The Riding For A Lifetime Podcast

Why Strength Training is an important part of improving your endurance.

Strength Training has a long and interesting history in the world of sports. It wasn’t long after people started competing with each other that they figured out lifting heavy stuff made it easier to beat your opponent. From ancient Greeks to Roman Gladiators to the modern super-athlete, getting stronger has played a role in the success of countless athletes through the ages.

But while getting stronger has long been recognized as a way to get better at your sport there are still a lot of riders who are confused about how to best use it. And no wonder – you can hear a lot of conflicting and confusing advice.

On one hand you have those who tell us that strength training isn’t important and that you don’t need it. They say that there is no proof that getting stronger helps your performance on the trail. Some go so far as to claim that it can actually decrease your performance.

On the other hand you have those who tell you that Strength Training is one of the most important things you can do as a rider. They say that you need to focus a lot of your time and energy in the gym getting stronger. Some of these people go so far as to focus most of a rider’s time and energy trying to build a better mountain biker in the gym.

So which is it? Do you need to avoid strength training or do you need to focus a lot of time and energy on it? What are the real advantages of it for us as riders? And how do you make the best use of it this off-season?

Well, I’m glad you asked. In this podcast I answer those questions and more, giving you the lowdown on why you should strength train and how to get maximum transfer from the gym to the trail.

In this podcast I cover…

1 – Myths and misunderstandings about Strength Training.
    - What is Strength Training?
    - Does strength training improve our performance?
    - How much time and energy should you devote to strength training?

2 – Benefits of Strength Training.
    - It teaches the body to move more efficiently.
    - It allows the body to access more motor units for Speed/ Power and Endurance training.
    - It is one of the best ways to prevent overuse injuries.

3 – How to use Strength Training as a mountain biker.
    - Focus on training the basic human movements and filling in gaps.
    - Focus on improving your 80% efforts instead of constantly hammering the 100%.
    - Don’t turn strength training into cardio training.
    - Basic workout template and periodization schemes (Rep Ladders, 5/3/2, Complex Circuits)

There’s a ton of great info in this podcast, you’ll learn all of my top Strength Training tips and strategies to help you develop the strength base this off-season that you need to ride strong all season long. If you have any questions about Strength Training or about off-season training in general please feel free to post them below, I’m here to help out if I can.

And in my next post I’ll go over Power/ Speed Training. The ability to quickly recruit your muscles in a highly coordinated manner is essential to being able to pick up speed quickly or power over obstacles. In other words, being able to tap into and repeat a true 100% effort, which is something a lot of riders seem to struggle with on the trail.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

How to use Flexibility Training to improve your performance.

Flexibility Training is probably the least understood out of all of the 5 Essential Elements of MTB Training. It is one of those things that we know we need as part of our program but we rarely spend the time and effort needed to real results.

It seems that all of the other elements of training are always “more important” and we skip Flexibility Training to fit more of them in. So why is it that even though we know that being inflexible isn’t helping us on or off the bike but we don’t spend more time working on it?

Over the years I’ve found that there are 3 reasons most riders don’t make better use of this important element of training.

First, they might have heard that they don’t need it or that it can actually decrease your performance. Second, they don’t understand the real benefits of it so they don’t buy into it enough to spend the time and energy needed. And last, most rides simply don’t know how to make the best use of Flexibility Training.

So in this podcast I try to clear these things up so you can make better use of this powerful training tool. In it I go over:

1 – Myths and misunderstandings about flexibility training
    - What is flexibility training?
    - What is the difference between flexibility and mobility?
    - Why stretching will not make you weaker.
    - Why it is hard to stretch too much and become hyper flexible.

2 – Benefits of flexibility training
    - It is one of the only ways to work on decreasing muscle tension.
    - Flexibility is the foundation for efficient movement.
    - It is a good indication of how free of excess tension you hold.
    - It is one of the best ways to prevent overuse injuries.

3 – How to use flexibility training as a mountain biker.
    - You’ll need to watch the video/ listen to the podcast to find out…

Don’t make the mistake that so many riders make and skip over this important elements of training. It is especially important that you prioritize it now during the off-season so that you can restore the body from all of the riding you have been doing and set yourself up for a high performance, injury free season next year.

If you have any questions about Flexibility Training or about off-season training in general please feel free to post them below, I’m always happy to help out. And in my next post I’ll go over Strength
Training and how you can make sure you get the most transfer from the gym to the trail, including how improving your strength can directly impact your endurance.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

Some tips to help you maximize your off-season training plan

With the end of the riding season fast approaching it is time to start thinking about your plans for this off-season's training. How you ride and perform next season depends on what you do in the off-season, making it a critical part in making sure see the kind of progress you want.

While most riders would agree with this, few of them have a solid plan to help them achieve it. And out of those riders that do have a plan I usually see two mistakes that hold them back.

In this podcast I go over the basics parts of a periodization plan and how to maximize your results from it by avoiding two common mistakes. No matter what training program you plan on using this off-season this podcast will help you get the most out of it.

Until next time...

Ride Strong,

James Wilson