Interview with Finnish MTB coach Jukka Mäennenä

One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to meet and talk with other coaches who work with mountain bikers. While a lot of cycling coaches are still entrenched in the road riding mentality of training, there are some really smart coaches who are helping to push our sport forward.

One of these coaches is Jukka Mäennenä. Jukka is a 29-year old avid rider and coach from Finland. He's been riding close to 15 years in several different disciplines but for the past few years, he has focused mainly on Enduro and BMX racing. 

He is also a published author with a book about cycling that came out this spring. In English, the name of the book is "The Big Finnish Cycling Book". As the name states, it's a general book about cycling and all its disciplines that covers bikes, riding technique, training and even briefly nutrition. If you can read Finnish, be sure to grab a copy the book here.

Besides riding Jukka is interested in all things related to strength, movement, and endurance. He has attended several workshops around the world to learn more and studies daily to get better. He even came and spent some time with me at my facility a few years ago.

It had been a while since we had talked and I wanted to get Jukka on a podcast to share what’s in his new book, what’s new with his training programs based on what he’s been learning and how he is using the new Functional Range Conditioning mobility program with his riders. We got into these and some other subjects during the conversation and I know you’ll get some good info from it.

If you’re interested in learning more about Jukka, his blog can be found at www.super-sets.com. The blog is only in Finnish, but you can check out a couple of his articles written in English below.

StrongFirst.com - Use Goal Cycling to Stay on Target
Bretcontreras.com - Inside the Mind of Bret Contreras

You can also follow Jukka on Instagram at jukka4130.