One legged cycling drill

This one is best done on a fixed trainer (ie. Not rollers – but if you can do it on rollers -you’re crazy awesome- or would like to see someone doing this on rollers, check the comments) and is a great way to break up an indoor ride.  There’s not much to explain, other than to pedal your bike with one leg at a time.  Put your free leg on the trainer, next to where it attaches to the bike.  Try and keep your quad in line with it’s normal plain of motion so that your hips don’t twist on the saddle.

The best way to do this is to count your revolutions for each leg, and you don’t need to have the wattage/resistance very high.  It’s more about spinning smoothly right through the whole revolution.  50 on one leg, 50 on the other.  Then 40 and 40.  30/30.  20/20.  10/10.  Work through that a couple times and you can bet you’ll be feeling some muscles you didn’t know you had.  This drill also activates your core muscles – which are very important for an efficient and strong pedal stroke.  Once you’ve mastered that drill you can also do it in the aero bars.  As an added bonus, this drill will help indicate if you’re in the aero position properly.  If you find you simply can’t do it  in the aero position (likely you feel really weak pulling up), it may be woth getting someone to look at how your bars and saddle are set up.