Standing + Big Gears Always = Knee Problems?

Steve Sr. wrote:

I have recently been trying to increase my strength by pushing hills
while standing and slightly bigger gears sometimes while riding. I
have noticed an increase in strength but unfortunately my knees don't
seem able to take the added stress.

Unless you're climbing with way (way way) bigger gears I'd be sort of
surprised that this was enough to trigger knee pain -- but since this
isn't a particularly effective way to improve your power, if you think
it's causing you problems, don't do it.

On Tue, 04 Apr 2006 21:24:03 -0400, Steve Sr.
wrote:

On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 21:58:05 -0700, "Robert Chung"
wrote:

Steve Sr. wrote:

I have recently been trying to increase my strength by pushing hills
while standing and slightly bigger gears sometimes while riding. I
have noticed an increase in strength but unfortunately my knees don't
seem able to take the added stress.

Unless you're climbing with way (way way) bigger gears I'd be sort of
surprised that this was enough to trigger knee pain -- but since this
isn't a particularly effective way to improve your power, if you think
it's causing you problems, don't do it.

So what is a better way to improve power?

Pedal slightly faster in a slighty bigger gear.

JT

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Steve Sr. wrote:
Unless you're climbing with way (way way) bigger gears I'd be sort of
surprised that this was enough to trigger knee pain -- but since this
isn't a particularly effective way to improve your power, if you think
it's causing you problems, don't do it.

So what is a better way to improve power?

Sprints. High cadence, explosive, 20 second sprints. If you do them
right, you'll feel like you just got done doing a leg workout with
weights at the gym.

Steve Sr. wrote:
On Mon, 3 Apr 2006 21:58:05 -0700, "Robert Chung"
wrote:

Steve Sr. wrote:

I have recently been trying to increase my strength by pushing hills
while standing and slightly bigger gears sometimes while riding. I
have noticed an increase in strength but unfortunately my knees don't
seem able to take the added stress.

Unless you're climbing with way (way way) bigger gears I'd be sort of
surprised that this was enough to trigger knee pain -- but since this
isn't a particularly effective way to improve your power, if you think
it's causing you problems, don't do it.

So what is a better way to improve power?

Power = cadence * crank torque (* a constant), so you can gain power
either by increasing your cadence with the same torque, or increasing your
torque for the same cadence, or some combination of the two. If you're
experiencing knee pain and you think it's because of standing and pushing
bigger gears (which is what you wrote), you don't have to do that. You can
get the same power-training effect by dropping your gearing a bit and
increasing your cadence a bit. There's nothing special about low-cadence
high-torque, so if it's causing you problems don't do it that way.

Though JT is right, the best way is both high(er) cadence and high(er)
torque.

Mike Reed wrote:
Steve Sr. wrote:

So what is a better way to improve power?

Sprints. High cadence, explosive, 20 second sprints. If you do them
right, you'll feel like you just got done doing a leg workout with
weights at the gym.

20 second sprints will help to improve your 20 second power but cycling is
mostly an aerobic sport so you'd be better off working on your aerobic
power.