standing while going uphill on a bike

What you've found is exactly right.

(1) very little

(2) very little

1. Usually just what's necessary for comfort. Short rides might not have any, but longer will need some times out of the saddle for relief. And in case the hill gets rather hard, like you already noticed.

2. It doesn't that much, not if you plan on sitting for much of your road riding. Spin classes tend to be more about using a bike to help people achieve some fitness than really learning to ride. Standing is an easy way to get people working harder. Hammering out sets while seated the entire hour is mind-numbing, so the instructors think of various ways to make it more entertaining.

You have the ride idea on just sitting through the longer standing sections since that is how you will be taking things on the roads. I do the same thing and better instructors actually gave me more respect because of it.

Usually I reply to threads with a wise@$$ comment, mostly because I don't know what I am doing on a bike and I don't think my opinions are worth the ink it takes to print them here on the interweb.

Let's get the wise comment out of the way....... "Standing up while going...up a hill".  A wise man once said don't spit in to the wind.  I thought this was another relieving yourself on the bike thread.  DOH!

Okay then.

A good biker I know told me this and it has served me well.

Stand on the pedals as you crest a hill and power over it.  Where I train, there are plenty of hills and many times at the top, I am faced with climbing the rear gears or dropping to the weeny ring on my triple crank, right near the very end of a long steep grade.  Getting out of the saddle changes the muscles used, I think, and helps to power over the last bit of the hill without climbing the back cogs or dropping on the front ring.

There, I have now given advice on biking.

In my experience standing will give you more power, but at the expense of being more tiring and takes longer for you to recover from.

I personally prefer to stay seated on almost all hills.  I go for the "steady" approach and try to just maintain a constant effort level all the time.  Seems to work well for me as I might have a couple people pass me on a climb but then I breeze past them after the crest as they're wheezing for air.

In triathlon (meaning if you have to run off the bike), its not really recommended by most coaches.  I have never seemed to have an issue.

But it's personal preference and anyone that watches a lot of bike races will notice the contrasting styles of climbing. 

I enjoy alternating in and out of saddle, it easier for me to keep momentum, gives my toosh a rest and breaks up longer climbs.  On particularly steep climbs its more efficient, perhaps even necessary at times.  It requires some bike handling skill.  If you don't feel stable out of saddle, you should work on bike handling a bit.

It's important to understand that your goals are to get faster on a real bike.  The goal of a spin class is to burn calories.  Speed and efficiency is irrelevant in a spin class. 

Standing up does expend more energy...but guess what, that's the whole point when taking a spin class...to burn as much energy and make the workout as difficult as possible in a given amount of time.

Power is power whether seated or standing.  I can keep my power level consistent even when alternating between in and out of the saddle.  But yes, when you need explosive power whether a steep pitch or a sprint it has to come from a standing position.

In general when you're climbing in a group and a rider stands it may be a sign they are about to crack.

There are exceptions. Lucho Herrara got out of the saddle at the bottom of climb and stayed out until he crossed the summit. He did an amazing amount of climbing out of the saddle. He also favoured oddly wide handlebars given his small stature:

Other riders like Jan Ullrich have (had) a more "grinding" style: Big gears, seated. Phil Liggett described it as "ungainly" and Paul Sherwin described Ullrich as "A big diesel".

One of the most interesting cases is that of Lance Armstrong. Armstrong showed that climbing style was related to both learned technique and body composition. Prior to his cancer ordeal Armstrong was a mesomorph body style.

Before Armstrong's aweful ordeal with cancer he was a disciple of Eddy Merckx. Merckx was, and is to this day, a diesel of a man. A bull. His climbing was done, as the French like to say, en force or by brute force and fitness and not by style. As a result of Armstrong's mentoring by Merckx he (Armstrong) began to climb like Merckx: Big gears, low cadences. En force.

Then Armstrong got cancer. As a result of the disease, the chemo and the training after his cancer ordeal Armstrong re-emerged as more of an ectomorph. Much leaner. As a result of this adaptation from his cancer, chemotherapy and training his climbing style changed too. He was more of a Herrara-style climber; out of the saddle, very light touch on the pedals, very high cadence.

So- what is the best way to climb?

For the majority of us recreational cyclists, it is likely more efficient to climb while seated. When we stand we have to support our body weight with muscular force. The bike isn't doing it anymore. We also aren't as efficient climbin out of the saddle since we don't do it much. There is an exception here. People who do spin classes where there are a lot of out-of-the-saddle efforts can develop technique and fitness to climb well out of the saddle. They do become more efficient out of the saddle. They develop the technique and upper body strength. It's pretty impressive.

People, especially cyclists, tend to pooh-pooh the benefits and validity of spin bike training. You can gain a lot of fitness on a spin bike though, and that absolutely translates to cycling.

Standing while climbing strengthens your legs differently than spinning up while seated.  I find that both are valuable. 

Seated climbing is good for long steady climbs. Drop into a gear where you can maintain 60-65 rpm, and spin up the hill.  I do this a lot on the one mile long 10% grades common to my area, and this is what I do in races for long steady climbs.

Standing climbing during training - either on the trainer, the spin bike, or outdoors - is invaluable strength training for your legs.  Seriously, I do standing hill repeats all the time.  When I can climb Lakemont Blvd's 10% mile long grade standing six times in a row, then I know Richter Pass is not going to be a problem.  Standing climbing has also improved my balance on the bike.

