Big-Gear Done Right: A Triathlete’s Guide to Low-Cadence Strength
Are you guilty of always spinning your wheels? Many triathletes have been taught that faster cadence is better, envisioning pro cyclists blurring their legs at 100+ RPM. Yet when it comes to triathlon, especially for those of us without a pure cycling background, there’s immense value in grinding a big gear at low cadence. Done right, big-gear training builds the kind of muscular endurance and fatigue resistance that lets you power through the last miles of the bike and still run strong. It’s a training approach that might feel counterintuitive at first, but it’s one that top coaches (including me at Sense Endurance) use to develop tougher, faster triathletes.
In this guide, I’ll break down low-cadence strength work. Why it matters, how it works physiologically, and how to incorporate it into your routine. You’ll learn the key workouts to build leg strength on the bike, common mistakes to avoid, and how big-gear training translates to real race-day improvements. Whether you race short-course sprints or full Ironmans, low-cadence strength sessions can be the secret sauce that elevates your biking and overall triathlon performance. Let’s dive into the concept and science first, then get practical with implementing “big-gear done right” in your training.
The Big-Gear Concept: Strength-Endurance on the Bike
What is low-cadence strength work? In simple terms, it means pedalling at a deliberately low cadence (often ~50–70 RPM) in a higher gear or at a greater resistance than you would normally use, so that each pedal stroke requires more force (torque). Instead of “spinning” lightly, you’re grinding against resistance. This turns the bike into a strength-training tool, developing your muscles and neuromuscular system in a cycling-specific way. It’s sometimes called big-gear work, torque training, or strength endurance riding. The premise is the same: slap it in a big gear and grind away.
Why do this? Because in cycling, power = cadence × torque. Most riders naturally prefer a moderate cadence (around 80–90 RPM for trained cyclists) as a balance of muscular effort and cardiovascular strain. But if you only ever train by pedalling faster to gain power, you might neglect the muscular side of the equation. By training at low cadence with higher torque, you specifically target the muscular force side of cycling. This builds the fatigue-resistant strength in your legs that high-cadence spinning alone may not develop. Pedalling a big gear forces higher muscle activation and develops efficiency by recruiting more muscle fibres with each stroke. In other words, big-gear training ingrains the neuromuscular pathways for a strong, effective pedal stroke. The kind of pedal stroke that doesn’t falter when fatigue sets in.
Triathlon coaching legend Brett Sutton has long championed low-cadence work for triathletes. He notes that athletes without an extensive cycling background often struggle to “feel” a smooth pedal stroke at high RPM. In fact, multiple studies have shown that riders new to cycling actually produce more power and sustain speed better at cadences around 60–70 RPM, whereas trying to hold ~90-100 RPM can send their heart rate skyrocketing and performance plummeting. For many age-group triathletes, attempting to mimic a pro cyclist’s high spin can be counter-productive. Instead, grinding at a lower cadence can be a more efficient way to build bike power for triathlon.
At Sense Endurance, I echo this “strength first” philosophy. I incorporate low-cadence riding early and often in training blocks to develop what I call functional strength. Rather than sending you to the gym for endless leg presses, I prefer to build strength within the discipline of cycling itself. By integrating strength work into swim, bike, and run sessions (like low-cadence rides, paddle swimming, hill sprints), I ensure these gains directly translate to triathlon performance. My view – much like Brett Sutton’s – is that function matters more than form. I train what works for the individual athlete to race better, not what looks flashy. And big-gear training works: it builds strong cyclists who can push big gears with lower heart rate and then run well off the bike.
The concept is clear: low-cadence sessions are basically strength training on the bike, improving your muscular endurance in a highly specific way. Next, let’s look at the physiological basis for why grinding those gears leads to performance gains.
