The Riding For A Lifetime Podcast

MTB Specific Exercises You Might Not Be Using…But Should

The term “MTB Specific Training” gets thrown around a lot but what does it really mean?

At its core, it means using a training program that helps you ride faster, longer and with more skill. While the most “MTB specific” thing you can do is to actually ride your bike, there are certainly things you can do off of the bike that can help.

In the gym this takes the form of strength training that improves your strength and movement quality in ways that help your riding. Strength is one of the more general physical attributes, meaning that what works for an athlete in one sport will generally work for another.

About 80-90% of what you do with an athlete will be the same from sport to sport but there are some MTB specific things you can do to enhance your results. And no, this doesn’t mean using light loads and high reps because you need to build more endurance.

In general, getting stronger in the 2-4 sets X 5-10 reps range will get you what you need. You can benefit from time spent outside of this range but this should make up the bulk of your strength training. You should also focus on the basic movement patterns of Push, Pull, Squat and Hinge.

But once you have the basics covered there are some exercises that will help your MTB specific results.

You can stream this episode or download the MP3 file by clicking the link below. You‌ ‌can‌ also find the podcast ‌on‌ ‌‌Itunes‌,‌‌ ‌Podbean‌,‌‌ ‌‌Spotify‌‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌all‌ ‌other‌ ‌major‌ ‌podcasting‌ ‌platforms.‌ ‌

Show Notes:

1. Windmill

• If there was one exercise that I wish every mountain biker would add to their program it is this one.
• This movement is the core movement pattern behind cornering on your bike and the #1 reason that most riders struggle with this skill is because they lack it.
• It is also an essential skill for riding switchbacks and, coupled with track stands, would make it much easier for riders to execute this skill as well.
• You can do it with no weight using a stick on your back.
• You can also weight it by holding a weight over your head or by using a Steel Mace on your back.
• I recommend checking out the videos I have posted at https://www.bikejames.com/strength/carving-faster-corners-with-the-stick-and-kb-windmill/ to learn more about how to execute this movement in the most MTB specific way possible because there is a lot of bad instruction around this movement.
• In general, you are getting into a pedal stance position with your feet and shifting your weight to the back leg while rotating your shoulders as you hinge back.
• If you do this movement and struggle to keep your weight on the back leg then you are “tipping” over instead of “corkscrewing” your way down, which is how you end up leaning too far inside of a corner and crashing.
• BTW, the lack of this movement pattern is what has led to the “lean your bike and not your body” advice, which is wrong. You have to lean your body but you have to do it in a balanced way.
• This is also a great way to work out the differences between right and left cornering that most riders have.
• I recommend doing 2 sets of 5 reps for this exercise although you can also do the Stick Windmill on a daily basis as part of your mobility plan.

2. Elevated Lunge

• This is something I started using a few months ago and I really like it for improving a rider's Standing Pedaling ability.
• It has you using a box that is 6-12 inches high and stepping back into a lunge.
• It is a cross between a step up and a lunge and it really works on the range of motion in the hip flexors.
• Lunging is the movement pattern behind Standing Pedaling and elevating your front leg helps build the movement skill of being able to stand up and pedal without rounding the low back to make up for a lack of ROM in the hip flexors.
• Plus, it targets the glutes a bit more since you are getting more of a stretch at the bottom, which helps with pedaling power and looking good from behind.
• I recommend doing 2-4 sets of 5-10 reps with this exercise, starting with a 6 inch box and working up to a 12+ inch box as another way to progress the movement.

3. Bent Press

• This is a forgotten exercise from the history of strength training.
• It used to be a contested lift in strongman competitions in the late 1800’s/ early 1900’s but fell out of favor with the popularity of bodybuilding.
• It is a hybrid exercise that combines the Windmill Movement with a Shoulder Press.
• You basically have a weight in one arm at the bottom of the Shoulder Press position and then perform a Windmill as you straighten your arm before returning to the upright position with the arm still locked out overhead.
• Again, check out the video demo I have at https://www.bikejames.com/strength/the-bent-press-for-mtb-how-this-forgotten-exercise-can-improve-your-riding/ 
• This exercise is great for improving your cornering and your shoulder stability.
• I recommend doing 2-4 sets of 3-5 reps with this exercise.

4. DB Cheat Curl

• This is the best exercise you can do to improve your MTB specific explosive hip hinge, which is important for manualing, bunny hopping and jumping.
• You set up with a dumbbell in each hand and your feet shoulder width apart before driving the hips back and exploding back into the starting position, using the momentum to swing - or “cheat curl” - the weights up to shoulder level.
• You can also do this movement kneeling, half kneeling or standing in a pedal stance.
• The position of your legs makes this much more MTB specific than the vaunted KB Swing.
• Check out the video demo I posted at https://www.bikejames.com/strength/db-cheat-curls-for-better-mountain-bike-hip-power/ to see how to do this exercise.
• I recommend doing 2-4 sets of 3-5 reps to work on explosive power/ Higher reps and sets work on conditioning which has a place but most riders simply need to get more explosive.