During races I stand on occasion to keep up momentum at the bottom of the hill, or accelerate over the crest, or accelerate out of a turn.  Since I'm used to standing climbs, I tend to pop up a moment when it feels right.

Maybe the minority in your group but I don't know if it's that uncommon.  I do the same thing (alternate sitting / standing)... or occasionally just stay up for awhile.  I think as Tom alluded to, it probably feels better for some people depending on their body type.

I don't see it as a bad thing in triathlons because you're altering the muscle groups you're using.  As long as you're going in a steady rhythm and not racing to the top.

spin bikes are pretty much nothing like regular bikes. They have a fly wheel, weird handlebars....

personally I hate them.

I mostly sit and spin up hills - and given  Tom's  explanation that would explain it - I am not a bird like waif who flies up hills let alone standing.

Spin class might make your legs stronger and burn some calories but it will not teach you how to climb, how to stand and climb...

There's a highlight video of one of the best time trialists on the planet (Fabian Cancellara [sp?]) doing a standing up drill on the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix. Hmmm... I saw this and thought I would implement it into my training back in September. Why not? I would stand and cycle for about a mile or so, get back in the saddle Z3 for 2-3 miles, repeat x3 to 4 times. Important to shift up too so your cadence is held at a steady 85ish or to make it a bit hard so you have to power through each stroke (power building; lactic acid should build up!).

Stuff that I noticed~ I can hold a higher speed for time trials ("shut up legs")/ ignore minimal to moderate amounts of lactic acid burn, climb at a faster speed for a much longer time while staying out of the saddle and end sprint power seems to have increased. Only the first outcome really applies to triathlons, but then again you don't really want to TT on the bike leg.

It'll help IMO, but you don't NEED to do it. It's helped me a lot.

Oh, and if you do do this, be prepared to get some weird looks from fellow cyclists and drivers alike haha. "Dude, why aren't you sitting down!?"

My "winter" cycling program last winter was spin classes.  I did get out of the saddle frequently and to this day l enjoy it.  Is it more efficient?  I don't know.  But my race speeds increased about 2 mph at double the distance (Sprint to Oly).  Spin class certainly helped as my actual miles on the road bike was less then ideal.

When I sit in the back of spin class I can opt. to stay in the saddle when I don't feel the urge to get up and the spin instructors usually appreciate this since others in the class don't notice.

Wow, thanks for all the info, everyone! It sounds like a highly personal thing. I'll take everything into consideration and do some more experimenting with standing once I'm back on the road. I especially like the idea of standing right before the crest of a bigger hill.

I CAN stand on the bike and balance, just not as well as seated, obviously.

I hadn't even considered the thought of "going" uphill but I'll consider standing up and peeing on the bike should the need arise.

I should clarify, I have my bike on the trainer for the winter (yeah, I know this winter has been mild so far but I'm a weather wuss on the bike - plus I had the money for a trainer or winter cycling gear but not both!) and one spin class a week in place of a trainer ride gives me some variety. Plus, I push myself harder during spin class. So it's not going to be a long-term substitute for road cycling but it works for now. I'm mainly working on improving my form without the distractions of the road, increasing cadence and strength training and I do think I'm getting that from spin class even if it's not the same.

Another question: in "Going Long", Friel says that riders with less than 2 pounds of body weight for every inch of height climb better out of the saddle, while those with more than 2-3 pounds of weight for every inch of height climb more effectively seated.

Any thoughts, anyone ever tested this?

FWIW, I have about 2.1 pounds for every inch of height, so I guess I can pick and choose! But I have muscular thunder thighs so maybe that makes a difference somewhere.

That's pretty lean. That means at 5'10", you're under 140 lbs. I'll bet that would imply that most of us amateurs would be sitting, but I can say with certainty that on the local hammerhead roadie hillclimbs, most folks over that ratio are standing once the grade goes over 8%. I'm one of the few die-hard seated folks - I find I can stay seated even up to 10%, but over that, even I'm out of the saddle.

I suspect part of it may have to do with your hip/glute strength and anatomy as well. I was born with big hips/glutes, and it seems very natural a motion for me to stay seated and really engage the glutes, whereas with standing, it's definitely more quad recruitment. 

But if you do the math, it doesn't necessarily mean you're lean. The taller you get, the leaner you'd have to be to fit the formula, but at, say 5' tall, that would be 120 lbs. (I'm 5'4"ish and 135ish. So not too lean.)

YES...I've got the big booty! I do feel stronger seated.

When referencing the pros, don't forget that they're very tactical too. They'll stand for awhile so the others don't know when they're going to attack. They disguise as much as they can because every second counts when making a break.

And for seated climbers, still do enough standing so that you're comfortable with it when you have to do it. Shouldn't take that much.

One should take a formula like this with a grain of salt, as it shouldn't be reliable across a wide range of heights. Weight should scale roughly with the cube of height, so 2 lbs/inch is harder to attain the taller you get.

To take this to extremes, newborn infants are often around 20 inches long, but anything more than 0.5 lbs/inch is quite heavy. And a 7-foot (84") basketball player who weighed only 168 lbs would be severely underweight (Kevin Garnett is listed at 253lbs at 6'11").

As for the original question, I rarely stand, and generally pass a lot of people on climbs while sitting down (at around 2.25 lb/inch). At 10-15% I prefer to stay seated, but around 20% I'd likely want to stand up. (And if that 20% lasts for more than a short while, then I'll fall off.)