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: ,
MTB Bodyweight Exercises
May
8

MTB Exercise Highlight – The Goblet Squat

While I love a good deadlift, the squat is still a very important exercise for a mountain biker’s lower body strength development. When done properly, it is a great way to build the core and leg strength you need to improve your standing pedaling power and endurance.

In my experience, the Goblet Squat is the best way to learn how to squat. It is also a kick butt exercise as well and a go-to lower body exercise in all of my routines. In this video I go over the Goblet squat and share some important details can help you avoid some common mistakes and get even more out of this great exercise.

-James Wilson-

See also: Mountain Bike Strength Training
Tagged:
MTB Kettlebell Workout
May
6

2 Simple Tips to Help You Stay Hydrated and Avoid Cramps

Having a muscle cramp up on you in the middle of a ride sucks. And it hurts. But mostly it sucks as you have to stop and hope that it goes away long enough to let you ride out.

You can’t come into a ride in a chronically dehydrated state and expect to perform consistently.

It sucks even more if you’re out in the middle of nowhere with no idea exactly how far away you are from civilization and only half a bottle of water left. Which is exactly what happened to me on my first mountain bike ride.

Now, at the time I didn’t really think of it as mountain biking. I was just riding my old Nishiki Bravo fully rigid bike around some old jeep roads when visiting my grandparents in Oklahoma. While I had only used the bike to commute around town, one day I was bored and decided go pedal around the woods.

Long story short, I was grossly under-prepared for the summer heat and how much I was going to sweat. I found myself severely dehydrated and suffering from the worst quad cramps ever – I literally couldn’t get them to bend and they hurt like hell.

Luckily I had half my bottle of water left and drinking it got my quads to relax. I was able to get moving again. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do if I cramped like that again with no more water left but luckily I found a short cut back to my grandparents house and didn’t have to find out.

When I got into mountain biking for real a few years later I remembered that episode and swore I’d never let it happen again. This is why I take my hydration pretty seriously.

More than just cramps…

Even if you don’t suffer from cramping, if you allow yourself to get dehydrated you’ll hurt your performance. Post Continued :: Click to Read More

See also: Mountain Bike Nutrition & Supplements
Tagged:
MTB DB Combos Program
May
3

Are you using fitness to overcome bad technique?

If you’re old enough (or a fan of old school hip-hop) then you probably remember the old Eric B & Rakim song Don’t Sweat the Technique. Personally, I love those old jams and have a Boogie Down Productions station on my Pandora shuffle when I train. Of course, I also have some Knife Party, Swollen Members and Rage Against the Machine in the mix as well so it makes for some interesting playlists.

Anyways, my point is that as much as I love that old song I have to disagree and say that technique is one of the most important things to sweat. Unfortunately for us, though, in the mountain biking world technique is rarely as prized as it should be.

Technique is basically your ability to perform a movement or skill with maximum efficiency and energy transfer. No matter what you’re talking about on your bike – pedaling, cornering, attack position on descents – the better your technique the less energy you’ll waste and the more powerful you can be.

One of the really interesting things I’ve found while learning Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the contrasting attitude toward technique. In the BJJ world technique is king and simply using your strength and fitness to power through something is discouraged and frowned upon. I’m always being encouraged to relax and use my technique to set up my ability to use my strength and fitness, not the other way around.

Now, compare this with the rider who has poor pedaling technique (as evidenced by their inability to keep their feet on the pedals when trying flats), bad body position when standing up in the attack position and horrible cornering skills. Are they encouraged to fix their technique first?

No, they are told that the answer to riding faster is to improve their cardio and power levels so they can compensate more for their bad technique. Well, maybe not in so many words but that is the underlying message. Who cares if you have crappy cornering technique and you blow all of your speed when you can simply pedal harder on the other end to make up for it?

Personally, I completely agree with the BJJ approach. You want to train hard to be strong and fit, you just don’t want to use that strength and fitness to make up for bad technique. Sweat the technique and use it to allow more efficient use of your strength and fitness. Plus, better technique simply looks cooler.

In training this often means focusing more on fewer things. In my opinion, in the gym there are 3 things you should sweat the technique on until you have them perfected…

…and on the trail here are the 5 skills you need to have your technique dialed in on.

