Watt bike

[Nebulous]

Fed up of the weather, gave up my gym membership in December because they tried to put my fees up. One of my colleagues is a pretty hot TT specialist and he swears by a Watt bike. So I went along today, paid a cash session and gave one a try. Setup was very fiddly, took me a while to get the hang of it, but in the end I did quite a good session.

One of the things it does is compare legs and it's showing me at 55% left leg, 45% right. I'm a bit taken aback by that. If I get any pain it's usually my left leg, and that might be why? So should I try to change the balance or should I just see it as one of those things and concentrate on improving my power rather than worrying about it?

 

[black'n'yellow]

It might be useful to own one, so that you could train with power all the time (although you might as well spend the cash on a PM if that's the case). It's all very well getting 'one-off' numbers like that, but I can't help thinking that the numbers in isolation will not be particularly useful.

55/45 imbalance doesn't sound too bad to me, but I'm not a sports scientist. If it was 70/30 or something, I might worry.

 

[Rob3rt]

I would worry more about doing a proper FTP test and working out your power zones and ensuring you get some sort of regularity and plan as to how you will train rather than L/R balance. You can work on your balance whilst doing other stuff. TBH, I find paying attention to the weaker leg automatically evens up my power balance, but then again, I don't think much of it, on my turbo session today my power balance was 47%/53% (L/R respectively). Hardly a concern, most people will have some sort of imbalance as most people have a dominant side, e.g are you Left footed (eg when playing football?). 5% might be notable (not sure on this tbh as I haven't done much reading on power balance), but I wouldn't worry too much.

Also how is the watt bike measuring power balance? Is it a true L:R measure like the Look/Polar, Garmin Vector and Rotor systems or is it inferred from the 12-6 and 6-12 phases in the drive side crank like the Power2Max and Quarq meters? Some power meters (Power2Max and Quarq, plus probably others) assume all power between 12-6 is from the right leg and all power from the 6-12 phase is the left leg (or something like this), but this is not really the case and you can easily fool the system.

 

[HLaB]

I've never been on a watt bike but I wouldn't be surprised if my left right balance was 40/60

 

[endoman]

I did a CP20 test on Coach's Watt Bike, 4% difference between legs, got less as I put more effort in. Was a nice machine, but don't really know how much more it tells me than the power meter on my turbo, the readings were within 4% of the same test done a week earlier. It was noticeable that the peanut thing smoothed out when I thought about it, whether it is relevant I have no idea, I suspect not a great deal, but might make a few seconds difference in a TT.

 

[Nebulous]

I'm not sure that I'm really 'training' in the way that you guys would understand it. I'm over 50, a fairly recent recruit to cycling, having never done any sport before and have made reasonable progress, mainly based on feel. Buying a power meter is not on the horizon. I've got an allez and a tarmac would come much higher up the priority list than a power meter. However I did nearly 5000 miles last year and knocked close on 3 minutes off my 10 mile time - so I do have some ambitions and a fair bit of commitment!

Training on a gym bike previously was a mixture of longer sessions (60-90 minutes) at 85% heart rate and intervals, 2x 20s, 10 x 2s and 15 x 1s. I also used some of the preset profiles on the bike for intervals.

Wattbikes are supposed to be pretty consistent without calibration, and I could do some sessions based on power outputs instead of my previous sessions, once I understand what the bike does a bit better. So I'm happy enough doing my own thing there- even though lots of people on here might not approve!

However I was surprised at that power balance. I am left-footed. I'm what's known as a cross-lateral, left-footed and right handed, which makes me somewhat clumsy at ball sports. It doesn't seem to affect my cycling though. That probably accounts for some of it.

 

[Rob3rt]

I'm not sure that I'm really 'training' in the way that you guys would understand it. I'm over 50, a fairly recent recruit to cycling, having never done any sport before and have made reasonable progress, mainly based on feel. Buying a power meter is not on the horizon. I've got an allez and a tarmac would come much higher up the priority list than a power meter. However I did nearly 5000 miles last year and knocked close on 3 minutes off my 10 mile time - so I do have some ambitions and a fair bit of commitment!

Training on a gym bike previously was a mixture of longer sessions (60-90 minutes) at 85% heart rate and intervals, 2x 20s, 10 x 2s and 15 x 1s. I also used some of the preset profiles on the bike for intervals.

Wattbikes are supposed to be pretty consistent without calibration, and I could do some sessions based on power outputs instead of my previous sessions, once I understand what the bike does a bit better. So I'm happy enough doing my own thing there- even though lots of people on here might not approve!

However I was surprised at that power balance. I am left-footed. I'm what's known as a cross-lateral, left-footed and right handed, which makes me somewhat clumsy at ball sports. It doesn't seem to affect my cycling though. That probably accounts for some of it.

I am right footed, but left handed (writing) but play guitar and throw etc with my right. Coincidently, my power balance is tipped in favour of my right leg. So seems to agree with yours being left dominant and being left footed (limited data here, but I am going on what we have). I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Nebulous]

Cheers Rob

It hasn't bothered me up until now, without knowing about it, so I'll just continue as I am!

 

[Nebulous]

I've never been on a watt bike but I wouldn't be surprised if my left right balance was 40/60

40/60, really? Well you certainly seem to eat up the miles, so I'll just try to get faster rather than worrying about which leg it comes from!

 

[HLaB]

40/60, really? Well you certainly seem to eat up the miles, so I'll just try to get faster rather than worrying about which leg it comes from!

Its only natural for most folk to have some sort of imbalance (dominant side, ie left or right anded). My right leg is fairly dominant however, and after a bout of ITB a few years back due to my imbalance, I try now to think about the left and touch wood it has never reoccurred.

 

[Sara_H]

I've never been on a watt bike but I wouldn't be surprised if my left right balance was 40/60

God knows what mine would be - I had a slipped disc a few years ago and I have noticeable reduction in sensation and power in my left side, to the extent that when I'm tired I walk into door frames etc, always on the left.