Legs · Bodyweight
Riding Outdoor Bicycle
How to do the riding outdoor bicycle, the muscles it works, and the mistakes to avoid. Pulled straight from the Kovo app's exercise library.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Logged as
- time
- Movement
- Extension
- Mechanic
- Compound
How to do it
Ride a bicycle outdoors over your chosen route, pedaling at a steady cadence. Keep a smooth, even effort and shift gears to match the terrain, driving the pedals primarily with your legs.
- 1Quads and glutes doing the work through each pedal stroke
- 2A steady, even cadence rather than choppy mashing
- 3An upright, relaxed upper body with a stable core
Common mistakes
- Letting your knees flare out instead of tracking over the pedals
- Death-gripping the bars and tensing the shoulders
- Pedaling in too high a gear and grinding the knees
Muscles worked
The riding outdoor bicycle mainly works the quads and glutes, with the hamstrings, calves, and hip flexors assisting.
- QuadsPrimary
- GlutesPrimary
- HamstringsSupport
- CalvesSupport
- Hip FlexorsSupport
- Lower BackMinor
- Upper AbsMinor
- Lower AbsMinor
- AdductorsMinor
- Tibialis AnteriorMinor
Kovo programs the riding outdoor bicycle for you and tracks it every session.
We build your whole program, drop the right lifts into each workout, and adjust your weights as you get stronger. Free on iOS and Android.
More quads exercises
- How to do the resistance band squat
- How to do the resistance band squat to press
- How to do the resistance band thruster
- How to do the resistance band squat walk
- How to do the barbell squat
- How to do the barbell bulgarian split squat
Last reviewed June 2026.