouts throughout the pedal stroke that would be able to show how changes in fore-aft affect power application.

[dennis]

Thanks for the input. At my level of training, anything done consistently is likely to help.

[ned]

All the EMG studies I've read show increased quad:glute ratios when standing. I believe, and as to the original question, that doing standing intervals is a viable way to strengthen the quads. Whether it's the best, most efficient, etc training technique is too debatable.

[boots2000]

I still say that you should train mostly seated even if standing is your strong suit.
If you train a lot standing you will not be able to sit and save energy when climbing.
Seated climbing makes best use of aerobic system and gearing.
If you think that quad strength is a limiter, do some strength work off the bike.
I think many of the skinny euro guys will show you that you don't need meaty quads to pedal a bike well.