By adding these exercises into your routine you can make sure that you are getting the most out of your gym time. If you need a program that incorporates these things be sure to check out the Ultimate MTB Workout Program and the 40+ MTB Rider Workout Program.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

My Biggest Training Mistakes & Lessons Learned

Something that I try to impress on my kids is the importance of being able to admit when you are wrong and make a change. Too often we spend our time trying to justify why we do what we do rather than trying to challenge it and see if it holds up.

But that isn’t how we grow. There is a saying about how there is a difference between 10 years of experience and the same year of experience repeated 10 times. For too many people they end up repeating the same things over and over and never really grow or gain experience.

One of the areas in my life where this is most apparent is training. I’ve been working out for over 35 years, I’ve been a professional trainer for over 20 years and I’ve been working with mountain bikers since 2005. And in that time you better believe that I’ve made some mistakes and learned some valuable lessons.

In this podcast I wanted to share some of those lessons with you. Hopefully you can learn from some of these mistakes and avoid the same problems I ran into. 

You can stream this episode or download the MP3 file by clicking the link below. You‌ ‌can‌ also find the podcast ‌on‌ ‌‌Itunes‌,‌‌ ‌Podbean‌,‌‌ ‌‌Spotify‌‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌all‌ ‌other‌ ‌major‌ ‌podcasting‌ ‌platforms.‌ ‌

You can also read a summary article from the notes for the podcast below…

Not doing any “isolation” or “bodybuilding”/ Focusing too much on “functional training”

I’ve talked about this a lot lately but something I’ve been doing more of in the last few years is more isolation and bodybuilding type training.  

I came up at an interesting time in the strength and conditioning field where we were making the switch from bodybuilding to Functional Training. The problem is that you need “isolation” exercises - which build isometric strength and joint strength - and you need bodybuilding type training to build and hold onto muscle mass.

You can train like a bodybuilder and still be functional if you are doing other stuff outside of the gym. Plus, as you get older muscle mass becomes a valuable commodity and needs to be trained for.

Using too much unstable surface training

This is one I haven’t been using for a while but back in the day I was really into unstable surface training.

I was around when the Swiss Balls first got introduced to the fitness field through a guy named Paul Chek. The rationale behind UST seemed good and I ended up with every size Swiss Ball you could get and used them for just about everything.

The problem was that I couldn’t get strong or add size, I just got better at balancing on things while lifting weights. Several studies have shown that UST lowers motor unit recruitment, results in lower strength and muscle gains and have very limited carryover to other activities.

In other words, it may look cool on Instagram but the results are lacking.

Giving too much weight to strength training

This is a common mistake with new strength coaches.

I had seen how getting stronger had helped me and so it made sense that getting stronger would make you a better athlete. I had literally tried to talk some of my athletes into skipping sport training so they wouldn’t miss strength training.

The problem is that strength training is only the most important thing you can do if you are really weak, and even then your sport training should still take precedence. The only thing that will make you a better mountain biker is time on the bike and strength training is supposed to support that, not take away from it.

Thinking that Long Slow Distance training was a waste of time

This is a bit of a tricky one because context matters a lot here.

One of the first things I got known for in the MTB world was advocating for the use of High Intensity Intervals instead of Aerobic Base Training for MTB. Back in 2005 this was unheard of since roadie training programs dominated the scene. 

A lot of riders who followed these programs felt that they weren’t actually in shape for training riding when the season started and they had to ride themselves into specific MTB shape for a few weeks. Something else that we observed was that riders from areas where they could ride trails year round (SoCal and Australia for example) were some of the best in the world. 

Riding counts as cardio training and doing so much distance riding on a road bike that you don’t get time on your mountain bike isn’t the best idea. But if you aren’t trail riding much then you do need to have some distance training in your program.

Long Slow Distance training is also good for recovery and your basic metabolic health. 

So if you are getting several hours of riding in each week then you can use LSD for recovery and if you aren’t then you need to have it as part of your overall cardio training program.

Changing exercises too often

Something that carried over from Bodybuilding to Functional Training was the idea of “muscle confusion” or the need to change your exercises on a frequent basis so the body couldn’t fully adapt to what you were doing, which was supposed to keep you from hitting a plateau and seeing constant improvements from your training.

In fact, one style of training emerged that became very popular - Crossfit - which was based on this idea to the extreme and you never repeated the same workout twice in a row. Even for those of us who subscribed to the idea that you needed more consistency than changing things every day I still would change exercises every 4 weeks.

While the theory behind it seemed solid, science and real world evidence suggest that there is a middle ground that is much longer than most of us realize. 

One thing that changed my thoughts on this was when I did Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 Program and saw that NOT changing exercises very often had benefits as well. The 5-3-1 Program is a powerlifting program that has you doing the same basic exercises for months at a time.

Change comes from how you cycle the weights and reps in a very specific way in order to increase your strength in the lifts.  The fact that you don’t change exercises means that you get a lot of practice with the lifts, which also helps with building strength.

Eventually you run into a wall with your progressions and have to switch things up but that takes months, during which you are doing the same basic exercises but still seeing results, which shouldn’t happen if you needed to change exercises to keep progress coming.

