Too Much Speed With Too Little Purpose

Want to thank Spook for recommending this article!

HIGH CADENCE WITHOUT RESISTANCE IS UNSAFE AND UNPRODUCTIVE. An indoor cycling student recently asked a instructor friend of mine about the practice of using very high RPM's in class against relatively little resistance. While many indoor cycling protocols is to use high RPM's in certain circumstances, there is no time that cadence exceed 110 RPM's with little or no resistance, How Cadence might reach that high during a sprint for instance, but even then it is always against high resistance and only for about 20 seconds.

Why is high RPM against light resistance not advisable in the indoor cycling program?

First, it is unsafe. Excessively fast pedal action transfers unnecessary force to the knee joint. Also, a foot can easily slip out of the cage potentially causing injury.

Second, it is ineffective. According to the some research, excessive cadence does not train the proper muscle-firing sequence for a training benefit. Moreover, the pros do not train this way. It is a gimmick.

A rule of thumb. Any time you feel yourself bouncing on the saddle your RPM's are too high for the amount of resistance on the flywheel. You should either reduce cadence or increase resistance. When you are bouncing, you are not riding the bike, the bike's flywheel is riding you.

Higher cadence has an important place in bicycle efficiency. Many riders ride at too low a cadence. But pedaling too fast against light resistance is not the answer. Ride this way outdoors and you'd almost fall over - or get passed. We need to learn how to pedal efficiently within the range that is generally accepted as most efficient, approximately 85-100 RPM's for most riders. And that needs to be done against appropriate resistance.

Some students may think they need to follow the beats-per-minute like they might in some other group exercise formats. However, in cycling students are encouraged to follow the feelings and emotions created by the music rather than BPM. There are some times when the musical beat is conducive to match with pedal stroke. Your instructor should be your guide as to the cadence.

Let me also take another moment to talk about the relationship between resistance, cadence and heart rate. Let us suppose that you are pedaling at a very slow cadence caused by very heavy resistance. Let's also assume that your heart rate is steady. Now you are also capable of slowly decreasing your resistance and increasing your cadence while keeping your heart rate the same.

All of this means that you can get the same results by sometimes manipulating the relationship between cadence and resistance. But remember there are times for high cadence and lighter resistance and higher resistance and lower cadence. It all depends on what the instructor has planned for the class. But it should have some purpose for doing it.

So remember try and understand this relationship. If you not sure about how this affect you, get a heart rate monitor and try it your self. Testing this relationship does not happen in short little changes. Make your adjustment slowly and what your monitor. If you don’t have it makes it a little harder, but you can do it but keeping you breathing at a constant level. Breathing should not be to heavy or to light for you to see good results.

I would like to thank Bill Roach of the Aspen Athletic Club in Iowa for contributing part of these comments.