coapman said:
What are these "new" muscles" being trained,
The two big muscles that are not "new" but are simply being used more are the iliopsoas and the hamstring muscles
when trained can they apply effective crank torque.
Yes
Does the PC user have to increase his normal daily training time.
No
What are the pedaling objectives of the powercrank cyclist ?
I am not sure any have any specific pedaling objectives. Most simply are looking for cycling or running improvement.
Edit: let me give you an example that I got yesterday. This customer is a mid 40's runner who had a stroke in April of this year. His rehab was going nowhere and he was looking for ways that might help him to get back to marathoning when he stumbled across PowerCranks. We can assume he was getting the best of "traditional" rehabilitation care (they even had him do some one legged pedaling using the affected side) since his wife is a rehabilitation physician. She had never heard of PowerCranks but accepted this was a reasonable thing to try. Before getting on the PowerCranks he could not run more than 5-6 steps before seeing severe deterioration in his muscles and coordination. He has been on the PowerCranks for a month now. His wife noticed improvement in his gait starting in about a week. He can now run about 100 yards before starting to see gait issues
and he is now planning on signing up to do a marathon in November!!! Talk about being a happy camper. Now, he is not a cyclist but I think this illustrates how the PowerCranks train muscles in the legs differently (and better?) than can be achieved in almost any other way.
Have you used PC's exclusively for 6 months and if so, what effect did it have on these "new" muscles.
Yes, in fact, I have used them exclusively for over 10 years. Those new muscles simply became better trained than they were before and they are used more effectively than they were before
Would torque improvement be apparent if a force/vector powermeter was used before and after using PC's for 6 months and where exactly on the pedaling circle would this torque increase be visible.
Yes, the changes would be obvious. I have posted many times one example that a customer who worked at a university, so he had access to pressure plate pedals, measured himself and forwarded to us. Here it is again:
Anyhow, perhaps this new study will show us what the range of changes are and how the force pattern changes with continued use.
What type of competitive cyclist could be guaranteed to see that full 40% improvement ?
No one is guaranteed to see 40% improvement even though many do. All we guarantee is one will see enough improvement coming within 3 months to make the cranks worth the cost.