How to Get Big Legs like a Cyclist

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[@ssanderson12]

I had chicken legs my whole life until I started dedicating serious time in the gym doing squats, deadlifts, leg presses, lunges, etc. Coupled with the proper food, my legs grew. Crazy how that works. I've since stopped lifting weights and shifted 100% to cycling for the last 9 months and haven't lost any leg size.

[@rickyhuff]

For years I lifted in the winter with fairly light weight and very high reps, so I wouldn't gain weight. One day while talking with a friend and very accomplished track rider, I mentioned this. He paused, and looked me over and said; "Don't worry about lifting big, you aren't going to get big and bulky. " He was right. Went with very high weight, lower reps and sets. Got much stronger and only got slightly, almost imperceptibly bigger, but with more definition. Funny how that works, and how my friend called it.

[@richardmiddleton7770]

High reps for growth (10-20), low reps/more weight for strength (1-5).

[@arnthorla]

I got big legs doing level 3 volume. So after building base in level 2 I put more emphasis on muscular endurance doing long rides in level 3. So the main thing is that you are always touching a bit on your strength, putting a little extra into the pedals, cadence 80 to 95 more or less. Be careful not going into lactic acid because that will just burn you out.

[@derekmoore6708]

Another great video guys. Really enjoying these lately...quality discussion and information

[@TrainerRoad]

Glad you liked it! Thanks for watching :)

[@AP-vd8ve]

About the fat cell thing that you mentioned, I think that in childhood fat cells can be multiplied and then in adulthood the existing cells can grow in size but never get lost completely

[@odettg9106]

I think for females it's kind of difficult cz we want to maintain some fat cells 🍑🙈..we don't want to loose that just increasing leg muscles hamstring..for me it's going that way..I'm kind of thin side shape and want bigger legs without out loosing my small curves..

[@speedwobble5383]

Goddamit chad your knowledge never ceases to impress me!

[@onset5881]

Big legs are a massive inconvenience. I used to squat 180kg at my weight now which is 75kg. My legs were huge. I squatted 3 times a week. I could never find trousers that fit me properly. Carrying around my legs all day felt exhausting. I had no use whatsoever to have legs that big. So I stopped squatting so heavy and so frequent. and took up cyclying last November. My legs have 'shrunk' but are much more useful now and I feel much happier having legs that 'feel' useful rather than just looking impressively big. I think you should aim for what feels good to you and what makes you happy. If your legs actually feel weak or are ridiculously small like Jonny Bravo then I would probably make you happy to train them. To get big legs for the sake of it seems pointless and will take a lot hours to maintain which is time spent better elsewhere unless you're investing in this endeavour for a purpose.

[@Bayo106]

those legs were too big. you can have big legs and wear normal trousers

[@August12350]

@@Bayo106 nope its very uncomfortable and it makes you slow and headache for pants as its become very difficult to find your liking....

[@SakisLio08]

@@August12350 sounding like a lil bietch

[@user-zm9gc1kt8b]

@@August12350 Exactly

[@donhoover9998]

Great podcast as always. 5 star For sure. Interesting with new research on hypertrophic changes. Chad could have gone deep with these and body type differences. I’m a mesomorph who still hypertrophies with 30-35 reps, but at 10-12 reps I look like I’m playing football and not cycling. Thanks for always bringing home the facts. Love the podcast

[@cerocerocinco]

I have a friend who does 2000km a year and has legs like André Greipel. While i do 10.000km a year and have the legs of an average kenyan long-distance runner. It's all in the genes.

[@jayaybe1]

Wrong.

[@simonsimon8213]

Maybe he is training more efficient

[@fahmihammadi7028]

food stress level sleep time affect the result

[@schinagldaniel7752]

ride 8000km less a year. Problem solved!

[@bca-biciclindcuaxel7527]

Maybe you do a lot of trash KMS (low , avg speed )

[@Fractal80Y]

you need to start being able to accelerate a hard gear and go full lactate with pushing a gear trying to overcome its force.

