How to Build Leg Strength to Ride a Bicycle Again: Adults/Seniors Who Haven't Ridden a Bike in Years

Seniors, here's how you can build leg strength, so you can ride a bike again.

Hey, everyone, I'm Dustin. I have nearly 20 years of experience in the bike and e-bike industry. Today we're going to talk about seniors, and how you can build your leg strength, so you can ride a bike again. All right, before I get in, I've got the simple step-through e-bike right here. It's a great e-bike to get riding again with this low step-through, real safe and easy to mount. Now, I've done hundreds of test rides with senior riders and I also have a spot here, where riders can come to us in San Clemente and take test rides.

And I handle a lot of those customers and a lot of senior riders are getting back into bicycling, because of e-bikes. It's an amazing thing. Now, I see a lot of riders that get back on for the first time after 30 years, literally experience their first ride right in front of me, and a lot of them find that they can't get the bike moving by pedaling. Now, not an issue if you want to use the throttle. You can always use the throttle, which is the great thing about an e-bike to get you moving, and then you start pedaling. However, a lot of riders over the age of 60 are not comfortable jumping straight into the throttle. They want to be pedaling, they want to feel that control, and unfortunately, they just don't have the leg strength, specifically, if they've been off of a bike for a very long time.

Now, the question is how can you build that leg strength to get riding again? So I've got a couple of different options, and I'll explain why each is good and bad, all at the same time. Now, number one, getting back onto a bike, it's not just about leg strength. I see a lot of riders that get back on, and they can't turn the pedals, or they can't get the bike rolling and pick their feet up, and what I witness is, in their mind, they feel like they can't get the bike moving because of their leg strength. I'm witnessing a couple of things at play here. Number one is leg strength. Number two, it's also the ability to balance. But number three, there's fear that is setting in now that they didn't experience 30 years ago or the last time they were on a bike, and they just picked their feet up and went.

Now, they're feeling like, "Okay, if I pick my feet up and go, I may crash, I may fall, I may hurt myself," which is completely a justified thought to have. But a lot of times, it prevents them from getting moving, because they don't want to pick their feet up long enough to get the pedals going because they're fearing the crash. So, all three of these things, a lot of times, work in unison to prevent senior riders from getting back and moving on a bike again. So specifically right now, I'm going to talk about building leg strength, but just know there's also conquering the fear and keeping the balance, as part of getting going on a bike again. Okay, so I've had riders come in and the first thing they say after they can't ride is they say, "You know what? I'm just going to be in the gym building my leg strength."

I think that is great. That is a great first step into getting your leg strength back. Get on a recumbent bike, get on an exercise bike, and work at the resistance level that is first comfortable for you, and start to build your leg strength up over time. And as you start to feel yourself increase resistance on the recumbent bike, maybe jump back to a regular bike, I would say, every two weeks and see how you do. Come back every two weeks. Maybe over the course of a month to two months, you'll have that leg strength necessary to get the pedals moving again. Now, the one thing I will say about training your legs and focusing on your leg strength, you can also add in squats, and body squats just like this, you could do lunges or anything that your joints are capable of. I would say that being on a recumbent is going to be the lowest impact to start building those muscles, and the motion of cycling your legs will be directly correlated to the motion on a bike if you're going on an upright exercise bike, not a recumbent.

Now, keep in mind a recumbent is going to be a different pedal position and is going to work a little bit different muscles than if you're sitting on an upright bike. So it's important that if you're getting to the gym to use the exercise bike to build strength for a bicycle, make sure that you are using an exercise bike in a sitting position that will correlate to the sitting position on a bicycle. Most times, gyms have both options of exercise bikes. You have more of an upright exercise bike which is used in cycling classes, things like that, or you have a recumbent. I will say that while I do think a recumbent will help build leg strength, I don't think it's going to be exactly what you need to build leg strength for cycling.

I'm not an exercise scientist, but from what I can think about, a recumbent is going to be a little bit more hamstring, and an upright bike is going to be a little bit more calf and quad, now hamstring as well. But that's why the correlation is not the same. So keep that in mind as you go to the gym, and maybe you could start on the recumbent and work your way up to an upright, that's also an option as well. Now, the one caveat also about an exercise bike in the gym is that there's no balance involved at all. So, balance also requires mental energy while you are trying to ride a bike again, in addition to thinking about your leg strength and getting the bike moving, right? So, not having to balance on an exercise bike allows you to put all your focus on your legs. When you get back onto the bike, you're going to have to keep the bike balanced as well.

So, if you're training and trying to get ready, I recommend doing the recumbent, maybe coming back to the bike outdoors, and trying to just get your balance, pick your feet up, roll with the bike a little bit, and maybe you can slowly work between the two of those, as you build your strength. You want to be making sure you're building your balance in coordination with the strength. I would say if you're specifically going to the gym to train your legs to get them stronger, don't forget about the balance element. Try to get on a bike and practice balancing even for a few minutes a day. Then you can continue to work on your leg strength in the gym as well. I just fear that if you focus entirely on your leg strength, let's say for a month and you come back to the bike and you're like, "Hey, why can't I do this?" It could be the balance thing, and at that point, you won't have been working on your balance in any way, shape, or form.

