Toe's or Heal's

Scoffin said:

I just started biking mid last year and after reading several recent articles on technique and training, I realize that I've been pedaling mostly with my toes down instead of keeping my heals down. It sounds like you use the bigger muscles in your leg and butt when you pedal heals down. I just wanted to get other peoples take on this. I really have to focus to keep my heal's down when pedaling. Is there a certain seat position that will help to encourage this technique? Also, If you want to pedal heal's down, are you really talking about just keeping your feet flat, or do you actually tilt your foot back so the heal is down?

Since it's freaking cold here in Iowa, I'm working on this in Spin class, but want to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

Both my Spin bike and road bike have strapped pedals, if that has any impact on this at all.

Thanks in adavance for your replies..

IMO i think it's a waste of time to focus on pedal technique, it will come naturaly with time on the bike. and your useing strapped pedals, i would realy forget about it. why not go with clippless?

From what I've seen and read it seems to be both an individual matter and it depends on load. In other words, some people are toe-dippers and some people 'drop their heels'. When spinning quickly, most people tend to toe-dip. When pushing heavy force (big gearing it up a hill, for example) most people start to drop their heels more.

Personally, I just concentrate on getting a smooth, comfortable stroke.

Scoffin said:

I just started biking mid last year and after reading several recent articles on technique and training, I realize that I've been pedaling mostly with my toes down instead of keeping my heals down. It sounds like you use the bigger muscles in your leg and butt when you pedal heals down. I just wanted to get other peoples take on this. I really have to focus to keep my heal's down when pedaling. Is there a certain seat position that will help to encourage this technique? Also, If you want to pedal heal's down, are you really talking about just keeping your feet flat, or do you actually tilt your foot back so the heal is down?

Since it's freaking cold here in Iowa, I'm working on this in Spin class, but want to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

Both my Spin bike and road bike have strapped pedals, if that has any impact on this at all.

Thanks in adavance for your replies..

Danch is on it, however the terms used for this discussion are very vague (not just here, I simply want to point out, what does it acutally mean "heals down/toes down"😉. It's important to note that as you drop the heels too low, you are stretching the achilles in a way that takes the soleus muscle out of it stongest range of motion. Cycling is not a strength dependent sport, but I know a lot of people like to do low cadence work and so forth, so after thousands of reps of such nonsense, it's possible to strain the achilles. I always thought that people wouldn't drop the heels so low that it would matter (given the above comment on strength), but it's been more than once that I've heard..."well, Greg LeMond use to drop his heels really low when he climbs, so it must be a good thing to do"...arg.
I can say that in a research on cycling biomechanics, a heel up position that was 13 deg above horizontal with the pedal was the most efficient. This can be found in a segment of Burke's book "Science of Cycling", by PR Francis (1986).
I take this as the "middle ground" of a good pedal stroke and allow for a small amount of play up or down from there to accomidate for higher or lower cadences.

If you're worried about being a heel-dipper, adjust your cleats to where they are further back on your foot. You WILL feel a difference. Personally, I am a huge toe dipper but just adjusted my cleats a tiny bit back but to where i still toe dip. As said, concentrate on form more than what doesn't feel right.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I have a better idea now on what Heal's down means. I have to think there are some efficiencies to be gained from it, but thought the same thing about the achillies being streatched and abused. One of these days I'll get cleats, but right now, I'm sticking with my straps.

Happy Cycling!!