Transitioning From Sitting to Standing When Climbing Hills

[DocZan89]

Wonder if anyone could give me some advice. When I am climbing a hill and get to the point where I would like to get off my seat, I find that as I am getting off the seat, my quads feel very fatigued and there is a lot of stress on my knees. So much so, that I wind up staying on the seat hoping for the best. I know I will need to be able to get out of the seat in order to conquer longer steeper hills.
Is there anything in the way of training or technique that I should be doing to get better at this? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Rosanna

[marni]

I rarely stand to climb. I have found that I do better sitting up and spinning in a granny gear. sitting up straight allows me to breath deeply and relax my shoulders. Slow but steady is my practice, besides I never met a hill I couldn't walk.

[shootingstar]

I wrote this in another thread:

When I returned to cycling over 2 decades ago, I often cycled behind my partner to learn how he dealt with new routes, signalling, etc. and that's when I watched-learned how he could climb-spin up long hill and mountain grades without standing/rising from his saddle. He does this also with full weighted bike panniers and a loaded bike trailer also. He is a experienced and long distance endurance cyclist....I believe he has racked up 130,000 km. over the last 25 years and he doesn't rise from his saddle. Yes, he has iron legs.

Yet, I am certain he is incorrectly/negatively judged by younger/same age guys flying up the mountain grades on their carbon bikes in their team kits. (My partner has never cycled in a team kit. He never will. Just ordinary lycra, jersey and high-vi apparel. That's all.)

If you want to compete-race then for certain you may want to learn how to cycle rising up from your saddle.

But already I'm with my guy..who cycled mountain ranges in British Columbia and Rocky Mountains with loaded bike panniers....he has never risen from his saddle. He just grinds up long 10-15 km. grades 7-14% up. When I think of him for times he's not around, this how I sometimes have the image, him just doggedly spinning and spinning up that long, steep grade ahead of him, not rising from his saddle. It is more inspiring than you could ever believe...especially when he is pulling weight of panniers.

Don't be too hard on yourself if you don't become super good. There are good (male) endurance cyclists who don't rise from their saddles and they tackle mountain ranges in 100-130 km. day long rides.

Just enjoy the hill climbing no matter what riding style. It's like life...

[rebeccaC]

When you stand you’re shifting all your weight onto your legs and knees. That might be part of what you're feeling in your already tired quads and knees during a long climb when you come off the saddle. That bodyweight is also what can give you a little more power on the pedals though. Standing also brings into play more upper body muscles, which can use more of your energy and can also increase HR and more cardio/breathing stress if your strength to weight ratio isn’t optimal for out of the saddle climbing. That optimal ratio is rarer than many might think.

I ride long steep climbs (11-17% sections) on my weekend rides for my strength and endurance training. I’ll get out of the saddle to stretch or on a really difficult climb to make changes in my muscle groups for a few minutes and/or for the added power.

For a smooth transition I’ll move my hands to the hoods, shift to lower my cadence while standing as my right foot begins its downward stroke. I’ve learned by watching the movement of my stem I can quickly get a fluid rocking movement and know the rhythm that allows my leg to make a direct push on the pedal making the best use of my weight while keeping a smooth stroke. Keeping my chest open for breathing efficiency, upper body relaxed, back straight, not leaning forward enough to put weight on the front wheel but enough to put my weight over the axis of the crank rotation and having the tip my saddle just barely brushing my thigh gives me a body position that works well for me. It can take some practice to adapt to the position for both motor learning and upper muscle development reasons. Like most things more practice is good.

All this said staying seated and pedaling at a high cadence is probably a more efficient use of most people’s energy while climbing....and that shouldn't be looked at as worse than being able to ride out of saddle

[OakLeaf]

It sounds like you're staying in a squat rather than standing completely up. When you stand to climb, you'll be extending your knees almost fully, really standing up except for whatever bend in your hips you need to reach the handlebars. Commit yourself to the motion, it's really just like getting up out of a chair initially, and then, as others have said, like riding an elliptical machine once you're standing.

The conventional wisdom is that standing takes more cardiovascular energy. But sitting and spinning takes more leg muscle, and sometimes we run out of leg muscle before we run out of cardio capacity. It's good to be able to climb a hill either way, and to be able to switch back and forth on long climbs.

[Crankin]

Well, my experience is that of the OP's. I stand to stretch for a few seconds on long rides, or to just move around, but never while climbing. Just the act of standing hurts like hell, and I spin up anything. I may be going slowly, but I can climb steep grades. When I am riding behind DH, I always know when he will stand. If I stand, all that happens is my speed goes down as he accelerates. It just hurts all over, so I stopped trying. I approach it in a similar way as Marni described.