Medical Preparedness For Mountain Biking With Brian McLaughlin

While most riders understand the need for better technical skills to ride with more confidence and improve their safety on the trail, few understand the need for basic medical skills to improve these things as well. There are a lot of reasons for this lack of understanding, including lack of coverage in the mountain biking media and misunderstandings about what you need to learn and carry. But the end result is that, as a group, we are woefully unprepared to handle a traumatic injury situation.

I know because up until  a year or so ago I was one of those riders. Ignorant about how easy it was to learn what I needed to know and how inexpensive it was to have a few tools to help, I went on countless rides where if something had gone wrong it could have been a disaster.

Luckily I came upon some great resources to help me improve my medical preparedness, including the company Mountain Man Medical (https://www.mountainmanmedical.com/). Their mission is to help prepare as many people as possible to be able to provide help in the case of a traumatic injury situation and they proved to be one of the best resources I could find.

I reached out to their director Brian McLaughlin to see if he would come on the BikeJames Podcast and he agreed to come on and share some potentially life saving information with my audience. In this podcast he shares…

• The MARCH algorithm and how it can help you know how to help someone in a traumatic injury situation. 
• The truth about tourniquets and how long they can be on before someone might lose the limb it is on.
• The top pieces of gear you should consider carrying on the trail.
• Brian’s secret to be successful in a traumatic injury situation.

We also talk about the free video training series they offer on the MARCH algorithm, which I can’t recommend strongly enough. Yes, it is completely free with no strings attached and you can find it here -  https://www.mountainmanmedical.com/product/emergency-trauma-response-training-course/

The SWAT-T Tourniquet that Brian recommends you consider carrying on the trail you can find here - https://www.mountainmanmedical.com/product/swat-t-tourniquet/ 

The Tracker Trauma Kit we talked about can be found here - https://www.mountainmanmedical.com/product/tracker-trauma-kit/ 

You can also save 15% off your purchase with the coupon code BIKEJAMES, just enter it at checkout to save some money on equipment that could save a life.

I hope you get some valuable information from this podcast that you never need but, if you do, can save you or someone else. And please share this podcast with your fellow riders, the more of us that are on the trail prepared to help in a traumatic injury situation the safer we’ll all be. 

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

p.s. I shared what I carry on the trail to help in an emergency situation in the Advanced MTB Loadout video. Check it out to get some ideas on what you can carry to be better prepared to help yourself or someone else on the trail. And remember to get your gear at www.mountainmanmedical.com and use the coupon code BIKEJAMES to get 15% off your gear.