Building up your quads on a recumbent trike


Since I started riding a recumbent trike, a little over six years ago, I've noticed some good quad development, in spite of the fact that I never go very fast, or very far. The reason for this I've decided is that a recumbent is like a leg press - your back is firmly pressed into the seat, and the pedaling motion is done mostly with quadriceps, not so much with the ankles.

Now don't get me wrong, you'll still get some ankle work on recumbent, along with lower legs, especially your shin muscles, but the main thing is quads. And because of the seating position you can't stand up to go up a hill, like on an ordinary bicycle, you have to continue to push forward, with your quads. Even a slight incline challenges the quads, especially if you forget to downshift (which happens sometimes!).

A few days ago I decided to take my new trike (that's a TerraTrike Gran Turismo) out on the bikes lanes to get some speed (I only made it to ninth gear, and it has eighteen, so it can go fast!), and the next day, and the next-next day I felt like I had really been training the quads, which were stiff and sore (a good sore, but still sore!). I can still feel it this morning.

It's Friday morning, and my plan is to get back to pushing the trike (and my quads) hard on Sunday, and in the meantime I'm just noodling around slowly. This has been an amazing process for my leg development. Highly recommended!



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