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The Podcast for the MTB Strength Training System, the world's original and best strength and conditioning system designed exclusively for mountain bikers.
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Tuesday Dec 27, 2022
Tuesday Dec 27, 2022
One of the things that I’m known for is that I am a big advocate for standing pedaling. In a sport where riders are told to use seated pedaling - particularly high RPM seated pedaling - as much as possible the advice to stand up more really surprises some riders.
My opinion on the subject comes from my background in functional movement and how to best apply it to the bike. It also comes from understanding where the “sit and spin” advice comes from and why it is flawed if you apply some critical thinking to it.
First, I am not saying you should stand up all of the time. I have something I call The 4 Quadrants of Pedaling that outlines how I think riders should use the two different pedaling positions.
In a nutshell, I think that you should use seated pedaling for easy, low tension efforts and you should use standing pedaling for hard, high tension efforts. This is the best way to get the most performance out of your riding while also avoiding a lot of overuse injuries.
Let’s take a look at seated pedaling and why people think it is better and then see if those theories hold up.
First, we’re told that seated, high RPM pedaling is more efficient. However, this is based more on the fact that most riders aren’t strong with standing pedaling and that it feels hard.
There have been studies and anecdotal evidence that shows that standing pedaling and seated pedaling are about the same from a metabolic efficiency standpoint. What’s more, when you stand up you are creating movement more efficiently.
You get more hip extension, you get your weight over the pedals so gravity can help more and you are able to get your core engaged with a better spine position and full knee extension, which is required to get stable knees at extension. This is a much better position for the body to create movement and power from.
This is one reason I’m not a big fan of bike fits for mountain bikers - once you stand up all those measurements go out the window and if I’m not over-relying on seated pedaling I don’t need it to be “perfect”.
It is the high tension efforts that create stiffness and overuse injuries and so you want to make sure you lay that high tension on the best movement patterns possible. So standing pedaling is arguably more overall efficient, which is a measure of how much energy you get out of your energy input.
Seated pedaling has a lower energy input and can be sustained for longer but don’t confuse that with being more efficient as these are two different things.
The next thing we are told is that seated, high RPM spinning is the most metabolically efficient way to pedal.
This is mainly based on the Carmichael Training System and the programs he came up with for Lance Armstrong. Lance was doing a lot of EPO and could therefore handle a higher aerobic load that you or I can, which calls this theory into question.
Even at the highest levels of road cycling you will find riders who are successful with a sit and spin style and with a more aggressive use of standing pedaling - there is no one way that works for everyone all of the time.
While you can argue that seated, high RPM pedaling is more efficient, you can’t get away from the fact that trail riding requires you to navigate problems that require the use of your skills, which are always best used from a standing position.
These are also usually the highest risk parts of riding and not being strong with being able to stand up and use more tension at the pedals is potentially dangerous. The culture of spin-and-pray to get through technical rock gardens is a testament to how weak more riders are with standing up and working through those problems from a better position.
Technical climbs, technical trail sections and jumps/ drops are best handled from a standing position with some tension at the pedals and not being strong in that position is holding a lot of riders back.
Lastly, what about the biggest myth about seated pedaling of them all - needing to keep weight on the rear tire to keep traction for climbs.
This is completely false and you need to look no further than a Clydesdale type ride who, if that theory were true, would never break traction because of their superior weight.
We all know that isn’t the case and this brings us to the difference between “weight” and “pressure”. Pressure is weight used actively, which is what we are really after.
Think about standing on the bathroom scale and pushing your weight into it to make it move past your actual weight.
You can also think about getting a truck that is stuck in the sand out - you can pile people in the back to help but eventually too many people actually creates a problem. The answer is to have the people start to bounce, which creates pressure and increases the traction of the tires.
This is what you want on the bike - pressure being pushed into the back tire as you take a pedal stroke to maximize your traction. It is this “bouncing” that is creating the pressure, which you can do sitting down but you can do much better standing up.