Physiological Basis: Why Low Cadence Builds Power and Resilience
What happens in your body when you do a low-cadence, high-torque effort? The first thing you’ll notice is the burn in your quads and glutes, which signals you’re recruiting more fast-twitch muscle fibres to turn the pedals. At a given power output, pedaling slower means each stroke demands higher force. This tends to engage more Type II muscle fibres (the larger, strength-oriented fibres) than a quick, easy spin would. Grinding a big gear “hits” the big muscle fibres harder, which can stimulate those fibres to adapt.
Over time, those adaptations are gold for an endurance athlete. With training, big, powerful Type II fibres can be transformed into more fatigue-resistant forms. Endurance training famously converts some of your explosive, easily-fatigued IIx fibres into sturdier, more aerobic IIa fibres. Low-cadence strength rides accelerate this process by recruiting fibres that higher-cadence spinning might leave untapped, thus encouraging them to adapt to endurance work. The result is a greater population of fatigue-resistant muscle fibres, meaning you can push relatively high power for longer before exhaustion. This is one reason athletes find that after a block of torque training, even their hard interval sessions feel easier. They’ve built an “extra gear” of muscular endurance.
Another key benefit is neuromuscular adaptation. Low-cadence work is essentially skill practice under load; it trains your nervous system to coordinate a strong pedal stroke against resistance. Think of it as honing your pedal mechanics and force application. By pedalling slowly with high force, you teach your body to engage the glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calf muscles in a synchronised, efficient pattern. Coaches often talk about improved “economy” or efficiency from this training. Practically, it means you can produce the same power with less energy cost. Low-cadence training ingrains better muscle memory for pedaling and improves efficiency, a trait that often separates pros from amateurs. Compare it to a car engine: if you increase your torque, you can cruise at a given speed using fewer RPMs, saving fuel. On the bike, that translates to maintaining a solid pace at a lower heart rate or effort level. Many athletes find that after incorporating low-cadence sessions, they can hold race watts with a lower heart rate than before, because their pedalling economy has improved.
Interestingly, research on cadence and fatigue supports this real-world observation. A 2021 systematic review concluded that high-cadence, high-intensity cycling impairs neuromuscular function more than low-cadence cycling. In other words, spinning super fast at hard efforts can drain your neuromuscular “battery” quicker, whereas grinding at lower cadences is somewhat less taxing in that regard. Moreover, experiments show that when untrained cyclists try to hold very high cadences, their heart rate shoots up and efficiency craters, which is not a recipe for long-duration success. From a triathlon perspective, this is crucial. You don’t want to bike in a way that fries your legs or spikes your heart rate needlessly, because you still have to run afterward. Low-cadence training addresses that by keeping your effort muscular (which you can train to handle) and your heart rate controlled.
To be clear, this isn’t to say high cadence has no place. Elite cyclists often have a well-tuned ability to spin efficiently, and triathletes should still be comfortable at a range of cadences. But the specific strength endurance gained from big-gear work fills a gap that pure spinning leaves open. Think of it this way: high-cadence rides develop metabolic fitness and neuromuscular quickness, while low-cadence rides develop muscular strength and durability. Triathletes need both, but many fall into the trap of doing all their “base” rides at an easy spin, never truly challenging their muscular system. The Sense Endurance approach aims to correct that imbalance, because we’ve seen the results when athletes get it right: stronger bike splits with less fade, and fresher legs on the run.
Now that we’ve covered the why, let’s move on to the how: what do low-cadence workouts look like, and how can you implement them safely and effectively?
Practical Workouts for Low-Cadence Strength
Incorporating big-gear training doesn’t mean every ride should be a grind-fest. Like any other training stress, we use it in a structured way to elicit adaptation without causing injury or excessive fatigue. Here are some practical ways to integrate low-cadence strength work into your routine:
Big-Gear Intervals on the Trainer or Hills: A staple session is low-cadence intervals. For example, warm up for 10 minutes, then do 5×5 minutes at 60 RPM in a big gear (heart rate or power around upper Zone 2), with 1-minute easy spins between. If outside, find a moderate hill or flat road, stay seated, and grind for 5 minutes continuously at that low cadence, focussing on smooth force around the pedal stroke. Recover and repeat. Over time, you can increase the number of intervals. These intervals build muscular endurance in the legs and make even Zone 2 rides feel easier by comparison.