It turns out that you should run on at least a 6-8 week cycle to get the most out of an exercise. 

Now I’ll pick a core exercise for each of the 4 basic movement patterns (push, pull, hinge and squat) and do an 8 week cycle with them.  I’ll have other exercises that I do that I will change up after 4 weeks if I’m maxing out on them or if I just want to do something new.

I’ll start out well under my max effort and build momentum into those max efforts in the final weeks of the cycle. I’ll end with a deloading week where I cut back on the sets and reps but try to get at least 90% of my max lift for the movement in week 8.

Changing exercises is entertaining and it makes you feel sore but it doesn’t allow time for you to really get the most out of the exercises. IMO, it’s also safer and easier on the joints since your body gets a chance to get used to the exercises and find a groove for them, which feels safer and easier than grinding through new lifts all the time.

Discounting the value of stretching

Stretching became a bit of a dirty word in the Functional Training world due to some studies that showed a decrease in strength and power immediately following static stretching. The cool thing to do was “mobility training”, which tended to focus on movements through a joint's range of motion.

While helpful, I’ve found that mobility training can’t fully replace static stretching. 

Stretching isn’t about trying to lengthen muscles or loosen joints, it is about being able to relax into positions and working on getting deeper into your range of motion until you are in the range you need for function and safety. For me it is also a form of breathwork since you use my breathing to help me relax and get deeper into my range of motion.

Mobility training helps with being able to move through and control your range of motion and stretching seems to help you improve and maintain it better.I recommend picking a basic stretch for the major muscle groups and hold them for either 15-20 seconds or for 5 breaths.

Focus on using your breathing to help you relax - if you don’t get any deeper but your breathing is more relaxed then you have accomplished something important.

Overhyping kettlebells

This is going to sound sacrilegious so let me explain what I mean by this.

Kettlebells are a great training tool and I still use them a lot in my training. I just went so far down the kettlebell rabbit hole that I started to discount the value of other training tools, especially the dumbbell.

The truth is that you can do everything you can do with a kettlebell using a dumbbell, plus you can do some things you can’t do as easily like Cheat Curls. Some exercises like the Single Arm DB Snatch are also easier to do than the KB version of the exercise.

I also find that pressing exercises with the KB hurt my elbows - I know, it doesn’t make sense until you’ve abused your elbows like I have - and so using DBs makes it possible to lift more weight and do it more comfortably for my joints.

Finally, you can get a good pair of adjustable dumbbells for a few hundred dollars - I recommend and use the PowerBlock style - while getting pairs of KBs costs more and takes up more space, making DBs a great option for smaller spaces.

I still use KBs for swings, lower body lifts and rowing exercises as I find them to be great tools for these purposes. I just find that some people think that using dumbbells is somehow inferior to kettlebells and that is simply not the case.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

p.s. BTW, I have a DB program that uses the best MTB specific dumbbell exercises and combines it with the concepts I talked about in the 5-3-1 program. You stick with the same exercises but cycle the weights over the 12 weeks to build strength and efficiency in the movements that really help on the bike.

This is one of my best programs for riders who are new to strength training or just want a super simple, highly effective workout program using a pair of dumbbells. And as a bonus, if you purchase the MTB DB Conditioning Program this week I’ll send you a free copy of my Guide To Better Breathing For MTB. Just send me an email with your receipt and I’ll get it to you.

Click on the link below to learn more and get your copy of the DB Conditioning Program today. This was the first program I sent to Aaron Gwin when we started working together and if it can help him ride faster then I’m sure it can help you too!

MTB DB Conditioning 12 Week Program

 

Core Training For The 40+ Year Old MTB Rider

Core Strength and Core Training are two buzzwords that dominate discussions around improving your MTB specific fitness in the gym. It is pretty widely recognized that having a strong core can help improve your performance and prevent injuries but what is Core Strength and what is the best Core Training?

In this episode of the Riding For A Lifetime Podcast I cover core training for  the 40+ year old rider. While a lot of the things I discuss are just good core training strategies, I look at them through the lens of the older rider and what we need to consider that the younger rider may not.

BTW, in the podcast I talk a lot about the importance of the Windmill exercise for core training. If you haven’t seen it before you can find a video demo of how I recommend you perform this exercise by clicking here.

You can stream this episode or download the MP3 file by clicking the link below. You‌ ‌can‌ also find the podcast ‌on‌ ‌‌Itunes‌,‌‌ ‌Podbean‌,‌‌ ‌‌Spotify‌‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌all‌ ‌other‌ ‌major‌ ‌podcasting‌ ‌platforms.‌ ‌

You can also read a summary article from the notes for the podcast below…

First, what are the “core muscles”?

While a lot of people think of the abs and low back, the core actually involves everything in the torso - if you chopped off your arms, legs and head you’d be left with “the core”. This includes everything from the hips and the shoulder girdle.

Second, what is the function of the core muscles?

While you do need to be able to move through the core muscles, the main function for us is providing stability to protect the spine and to provide a platform to move from.

