The crossover workout

The crossover workout drives home the difference between glutes and quads.  It is about constant transition between muscle groups, isolation of glutes or isolation of quads. The use of different muscle groups requires a rapid change in position, from glutes with body weight over the pedals and no weight on the hands to quads with body upright, hands on tops, arms straight (to prevent use of the glutes - that’s cheating).

Gearing is pretty simple, it goes from the easiest gear on the back to the hardest, in steps. Small chainring is always quads, large chainring is always glutes.

The challenge with the crossover workout is using muscles in a way they weren’t designed to be used - trying to generate leg speed with the glutes or trying to generate high torque levels with the quads.  It starts in the easy gear on back, pushing the small chainring with the quads is easy, supporting the body weight on the pedal in the large chainring is impossible. As the workout progresses it gets harder and harder to produce enough torque with the quads, while the glutes come into their element.

Sequence: Starting in the small chainring, easiest gear on back - I’ll call that 1st gear.

2 minutes, quad isolation,  1st gear, small chainring.

2 minutes, glute isolation,  1st gear, large chainring.  It doesn’t really work.

Up one gear in back

2 minutes, quad isolation,  2nd gear, small chainring.

2 minutes, glute isolation,  2nd gear, large chainring. It’s better, but still not supporting the weight

Up one gear in back

2 minutes, quad isolation,  3rd gear, small chainring.

2 minutes, glute isolation,  3rd gear, large chainring. 

Up one gear in back

2 minutes, quad isolation,  4th gear, small chainring.  Quads are starting to hurt

2 minutes, glute isolation,  4th gear, large chainring.  Now it works just fine
…

2 minutes, quad isolation,  Nth gear, small chainring.  Quads can’t push this gear.

2 minutes, glute isolation,  Nth gear, large chainring. 

This workout is called the crossover workout because it shows that there is a cadence range where both large muscle groups can contribute power. This is an important concept as we get into adding muscle groups together to produce more power. The time per segment is held at 2 minutes, as the time goes down the sustainable cadence goes up. And a preview of workouts to come:  Intervals are done for 30 seconds where the crossover zone for the two muscles is much larger.