The Riding For A Lifetime Podcast

New Podcast - Deadlift Strength, Science of a Good Rider, Mixed vs. Regular Cardio & Cockpit Control

Hope you had a great holiday weekend. I had a good one myself, getting some riding in with Aka the Trail Mutt. 

Aka is getting a little older - just like his master - but he just refuses to slow down. I joke that he gets me out as much as I get him out but it’s true...without his enthusiasm for getting out on the trail as much as possible I probably would have skipped more than a few rides over the last 7+ years.

But I’m always glad when I do get out. The combination of being in nature, getting the “runners high” from a long, grinding climb and the adrenaline rush of some sweet momentum fueled fun is something that never gets old.

Nothing else provides this combination of soul-recharging elements, which is what makes mountain biking so unique. The struggle it provides and the environment it provides it in are the things that keep me coming back to the trail after almost 2 decades of riding.

That’s also why I love sharing my passion for riding and training with everyone. I know that mountain biking isn’t easy but with a little knowledge you can fast-track you progress and avoid unnecessary frustrations. 

Which brings us to this week’s podcast. In this new BikeJames Podcast I cover some topics that I think will help you ride faster, longer and with more confidence on the trail.

This Week’s Podcast Topics

Rider Q & A: Why does my female training partner who can’t deadlift as much as me (load or strength-to-weight ratio) outclimb me? Doesn’t my higher deadlift strength mean I’ll have more power and can outclimb her? 

Bro Science: Three studies that  tell us the characteristics of a good mountain biker.

Training: Why Crossfit or “Mixed Cardio” isn’t as good as “regular cardio” for MTB specific training.

Skills: Cockpit Control workshop overview and insights.

Equipment Review: Neat Ice Bag

You can stream or download this episode below. Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

New Podcast - Speed vs. Power, Handlebar Width and Emotions in Training

This week I’ve got a new BikieJames Podcast for you. A lot has happened since the last one and I had a few interesting topics to share, including...

• The opening of my new Catalyst Training Facility in Fruita CO
• Rider Q&A: Is speed determined by power?
• Why your handlebars are too wide
• Resistance Bands: Why I like them and some experiments with them
• Bro Science: The role of emotions on Pacing Strategy

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems

New Podcast: Knee Stomp vs. Hip Stomp for Jumping, History of the TGU and Isometric Bro Science

This week I’ve got a new podcast to share with you. Instead of a single topic, I had a few random things that wouldn’t make for a whole episode alone so I put them together into this BikeJames Podcast.

In this episode I cover…

• Knee Stomp vs. Hip Stomp: Why “stomp your feet” can be a bad coaching cue for jumping or manualing your bike.
• The importance of foot position on the bike for using your Hip Hinge and “stomping your feet” the right way (and why this is a major reason the Catalyst Pedals work so well).
• Some history on the Turkish Get Up and why you may be missing out if all you do is the kettlebell version.
• Some interesting studies on Isometric Training and my Bro Science interpretation of them for us as riders.

I hope you enjoy this month’s episode and I’ll look forward to sharing more stuff with you in the next one.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

Recovery Posture & Low Carb Diets

In this episode of the BikeJames Podcast I look at two recent studies and their application to mountain biking and training.

You can find the full studies below:

Recovery Posture

Low Carb Diets 

Until next time...

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

Overtraining: What It Is and How To Avoid It

Everyone knows that training hard is part of getting better. If you don't push your body past what it did yesterday then it won't have any reason to improve your fitness levels.

But we also know that if you push too hard things can go wrong. Usually referred to as Overtraining, almost everyone reading this has experienced the symptoms of pushing our body harder than we should have, which include lack of energy, getting sick and overuse injuries.

Your body will force you to take time off and rest but taking time off is one of the worst things for your progress. Staying consistent with your training is important and so pushing your body hard while also avoiding Overtraining is the key to long term progress.

In this episode of the BikeJames Podcast I dive into the subject of Overtraining, letting you know exactly what it is and how you can use that information to help you. I also share some tips, strategies and tools I've found to be especially helpful for this goal.

Until next time,

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

3 Reaons Getting Stronger This Off Season Will Make You Faster

Spending some time getting stronger is one of the best things you can do to improve your perfomance on the trail.

While nothing can replace riding your bike, there are 3 reasons that strength training will help you in ways that just riding your bike can not.

1 - It helps you work on tension skills that you need on the trail but don't do enough on the trail to improve past a certain point.

2 - It helps you work on movements you need on the bike in a less stressful learning environment.

3 - It helps you avoid acute and overuse injuries, helping you stay consistent with your riding and training, which is the #1 secret to improvement.

