May
22

Animal Flows for More Trail Flow…

One of the things we use a lot in BJJ training are animal inspired bodyweight exercises. From the Shrimp to the Alligator (and its more sinister cousin the Rotagilla, which is a backwards Alligator), the act of moving my bodyweight through different crawls has proven to be more of a challenge than I thought it would.

I mean, since I do a lot of bodyweight training in my training programs I figured that moving around on the floor couldn’t be too hard. However, I quickly found that “static” bodyweight exercises where you stay in one place are much different than ones where you actually move around.

Anytime I come across something that seems harder than it should be I figure I’ve exposed a weakness that needs to be addressed. This led me to start using more animal crawls in my warm ups and on my “light” workout days. It also led me to start looking for more info on new animal crawls and how to incorporate them into my workouts.

After looking around a bit I found out that the technical term for animal crawls are Animal Flows and that there are a lot of cool ones to choose from. This one here really inspired me to start using them more in my workouts – I figure that if I can move with that much flow off my bike it has to help me on the trail:

So, that leads me to my workout this morning. One of the resources I came across was the Global Bodyweight Training website and the Animal Flow Workouts. I bought yesterday it and started to use what I learned from it right away.

In it you learn 3 basic Animal Forms – the Ape, Beast and Crab – plus 3 transitions. All of the Animal Forms can be done forward, backwards and sideways for different challenges and the transitions are not only great ways to move from one form to the next but they are also killer exercises themselves.

For example, the Front Kickthrough not only looks really cool but it makes a great addition to a cardio circuit. This morning I was alternating 20 KB Swings (you can do 10 Squat Jumps if you don’t have a KB) with 10 Front Kickthroughs, resting just long enough to catch my breath between sets. Do that for 5 rounds and your heart will be pounding, guaranteed!

Here is a video from the Animal Flow Workouts videos going over how to do a Front Kickthrough so you can try this workout for yourself.

I’m really digging the this new element in my program. They are fun to do and they really challenge me in new ways. Plus, they seem to be doing my shoulders a lot of good – something from having to stabilize my shoulders as I use my arms to “walk” on.

I’ve already got some great ideas on how to incorporate these new Animal Flows into the No Gym, No Problem Workout (I smell an update to it coming soon). I’d also recommend checking out the Animal Flow Workouts from Gobal Bodyweight Training, it does a great job of breaking down the animal forms and transitions so you can start using them yourself. You’re sure to find them a valuable addition to your program as well.

-James Wilson-

See also: Mountain Bike Exercise Demos | Mountain Bike Strength Training
Tagged: ,
MTB Bodyweight Exercises
May
20

Preventing cramps on your mountain bike – more than hydration and electrolytes

I seem to be getting a lot of questions about cramps right now so I wanted to share my basic advice for preventing them. Cramping can be a bit more complicated than most people realize because there is more than one thing that can be causing it.

imagesUnfortunately, this also means that cramping is not related to your banana intake.

In fact, once your hydration and electrolyte bases are covered (which isn’t hard to do as I outlined in this article) cramping usually boils down to inefficient movement and/ or posture. Inefficient movement and posture put muscles at a disadvantage and eventually one of those muscles will give out, i.e. cramp up.

For a mountain biker this means that if you have a quad dominant pedal stroke and don’t recruit your hips optimally – a very common problem among riders who try to “spin circles” – your quads will always deal with being tight and sometimes cramping up. If you ride with a rounded lower back you make matters even worse and your low back will be tight and at risk of cramping.

With that in mind, here is my basic advice to riders who suffer from cramping while riding:

1 – Don’t ride clipless pedals all the time and make sure you can mimic your flat pedal mid-foot position with your clipless pedals. There is no getting around the fact that it is extremely tough to recruit the hips when you are pushing through the balls of your feet. You need a more mid-foot position – like the one flat pedals naturally put you in – to get the hips behind the pedal stroke.

2 – Foam roll and stretch your quads, hips and calves. The leg muscles produce a lot of tension over the course of a ride and you need to do something to address the knots and adhesions that come along with it. Those knots and adhesions cause the muscle to carry more tension than usual and if you come into a ride with an already tight muscle the odds of cramping it up are much higher.

Screen Shot 2013-05-20 at 12.31.26 PM

3 – Use deadlifts and swings to help develop a more efficient “hip dominant” pedal stroke. Getting your hips strong is the key to developing a strong, hip driven pedal stroke. When you can do a 1.5-2 X BW deadlift and knock out perfect swings with a 24 kg KB your pedal stroke will thank you.

