Ten ways to improve your force curve

1. As a first step check your cycling position – incorrect cycling position can affect both the downstroke and upstroke phases.
2. Irrespective of your force curve make sure you are applying force to the pedals evenly with each leg. The left/right leg % should be as close to 50/50 as possible (it will fluctuate but try to keep in the range 48%-52%).
3. Consider investing in a good pair of cycling shoes. The use of training shoes will, generally always compromise your force curve as they make it difficult to fully implement the full power and recovery phases.
4. To practice pedalling don’t stand up on the pedals unless it is a specific session you need to do.
5. A ‘figure of eight’ shape may indicate too high a resistance setting forcing you to concentrate solely on the downstroke – power phase preventing upstroke momentum. Lower the resistance to a level which allows you to improve you force curve to optimum. Concentrate on ‘scrapping the mud off the sole of the foot’ to at the bottom of the pedal revolution.
6. Note that the Wattbike can be used for high cadence low wattage at one extreme and low cadence (r/m) high wattage at the other. Optimum leg speed is important. Experiment with different cadences and resistance settings. Cadence range can vary from 50-200 depending on the type of cycling you do.
7. Set the Wattbike Performance Computer to display the Polar View when you do a workout. You can set the text view you want on the right hand side of the display by pressing the ENTER button. This will constantly remind you to focus on effective pedalling.
8. If you have a laptop set up the Polar view in the Wattbike Expert Software. In addition to showing your force curve you can also see your angle of peak force and set the display bar at the bottom of the screen to show all the left and right leg parameters.
9. Set yourself a specific cycling effectiveness workout where you concentrate solely on improving your pedalling action and force curve rather than on distance, speed, watts, HR etc. Split the workout into short intervals and gradually expand the time of each interval as you improve. For example:
   • 5 x 4 minutes - 1 minute rest between each interval
   • 4 x 5 minutes - 1 minute rest between each interval
   • 2 x 10 minutes – 1 minute rest between each interval
10. Then try a 20 minute session holding the force curve for 20 minutes