All right. My second way to build leg strength is to get a tricycle. Now, a lot of people I feel like think tricycles are either quitting or it's not riding a bike. I disagree. We at SixThreeZero have some great electric trikes and tricycles that will balance for you, that ride very nicely, and very easily, and you'll be able to keep up with other riders, because they have gears, and also have motors if you need them. A trike is going to again eliminate the balance element, so if you're planning to move to a two-wheel bike, it's going to be different, going from a three-wheel bike to a two-wheel bike. And prepping your mindset and how you steer on a trike is not going to set you up for success on a two-wheel bike.

What it can do is, get you pedaling again, get you riding again, get you pedaling through actual outdoor terrain, which you won't be doing on a recumbent bike in the gym. So if I had to choose, I would choose that you do a three-wheel bike outdoors versus a recumbent bike, because in the outdoor elements, riding a bike, you're going to experience things that you won't experience in the gym, wind, divots in the ground, bumps, different terrains, and also the experience of pedaling your body weight, right? So when you're outdoors, you have to pedal your body weight, pull your body weight, which will be the same body weight that will be on the two-wheel bike and actually, it's going to be a little heavier, because you're going to have it on a three-wheel bike versus a two-wheel bike. So, when you're on that recumbent bike, you don't pull any weight, you just push against resistance, and we won't know exactly the correlation between the resistance and your body weight, so we can't say if level five would be the equivalent to pulling your body weight on a bike.

So, it's a very loose connection now. Still will build leg strength in the gym, but I like the idea of getting on the three-wheel bike first, to build your leg strength. Now, if your goal is to get to a two-wheel bike, I still say, stay in touch with a two-wheel bike as you're riding that three-wheel because again, you want to be training the balance and getting accustomed to the need to balance the two-wheel bike, which you don't have to do on an adult tricycle. Because if you continue to ride that three-wheel bike, while not staying connected to the two-wheel bike at all, by the time you decide you want to switch, it's going to feel very different again, getting back on that two-wheel bike.

I see it every day. We do test rides with lots of people that swap back and forth. They're different types of bikes, and you want to make sure you're training your mind or refreshing your mind about the balance necessary to ride a two-wheel bike. Okay. Now, my last option, and I think it's the best option to strengthen your legs to get riding on bikes again, is to get an e-bike. Now, if you're not comfortable with that or you have any fear at all, please choose the other two options, the recumbent bike or the three-wheel bike. But if you can get yourself moving and you feel comfortable with the balance, you just don't have that little bit of leg strength, an e-bike is absolutely a great option, because you can let the assist kick in, or you can completely take off by pushing a thumb throttle. Then once the bike gets up to speed, it's going to be much easier for your feet to rotate and keep the bike upright.

So strategically, you can use the throttle, as your body needs it, on any given bike ride. Then you can also use the pedal assist, which this simple step-through has five levels. So if you just need a little bit of assistance, put it in level one. If you want a lot of assistance, put it in level five. Now, again, I see a lot of senior riders over the age of 60 who don't want to jump straight into an e-bike until they feel they have the leg strength, and that's fine. But if you feel like your leg strength is there and it's more getting back or used to it while building the leg strength, by all means, do it. And I will say this, e-bikes are not cheating. It is a tool that when used properly is life-changing and ride-expanding. Now, an example I use is, if you go to the gym, there's a pull-up machine you can kneel on, and you can put weight on there.

It's an assisted pull-up, it helps you do pull-ups. Is it cheating? Well, it's not a pull-up like you're hanging there with no weight, but it's going to help you develop the strength to get to the point where you can do pull-ups on your own. An e-bike is just that as well. It's a tool you can use to assist your body to build strength to the point where you don't need it anymore if you don't choose to, or you can use it if you choose to. So, it's already doing that for thousands of seniors across the world. Hundreds of thousands of seniors, and I see it every day. They've been out of biking for a while, they couldn't ride anymore, because their back hurt or something hurt, but now an e-bike makes it possible. So, you can use the throttle, the pedal assist, and the motor of an e-bike as you see fit.

Maybe you get to the point where you still need to use level one, but you're okay with that, and that's no big deal. But it's a great tool to build your leg strength if you want to start doing bike rides without any electric assist at all. All right. So those are my three options for building your leg strength if you want to get back into cycling. Number one, an exercise bike in the gym, preferably an upright riding exercise bike. Number two, jump on a three-wheel bike first. And number three, get on an e-bike. All three are great options.

Figure out what suits your body best, and if you have any questions at all, please email us at theteam@sixthreezero.com, or call us at (310) 982-2877. Also, if you're looking to get back into cycling or get an e-bike, we have a proprietary body fit quiz on our website. Answer a few questions about your body and your life, and our algorithm will recommend the perfect bike, e-bike, or three-wheel adult bike for you.

In addition to that, we have a test ride your bike policy. If you don't love it in the first 30 days, send it back, no questions asked, no money out of your pocket. In addition to that, we're going to warranty everything for the first year, and take care of all the parts and labor, no matter what goes wrong. Lastly, we have a Facebook group with thousands of members. Jump in there and join, and you can ask questions of our existing riders, see how they like their bikes, figure out what bike is best for you, and get comfortable with purchasing before you do. And once you have your e-bike or bike, you can post in the group, and make friends, it's tons of fun. And then download our app in the App Store, both iOS and Google Play, and you can track your rides, and compete on the leaderboard. So, thanks for sticking around and don't forget, it's your journey, your experience. Enjoy the ride.