In this podcast I go over these points in some more detail and hopefully convince you that strength training is not an option if you want to be the best version of yourself both on and off the trail.

Until next time...

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

Enduro Race Training

In this new episode of the BikeJames Podcast I share my thoughts on Enduro Racing and how approach training riders for it. A lot of riders are making some common mistakes with their training and my goal is to help you avoid them while knowing what you did need to focus on to be successful at Enduro Racing.

Click the link at the bottom of this post to stream or download the MP3 file for this episode.

Remember that you can download the BikeJames Podcast through Itunes and Podbean as well.

If you are a seasoned vet looking for an edge or a new racer looking for a place to start your training journey, then this podcast will have a lot of great info for you. Enduro Racing can be a fun and rewarding part of your mountain biking experience and with the right training plan it can be even better.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

Show Notes:

• Goal with this podcast is to inspire you to take your results into your own hands. With the right approach you can make dramatic changes in your performance.
• Enduro Racing gets scored on the DH sections, which makes them the most important.
• There is no bonus for transfer times so they don’t matter.
• Top Enduro racers come more from a DH background than an XC background.
• For them Enduro Racing is slower than their normal pace and for XC it is faster.
• It is easier to train slower for longer than to increase your speed.
• Big mistake riders make is training like it is an endurance event and not emphasizing where the points are really scored, which are the shorter DH style sections.
• In DH your strength-to-weight ratio and your technical skills are the biggest factors.
• This means they should be emphasized in your training.
• Enduro specific fitness includes having the anaerobic engine to ride as fast as possible on the timed stages while being aerobically fit enough to ride the transfer with minimal impact on the anaerobic energy system.
• In the gym this includes getting stronger and more mobile to improve strength to weight ratio and movement efficiency. This includes 2-3 days of strength training and 5-7 days of mobility work (can be as little as 10 minutes a day).
• Right now I like to get strong with Ramping Isometrics (great for Strength to Weight Ratio) and use tools like Indian Clubs and the Steel Mace to work on movement efficiency. I’ll mix in some “traditional” movements for variety but I’ve found that using them to get “stronger” usually led to getting hurt or having my training take away from my riding.
• Cardio Training = Breathing/ Make sure you are training your breathing.
• Domino Theory - Last domino is “cardio” but first one is breathing.
• The best cardio training you can do is trail riding…but only if you do it right.
• You won’t become a better Enduro Racer in the gym or on a trainer - it will only happen on the trail.
• Most Enduro racers waste their most precious training time by just going for a ride and calling it training.
• To be training it must reflect what you are training for, which isn’t a normal trail ride.
• Enduro training trail rides should include 2 types:
• Moderate Skills Focused Rides: These rides have you focusing on riding as smoothly as possible instead of trying to go hard and fast. They are a great time to pick a specific skill and focus on it. Avoid redlining for sustained periods of time and focus instead on using as few pedal strokes as possible. Get 2-3 of these a week.
• Hard Race Simulation Rides: These should reflect how you race, which includes transfers with climbs followed by timed sections. On the trail you should try to mimic the length of time you would ride a transfer stage while focusing on keeping your breathing under control and not redlining, which includes walking if you need to. You should also have some sections that reflect a stage and can vary in length. Rest if you need to but focus on putting down your hardest effort for those runs. In other words, instead of just riding “hard”, have some easy and hard sections. This may include lapping the same section if that is all you have access to to train on. Do 1 of these every 7-10 days.
• Some easy rides or days that you work on skills drills can round out your riding.
• If you can’t ride and have to do some “cardio training” I would encourage you to include some “cardio strength training” like combo drills or mace flows (Upper Body Cardio/ Grip Endurance).
• Watch out for programs that treat you like a roadie or XC rider with lots of long, sustained effort rides. If it doesn’t seem to reflect the realities of Enduro Racing and they can’t give you a really good reason why not then odds are they are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
• Enduro Training doesn’t have to be rocket science but you do need to apply some critical thinking to it. You have what it takes to be successful already and with the right training program you can unleash that.

 

Recap and Lessons from the Perform Better Functional Training Summit.

In this episode of the BikeJames Podcast I recap the insights and lessons I took from the recent Perform Better Functional Training Summit. It was a 3 day event in Long Beach that brought in some of the best coaches in the industry to share their knowledge.

You can stream or download this episode by clicking the link below. You can also find the BikeJames Podcast on Itunes.