Short Burst, High-Torque Reps: Another method is integrating very low cadence bursts into rides. Sense Endurance athletes often do sets like 1 minute “ON” at 50–55 RPM, 1 minute “spin” easy, repeated 10–15 times within a longer ride. These sessions teach you to recruit large muscle fibres quickly. They’re fantastic early in a training phase to build basic cycling strength.
Hill Repeats and “Stomp” Climbs: If you have access to hills, use them as natural strength workouts. Do hill repeats remaining seated, in one of your hardest gears, letting your cadence drop to ~50–60 RPM. Focus on driving through the whole pedal circle (pull up as well as push down) and maintaining form (engage your core, keep hips stable). A session might be 6×2 minutes hard up a hill, spin easy back down. Or on a longer climb, you could alternate 2 minutes low-cadence, 2 minutes normal cadence, and so on. Hill strength translates directly to flat-land power and resilience. Come race day, when you hit a climb or a headwind, you’ll have the grunt to push through without blowing up.
Combined Brick Sessions: One of my favourite ways to simulate triathlon demands is to include low-cadence work at the end of a bike, then go straight into a run (a brick). For instance, finish a 90-minute ride with 15 minutes of low-cadence (60 RPM) higher gear effort, then immediately run 15–20 minutes off the bike. This low-cadence-to-run brick trains you to handle that heavy-legged feeling and still find your running legs. It’s race-specific: as I argue in Stop Treating Swim, Bike, and Run Like Separate Sports, triathlon success comes from managing cumulative fatigue. Doing a strength ride into a run is a perfect way to practise running well after fatiguing your legs on the bike, just like an Olympic or Ironman race demands.
Strength Endurance Rides: On your longer endurance rides, don’t be afraid to include some sustained low-cadence segments. For example, in a 3-hour ride, every 20 minutes throw in a 5-minute segment at 70 RPM in a bigger gear at your race effort. This makes your long ride more specific and builds fatigue resistance. I sometimes include instructions like “during the long ride, include 4×10 min low-cadence efforts at Ironman power, 5 min easy between.” It breaks up the monotony and ingrains that strength-endurance even in your aerobic sessions.
A quick note on form and gear selection: when doing low-cadence work, ensure you’re not hunching or rocking excessively. Keep your upper body engaged (light pressure on the bars, core tight) and drive through your glutes. Choose a gear that makes you work, but not one so heavy that your pedal stroke becomes jerky. We want smooth force, not knee-straining mashing. It’s okay if at first your cadence drops to 50 or even 40 on very hard efforts, but generally aim for that 50–70 RPM sweet spot. And always warm up thoroughly before jumping into big-gear efforts. Your muscles need to be ready for the load.
How often? Typically 1–2 times per week in dedicated sessions, usually in the base or strength phase of training. Our Sense Endurance plans often have a weekly big-gear session because it’s crucial for building the platform of strength and efficiency before we pile on more endurance. Even in race-specific phases, we keep a touch of low-cadence work to maintain that strength. The key is consistency over months. These workouts pack a punch, but the real magic is how your legs feel after adapting to several weeks of them.
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Like any training method, big-gear work can be misused. Here are common mistakes triathletes make with low-cadence training, and my coaching tips on avoiding them:
Going Too Hard, Too Soon: Enthusiasm is great, but don’t jump straight into 30-minute grinds at maximum resistance. That’s a recipe for blown quads or knee pain. Start small and build up. In my Strength Training for Triathletes guidelines, I emphasise simplicity and gradual progression. Begin with short 1 minute low-RPM efforts to introduce your legs to the load. Over a few weeks, extend the duration or increase the number of intervals. Your connective tissues and neuromuscular system need time to adapt to this higher force output. Consistency beats one heroic overkill session.