This is a good time to point out that “stiffness” is not the same as “stability”. Stiffness is something that you can’t turn on and off - it is always there - and stability is something you can turn on and off.

This is why it is important to maintain or even improve your mobility in the core while you are building better core strength and stability. Something like the Sun Salutation from yoga goes a long way towards helping with this.

Last, does mountain biking build adequate core strength and do we even need to worry about training our core muscles off the bike?

I believe that the reason mountain biking has gotten a bad rap for not developing good core strength and needing a lot of supplemental core training is that most riders rely too much on seated pedaling. When you are seated your core is in a rounded position and isn't engaging the same way as when you are standing up. This develops core strength in a bad position and you don't get the same level of core strength due to the lack of engagement.

This means you need to do core training in the gym to make up for this. But if you stand up more, especially during hard efforts, you build core strength in a more functional way that doesn't require as much work to correct.

Even then you still can benefit from some core training like the ab wheel, leg raises and windmills as a way to build a strength reserve - one of the goals of strength training is to help you gain more strength than what you get from the sport alone so you have the reserve needed to handle unexpectedly high loads. But if more riders stood more to pedal then I don't think you'd need to worry as much about it and you wouldn't see as much low back pain, which usually gets blamed on poor core strength as well.

So, in summary, the core is the platform that provides stability when we move and while you can get better core engagement from standing up more on the bike, it does help to train your core muscles off of the bike to build the strength reserve needed to increase performance and help prevent injuries.

Remember too that if you are doing freeweight exercises then your core muscles get engaged from simply lifting weights - squats, deadlifts and even things like standing bicep curls and lateral raises all build core strength so you don’t need to go crazy with core specific training in the gym.

With that said, there are two skills that often get overlooked when talking about core training that are vital to your performance and injury prevention.

The first is the ability to “twist” through the core in a safe way.

You want to be able to move from the hips and t-spine (upper back) and not from your lumbar/ lower back area. This is the movement skill behind cornering and something that will make a huge impact on your riding.

The best way I’ve found to train this skill is through Windmill exercises - Stick, Kettlebell and Steel Mace.

The second is how breathing impacts your core strength and ability to use it on the bike.

Your body will prioritize breathing over bracing, which means that if you aren’t breathing with the right muscles then your body has to use core muscles that should be used to brace instead.

You can have adequate core strength but still struggle to use it on the trail and/ or avoid low back pain because of bad breathing habits. You can avoid this through breathwork training and through focusing on proper breathing during strength and cardio training.

Proper core function and adequate core strength are necessary for performance on the bike and for helping to prevent overuse injuries, especially in the low back.

There are 4 things you can do to accomplish this…

1. Stand up more on the bike.
2. Focus on freeweight exercises in the gym.
3. Use exercises like the Ab Wheel, Leg Raises and Windmills to focus on core strength.
4. Improve your breathing habits so you can use that core strength on the trail.

Core training is important but it doesn’t need to be complicated. Use these training tips to help you improve your core strength and core function so you can have more pain free fun on the bike as you get older.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

p.s. In this podcast I talk about the impact breathing has on core strength and function. If you want to improve your breathing then you need a program that addresses this important factor in fitness and longevity.

The Guide To Better Breathing for MTB is the only breathing program for mountain bikers on the market. In it you will find ways to assess and improve your breathing, workouts to help you improve your cardio fitness and ways to use your breathing to improve your mindset around competition. You can find out more about this unique program by clicking here.

The 40+ MTB Rider Training Program also has a breathing section along with strength and mobility training specifically designed for the 40+ year old rider. It is a comprehensive program that can be done at home with little or even no equipment. You can find out more about it and get your copy by clicking here.

Getting older doesn't have to mean slowing down, it simply means that you have to train smarter. I hope that these tips and programs can help you do just that.

Riding For A Lifetime Podcast - 3 Things the 40+ MTB Rider Must Start Training

Since turning 40 over 7 years ago I’ve realized that my training priorities have to change. I’ve been talking more about the concept of Riding For A Lifetime to help give those new priorities a name.

I’ve decided to change the focus of my podcast to focus on these new priorities and have renamed it  the Riding For A Lifetime Podcast. With it I’ll be sharing training advice and interviewing experts in the field of improving performance while also improving your “healthspan”.

I got this idea from reading Peter Atia, who is a longevity doctor that recently came out with a book called Outlive that looks at the concept of both “lifespan” and “healthspan”. Lifespan is how long you live, healthspan is how well you are able to keep doing the things you enjoy as you age. 

Having to quit doing what you love at some point because of age and/ or injuries is a terrible way to spend your later years. In the book he talked about training today for what you will need as you get older.

It was an interesting thought experiment that got me thinking about some of the things I’ve changed and how they apply to this concept. Here are 3 things that the 40+ rider needs to have in their training program that may not directly relate to improving your MTB performance but will help you age in a way that will support your performance as you get older.

- Hypertrophy/ Bodybuilding Training. A frustrating fact of life is that eventually you hit a point where your body starts to decline. No matter what you do you can’t avoid it completely so you need to do something to slow the process.