Screen-Shot-2013-03-12-at-9.53.33-AM

Sometimes cramping is related to something as simple as hydrating properly and increasing your electrolytes but for a lot of riders there is more to it. By addressing the movement issues that can be causing cramping you will not only eliminate or significantly reduce your cramps but you’ll get a stronger pedal stroke as well. Plus, you won’t have to eat bananas all the time.

-James Wilson-

See also: Mountain Bike Strength Training
Tagged:
MTB Kettlebell Workout
May
17

MTB Exercise Highlight: Kettlebell Clean

The Kettlebell Clean seems like a simple exercise on the surface – swing the kettlebell back like you were going to do a swing and then stand up, pulling the kettlebell into the “rack” position. And, in truth, it really is simple if you know how to do a good swing and have a solid “rack” position.

But this exercise also has a hidden benefit for us as mountain bikers. When done correctly, it also teaches you how to use your breathe to absorb an impact.

On the trail you will find yourself facing a hard impact and you can’t just “get tight” in anticipation of it. You need to remain loose until the moment of impact, absorb it and then be able to relax and move again. And this is what the Kettlebell Clean teaches you to do.

In this video I break down the Kettlebell Clean and give you the coaching cues I use to help the riders learn how to perform it and advanced tips tips to get the most benefit out of it.

-James Wilson-

See also: Mountain Bike Exercise Demos | Mountain Bike Strength Training
Tagged:
MTB DB Combos Program
May
15

Breathing Tips for Better Mountain Bike Cardio

Core training and cardio training are two things that most people don’t think of as going together. However, they are tied together for one simple reason – both drive your breathing and stability comes from the core.

While the core has muscles specifically for breathing, sometimes things get out of whack and we “forget” how to use them. We end up using other muscles like the chest to drive our breathing. This leads a couple of critical problems on the trail.

First, chest breathing is inefficient and doesn’t use our full lung capacity. You have to use the diaphragm to draw air all the way into the lungs and the deep abdominal muscles to exhale to achieve optimal gas exchange.

Second, when you don’t use the right muscles to breathe you end up using muscles that are better used to stabilize and power movement. When given the choice between creating movement and breathing those muscles will always choose breathing, leaving you without all of your core muscles to help you on the bike.

This means that when you are training you have to focus on good breathing habits so you don’t simply ingrain bad habits. In this new video I go over some basic strategies I use to help improve a rider’s breathing and to help integrate that improved breathing into strength and cardio workouts.

-James Wilson-

See also: Cardio Training for Mountain Biking
Tagged: ,
MTB Ultimate Program
May
13

My challenge to you this week…do something that gets you out of your comfort zone!

Humans are funny creatures because of our ability to forget just exactly how bad something sucked in the heat of doing it. For example, if a woman really remembered what childbirth felt like they’d never do it more than once. Luckily that isn’t the case and the further away we get from something like that the less it seems to have sucked.

The ironic thing is that those types of events seem to be the best character builders as well. Like the old saying goes, whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

All of this leads me to my recap of my first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament. As you can probably guess from the lead in, I had a few moments in the heat of battle where I was questioning my sanity for paying money to subject myself to it but I came out the other end better for it.

After waiting around until 3 pm to for my division to start – the old man white belts in case you’re wondering – I found myself standing by the mats waiting for my turn. I thought I was going to puke once or twice from the butterflies in my stomach and it took all my willpower to stay calm and focused.

As I was watching the regular white belt division finishing up before we got started I noticed something – there was a dude who I knew was competing in my division who was kicking all the 20 something’s asses. He ended up winning that division and I just happened to draw him as my first match.

He was a real nice guy who told me he had been doing BJJ for about 6 months but you could tell from his cauliflower ears and take down skills that he wasn’t a stranger to the mats. Turns out he had wrestled for a long time and recently picked up BJJ after a 16 year hiatus.

Well, he may not have been a wrestler for 16 years but he still had some moves. I won’t lie and say that first match was close. He ended up beating me on points 10 – 0 and I spent the whole match on my back getting crushed under him.

IMG_20130511_162208_938

Trying to minimize the smashing…

After I realized that I wasn’t going to win this match my goal was simply to put up a good fight and not get submitted. I spent the last minute staring up at the ceiling wondering why I would ever subject myself to this again.

After the match was over I wasn’t super stoked to say the least. I knew that the odds were against me winning but I was hoping for more than just getting smashed for a single 5 minute round to show for all my hard work in the gym, time I took to drive to Denver and money I spent on the trip.

Gathering up my stuff I got a tap on the shoulder. Turns out that since there were only 5 guys in my division I was going to get to fight in the Bronze medal match.

The next guy I went up against turned out to be a “real” white belt like me with no former grappling experience. I won’t go into a lot of details about the match since I have a video of it posted below but I will tell you this – I ended up winning by choking him out sitting on his chest in Mount and it was the most exhausting thing I have done in a looooong time.

