Around this time of year I start to rely a lot of bodyweight training. While I still get into the gym a couple times a week and lift some heavy stuff to keep me strong, I find that my joints don’t like too much of that stuff. I put a lot of stress on my [...]

One of the biggest myths in mountain biking is that seated pedaling is better than standing pedaling. This advice is usually given in the form of “sit down as much as you can and only stand up when you have to”. There are a lot of reasons given for this advice from not tiring yourself [...]

I get asked all the time about how I would train for a specific type of riding or event. Of course, riders think it is as easy as telling them to do a specific exercise or cardio routine but there is really much more to it. There are 3 Levels of Mountain Bike Performance Training [...]

Here is a reality check I often have with myself or clients when we start to lose focus on what will really help us ride with more speed, endurance and confidence on the trail… – You don’t need to find a new “sport specific” exercise or fancy workout style to improve your riding, you just [...]

This past weekend my little girl Shilo had her first belt test in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. She’s been really dedicated to it for the last 6 months and has picked it up really quickly. Plus we have a lot of fun “wrassle frassling” with each other as we practice at home. In BJJ you actually [...]

Hope you had a great weekend and got the chance to get out on the trail. I got out for a short ride on Sunday with my trail mutt Aka, I’ve got to get out a little earlier to start beating the heat. I’m more worried about my black dog overheating than myself but staying [...]

Knowing what to do is one thing…actually being able to do it is another. You can know everything there is to know about improving as a rider but if you get derailed every time something gets in your way you’ll never see any results. For example, lets tackle the biggest one – a lack of [...]

Something that I’ve been playing around with in my training programs lately is the use of Tempo to guide the speed of my reps. It is something I have used on and off for almost a decade now and some of you that have the second version of the Ultimate MTB Workout Program may recognize [...]

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 [...]

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. Unfortunately, this also means that cramping is not [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

This week I’ve been going over the 3 parts of your training program and how you should adjust each to best compliment your in-season riding. Like I’ve explained with your cardio and strength training, if you don’t make the right adjustments during the season you can set yourself up for a late season slump and [...]

Strength training has a lot of great side effects for us as mountain bikers, including… – Improvements in pedaling power and efficiency – Increased body control for more confident execution of skills – More core strength for less low back fatigue and other common overuse injuries …and this is a very partial list. Strength-to-weight ratio [...]

In my last blog post I talked about the importance of being able to deal with compromises, especially with your training program. One of the real dangers, however, is denying that something carries any compromises with it which leads to a fall sense of confidence in its effectiveness. Finding the balance between the two is [...]

As most of us find out pretty early on in life, compromise is just something we have to learn to deal with. I was reminded of this by a couple of things that happened over the last week, namely asking my 8 year old daughter what she wanted for desert, getting my basement gym set [...]

I didn’t think much about the Shoulder Press when I first started working out in high school. First, I wanted bigger pecs so the ladies would look at me and everyone knew that bench pressing exercises were what you needed to focus on. Second, I couldn’t lift nearly as much weight as I could for [...]