[@darrellwhitford7084]

Hi guys love the podcast. This topic of big legs, so genetics is the main hurdle I have done through my life a fair amount of for want of a better description ‘muscle building ‘ however never successfully. Only way I grow bigger is more fat 😔 But of late with TR I have seen an increase of muscle on my legs however my pants fit more loosely than ever how strong is this genetic hold? My wife wants more upper body by definition I don’t think I will ever be able to achieve a significant increase in dimension?

[@mosubekore78]

Legs seem to respond well with a lot of volume.

[@JuicySweetMaster]

Nate’s Legs is the best Strava account.

[@USSHammerology]

Squats, sumo deadlifts, and Nordic curls. Big legs!

[@onset5881]

'12-15 reps are like the sweet-spot for hypertrophy' This ties in to muscle fibre distribution so seems odd to say that following what was pointed out prior. The sweet spot for one person might be different for another depending on distribution of slow/fast twitch fibres. For me 12-15 reps does nothing. My body prefers 4-8

[@richardmiddleton7770]

Hypertrophy training (10-20 reps) has to be to failure or close (1 RIR).

[@anujkalmane7015]

Hey guys for double days where you do a gym session and a ride what do you this ideal? The ride first or the gym session?

[@TrainerRoad]

Typically, we recommend doing the ride first so that you can meet your primary goals (cycling) more successfully :)

[@j-why4359]

I could do a video on how to get chicken legs 🦵🏻

[@kc3718]

please I could do with leg size reduction

[@NanoMalo]

i'll be the guy you use as an example for your video bro

[@Conssumed]

Eat like you have no idea about nutrition, train like a bitch and stress a lot.

[@jacklauren9359]

Hit the gym. Plain and simple. Hypertrophy and strength. Lots of masters cyclists do not like gym thinking cycling will give them bigger legs when its an endurance sport. You don’t see track cyclists do not do heavy gym sessions right?

[@sarimmohammed8677]

@@jacklauren9359 you can still get bigger legs by cycling but depends what type for example doing off road with steep hills and doing it on the lowest gear on the bike puts tension on your legs therefore you can grow them

[@TheAcdcnz]

So if you have more fast twitch muscles you can grow muscle easier?

[@aidansteller620]

TheAcdcnz you have to work out the fast twitch fibers, which means you have to do stuff like squats, deadlifts, sprints, etc. But cycling primarily works the slow twitch fibers which don’t grow as big as the fast twitch muscle fibers. Hope this helps!

[@DigitalvideotoolsOrg]

If you are a chronic leg day avoider (like myself), then you are going to add inches to your legs over a year from cycling, assuming your getting enough and sleep.

[@veronicaivy3671]

Track sprinters have the biggest legs, and at least half of our training is effectively powerlifting in the gym. But our races are very very short, and we're not maximizing w/kg--we're maximizing raw watts and torque. If you want big powerful legs, lift heavy: 1-5reps.

[@LucaBonato]

Hypertrophy sweetspot i 8/16 rep. 1-5 is more likely to improve force and power if done rapidly

[@mrkarterhuh9830]

Startingstrength will get your squat right.

[@Ninjump]

At my best I had 28 inch thighs and a 36 inch waist. Pain in the ass most of the time unless it was for sprinting or attracting women (fair few who are into that kinda thing 😅)

[@carlmons]

I used to have huge quads (almost as big as my waist!) purely from track training and racing- never did weights. It takes a lot of hard accelerations from low speeds to high speed sprints. I didn't do weights because track racers have to spin extremely high cadence, and I was afraid weights would slow my leg speed. Maybe I was wrong thinking weights would be detrimental, but I can tell you definitively you don't need them to get monster quads.