One of the worst things to happen is called sarcopenia, which is a fancy term for muscle loss. At a certain point, maintaining your muscle mass becomes extremely important in helping you maintain optimal function. This is why building muscle as a reserve against this future loss and working to maintain it as long as possible is vital.

For a sport where athletes are usually trying to minimize muscle gain it sounds counterintuitive to tell a mountain biker that they need to add muscle and train like a bodybuilder, but this is exactly what I advise the 40+ year old rider does. This is one of the biggest contrasts in how a young pro would want to train and how an older hobbyist wants to train and why you may be missing out if you don’t take this into account.

I have a post about Why Mountain Bikers Should (Sometimes) Train Like Bodybuilders where I tell you how to incorporate hypertrophy training into your routine. And no, adding some muscle won’t kill your performance. In fact, for a lot of riders it will actually help them increase their strength and add some “armor” for when they crash.

- Running & Jumping/ Power Training. As I’ve aged I’ve realized how important it is to maintain your ability to run and jump. Power is another thing that goes with age and, just like muscle mass, you want to build a reserve against future loss and fight to maintain what you have. Running and jumping are also the most basic power exercises you can do and help to maintain a sense of athleticism that is important as you age.

Something as simple as doing 3-5 sets of 3-5 short sprints (10 yards), broad jumps or vertical jumps as part of your workout can help a lot with maintaining power and athleticism. 

- Breathing. In the book Outlive Peter refers to how important breathing is to moving properly while maintaining stability. Stability is another thing that we lose as we age and having proper core function is the key to avoiding it. And breathing properly is the key to proper core function.

At its most basic level, proper breathing simply means to use your diaphragm to drive your breathing. If you don’t do this then you are using other muscles that are supposed to be used for bracing and moving. This dysfunction is something that you can usually get away with when you’re younger but really starts to become a problem as you age.

Overuse injuries from years of bad movement start to crop up, with low back pain being one of the most common. Making sure you are breathing optimally and applying that breathing to your workouts and riding is a key component of being able to ride for a lifetime.

While we like to say that age is just a number, the truth is that it is more than that. Your body does start to decline as you get older and it isn’t just in your head. Understanding what these changes are and how you can best minimize their effects is an important part of being able to live longer and enjoy life as you do.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

p.s. As you can see, there are some differences between how a 40+ year old rider should train and what you see being shared on social media by pro riders in their 20’s. Sure, it isn’t as fun and sexy as jumping up onto a giant pile of boxes or doing some crazy stuff that looks like your training for the circus but if you want to see results as an older rider you can’t follow those fitness trends.

What you need is a program like my 40+ MTB Rider Training Program. In it you’ll find exactly what you need to improve your strength, cardio and mobility in a safe, sustainable way. It incorporates the best training methods I have come across for the 40+ year old rider into a program that you won’t find anywhere else.

You can click here to learn more and get your copy today. It is guaranteed to help you or I’ll refund your money. So don’t wait, click the link above and get started on your journey to enjoying riding even more.

The Best Way To Improve Your MTB Specific Grip Strength

While pretty much anyone who has ridden a mountain bike realizes that grip strength is extremely important, it is a widely misunderstood subject when it comes to how to best improve it for the demands of trail riding. 

This has led to an epidemic of riders who lack the functional grip strength needed to most effectively - and safely - interact with their bike through their hands. This shows up as wrist pain, hand numbness, elbow issues and reliance on “winged grips” to secure the hands on the handlebars.

The problem is that there is a very important aspect of grip training that most riders simply don’t know about, much less how to train for it. This aspect of grip strength in something that you don’t see talked about much in the fitness world in general, which means that if you haven’t heard about it then it isn’t your fault.

In today’s podcast I take a deep dive into the type of grip strength we need on the trail, why the conventional methods of grip training aren’t enough and what you can do to fill in this performance and health gap.

Show Notes:

Grip strength is an important factor in your life and riding. Off of the trail, grip strength is an indicator of functional core strength and longevity.

On the trail, grip strength is one of the few things that science has shown to have a direct impact on your riding performance. (The Science of Going Downhill Faster)

On a practical level, grip strength is a key factor in how you are able to translate your strength and power into the real world. Grip strength will also play a role in how well you are able to translate your technical skills to the bike.

As you can see, grip strength is extremely important and shouldn’t be something that you build by accident - you have to create the type and level of grip strength you want on purpose.

So what is “grip strength” and how do we improve it for the purpose of riding faster?

For most people the definition of grip strength revolves around the ability of the fingers to flex/ close either against resistance or to resist movement. (captains of crush type trainers or farmers walks)

Some people will include wrist movements like forearm curls or the stick and rope.

This is a good start but only part of the equation, and in some cases not even the most important.

This definition of grip strength leaves out one of the most important aspects of MTB specific grip strength -  3 dimensional wrist stability.

First, I think that there are a lot of great methods for building the pinching/ holding grip strength most people are familiar with. Exercises like Farmers Walks, Hangs from a Pull Up Bar and Plate Pinches are all excellent ways to build this type of grip strength.

