Is there some sort of posture ques you use when on a road bike? Say Zone 2-4 (not racing but training moderate to hard).
maybe break down if things are different in hoods vs tops / drops.
let’s assume your fit is fairly dialed in
like how far forward should you rock your pelvis? are you actively trying to axially (up and down) distract your spine? head down / eyes up or head neutral? or do you just hop on and not think about anything?
just curious what you all think about to double check or improve your on-bike posture.
I don’t really think about it. But that’s because my bike fitter said I have very good bike posture. I do swap between hoods and drops just for a change. When in an event, I can easily stay in the drops all day. Maybe finding out if you have a problem that needs worked on is a good place to start.
I am a huge proponent of hip rotation and it is one of the most overlooked aspects of bike fit. It not only helps you get more aero, it actually puts you in a more comfortable and sustainable position (if done properly)
I hate it when TR workouts talk about anchoring your sit bones to the saddle as this is, IMO, fundamentally the wrong advice.
I’ve been told to rock my hips (pelvis) forward as far as I can then back as far as I can to get a feel for end ranges…then put my hips (pelvis) in the mid-point.
what’s your determination of how for forward / backwards you rock your hips?
I don’t believe in rotating your hips backwards, but in terms of forward, I rotate (not rock) my hips forward as much as possible. A snub-nosed saddle can help, but I successfully did it for decades before their invention.
It is a fine difference between rocking you hips (which usually means most people just try and lean forward more) and rotating your hips. When you rotate your hips, you essentially keep all your body angles the same, you are just rotating your body forward.
Picture an imaginary dial on your hip and envision yourself on the bike form the side. If you rotate that dial forward, all the angles of your body on the bike stays the same, it is just rotated forward. Many riders may then need to lower (and potentially extend) their stem to compensate.
Is it a general advice? I thought it was just applicable to TT plans, Ive no experience other plans and I am certainly no posture expert, trainer or fitter.
Their use of terms like “sit bones” may lead to confusion and misunderstanding, but the underlying idea of being well placed on the saddle with little or no movement is still worthwhile.
If people take a purely literal take on “sit bones” = Ischial Tuberosity (which is the usual association) it may well lead to people applying more upright pelvic tilt than is likely appropriate. The reality is that the SB/IT may be in contact even for some people in proper position, but the Pubic Rami (Left & Right Ramus) are more likely the actual support here and most other positions for that matter (including very anterior angles like TT & low road setups).
Never really thought about hip angle. I do note that the harder the interval or while climbing, I move to the nose of the saddle which changes my hip angle. It’s a natural movement.
Any good readings or videos out there to go into more details on how to best sit on your saddle and what saddle to choose?
Felt like measuring sit bones was one of the go to methods
Partly related, but this EC article (and member’s only pod) came out recently. Part way through reading the article and just started the pod, but figured it might be worth a share:
I have a mags for the road bike and a v8 on my TT bike. Will be ordering another mags for the gravel bike.
Admittedly, 22/23 years ago i went to college with Nick (wove creator and CEO) and spent hours and hours training with him - so there’s my bias. But I really can’t imagine riding anything else at this point. I held off on purchasing bc i thought the price tag was a bit much, but now that I’m on them they’re the best bike related purchases I’ve ever made.
There’s some interesting postural stuff at 25 minutes into this:
If your saddle has the right cutout and shape you should be able to rotate your pelvis forwards to get the spinal extension and diaphragm space Colby talks about.
I just read maybe 3/4 of the article and glossed over, to be honest. My experience is the saddles are legit, but I agree it reads like an advertisement - which is why I glossed over. I do have the podcast queued up bc if nothing else it’s cool to hear my friends on podcasts.
My experience:
I’m 42 with a 25 year history in cycling/triathlon. Prior to that, 12ish year history of year round basketball where I was your stereotypical gym rat, this caused sport specific motor patterns and imbalances I was unaware of, but did deal with low back issues prior to starting cycling.
Move forward 25 years of what is likely an overall average floating between 10-20 hours of training/week and the prior noted imbalances have become significantly more noticeable and aggravating to the point of considering giving up the sport due to repeated low back/pelvic/hip problems. As for saddles specifically, I couldn’t find something that essentially didn’t penalize me for the noted imbalances in some form (Meaning, significant saddle sores from ISM saddles and Fizik options I tried, or general discomfort from other brands requiring squirming). I really didn’t know what to do as I didn’t want to invest thousands of dollars into saddle trial and error.
At this point I sent Nick an email and asked if he had any old “beater” saddles I could try prior to shelling out $500 plus for a saddle that might not work. He sent me a loaner Mags and I think I was 22 minutes into my first trainer ride when I texted him from the bike telling him I wanted to purchase. I’d never been able to sit on a trainer for more than 10 minutes without having to stand and the time flew by.
I purchased the Mags and also the V8 (where I was previously on a Selle Italia Watt on the TT bike).
My experience is I’ve had zero saddle sore issues in the last year (I use assos chamois buttr) and I’m able to ride without as much persistent fatigue in the lumbar muscles (psoas, quad lumborum). Also, I’ve used pedal based power and am slowly creeping back towards 51/49 or 52/48 for most rides where I was previously at 55/45.
For me - I know the saddles have helped significantly which is why I keep purchasing more. Do I think they’re some sort of game changer for someone with zero of the issues I noted above? I don’t think I can say that, especially at the price tag compared to others.
I do think if you’re having any repeated discomfort it’s worth a try - I do know they’ve released a testing program of some sort where you can try a saddle for the cost of shipping risk free - but I don’t know much beyond that. I also know they’re very small and working to bring costs down with larger production runs that can hopefully reduce costs to us/consumers in the future, but I’m not sure how far off that will be.
Hope this helps a little. Regarding their claims of efficiency, etc - I can’t comment.
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