How come cyclists don't have huge leg muscles?

Question

I often see them on TV and on the road but they're legs are all skinny legs. Should it be the opposite since they ride their bikes so much?

Answer 1

A couple of reasons;
- It's an endurance sport, like running and the distance guys are smaller, while the sprinters are bigger. This is because the type I muscle fibers used for long distance work aremore dense and smaller than the type IIb high power, sugar burning, sprinting fibers.
- With a lot of distance training muscles get used as fuel and are whittled away. We try to avoid this, and this is a constant battle for cyclists, which is why some cheat and use drugs like growth hormone and testosterone and the big reason that these guys have arms like my grandmother.
- Google some images of guys like Mary Nothstein and Nelson Vails. These track sprinters have huge legs.
- While not a fact, nor is it always the case, there is a link between the greats of cycling and having rather long femurs, (thigh bone) for their overall body length. This gives them longer quadriceps muscles with more useable muscle belly and hence more power, but may look longer and thinner.
- Studies show that pound for pound, women have stronger muscles because they are narrower and the fibers contract in a straight line rather than around a curve like a bodybuilder's bicep.This is undoubtedly true of endurance athletes as well.
- Lastly, especially in races with varying terrain, climbing is all about having as much power with as little weight as possible. They have where they need to be down to a science . Famous doctor/trainer Michelle Ferrari says that if you can put out 6.9 watts for every Kilogram of bodyweight, you have what it takes to win the Tour.

Answer 2

Huge Leg Muscles

Answer 3

Serious bike riders usually have muscular legs but they develop differently from body-builder type muscular legs. Cyclists are endurance athletes so their leg muscles are not bulky but rather lean and mean. There is a subset of cyclists that are track (velodrome) competitors and a lot of them are have linebacker-like builds and HUGE legs (the above menioned Marty Nothstein and Nelson Vails are prime examples). Even in the Tour de France, if you look closely at the legs of the sprint specialists, they have much bigger legs than climbing specialists.

Answer 4

The leg muscles used for cycling are mainly the thigh muscles and ones above the knee cap; a professional cyclist will have well toned muscles in this area, but they will be honed by aerobic exercise mainly (especially for endurance racing), so the muscles will be sleek but efficient - not bulky, as bulky muscles are only for show and/or high stress strength.

Answer 5

For one, cyclists do such an extreme amount of riding, their leg muscles are elogated and, while very strong, quite dense. This makes the muscles smaller in comparison but just as strong, if not stronger than most athletes. Also, the focus of training tends to be on slow-twitch muscle fibers and on endurance, which makes for more lean and thin looking muscles.

Answer 6

HUH have you met me? i think your talkin about team anorexic (no they don't exist) it depends on your body type and the size is really irrelevant i know guys that have legs half the size of mine that push the same weight (other cyclists) the other factor is obvious if you weight train, high reps low weight i.e. cycling builds more lean muscle mass now if your a big gear pusher that changes the equation.

Answer 7

The reason we tend to have smaller legs is because we dont weight train like other sports do. If we do weight train its with a good amount of weight and alot of fast reps (as many as we can do) instead of doing really large weight with little reps. This creates lean muscle. Especially with the amount of riding that we do. All of this like in an earlier post creates much denser and stronger leg muscles.

Answer 8

It is not a high impact exercise. You will notice that cyclists have serious veins in their legs, as you would see a body builder with veins that show in their arms and chest. One muscle I do know that is huge on hardcore cyclists is the muscle opposite of the calf (forget what it is called). But I've seen a cyclist with no calf muscle and then the front of her leg (calf right behind) the muscle looked..well I could not believe, especially when she flexed it.

Answer 9

1

Answer 10

they have smaller legs but they're much more powerful. these guys go more for endurance too than pure power. some people do have rather large legs though- Jan Ullrich for example. generally, they have nicely tones legs with string bean arms. that just looks weak.