Where I would say that most riders are lacking is in their ability to stabilize the wrists. The ability for the wrist to resist movement is a key factor in your ability to use your other grip types of grip strength.

On the bike it is often the limiting factor in the grip strength equation and the reason that so many riders suffer from wrist problems and pain on the bike.

Those winged grips are basically the industry's answer to this problem, which is to find a way to mechanically stabilize the wrist instead of advising riders to fix the actual problem.

To build this type of grip strength you need to incorporate leverage based training tools. These are training tools that have the weight at one end of the training tool and a handle at the other.

The Steel Mace and Heavy Indian Clubs (10+ pounds) are the two best tools available.

You can also use a misloaded adjustable dumbbell, heavy hammer or sledgehammer for a similar training effect.

You can use them either to train wrist stability directly or incorporate it into other exercises. Presses, Rows and Farmers Walks all take on an entirely new feel and challenge.

You can also use them to train Grip Strength Endurance, which is what you are really after as a rider. Indian Club Swings and Mace 360’s/ 10-2’s are amazing exercises for building the specific type of grip strength endurance you need on the bike.

On a side note, kettlebells are not a superior training tool for building this type of grip strength endurance. They only challenge your wrist stability in one plane while these tools challenge it in 3 dimensions - you have to keep your wrist from rotating or moving side-to-side or up-and-down.

I made the mistake for a long time of assuming that my kettlebell work was enough but it wasn’t - the 3 dimensional wrist strength you need on the trail is simply not trained as effectively with it.

So if you are not doing any grip training then you need to start - there is no way you can maximize your performance and fun with a weak grip. And if you are already doing something then make sure that you are training all of the important aspects of grip strength, especially the 3D wrist stability.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

Improving Your Health & Performance With Isometrics: Interview with Isophit Inventor Brad Thorpe

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of using Isometric Training to improve your health and fitness. I’ve posted a lot of articles, podcasts and videos going over how mountain bikers can use this powerful training tool in their programs.

But I’m not the only one out there who is obsessed with spreading the word about Isometric Training. There’s a man who has been working tirelessly over the last several years to get isometrics into the training programs of weekend warriors and high level performers all over the world.

Brad Thorpe is considered by many to be the world’s leading expert in isometric strength training. A serial entrepreneur, multi-patented inventor of Isophit, and educator. Brad has over 30 years of experience in the fitness and performance industry. 

Since launching Isophit in 2015, Brad has grown the Isophit family to 350+ members across 31 countries. The more well-known Isophit family members include the US Army, FBI, Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, New Orleans Pelicans, Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Tigers, UCLA, and more recently the Red Bull Athlete Performance Center.

I had the chance to interview Brad last week so I could learn more about what he is doing and to pick his brain about isometrics and how they can be used to improve your health and performance.  While it’s tough to include detailed show notes for an interview like this, I can tell you that we talked about some interesting results that research has found with isometrics, including how isometric neck strength plays a role in preventing brain injuries.

Getting stronger is important for having more fun on the bike, especially as we get older, and isometrics should play an important part in helping you do that. I hope you enjoy this interview and learn something that you can take away to help you with your training and riding. 

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

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With just two 20 minute workouts a week you can safely and effectively improve your health and fitness using isometrics. Click the link below to learn more and get your copy of the Atomic Strength Isometric Training Program today.

Click Here To Get The Atomic Strength Isometric Training Program

3 Ways To Use Isometrics In Your Training Program

Isometrics are one of the most effective training tools in your toolbox. They are effective, safe and have a lot of research behind them. 

They are also extremely versatile. You can use them in different ways to accomplish different goals, including getting stronger, helping you prepare for a better workout and making your regular exercises harder and more effective. I recorded a video/ podcast sharing 3 ways that you can use isometrics to help you get better results from your training program. 

Show Notes:

By Themselves To Get Stronger

• Isometrics are a great way to get stronger and increase your fitness by themselves.
• They are also super convenient and can easily be done anywhere with very little equipment (or no equipment at all if you only have bodyweight).
• Be sure to use both Overcoming and Yielding Isometrics.
• Overcoming is where you push into something that you can’t move.
• Ramping Isometrics are a great method to use - 30 sec. @ 50% effort/ 20 sec. @ 80% effort/ 10 sec. @ 100% effort
• Yielding is where you hold a position against something trying to push or pull you out of it.
• Hold positions for 30 - 90 seconds or more.
• One exercise per muscle group/ movement pattern and one set to near failure.

As A Warm Up/ Activation Technique

• You can use isometrics as a way to get ready for your workout.
• You can do an isometric hold of the exercise you are going to do.
• You can also do an “isolated isometric” to target an area that you need turned on for one or more exercises.
• For example, if you are going to do Deadlifts you could do an isometric Deadlift or you could do an isometric for a problem area - Doing a hold for the back of your neck will also activate your entire posterior chain and make it easier to use it when lifting.
• If you are using them as a Warm Up/ Activation Technique then don’t go all out, you don’t want to exhaust yourself before you train or you could increase the risk of injury - no more than 80% effort.