[@Popostarr]

You are a genetic anomaly,im the oposite,tried everything and they were sticks until i started lifting,so the advice they gave in the video is good for the vast majority of people,even you if you lifted your legs would be even bigger

[@carlmons]

@@Popostarr- of course there are variations with body type, and I specifically wasn't saying weights are a bad idea, only that they aren't the only way to get big muscles and power - but bigger legs does not necessarily make you faster! Power is a function of force x RPM, so the sprinting key is building torque at high cadence, which weights will not do - how are you going to do 180+ reps per minute with weights? As I mentioned, doing hard accelerations from low speeds (almost stopped) will do essentially the same thing as weight lifting, but with the addition of spinning out. A couple things that help are skipping a day or two between any riding so your muscles can recover, and do your sprints after a short warm-up, definitely before any long ride so your legs are fresh. My usual workout was 20 minute warm-up on the track, then one lap accelerations to max speed, 3 laps rolling easy, and repeat until I could no longer break 30mph. Then I'd hop on my road bike to get in 30-50 miles. Only did it about twice a week in between races. The order is important - if you sprint after a road ride you'll be aerobically exhausted, so won't be able to work your legs hard enough.

[@paddyp95]

Knew kids like you that just naturally got big legs from running. Amazing.

[@valheather5180]

I do no resistance 80-90rpm for about 45 mins 3 times a week,, I don’t want to build muscle so hence the no resistance

[@damianaranguren6736]

LOL - buddy here thought his title would get him 1M views! Fast-forward 4 years: Title pushed 57 k.

[@wizzelhoart]

it is not a smart idea to "give it all you got" when training for hypertophy. That's like doing RPE 10 each set and this causes more damage than whats reasonably recoverable. Its best to train at RPE 7-8 (or 2-3 RIR). Remember it's stimulate not annihilate

[@Armenian]

On the next episode of Trainer Road, the measure-able aerodynamic gains of having thigh gap vs not having thigh gap

[@Dezzasheep]

I cycle a lot and my legs are like twigglets, does my head in.

[@TheAcdcnz]

Buy an bike trainer, and just put it on the harshest gear and sprint.

[@Dezzasheep]

@@TheAcdcnz I use the trainer 3-5 time a week... But have to be careful with my knees as I've damaged them on hill repeats in the past. I'm a spinner.

[@woodenbat4054]

seems like ftp is tied to quads (leg press). Let’s say that a person with a 100 ftp can press 100 lbs (50 lbs per leg), 200 ftp can press 200 lbs, 300 ftp can press 300 lbs and so on. Say an average male racers weigh about 165 lbs. Most racers average above 300 ftp, which means that on every pedal down stroke, they go weightless on the saddle? No wonder they seem comfortable on ridiculous looking saddles that cause tremendous pain for normal people.

[@allthingsTechrelated]

sumo wrestlers have it.

[@dg2918]

I have big legs and short. I want to have those thin long and strong legs

[@oscarobregon2752]

Love the podcast. I just want to note that while hyperplasia does increase in the number of muscle fibers, humans don't have the ability to do this--unfortunatly.

[@xgalvan1]

6 people have small legs

[@jotcw81]

I'm view no1001 and like no 101 :)

[@powskier]

You're not differentiating between upper and lower legs. Thighs are better built in the gym, Lower legs are built on the bike, Squats won't help your lower kegs much.

[@grantmcdonnell174]

Lets not forget you;re not going to grow muscle without a calorie surplus also

[@jefteugels8374]

You don’t need to be in a surplus there are studies that it works in a deficit too for some people under some surcomstences

[@fitafanatomy3359]

I want lean vascular legs.. big legs are over rated

[@joerenner8334]

I can tell you how to get chicken legs. Genetics. Doesn't matter how many times i went to the gym. Didn't matter.

[@bikedawg]

I'm cursed with chicken legs cuz my mom married the wrong guy.

[@jonieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

wait, what kind of legs does your postmen have?

[@bikedawg]

@@jonieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee tree trunk legs.

[@domingov4313]

Its all roidz

[@annukun7318]

the question is to become a very fit cyclist do you need big legs?