Segmental movements in cycling

Abstract

In this chapter, we intend to present information on the kinematics of cycling for recreational and professional plural. Considering that the kinematics of cycling can be affected by many aspects, we opted to discuss some of the more frequent issues that have been covered in the literature on segmental movements during cycling.We believe this chapter is an introductory reading for undergraduates and graduate students interested in understanding how kinematics can change during cycling and why it is important for training and competition. Although we mention in some sections information about technical details of motion capture systems, our purpose is not to provide a full discussion on how motion capture works. We started the chapter by introducing the importance of assessing kinematics of cyclists.We also included a brief summary with the state of the art in the use of kinematics for cycling assessment. The chapter follows with the discussion of selected topics, including the effects of body position, exercise intensity, pedaling cadence, fatigue, bike fit, and training level on the segmental movements during pedaling. Finally, we discuss some implications of segmental movements on force production and injury risk among cyclists. The chapter is finished with our conclusions and comments on future directions for research in this topic.