It was much harder being the aggressor than just defending myself like I did in the first match. Add in the pressure of not giving up the win the closer we got to the end of the match and I felt like I had just run a marathon and hit a new PR on my deadlift when I was done – my lungs and muscles were toast.

One tired winner...

One tired winner…

Which leads me back to my original point. 5 minutes after that last match, despite being the winner, I wasn’t sure I’d ever do it again. However, the further away I get from it the more fun it seemed and now I’m really looking forward to the next one…weird but true.

This experience taught me a lot about myself and the power of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. You can’t really grow when you are in your comfort zone but unfortunately most people spend their lives trying to stay there as much as possible.

For us as mountain bikers this doesn’t mean entering a race or event you feel you’ll do well in. Part of the discomfort should come from facing the unknown.

This can come in the form of entering a race if you’ve never done it, entering a different type of race if all you do is compete in one genre of riding or, better yet, doing something completely unrelated to the bike.

In fact, I really think that if all you do is ride bikes that you’ll get far more out of an experience that has nothing to do with bikes. I know it sounds like crazy talk but it is true.

The old samurai knew this well and would spend time studying art, poetry and other pursuits. These guys lived and died by the sword and even they recognized the need and value in expanding your horizons. Even my favorite old school samurai Miyamoto Musashi talked about the importance of studying other “ways” in order to better understand his own.

So there is my challenge to you…do something this week that scares you. It may only be signing up for something like a race, a cooking class or something else that you’ve wanted to do but have let the call of your comfort zone stop you from pursuing.

Just know that it will be uncomfortable and probably really suck in the heat of doing it, which is exactly what you want. You’ll come out the other end a better person, and a better rider, for it.

IMG_20130511_164717_101

-James Wilson-

See also: Mountain Bike Strength Training
Tagged: ,
May
10

How to explode your dealift – Deadlift Dynamite Book Review

Deadlift Dynamite is a book I read last week going over all things deadlifting. Written by Pavel Tsatsouline and Andy Bolton, it is a detailed look at perhaps the most important exercise you can do as a mountain biker.

In case you don’t know, Pavel is the guy behind the modern day kettlebell movement and is one of the brightest guys in strength training. Andy is the only guy in the world to deadlift over 1000 pounds (1008 to be exact) and has also squatted over 1200 pounds.

AndyandPavel

Put them together and you have two guys who have forgotten more about getting stronger than most of us will ever know. Have them write a book and you have, well, Deadlift Dynamite.

Despite the deadlift being front and center, the book actually goes into all three Powerlifts – the squat, bench and deadlift – in great detail. In it Pavel and Andy give you tools to help you learn the movements and tips to get more strength out of them as well.

For example, they provide some great stretches, mobiltiy drills and corrective exercises to help groove the movement patterns used by each exercise. They also teach you how to generate maximum tension in the right areas to create a stronger, more stable platform to move from, which greatly improves you strength and safety.

They also go over principles to helps you best integrate the squat, deadlift and bench press into your program. Among them are…

- Keeping your reps per set to less than 5

- Never training to failure unless testing your limits in competition

- Cycling your loads so you that you start “light” and build up over the course of 6-12 weeks to a new personal best.

Andy also goes into his personal workout program, which is a lot simpler than you probably think. In fact, that was one of the things they emphasized a lot in the book – no fancy approach can replace hard work, patience and attention to detail. Getting stronger is a marathon, not a sprint, and doggedly focusing on the basics for a long period of time is still the key to getting there.

All in all I really liked Deadlift Dynamite. While I don’t use a lot of bench pressing in my programs and the powerlifting focused workouts aren’t exactly what I’d recommend for a mountain biker, getting stronger in the the deadlift and squat are keys to a riders success.

If you struggle with the deadlift or squat then the progressions covered in the book will really help speed up your learning curve. Even if you have them down pretty good you’ll still get something from the advanced tips to help you squeeze a little more tension and strength out of them. I’ve got those two lifts down pretty good and I got some great tips out of it.

BOOK_DeadliftDynamite1

I’ve often said that a rider needs to be able to do a 1.5 – 2 X bodyweight deadlift and I know that a lot of you reading this can’t do that just yet. When you do everything else you do on the trail will seem much easier and you’ll have much more core and leg strength to put into your riding. If you haven’t reached that goal yet then check out Deadlift Dynamite, it is sure to give you a big boost on your way there.

-James Wilson-

See also: Mountain Bike Strength Training
Tagged: ,
Follow MTB Strength Training Systems:
James Wilson
Author and Professional
Mountain Bike Coach
James Wilson