Poor Form and “Mashy” Pedaling: If you just stomp the pedals using only your quads, you’re not getting the full benefit and might injure yourself. A major point of low-cadence training is to improve technique under resistance. Focus on form. Engage your glute on the downstroke, scrape through with your hamstring, and lift the pedal up smoothly. Keep your cadence controlled; if you find yourself below ~40 RPM and grinding to a halt, shift to a slightly easier gear. Remember, it’s about smooth force application. Also, maintain a stable core. I often cue athletes to keep their upper body quiet (no wild swaying). This not only prevents injury but also mimics proper triathlon bike form, where you want to be aero and stable even when pushing hard.
Overusing Big Gear Work (Neglecting Cadence Range): I love low-cadence training, but that doesn’t mean you should only ride at 60 RPM. Variety is important. A well-rounded cyclist can pedal efficiently across cadences. I’ve seen athletes who, after discovering big-gear gains, start grinding all the time and lose some top-end leg speed. Don’t fall into that trap. Balance your training: include some high-cadence spin-ups or fast pedalling drills on other days to keep your neuromuscular agility. Remember that in races, terrain and tactics might require a quick cadence change (e.g. accelerating out of a turn or sprinting for a pass in short-course racing). Do your low-cadence sessions as a focussed workout, but continue regular riding and interval training at normal cadences too. Big gear work is a supplement to, not a replacement for, overall endurance and speed training
Avoiding these mistakes will help you maximise the benefits of low-cadence training while staying healthy. I guide my athletes to embrace the grind in a controlled, purposeful way, so it yields gains and not setbacks. Now, the final piece of the puzzle: how does all this strength translate when it’s time to swim, bike, and run on race day?
From Training to Race Day: Applying Low-Cadence Strength in Triathlon
It’s one thing to push big gears in training, but the ultimate goal is to race faster. So how does low-cadence strength work make you a better triathlete on race day? Let’s break it down by scenarios, from short-course to long-course.
Short-Course (Sprint/Olympic) Triathlons: In draft-legal sprint races, you might think, “Isn’t high cadence more important for those rapid surges?” It’s true that an explosive sprint or swift acceleration benefits from leg speed. However, the foundation of power for those surges still comes from muscle force. Low-cadence training gives you that snap and resilience in your legs. For a non-drafting Olympic distance, where you’re basically time-trialling the bike, having greater muscular endurance means you can hold a higher wattage throughout the 40 km without fading, and then unleash a solid 10 km run. The efficiency gains also shine here: while others might be redlining their heart rate to maintain speed, you could be cruising at the same pace using a lower percentage of your capacity, thanks to a more efficient pedal stroke. This leaves you fresher for the run. Additionally, technical courses or hilly courses put a premium on strength. If there’s a steep hill on the bike, a triathlete who has trained low-cadence will float up relative to one who only ever spun lightly. Simply put, in short course, big-gear training can be the difference between maintaining momentum over terrain and competitors, versus bogging down.
Ironman and 70.3: This is where low-cadence work truly earns its stripes. Long-course racing is all about managing fatigue over hours. By the second half of an Ironman bike leg, when others are slowing down, an athlete with superior strength endurance can keep pressing on. You’ve conditioned those muscles to fire under fatigue. Perhaps more importantly, you’ve kept your heart rate and oxygen demand lower by being able to produce power through strength instead of sheer spin. Riding at 90–100 RPM might feel “easier” on the legs, but it can drive your heart rate higher. In an Ironman, riding 112 miles at 10 beats per minute higher than necessary is huge. It’s precious energy wasted. Our goal in long-course is to be as efficient as possible on the bike while still going fast. Big-gear training helps you find that sweet spot by lowering the heart cost of maintaining power. The result? You dismount the bike with lower cumulative stress, ready to execute the marathon. Many of my Sense Endurance athletes report that after a cycle of low-cadence work, their Ironman bike split improved and they felt better starting the run. A double win.
