Bicycling

© Nick Muzik

To stand and stomp or sit and grind? Five techniques to get to the top stronger and faster.

Seated climbing is more efficient over longer climbs. You use more muscles when you're out of the saddle, which raises your heart rate by eight percent - and keeping your heart rate lower is important on longer climbs. Standing requires more energy because you work your legs, arms and back, and you use 12 percent more oxygen and energy.

A long climb is 1.5km or more, and making the decision to sit or stand depends on the steepness.

Here are five techniques to get to the top stronger and faster:

1. Keep Your Body Still

• Don't rock your upper body; it wastes energy.
• Don't let your shoulders hunch forward; instead, keep them back and down to open your chest for breathing.
• A quick test to tell if you're hunching forward: if your elbows are sticking out so far you can't lightly brush your knees on the upstroke, you're hunched and robbing yourself of oxygen.
• To keep your upper body from swaying as you pedal, pull lightly on the bar opposite the leg that's on a downstroke.

2. Scoot Your Butt Back

• Sliding back on the seat gives you more leverage on the pedals. This position opens the angle between your femurs and upper body, which lets you better use the powerful psoas muscles in the back of your thighs and lower back, especially when you pull up.
• For more power over shorter rises, slide to the front third of the saddle. When your weight is more forward, you're using the powerful muscles of your buttocks and lower back. You also won't feel like you're dragging so much weight.

3. Relax Those Hands

• Put your hands on the hoods or the bar top, so you can drop your elbows and relax your upper body.
• Don't climb in the drops - hunching down pinches off the lower part of the lungs and restricts the diaphragm. To stay relaxed, climb with your hands on the brake hoods.
• If you prefer riding with your hands on the top, rest your thumbs on the top of the bar to avoid squeezing and tensing up.
• To keep your grip loose, grab the bar with your fingers spread out, then put your weight on the bar and wrap your fingers around loosely.

4. Stay Above 60 RPM

• There's lots of talk about ramping up cadence because Lance Armstrong used to spin at about 90-100 rpm on climbs. But rather ride a constant cadence of about 85-95 rpm when climbing in the saddle.
• A cadence of about 60-70 rpm is as low as you should go in the saddle. Go slower and you lose your fluid pedal stroke.

5. Shift Easy Then Hard

• Plan ahead on climbs.
• Start in easier gears at the bottom and shift into harder gears as you ascend.
• Then, as the climb gets tougher, you won't be left grasping for easier ones. That's the best way to get over the summit in the saddle, but don't let ego limit your cog choice.
• You can even click into the 27-tooth cog if that's what the course demands.