Getting Lean Legs with Cycling

Whether you are a dedicated cyclist or an occasional rider, cycling helps you build nice legs. For racers who want to get leaner, or for those who simply want to tone their thighs and calves, here are a few tips that can help you reach your goal.

By Guillaume Judas – Photos: Pxhere.com, flickr.com, Namedsport

“Having nice legs” does not necessarily mean the same thing to a dedicated cyclist as it does to someone getting ready to look good on the beach this summer. “Real” cyclists recognize and size up one another by how lean they are and by how many visible muscles and veins they have on their thighs and calves, whereas most non-athletes tend to find that rather unsightly. On the other hand, many people take care of their appearance, especially by wearing skirts and shorts from spring onward. To do this, they seek to maintain or improve the shape of their legs. In both cases, regular cycling serves these goals, but of course the approach differs.

To shape the muscles

Cycling builds the legs, that much is obvious. But since it is an endurance activity, it does not necessarily increase muscle volume. A gentle but regular practice tones and strengthens the muscles and gradually shapes the legs and glutes. Not only do the proportions become more harmonious relative to today’s beauty standards, but this exercise also has the benefit of raising your basal metabolic rate. A muscle burns more calories when it is developed and active than when it is systematically left at rest.

A gentle but regular practice tones and strengthens the muscles and gradually shapes the legs and glutes.

So, for the same effort and also throughout everyday life, a more muscular, toned body burns more calories than a flabby one. Regular physical activity such as cycling therefore promotes, over the long term, the loss of excess fat, especially in the legs and glutes. However, to avoid overly bulky and prominent muscles, it is better to favor duration over intensity, and to use small gears (in other words, spin). The advantage of cycling is that, since you do not bear your body weight, the risk of injury is extremely limited. The drawback is that riding regularly requires a minimum of equipment, even in the middle of winter.

A deeper physical transformation

For racers and sportive riders, riding goes beyond simply getting in shape. The pursuit of performance calls for more intense training, which has other effects on the musculature. First, a very rapid change in physique can be seen after just a few months of training. Not only because you ride frequently, but also because you are trying to improve efficiency. And this is also where muscular characteristics specific to you can emerge. Some riders stay lean and sculpted despite demanding rides, while others naturally have larger thigh or calf muscles.

Some riders stay lean and sculpted despite demanding rides, while others naturally have larger thigh or calf muscles.

This is linked to the proportion of so-called fast-twitch muscle fibers (associated with strength and explosiveness) that each person has, which differs from so-called slow-twitch fibers (associated with endurance or high-level aerobic endurance). This is what explains why some people are naturally more suited to rolling terrain or climbing rather than sprinting. In short, after a few months the foundation is laid, and the work needed to transform natural qualities is rather tedious.

Gaining strength

Performance depends on power, and power necessarily depends on muscular strength. For the leg muscles to get stronger, you have to train accordingly, at least in response to the terrain (in other words, do not settle for easy routes). Otherwise, there are three types of exercise for gaining strength:

• First of all, gym weight training, with the risk of injury – if movements are performed incorrectly – that this entails, and without necessarily being sure that the muscular strength gained will carry over to pedaling. Pedaling is a complex movement that involves the front and back of the legs, as well as essential coordination. To simplify: sets of exercises with heavy weights and a low number of repetitions build strength without adding muscle volume. Conversely, longer sets with lighter loads favor muscle gain. In all cases, this should be done alongside upper-body core work to stabilize movements and then transfer this strength effectively to the pedals.
• Next, you can gain maximal strength on the bike by doing sprints of 7 seconds from a standing or near-standing start, in a big gear (to be defined according to your base level). Here too, there is little risk of adding volume, because the exercise mainly serves to recruit fibers deep within the muscles. And that is what you need to feel more comfortable during, for example, all the small accelerations accumulated over a ride or a race.
• Finally, there is what is called “sub-max strength,” which is trained in sets lasting a few minutes, riding at a high but not maximal intensity (about 80% of your capacity) and at a low pedaling cadence, around 40–50 rpm. This mainly serves to prepare muscles and tendons for the loads found during high-intensity phases, in racing or in training. With this work, you strengthen the muscles more than you increase their volume, unlike long rides in too big a gear, which can make them bulk up a little.

Whatever the case, sustained training inevitably leads to muscle development, even if it stays within the proportions set by your natural predispositions.

How to “get shredded”?

To have legs that look like those of professional racers, that is, both muscular and lean (or “dry,” with well-defined muscles), you mainly need to combine several types of rides. Most of the time, a high volume of intense training is enough to “get shredded” (losing fat around the muscles and letting the skin tighten). But not everyone can handle 20 hours of cycling per week or more, and above all not on a regular basis.

There are, however, a few basic rules, starting with sticking to one long ride per week. A long ride means fundamental endurance and therefore moderate intensity. Whatever the effort, the body burns a mix of carbohydrates (sugars) and lipids (fats), in different proportions depending on the intensity. Riding at a reasonable intensity – around 60% of your maximum capacity – mainly burns lipids and some carbohydrates. And to steer the body toward this almost exclusive use of lipids, refrain from taking fast sugars during this ride. This way, it draws on fat reserves to keep going, a bit like running on diesel, since you are not having to produce a violent effort.

In the same way, you can also occasionally ride in the morning on an empty stomach, again exclusively at endurance pace. With the last meal taken about twelve hours earlier, the body has to dip into its fat reserves even faster to keep moving. These sessions produce the same benefit in this respect, while potentially being shorter.

But to really be “lean,” it is mainly necessary to combine this type of ride with shorter, more intense sessions. Sessions where you really push, with very demanding specific exercises, which initially draw mainly on your glycogen reserves and thus bring about progress thanks to a supercompensation process after training. In this case, of course, you must neither start on an empty stomach nor skip essential carbohydrate intake during the ride. If there is no immediate effect on fat loss (since fat is no longer the primary energy source used), this type of session significantly increases metabolism, and therefore calorie burn after the effort.

Good endurance combined with very intense sessions will help you get “lean,” and not just your legs, for that matter.

In the end, good endurance combined with very intense sessions will help you get “lean,” and not just your legs, for that matter. On the condition, of course, that you eat a balanced and reasonable diet alongside it. And if you need to give yourself the time required to look more or less like a true racer, if that is your goal, remember that we are all different in terms of body type. Even some excellent lightweight climbers, such as Alberto Contador was, do not have what is known as “dry legs” or super-lean legs. In the meantime, a quick shave before the race or the Sunday ride with your mates will help give you nice cyclist’s legs, that’s for sure!

=> SEE ALSO: Power in cycling
=> SEE ALSO: The importance of endurance
=> SEE ALSO: Strength to ride faster
=> SEE ALSO: Why and how to ride at a high cadence
=> SEE ALSO: Why do cyclists shave their legs?