During the Exercise “Pettit” is the formtraining one content. “Extend the foot further over the toes and raise the heels to actively use the calf a bit.”
On my recumbent bike this is caused by the higher foot to seat position, only with little effect usable for me. May be 1-2 cm way to raise the heels during the pull process. Do you practice it? Best regards from Hamburg
I also ride a recumbent bike and I practice scrapping mud from my shoe. This allows you to use your hamstring muscles and smooths out your pedal stroke. My understanding of the science is that your calf muscles are not active in the upstroke. This is a persistent myth.
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As @DennyD said, I also do the foot scraping aspects of these drills. For the “kick” I sometimes try, but mostly for the distraction.
@DennyD and @tomclune, nice to see here also other recumbent drivers. Thank you for your reply. So I will go on with it.
Are your knees in one line during pull and push process? My legs make without a conscious limitation a little curve. If I make that conscious limitation I feel not very comfortable.
Also glad to know other bents on the forum.
I never got much out of those knee drills. I’m either doing ok on that front or just don’t know what to watch for.
My frustration is the rarer, independent leg drills. Cannot comfortably dangle the unused leg and resistance mode does not work right on my trainer. So, hard effort and uncomfortable. Others have suggested to just go easy on the other leg, but I’m not sure it has the same benefit.
Which bike do you have? And which trainer (electrical Smarttrainer) ? I drive a Challenge Chamsin. I focused during that exercises like having a tunnel view on that leg which should be trained. So the other one is just like a guest. You may train this conscious focus during sitting on the couch doing something with one leg and foot. Just another idea, two chairs left and right between you and the pedals where the unused leg can rest may be a solution. I could rest my unused leg on the boom, but I prefer focusing on one leg suits well for me. The other one is so just further load.
Mine is a high racer. The stand I use to get my iPad in front of my face makes it difficult to get a platform for my foot on one side. I have used a chair on the other side “just to see” and found that still much harder to sustain a smooth pedal stroke than when I still had that foot clipped in but trying not to help. It apparently does not take much to fill in the dead spot. OTOH, I’m not terribly convinced that a smoother pedal stroke matters much for me. I’m not racing (they won’t let me on a recumbent even if i wanted to), and I think I’m smooth enough to be efficient. Would like figure out a way to see the left/right imbalance on my Assioma duos though …
I am not racing too, with 57 it is too late and also not for interest for me. I just will be in a good shape for the bike tours with the tent starting at end of Mai. So the form in footwork I think may be just a small percentage regarding the rest. But if I feel a little more relaxed after a long ride, it’s worth it. The Asomia Duo would be a nice gift for next year. How often do you train during the week? I’m on the bike 3 times a week, for a total of 3.5 hours.