Your butt will be in about the same place in space but you’ll be able to move it and use your weight more effectively if you aren’t sitting down. Plus, creating a wedge with your taint isn’t good for it and the primary reason is that riders need special seats and have problems with that area.
Standing up moves the other end of the wedge to your hands, which is what they are made for.
So, as you can see, standing up is a better position to create movement and power from, it is a safer position to tackle technical trail problems and you can actually create better climbing traction.
But, like anything else, there is a learning curve that you need to go through. At first it will feel hard and awkward but with practice you can make it a strength instead of a weakness.
Something that can help with this is to make sure you are using flat pedals, preferably the Catalyst Pedal, because they create a more stable platform for your feet when you stand up.
Float and the lack of actual contact space between your foot and the pedal creates a lack of stability that makes standing up feel less stable and more awkward, which is something else that has fed into the prevalence of the sit and spin approach.
To help you train for standing pedaling make sure you do any hard cardio training while standing up and spend time on the trail with your seat down, which will force you to stand up when you should and learn how to best use seated and standing pedaling.
Standing pedaling has a lot to offer us as mountain bikers and is a low hanging fruit that a lot of riders could use to greatly improve their performance and decrease their overuse injuries.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
Thursday Dec 22, 2022
Something that I try hard to get riders to understand is that everything they do starts with their breathing habits. How you breath affects not only your cardio and endurance but also how well you move and can execute your skills on the bike.
If you have bad breathing habits then the easiest thing you can do to improve your performance is to fix those bad habits. You didn’t start out with bad breathing habits and your body wants to breathe in a more efficient and effective way if you give it the chance.
Something that can go a long way towards helping you do this is to use nose breathing as much as you can. Nose breathing is a more efficient way to breathe and can also go a long way towards improving your health as well.
However, one of the knocks on nose breathing is that you can’t use it at moderate or high intensity levels and that trying to do so will actually restrict your performance. This view is based on some studies that showed this to be the case with runners but new evidence suggests that there may be more to the story.
A newer study looked at nose vs. mouth breathing at different intensity levels but this time they used runners who had spent time adapting to it. The previous study had used runners who had not spent any time working on it before being tested and the new study wanted to see if that made a difference.
In today’s newsletter I go into what the study found and how it can be applied to your training for mountain biking. I’ve got the show notes below and a link to the live stream replay and the audio file from it as well. You can also find it on Itunes, Podbean, Spotify and all other major podcasting platforms.
Click Here To Watch The Video Or Download The Audio Replay
This study looked at the performance difference with runners who used nasal breathing when they switched to mouth breathing.
http://journals.aiac.org.au/index.php/IJKSS/article/download/4400/3407
A previous study had found that nasal breathing restricted peak intensity levels and wasn’t able to be sustained at high intensity levels.
That study didn’t use runners who had been training with nose breathing and this study wanted to see if there was a difference in those results after someone had trained and adapted to nose breathing.
They found a group of male and female runners who had been using nasal breathing exclusively during training and racing for at least 6 months.
They tested them on a VO2Max, a graded exercise test and physiological economy with both nasal and mouth breathing.
This had them do a maximal graded exercise test and then a steady state test at 85% of their top intensity during the graded exercise test.
They found that during the graded exercise test there was no difference in performance, VO2Max or peak lactate production.
However they did show a lower mean ventilatory equivalent for both oxygen and carbon dioxide.
This represents the amount of ventilation required for the consumption of each liter of oxygen and reflects ventilatory efficiency. It is measured as the ratio of the volume of gas expired per minute to the volume of oxygen consumed per minute
During the steady state trial they showed better physiological economy and a lower mean ventilatory equivalent for both oxygen and carbon dioxide.
The conclusion was that it is possible to use nose breathing at all levels of running intensity without a loss of performance and improved economy of how they are producing that energy after a period of training and adaptation.
