Was reading some quite interesting articles talking about engaging ‘the biggest muscle in the body’ during your pedal stroke, with claims of tens of watts extra power if you train to do it right (although more importantly, fewer injuries!)

I have no idea if I do tbh, and can’t get back on the bike to test it for another couple of weeks until my back settles down, but in theory, how do you train to engage your glutes when pedalling?

From the article it sounds like you just need to sit further back, drop the heels, and consciously ‘engage’ the glute, but is that the same as just squeezing it? Does it involve rotating the pelvis back more (e.g. tucking the tailbone further under) etc?

Curious more than anything, assuming it will take some work on the rollers to get used to…

Ha, so exactly the opposite, move saddle forward!

Also interesting tip about saddle height and fore-aft, I’ve not been conscious of checking one after changing the other…

Unless you are a track sprinter your power is not limited by the amount of muscle you engage but how fit you are. The strength i.e. force needed to output 450 watts and break the hour record isn’t that much- if you can walk up a set of stairs you can output 450 watts. The trick is to be able to sustain that 450 watts for an hour which depends on your VO2 max, aerobic threshold, efficiency and lots of other physiological variables before muscle mass is a limiter.

I’m more interested in engaging the glutes in order to try and protect my lower back, but also would have thought that sharing load across more muscles would result in them fatiguing less quickly? Wouldn’t that ultimately reflect in higher FTP?

I’d hazard a guess it’s the same as when squatting and making sure you’re positioned to use the glutes, if you’re not feeling some tension in the glutes then the legs are doing the work, i struggle with this now and again and start feeling it in my knees, as i’m putting a lot more strain through them to turn the pedals, if i focus on the bigger muscles it helps, but does take a lot of focus for me, too much to be honest!

I have no idea whether my buttocks are engaging or not – except for all the whistles I get 😉

… but sometimes I try to concentrate on pushing my knees down rather than my feet around. Not sure what it actually does but it definitely feels different somehow and is quite efficient. I just can’t really remember to do it all the time

Anyway, back to my arse. How do you post pics on here ?

Engaging glutes is something they teach in Pilates, essentially to begin with you just consciously clench your buttocks while doing the exercise. After a while it becomes automatic. I tried it on a bike and I found it only really made a big difference when you pull on the upstroke when using clipless pedals and you can’t maintain it for very long. It is useful on a big climb though to give your other muscles a rest. Since I’ve gone back to flat pedals the opportunity to use it is much reduced.

I’m really not sure if this is linked but it has helped with my overall cycling efficiency and I believe forces you to use the glutes a tad.

That is, single leg cycling. Only discovered it by accident during one of the Zwift training programme things, and at first it was a huge struggle getting past top dead centre with one leg after 20 seconds or so of peddaling single legs.

The movement required seems to force one to use the glutes effectively to get the leg up and over.

As said though this is only my findings and I may be talking poop.

make sure you keep that ‘lordosis’ angle in the small of your back and a straight back.

then just think about your thighs going up and down like a ‘motor’, with the rest of your leg just attached and following around moving the pedals.

that will avoid that position where people push down into their knees and their back rounds out like a question mark.

Cycling one legged seems easy to me, I always use it to set the saddle height – too high and your hips rock on the saddle and too low and you can’t keep a smooth rotation with one leg.

I think you need to be careful with pushing the saddle forward too much – you can feel the power, but I have had knee problems which the root of seems to be bicep femoris, and that is apparently aggrevated if the saddle is too far forward.

Pushed mine back now and used a plumb line to check the relationship of my kneecap to the pedal axle, old-school-like, and things seem better.

Using the trainer exclusively probably exagerated the problem.

Was reading some quite interesting articles talking about engaging ‘the biggest muscle in the body’

This usually involves people talking out their arse.

Yup, snake oil.

I’ve been told I’ve got engaging glutes.

Must be all the cycling I do.

I’m more interested in engaging the glutes in order to try and protect my lower back, but also would have thought that sharing load across more muscles would result in them fatiguing less quickly? Wouldn’t that ultimately reflect in higher FTP?

Don’t know about seated pedalling or FTPs but a change in position when climbing out of the saddle is where I can change the muscles I’m using. Hard to describe but instead of the more natural lean fwd position, a shift fwd of the hips and a more crouched position (like a shtting dog) uses the glutes more and other muscles that helps me avoid stress on my lower back, or relieves some of the tensions I eventually get from rides with a lot of climbing in the saddle. Feels like a stronger pedalling position but I doubt I’m getting any more efficient power in reality, it’s just giving the leg muscles I use when seated a break. Thinking about it, it’s just a natural position on my MTB SS that I generally don’t get into on the road bike as I’m using gears there to reduce the need for that position.

https://www.coachmag.co.uk/exercises/sport-workouts/128/greg-minaar-mtb-workout

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/10-ways-better-fitter-mountain-biker/

I had a really frustrating knee issue that wouldn’t go away until I went to a really great sports physio (My Life PT in Bristol) who told me that it could be to do with my glutes. My left knee is the bad one, and she noticed that when I was squatting and doing other leg exercises, my left glute wasn’t activating nearly as much as my right glute. I didn’t even notice.

She gave me some exercises to do to really focus on the glutes like good form squats. The most revalatory thing she got me to do was warm them up before getting on the bike. To do this, stand up straight and lift one leg so your knee is perpendicular to your body, and just try and focus on squeezing the other glute – i.e. right leg raised, squeeze left glute. Do this for 5 seconds each glute 5 times each. Then go ride.

This has honestly been amazing, it’s woken up my left glute, for the first few weeks I had to focus on activating it when I’m on the bike, but since then it does it automatically. And my knee issue has all but cleared up thanks to this, and lots of stretching.

That’s interesting Tetrode, my most recent physio said she didn’t really ‘believe’ in activating muscles before exercise, but there are lots of articles out there about it.

I tried a wee lap around the village on my singlespeed, trying to use the Glutes where possible. Certainly felt different to my normal pedalling which makes me think my glutes aren’t doing much when I pedal normally.

Is food for thought, it’s obvious to me that I need to work on them at home and in the gym anyway for injury prevention, if I get any ‘free’ watts out of the deal then happy days!

Paton – thanks for the links, seems to be some disagreement about saddle position etc. so I might just stick with the position I know works for my knees, too far forward seemed to upset them (maybe hadn’t raised enough at the same time though, hmm…).

I was told it’s less about ‘activating’ the muscles and more training yourself how to feel when you’re using it. That exercise I described is a good one to feel what it’s like to use your glutes, so it’s more of reminding yourself how to use the muscle. Regardless, it’s definitely helped me, but that was due to a knee issue, not sure how useful it might be for people who are fit and healthy in the first place.

I gave your exercise a try, it definitely feels like a good one to start with (it also doesn’t aggravate my sciatica like a lot of other glute exercises do, bonus!).