Combined With Movement Based Exercises To Increase Intensity

• You can use isometrics to make your “regular” exercises harder and more effective.
• One way is to do a 3-5 second isometric hold at the bottom of every rep.
• This not only increases the time under tension in a weak range of motion but you also get rid of the stretch reflex where your muscles use elastic energy to help lift the weight.
• This type of strength is known as Starting Strength and is important on the bike since you don't have the advantage of loading up a movement like other sports.
• You can also add an isometric hold at the beginning and end of an exercise.
• Do a 10 second hold at the weakest point in the range of motion, do 10 reps and then do another 10+ second hold at the weakest point in the range of motion.
• For a Split Squat this would look like holding for 10 seconds with the knee at a 90 degree angle, doing 10 reps and then holding again for 10 seconds with the knee at a 90 degree angle.
• This increases the time under tension and allows you to access higher levels of tension in a safe way.
• This is a great way to build strength-endurance, which is important on the bike.

As you can see Isometrics have a lot to offer and a lot of ways to work them into your program. I’d recommend adding these training techniques into your program to improve your results and decrease your risk of getting hurt while training or riding.

Until next time…

James Wilson

p.s. The Atomic Strength Training Program is the only MTB specific isometric workout program in the world and what I recommend to any rider who wants to start tapping into the power of isometrics for themselves. It combines Overcoming and Yielding Isometrics into a 15 minute workout that is guaranteed to improve your strength and fitness.

Click here to check it out and get your copy today.

 

What is “off season training” if you can ride year round?

For a lot of riders an off season is forced on them by the local riding conditions. However, this definition of an off season gets really blurry when a rider lives somewhere that they can ride year round or they are able to get out in less-than-ideal weather (fatbikes, inclement weather riding gear).

Because they aren’t forced to stop or cut back on their riding, for these riders the term has to take on a different meaning if they want to get the benefits of an off season (and yes, there are benefits to it).

First, there are benefits to taking an off season. It is a chance to address weaknesses in your general conditioning that can hold back your overall riding performance. 

For example, if you need to add strength or increase your mobility then that can be tough to do if you are riding as much as you can.

It also gives your body a break from the repetitive stress that riding places on it.  It can also provide a mental break and refresh your enthusiasm for riding.

So how do you do this if you don’t have to take a break from riding?

I’d like to say up front that riding your bike is the best way to get better at riding your bike. There is a reason that riders from places that you can ride year round do well (Australians, New Zealanders, SoCal) and why people go there in the off season to train.

For riders like this I recommend that you don’t look at it as an off season as much as a change in your priorities.

During the riding season riding your bike is the priority.  Everything you do is geared around riding as much as you can and feeling as good as you can while doing it.

This means that you don’t want to lift so heavy that it takes away from your ability to recover and ride. You also want to prioritize riding 3+ times a week, which will take away from the time you can spend on strength, conditioning and mobility work.

During the off season time you want to reverse these priorities.

This means that you want to make sure that you get your time in with strength, cardio and mobility work even if this means cutting back on how much you are able to ride. It also means that you will be fine with feeling sore and tired from your training sessions when you are able to ride.

For an example of how these differences might look, during the riding season you may ride 4 days a week and only strength train 1-2 days a week with little to no extra cardio conditioning (riding your bike counts as cardio).

During the off season you may ride 1-2 days a week while lifting 3 times a week and getting in 2 cardio training sessions.

During the riding season you may focus on strength training tactics that don’t leave you sore and tired like isometrics and low volume/ moderate intensity training.

During the off season you may focus more on more aggressive strength training tactics like 5-3-1 to build strength or high volume/ moderate intensity stuff to build some muscle.

During the riding season your cardio training is riding your bike.

During the off season you can focus on targeted conditioning strategies that will help fill in specific gaps or improve your foundation for bigger cardio gains when you ride more.

Mobility and recovery should be something you focus on all year round but you may spend more time on it during the off season to improve areas that you need like the hip hinge or the rotational hinge needed for cornering.

Having an off season is part of the bigger picture that it takes to become a better rider over the long term. While you may find that skipping out on the off season doesn’t seem to matter from one season to the next you will find that over the course of several seasons riders that skip it will not progress as much or as fast as riders who do.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

Study Shows What Type Of Strength Training Works Best For Mountain Biking.

If you haven’t done it already then this is the year that you need to start making strength training a priority for improving your MTB specific fitness. Improving your strength can help your fitness, your skills and your ability to walk away from a wreck.

But not just any type of strength training program will do if you want to see results from your off season training and have them stick around until the end of the riding season. While a lot of riders assume that since we use a lot of cardio and endurance that we need to emphasize high reps and low weight, this approach isn’t what works best. 

Science is starting to reveal what the best approach for mountain bike strength training is and it seems to favor a more aggressive approach in the gym. 

This study that I came across looked at the effects of a traditional strength training approach to cycling - using a more endurance based protocol and stopping strength training during the riding season - with a less traditional approach which used maximal strength training in the off season and continued with it during the riding season.

