# Dead/wooden legs



## skankingbiker (Jan 15, 2010)

Overweight clyde here who didn't ride much most of the season (weekend warrior, if that). Started to try and get into shape 2 months ago. I have been doing 2-3 moderately intense 1 hour rides per week on my mountainbike, and have done 3 30 min cyclocross races the last 3 weekends. 

My problem is that I have dead/wooden legs. They feel like boat anchors. The muscles in my quads and hip flexors feel permanently tight/ seized. I stretch before and after each ride and use foam rollers. I also stretch every morning and before bed. I also drink plenty of water. Nothing I do helps. I have tried icing after rides and soaking in a hot tub.

I do not think that I am "overtraining", as other than the cx races, I am not putting in any balls-to-the-wall efforts during the week...just good moderate cardio pace.

Looking for recommendations as to causes/how to get relief.


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## jrastories (Aug 2, 2008)

If everything is tight bike fit and motor patterens may be the problem. Have you had a bike fit done?


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## leeboh (Aug 5, 2011)

Cross train. Do a road ride @ 3/4 intensity for 3-4 hours. Try to get in better overall shape. I think you are expecting to much too soon.


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## jennyv (Nov 13, 2012)

When you say dead/wooden legs, do you mean that they are really tight? Or do you feel like they are deadweight (lack of energy/don't recover).


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## challybert (Sep 5, 2014)

Seat height and fore/aft position correct? I had a similar issue occur when I got my new bike. I'd get dead legs and similar cramping type feeling in my hips. Very frustrating because my lungs/heart rate felt fine. Well, I solved the problem completely by accident. Did a 20 mile XC type ride and for some reason my legs felt great. Turns out I did the whole ride with my dropper post about 3/4ers of an inch lowered.


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## mabrodis (Oct 19, 2005)

challybert said:


> Did a 20 mile XC type ride and for some reason my legs felt great. Turns out I did the whole ride with my dropper post about 3/4ers of an inch lowered.


Haha, that's great. I've accidentally experimented with things like that...rode an hour on a local trail and felt great, bike held lines in the corner fantastic, get off bike at end and realize how soft my tires were and how soft my shocks were then realize that I just learned something about how to go faster, way better control, etc.

To the OP, to me it sounds alittle like overtraining, but probably not the overtraining that you're thinking. It sounds like your pedal technique may focus solely on one or two muscle groups and those those muscles get tired/bored and everyone has times when they are mentally tired even though their muscles work fine, but psychological and physical are so closely tied together. If you think you should be tired then often times your muscles comply and act tired.

For me when I get that "my legs are shot & heavy and I have to slog up this friggen hill again?" feeling I try to change things up, I'll position myself differently on the seat, often times sliding forwards a few inches and pedal with my toes pointed down (which means I don't extend my legs as far) and pedal in a much easier gear (with toes down you can usually pedal a pretty high cadence). Just tipping my toes down makes my legs feel totally different and it seems like I naturally start to pull up on the off-stroke easier (using glutes/hamstrings, etc) and all of a sudden my legs feel better in a few seconds. The heavy feeling comes and goes for me, but I try to alternate with different pedaling methods a bunch and for me it gives a welcomed relief and a 'spry' feeling, renewed energy, renewed mental outlook (i.e. telling myself "I am not going to let this rock section stop me, I may not make it clean to the top of the trail but damnit I'm going to clean this section..", yes I'm one of them that talks to himself on the trail...)

Good Luck!

Edit: Since this is a nutrition forum I guess what you're eating and drinking before your rides should be brought up. If I eat bad, which for me is heavy food, pizza and other rich/calorie-dense food I feel like hell on the bike, can't get out of my own way, lethargic, feel fat and slow. If instead I eat what I consider healthy, which for me is lots of fresh vegetables, sauteed squash and tofu, giant salad with no dressing, etc...then I feel great, surprisingly good actually, hard part is making myself eat like that always.


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## WA-CO (Nov 23, 2013)

Time for some process of elimination questions...

-So this muscle tightness or no leg spin/energy? Totally different issues.

-Is this a brand new phenomenon, or has this happened before? 

-Is this feeling only riding? You're OK doing other activities? 

-This is only post ride, not before?

-Do you feel like you're warming up enough?

-Have you tried an active recovery, super mellow spin ride, no real work? Did you get the same results/feeling? 