  • Body Position
  • Seated Pedaling
  • Standing Pedaling
  • Cornering
  • Manualing

BTW, you can get access to a collection of skills training videos going over those 5 skills at www.mtbskillsandfitness.com.

While you certainly want to work on improving your strength and cardio just also be aware that technique is very important. It is something that you want to spend focused time and energy on. Without it you’ll just end up working way harder than you need to and not looking nearly as cool doing it.

-James Wilson-

See also: Mountain Bike Strength Training
MTB Ultimate Program
May
1

How to Use Your Breathing to Instantly Improve Your Mobility

When most of us think about improving our performance the first things that come to mind are working hard on things like cardio and strength. However, your ability to relax may be just as important.

A study by the old Soviet Union’s sports scientists showed something very interesting about the ability to relax. When they looked at the differences between their Olympic level sprinters and those just below them it wasn’t the ability to contract harder that separated them – it was their ability to relax more between contractions.

This means that it wasn’t the ability to produce tension that these other runners needed to work on, it was the ability to cycle that tension with relaxation of those same muscles.

Think about it this way – two muscles have the same contraction/ tension production potential of 1 – 100. The difference is that once the first muscle contacts all the way up to 100 it can drop all the way back down to 20 before contracting again while the other muscle can only drop back down to 30.

Each muscle will be contracting just as hard at the end so they’ll appear the same on a power meter or strength test, but the first muscle will be doing it more efficiently since it is able to put more into each contraction. It may not be a huge difference at first but eventually that inability to relax and let the tension levels drop to an even lower level will catch up to the second muscle, fatiguing it faster than the first muscle.

To me this says that the ability to relax is just as important as your ability to contract and produce tension. Strength and cardio are really a double sided coin and you have to master both sides to be “fit” without working against yourself in the process.

One of the best places to start practicing relaxation techniques is when you are trying to stretch and mobilize a tight muscle or joint. One of the most common mistakes riders make when working to improve their mobility is trying to fight tension with more tension.

I tell every client I work with that when you are doing your mobility work you can’t force the issue.

You have to learn to use your breathing to help you relax into a stretch or mobility drill. Once you learn how to do this with your mobility work you will also find it easier to apply to your cardio and strength training.

In this video I go over this concept and show you how to apply it to your stretching and mobility training. I know that now everyone will appreciate that they don’t have to turn everything – including their stretching – into a life and death struggle but for those that do this video will change how you look at improving both your mobility and ultimately your performance as well.

BTW, the response to my new Mountain Bike Mobility Follow-Along Videos has been awesome. Almost 200 riders have gotten their copy already and it isn’t too late for you to still get in on the No-Brainer Release Special -

  • Over 50% off the regular price – for only $17 you get 6 follow-along mobility routines, including 3 that target the Shoulders-Neck, Low Back-Hips and Ankle plus 3 pre-workout/ ride routines.

  • Over twenty 15 Minute Trail Rider Tune Up bonus workouts, including bodyweight, kettlebell and TRX routines.

  • Over two dozen bonus mobility videos from my archives, including some unreleased videos you can’t find anywhere else.

You can check out this blog post to learn more about the videos or you can click the link below to get instant access to them, plus all the bonus workouts and videos, for only $17.

Click Here to Get Instant Access to the Mountain Bike Mobility Follow-Along Videos Plus All the FREE Bonus Workouts and Videos.

-James Wilson-

See also: Mobility Exercises for Mountain Bikers
Tagged: ,
April
29

Special Deal on my New Mountain Bike Mobility Follow-Along Videos

If you kept up with my In-Season Training Strategies video series last week then you understand why Mobility Training needs to be your #1 In-Season Training priority. When it starts to go then all sorts of bad things happen, from decreased performance to increased pain and overuse injuries.

However, if you didn’t get a chance to watch all 3 videos I can sum it up for you like this…

Mobility is like the alignment in your car. You can have a powerful engine (muscles) and a big gas tank (cardio) but if you have bad alignment you’ll waste a lot of power and gas plus you’ll wear out your tires faster. In other words, bad mobility means that you produce less power, you waste more energy doing it and you wear out your joints faster.

Simply put, your ability to move freely underpins everything you do on the bike.