Show Notes:

• Participants had at least 5 years of consistent cycling experience and not done lower body resistance training for at least 6 months. They were all competitive riders on the regional and national level.
• In the off season both groups followed the same program with two days of strength training.
• The Endurance-Strength (ES) Group did 8 weeks of high rep strength training (3 sets of 20-14 reps with the reps decreasing each week).
• The Maximal Strength (MS) Group started with 3 X 20 and then shifted to 3X8, dropping 1 rep each week to get to 3 X 4.
• During the riding season the ES group stopped strength training and the MS group did one day a week of 2 X 5 at 85% of 1RM and 1 X 6 RM.
• They used a Half-Squat, Leg Curl and Single Leg Leg Press. They also used the Wingate Test (30 seconds all out) as a way to measure power endurance.
• At the end of the study they found that there were no significant differences in endurance measurements between the groups.
• They did find that the MS group increased peak power from pre- to mid-season and they were able to maintain most of it through the season.
• They also showed an increase in the most power they could produce over 5 seconds from pre- to post-season as well as an increase in 1RM strength from pre- to post-season.
• The ES group showed a decrease in their power over the last 5 seconds of the Wingate Test, a decrease in their 1RM strength and an increase in the Fatigue Index from the Wingate Test from pre- to post-season.
• In a nutshell, both approaches helped to improve their endurance while only the Maximal Strength Group improved their anaerobic capacity and maintained it over the whole season.

The conclusion was that adding non-traditional strength training to a XC racers program could help them maintain and even improve their anaerobic fitness and power. Mountain biking requires more anaerobic power and endurance than road cycling, which is why real strength training helps to improve performance. 

So remember that next time someone tells you that strength training doesn’t help you mountain biking performance that context matters - the studies that say that are done on road cyclists and that using maximal strength training delivers better results than endurance based strength training.

Both the science and the real world evidence tells us that if you want to maximize your MTB fitness - and fun - then you have to do strength training as part of your routine.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

p.s. Are you still looking for the right program to get your off season training started? You only have a few more months left so you don’t want to waste any more time.

To help you get going with a plan that will help you feel better on and off the bike I’ve put together a New Year’s Training Bundle with 4 programs covering a different aspect of training.

40+ MTB Rider Training Program - As the only training program made for the 40+ year old mountain biker, this program combines unique elements into a one-of-a-kind strength and cardio workout that will improve your fitness without leaving you feeling sore and tired. It comes with two workout programs - one that uses DBs/ KBs and one that uses only bodyweight - so you can use it no matter what equipment you have access to.

Better Breathing for MTB Program - My newest training program shows you how to assess your breathing and how to use different breathing workouts and strategies to improve your cardio and endurance in a way that intervals and regular cardio training can’t.

15 Minute Trail Rider Tune Ups - This is a collection of twenty weight 15-minute workouts that are great for when you are short on time and/ or energy. They make great travel workouts and are also perfect for in-season training as well.

MTB Mobility Routines - This series of follow-along videos takes you through different mobility routines. You have general routines as well as routines that target specific problem areas like the low back.

Together this is almost $200 in programs but as part of the New Years Training Bundle you can get it for only $29. You’ll have everything you need to start the New Year off with a bundle of some of the best MTB specific training programs you can find.

But this special deal will only last for 1 week and will end on the 10th. Click the link below to get your New Year’s Training Bundle for only $29 before this deal ends.

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3 Things I Learned From Training Aaron Gwin

One of the best experiences of my coaching career was being able to work with Aaron Gwin at the beginning of his riding career.

I had a connection with Rich Houseman, who “discovered” Aaron at a local SoCal DH race. Rich called me and told me that I needed to start helping this kid because he was going to be great.

I had the chance to work with Aaron for about 3.5 years, before he was a sponsored rider and then through his time with Yeti. Aaron was actually the reason that the Yeti team hired me because he was impressed with what I was doing with him and wanted to make sure that I was the strength coach for the team.

Over that time he came and stayed with me to train and I had the chance to see him go from an unknown rider to the best American DH racer in a generation, getting 10th in his first ever WC race, finishing as high as 3rd in a race and placing 5th overall after just a few years of racing.

I learned some valuable things from working with and observing him and here are the top 3 things I took away from our time together.

Don’t make excuses.

• I worked with several “next big things” who never amounted to much of anything.
• One thing that I noticed was that they always made excuses for why they couldn’t do something I asked them to do.
• Aaron never made excuses and just did what I asked him to do.

Keep your emotions in check - never too high or too low.

• Another thing I noticed was that Aaron stayed pretty even keel with his emotions.
• You couldn’t tell from talking to him whether he had a great race or bad race.
• His highs were never too high and his lows never too low.

Staying injury free is more important than maximizing performance with your training program.

• Aaron had a bad shoulder from a previous injury when I started to work with him.
• The focus was on keeping the shoulder injury free during training and doing what we could to make it more solid.
• If you're hurt it doesn’t matter how fit you are and more good riders have been ruined by a bad training program than made great from some super hard, overly ambitious training program.

I hope you got something from these lessons as well. You don't have to be a pro racer to apply these things to your own training and riding.

Until next time...

Ride Strong,

James Wilson