My Big 5 Take Aways:

1 - Leverage and Torque based tension are different than Compression based tension. This is why the Mace and Indian Clubs are more effective for “real world/ farm boy” strength.
2 - The Glute Bridge/ Hip Thrust deserves a spot with Squat and Hinge as lower body movement patterns that need to be trained. Ramping Iso Bridge achieves the goal of the loaded hip thrust.
3 - The hips are made to create and absorb force along multiple planes and they need to be trained that way.
4 - Keto is overrated and misunderstood.
5 - Functional Training needs to evolve past the current “Correctives + Kettlebells” formula.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

The Biggest Gimmick in Cycling? Clipless Pedals.

In this podcast I break down the claims used to sell clipless pedals and expose why they are nothing but a gimmick. 

Show Notes:

• The definition of the word Gimmick: A trick or device used to attract business or attention.

• This includes things that are untrue and have no basis in science or facts.

• Clipless pedals are sold based on two things that based on this definition are, in fact, gimmicks.

• The first is the Round Pedal Stroke and the Need to Pull Up on the Backstroke.

• There are countless graphics illustrating a “perfect” pedal stroke that have never been seen or re-created using an actual EMG.

• Real EMG readings look nothing like those charts.

• That makes these charts untrue and, by definition, a gimmick since they only exist to help attract attention and business for clipless pedals.

• The second gimmick is being on the ball of the foot and the need for a repeatable foot position.

• Again, there is no science to back up either claim.

• What studies do exist are either unclear or actually point towards a more mid-foot position.

• The body is also not designed to be locked into the same movement over and over again, which leads to overuse injuries from not enough “noise” in the movement pattern.

• This is why machine training is bad for your joints compared to free weights… now imagine doing thousands of reps locked into a machine.

• Both of these things have no basis in science or functional movement principles, making them “a trick used to attract business or attention”. In other words, a gimmick.

• In my mind this makes clipless pedals the biggest gimmick in mountain biking since they are sold to most people based on these untruths.

• They also have some very real drawbacks that no one wants to discuss.

• First, they force a very unnatural movement onto the legs.

• Your legs are not designed to apply force in a straight line but instead uses a spiral or screwing motion as it applies force into the ground.

• If you do this motion on a clipless pedal you either move within the free motion known as float - which is like applying force into ice and wastes energy - or you end up unclipping.

• This forces you to either let your knees bow in to create some of that spiral - which is bad for your knees - and/ or you end up learning how to minimize that spiral and move in a straight line up and down.

• Second, when cornering you need to be able to apply pressure in a spiral motion into the pedals to “set the edge” and drive the movement. If you do this on clipless pedals you float/ and or unclip which, again, forces an unnatural movement on the bike.

• Last, your foot wants to apply pressure into “the ground”, or something that is supporting it from the bottom. A stiff soled shoe is not supporting your foot, only making it stiff. You need something underneath that it can apply pressure into for it to be supported.

• If you have the foot supported by the pedal then you can’t twist your foot, which is good for the foot because it allows the spiraling motion since your foot can’t twist but it is bad for getting unclipped since you can’t turn your foot.

• This means that a properly supported foot literally can’t turn like you would need it to in order to unclip, making it very hard if not impossible to clip in and allow natural foot movement through a proper platform.

• They are also more dangerous, especially for beginners, and the consequences of not getting unclipped are much worse than slipping a flat pedal (head, shoulder or arm injuries vs. cut up shins).

• These very real drawbacks are never brought up or discussed in the cycling world and we only hear about the gimmicks used to prop up their “superiority”.

• I’ve also had conversations with people in the cycling industry who admit that they are overhyped and sold to people who don’t need them but because they companies that sell them pay for advertising and sponsorships it isn’t worth saying anything, giving me insights behind the curtain that most riders simply don’t have.

• So what would you call a product that is sold based on a gimmick and has very real drawbacks that are never discussed or simply downplayed? I call it a problem for our sport but we’ll be nice and just call it a wonderfully successful gimmick.

• If you think I’m wrong then I challenge you to simply look into for yourself. I’m willing to bet that less than 1 in 1000 riders out there who ride clipless pedals have ever done this and that if more did then we’d be having a very different conversation as a sport.

• I’ve put together the Flat Pedal Revolution Manifesto to help riders learn the truth and break free of the gimmicks that we’ve been sold in the past and it’s a great place to start if you are really curious about the truth about foot position and pedal stroke.

The BPTM System - 4 Steps to Improving Your Performance

In this podcast I look at the 4 steps I'm now using to help riders improve their movement and performance, the BPTM System, which includes...

1 - Breathing.

• Crocodile Breathing
• Meditation

2 - Position

• Mobility
• Stretching

3 - Tension

• Isometrics (Ramping Isometrics)

4 - Movement

• Training (GPP)
• Playing/ Competing (SPP)

Until next time...

Ride Strong,

James Wilson