Getting the hips loosened up is a priority for any mountain biker. It will decrease low back pain, increase hip drive and help with your technical skills. Here is one of my favorite stretches for this vital area.
Multi Planar Hip Stretch from James Wilson on Vimeo.
-James Wilson-
A common concern from mountain bikers about strength training during the riding season is the soreness they usually get. This is a valid concern and one I wrestled with early on when trying to figure out good training strategies for our sport.
If you are too sore to ride is your workout really making you a better rider? Probably not. However, you don’t have to get sore from strength training. Soreness is not to be confused with effectiveness…how sore you are means nothing in regards to how effective the training was for you as a mountain biker.
The best way to avoid the “too sore all the time” problem is to avoid the bodybuilding influenced programs. Using body part splits (where you train different body parts on different days) and using a lot of different exercises to “attack the muscle from different angles” are tactics that bodybuilders use but really have limited use for mountain bikers.
Doing total body training splits where you train an upper body pulling, upper body pushing and lower body exercise in the same routine is a good way to go. You can not do as many set and reps per exercise this way which will keep the overall volume low and limit how sore you are the next day.
Excessive muscle soreness is caused by doing too many different exercises and too many sets and reps on one body part/ movement pattern. If you are too sore then do a little less. Again, if your weight lifting causes you to be too sore to ride well then it is not helping your riding.
A routine like this would work well -
Workout A: Push Up/ Cable Row/ Deadlift 4 X 6 reps each
Workout B: DB Shoulder Press/ Chin Up/ Single Leg Squat 4 X 6 reps each
Do this as a circuit and you’ll get a decent cardio effect as well. Just alternate these two workouts as often as you lift each week (I recommend 2-4 days per week) and you’ll find you’re not as sore and you will get much stronger on the trail.
BTW, weight lifting is a MUST for mountain biking. We can debate whether it impacts performance on the trail (which it does) but you can not escape the fact that mountain biking causes strength imbalances in the body. These imbalances will result in overuse injuries over the years so if longevity is important to you then you need to do some strength training to help restore and maintain the balance your body needs to function properly.
-James Wilson-
Here is a video I did a while back on how to execute a proper Military Press.
-James Wilson-
Linear periodization is by far the most common approach used in designing a long term training program for mountain biking. Although is was revolutionary when it was introduced to the USA in the 60’s and 70’s it is actually a flawed concept for the average mountain biker. Find out why this is and what you can be doing to design a more effective training program.
All right folks, it is a bit late but last week got caught up getting the new No Gym, No Problem: Real Bodyweight Training for Montain Bikers program done so hopefully you don’t mind the delay (you can sign up for this free workout by signing up for the free blog updates by clicking on the Free Stuff tab above).
This DB Combo drill is actually a teaching method I use to help mountain bikers understand the movements needed to execute a good DB snatch. The DB snatch is one of the best power exercises out there but without getting the movement to come from the hips instead of the low back you miss the whole point of the exercise. This drill will serve as a workout and help you groove this invaluable movement as well.
April DB Combo of the Month from James Wilson on Vimeo.
-James Wilson-
If you think that most of my training advice is aimed at the gravity and freeride set then you’ve got it all wrong.
If you think that an XC or trail rider needs some vastly different program or group of exercises than a 4X or DH rider then you’ve got it all wrong.
If you think that the MTB Strength Training System isn’t all about having more fun on your bike no matter what your riding style then you need to listen to this podcast.
You can visit http://mtbstrengthcoach.podbean.com/ to download the MP3 file.
-James Wilson-