-You may think you're not "over training" but this is in comparison to what? Maybe you ARE based upon your lack of fitness today? 

-Are you using anything to measure your exertion level when you do ride? HR/Watts or even perceived exertion level?

-Do you have a consistent way that you're able to judge/measure your flexibility? If so, is it vastly different today than it was, say a year ago?

-Are you getting decent carbs in you after an effort? That might help, but it doesn't sound like it's the issue.

-Is anything in other parts of your life different? Did you change jobs or roles at work, so you're doing something different?

-Have you gained more weight, but still riding and thinking you're your previous featherweight self?

-Are you sleepwalking 10-20 miles a night?

Just throwing out some suggestions for some additional investigation/reflection. More data and details might help isolate some potential causes. Good Luck.


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## skankingbiker (Jan 15, 2010)

Thanks for the responses. To answer a few of the questions, my problem is very tight quads/hipflexor/ and piroformis. My legs also feel "dead" (heavy, like lead weights). 

I gained weight over the spring/summer and did not do much for exercising except weekend MTB rides. I have been trying to work out 3 times a week...Monday and Wednesday doing a lifting circuit, and riding for 1hr on the weekend. I have been doing local cx races the last 2 months in cat 5 (getting passed by 10 year old juniors). 

As far as body position, my for/aft/seat height are all the same across my bikes. This problem started developing on my SSCX bike....main difference in setup is lower handlebars, so I am "hinged" over more. 

For eating, I have been trying to eat lots of meats and proteins and reduce my carbs. Due to insane work schedule, I often do not eat breakfast or lunch.

Before a race, I usually eat 2 eggs, some toast, and a protein drink.

As far as effort is concerned, I seem to wear out very fast...much faster than I am used to...


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## mabrodis (Oct 19, 2005)

skankingbiker said:


> For eating, I have been trying to eat lots of meats and proteins and reduce my carbs.
> ...
> As far as effort is concerned, I seem to wear out very fast...much faster than I am used to...


Curious what prompted you to eat in that manner? I ask because (I am not an expert on this...) the body does not run on protein, it runs on carbs. There is a reason that most athletes actually eat little to zero protein before and during an event, because protein is hard to digest, they want fast energy now, which is simple carbs. Most pro cyclists I see eat a mixture of oatmeal and fruit for breakfast before a big event, or white rice and some eggs with sugar.

I know there are times when some athletes do eat some protein during a race, but in my opinion it's rare.

Just my $0.01 worth


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## skankingbiker (Jan 15, 2010)

mabrodis said:


> Curious what prompted you to eat in that manner?


trying to lose weight and run calorie deficit.


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## AndrwSwitch (Nov 8, 2007)

Don't stretch so much. If it helps you recover, do it after a workout. It can mess with your muscle firing of you do it ahead of time. Try to warm up for a while before hitting the work units in a workout. If I'm just going riding, I don't worry about that, but my legs never feel great until I've done at least one effort and recovery. Racing doesn't really leave time for a recovery, so I try to warm up for about a half hour first. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes before doing an interval workout.

Try to keep a balance among carbs, fats and proteins. You really need all three. Some ready carbs are part of the metabolic process that runs your muscles. Protein is part of recovery. And fat helps cue our bodies that we've eaten. You just need to eat less of everything, in similar proportions to what you're used to.

Pumping iron will slaughter your legs for a couple days, give or take. That's why when traditional cycling training plans incorporate weights, it's during base, when on-bike efforts aren't so intense. I'm not saying "don't," necessarily. Building up some lean muscle can help drive your metabolism and might give you better short-duration power. Just recognize that it's going to mess with how you feel on your bike while you're doing it.

As others have said, it does sound like too big an increase in volume. If you've been consistently doing this for the last two or three weeks, try taking it easy for a week before your next race. See if you have a little more pop. And don't increase your volume until you're on top of what you're doing now.

What else? I never really know how my legs are going to feel if I didn't ride the day before. So I try not to let races be my first day back. My ideal leg openers day is a relatively unstructured hour in which I try to do a couple high-intensity but short efforts. Like if I hit Zone 5, I don't necessarily try to hold that effort. Just get to the top of the short climb or the end of the road or whatever, then sit up and recover. It should be fun and not too draining.

Our bodies hate change. The good news is that once you get used to working out regularly, it should be relatively easy to maintain your new normal.


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