Another race-day aspect is handling adverse conditions. Think headwinds or hills late in the race. If you’ve never trained pushing torque, a strong headwind at mile 80 of an Ironman can be demoralising. Your cadence drops, and suddenly you’re grinding uncomfortably. But if you have the muscle strength, you can stay aero, push through the wind in a gear that keeps you moving forward, and not implode. Similarly, on a hilly course, you might run out of easy gears and be forced into lower cadences on steep climbs. Low-cadence training ensures that’s business as usual for you.
Additionally, the synergy between disciplines cannot be overstated. Triathlon is one sport, and low-cadence bike work connects directly to the run. You learn to run on tired legs more effectively.
Efficiency and Pacing: Big-gear training also reinforces the pacing mindset you need in races. Because these workouts often sit in a controlled heart rate zone, you get used to gauging effort by muscular feel rather than spinning like crazy whenever adrenaline hits. You become confident that you can generate power without immediately spiking into the red. This is hugely beneficial in long events where patience and control are paramount. As we tell our Ironman athletes, “endurance is easy to build once you have strength and efficiency”. By the time you enter the final weeks before a race, you know your engine is both strong and well-geared. Then it’s a matter of sharpening up and tapering.
In summary, the race-day payoff of low-cadence strength work is a combination of higher sustainable power, lower effort cost, and better resilience across disciplines. It makes you a stronger cyclist and a better triathlete. It’s not about forsaking cadence skills altogether, it’s about raising the ceiling of your strength so that your preferred cadence in races is truly your choice, not limited by weak legs. You’ll have the ability to grind when needed, spin when beneficial, and above all hold form when others are falling apart.
Conclusion: Building Strength for Triathlon Success
In this coach’s eyes, big-gear work done right is a game-changer. It’s about training smarter, not just harder. By embracing low-cadence strength sessions, you’re teaching your body to generate power economically, to endure when the going gets tough, and to make the run off the bike feel that little bit easier. Both science and real-world coaching experience back it up: improving your muscular endurance on the bike yields tangible gains in efficiency and fatigue resistance. It’s one of the reasons I prioritise it at Sense Endurance, because triathlon isn’t won by the athlete with the prettiest pedal stroke or the highest cadence, it’s won by the athlete who can hold it together from start to finish.
Are you ready to crank it in the big ring and reap the benefits? Start adding some low-cadence sets to your week and feel the difference in a few short weeks. Your legs might complain at first, but soon that burn turns into power you can depend on. On race day, when you power past competitors on a hill or finish the bike leg feeling in control, you’ll be thankful you did the strength work. Remember: train with purpose, race with confidence. Grinding those big gears now will give you the strength to crush your races later.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive programme that balances strength, endurance, and technique the smart way, I’ve got you covered. Check out my internal resources like Strength Training for Triathletes and Ironman Training the Sense Endurance Way for further reading, or reach out to me for a free call. I specialise in weaving these principles into personalised training plans that get results without wasting your time or energy. After all, triathlon training should make sense, and big-gear done right is just one example of smarter training for faster racing.
Are you ready to take your performance to the next level? Start by adding structured low-cadence strength work into your weekly routine and see how quickly your bike strength and fatigue resistance change.
If you want to take the guesswork out of your training, I can help you integrate this approach properly within a full triathlon programme. My coaching services are built around the same principles you’ve just read about: smart, purposeful sessions that make you stronger, more efficient, and race-ready without wasting time.
Prefer to follow a structured plan on your own? Explore the full range of Sense Endurance training plans and find one that fits your schedule and goals.
Whichever path you take, the message is the same: build strength where it matters, train with purpose, and you’ll race with confidence.