I also explained how mobility has 3 parts (tension, length and motor control) and that doing 10-15 minutes of mobility training 5-7 days a week was better than doing 60-90 minutes of yoga once a week. This means that a good mobility strategy will have you doing something to address all 3 areas of mobility on an (almost) daily basis.

During the riding season you have to especially be on guard against losing mobility as you spend more time on the bike, adding a lot of tension to the same muscles over and over again. However, a lot of riders simply don’t know what to do and end up doing a few token stretches (which I explained can actually make the situation worse) or they end up doing nothing. Either way they end up in a spiral of decreasing mobility and performance and increasing joint pain.

Since this is the time of year that you need to be ramping up your mobility training to offset the extra riding you’re doing I have created the new Mountain Bike Mobility Videos to help you with that problem. This new program includes 6 follow-along mobility routines and will give you everything you need to address both specific problem areas and to address the need for a good pre-workout/ ride warm up routine.

First are 3 all-new Specialized Mobility Routines that target the main problem areas for mountain bikers…

  • Shoulders/ Neck
  • Low Back/ Hips/ Knees
  • Ankles/ Knees

Each of these 10-15 minute routines will take you through a series of foam rolling, dynamic stretching and mobility drills that will help restore mobility and decrease pain in these key areas. Focusing on your specific problem areas will help you get far more out of your daily mobility practice than just using a more general routine can.

Next are 3 progressive warm up routines from my Time Crunched Trail Rider Program that prepares the body to train/ ride while also decreasing the risk of injury. These 15 minute routines get your body primed and ready to performance and can set you up for a powerful, pain free performance.

That’s 6 total follow-along mobility routines – none of which take more than 15 minutes to complete – that will give you the tools you need to greatly improve your mobility and the quality of your rides/ training sessions while also decreasing nagging aches and pains. Even if you’re not following one of my workout routines you can use these mobility routines to enhance the results of whatever routine you are following.

After finalizing the routines and shooting the videos over the last few weeks I’m finally ready to release this new program and I really want to get these new videos into the hands of as many riders as possible. I think that these Mountain Bike Mobility Videos will literally change the lives of a lot of riders as it helps them discover that they can not only move better but also move pain free.

So, to do that I’m going to have a No-Brainer Launch Special where I make this such a great deal you don’t even have to think about.

For starters, while the final price on the 6 Mountain Bike Mobility routines will be $37 I’m going to give it to you for only $17, which is over 50% off the regular price! While this is a great deal in itself I’m going to throw in a bunch of bonuses as well.

First up, you’ll get a FREE copy of my 15 Minute Trail Rider Tune Up (15 M-TRTU) Workouts. These 15 minute routines are the perfect compliment to the mobility routines, giving you a short workout to that will help cement your mobility gains while also helping improve your strength and fitness. With over 20 of these innovative routines to choose from – including bodyweight, TRX and kettlebell routines – you’re sure to find a couple that you really love.

Next, you’ll also get FREE access to a special video album that contains every mobility video I’ve ever shot. This includes demos of dozens of warm up routines, stretches, foam roller demos and other mobility tools. I’ve never had all of these available in one place before (some have never been released before) and it will contain a lot of videos that you can’t find anywhere else.

So, all together you’ll get…

  • The new Mountain Bike Mobility Videos which includes 6 follow-along video routines.
  • The 15 M-TRTU workouts which has over 20 workouts, each with its own video demo.
  • The special Bonus MTB Mobility Video Album which has dozens and dozens of additional routines and demos not found anywhere else.

…all for only $17! This is a crazy good deal, which is why it won’t last long. At the end of this week this deal will be gone for good so don’t wait, click on the link below to grab your copy today!

Click Here to Order the New Mountain Bike Mobility Videos for only $17 plus all of the FREE bonuses before this special deal ends this weekend.

Hopefully I’ve done my job and made this such a great deal that it really is a No-Brainer and some of you who wouldn’t usually be interested in a mobility product will check it out. Once you experience the power of improved mobility you’ll see that it truly is the key to better performance and less pain.

-James Wilson-

 

See also: Mobility Exercises for Mountain Bikers
Follow MTB Strength Training Systems:
James Wilson
Author and Professional
Mountain Bike Coach
James Wilson