They also concluded that nasal breathing is a way to maintain performance while improving your health.
While there are differences between running and mountain biking, I still think that there are some takeaways for us here.
Nasal breathing takes a period of adaptation to benefit from and there is likely to be a dip in performance as you do this.
The off season is a great time to make the switch to using nasal breathing more.
You should use nasal breathing as much as possible during your cardio workouts.
You can use running as a way to introduce it into your routine as well.
Give it a solid 4-6 weeks before making any conclusions about how it is going.
On the trail try to use nose breathing more, especially when you are at an easy effort level or trying to recover from a hard effort.
As you can see, nose breathing can be used effectively at higher intensity levels while also being more metabolically efficient and healthier for you. Be sure to check out the Better Breathing Program for more info on breathing and how you can improve your performance and health with better breathing strategies.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Tuesday Dec 20, 2022
Tuesday Dec 20, 2022
Mountain biking is a great sport but it also isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s a tough, grinding activity that demands a level of toughness from the people who do it that no other cycling sport does.
A drawback to being tough, though, is not paying enough attention to injuries. Ignoring injuries or using painkillers like Tylenol to mask them isn’t an effective long term strategy.
You also don’t want to use injuries as an excuse to stop training and do nothing. If you want to ride for a lifetime then you need to know how to effectively work around them when they do pop up.
You can learn more about how to work around an injury in the video I shot last week sharing the strategies I’ve used with countless riders to help them recover faster while minimizing their strength and fitness losses.
I’ve got the show notes below and a link to the livestream replay and the audio file from it as well. You can also find it on Itunes, Podbean, Spotify and all other major podcasting platforms.
There is a lot of value in continuing to train with an injury.
- The injury can heal faster.
- You can minimize the loss of strength in the injured area.
Two types of injuries.
- Acute: something happens that immediately injures something (crashing and busting up a shoulder)
- Overuse: something adds up over time and creates an injury (bad mobility and movement causing some sort of -itus in your shoulder)
We should be able to avoid or minimize overuse injuries with good training habits - if you’re hurt it doesn’t matter how fit you are.
Acute injuries are part of the game and will pop up from time to time.
No matter what type of injury you have, make sure you are following your medical caregivers advice.
In general you want to avoid pain so don’t do anything that causes the injured area to hurt, either in the moment or after the activity.
Painkillers like tylenol and ibuprofen can be used for short periods and should not be a regular part of your strategy.
If you have an overuse injury you need to figure out the problem that is causing it and fix it.
- The problem is usually a non-painful, dysfunctional joint immediately above or below the painful area.
- Remember the old Stable - Mobile joint stacking model (stable joints on top of mobile joints on top of stable joints, etc.)
- You may need to cut back on your weight and volume to affect the type of change needed to improve movement patterns (used early in off season to fix problems and optimize future training)
If you have an acute injury you need to do what you can while working around it.
- The mistake most people make with this is to try and see how much they can do before causing a problem and they often go over the line, setting back the recovery time.
- The better strategy is to do everything you can to heal as fast as you can so you can get back to normal training ASAP.
No matter what type of injury you have, isometrics should play a big role in your recovery.
- You’ll be able to do isometrics before you can do loaded movements.
- Isometric strength = Stability, which is often lacking when people first come back from an injury.
If you want to minimize your injuries then make sure you have a good strength and mobility program as part of your overall strategy. The Ultimate MTB Workout Program is the best option for the rider that wants it all and the Atomic Strength Program is the best option for the rider who wants a minimalist training program that still delivers results.
Knowing how to work around injuries is just part of the process of riding for a lifetime, especially if you want to keep performing at a decent level. Hopefully this post has given you some tools to help you do that.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
Thursday Dec 15, 2022
I was working out with my daughter this morning and we were talking about how I was her age when I started to get serious about strength training. I told her that while I had “worked out” for a few years before turning 16 and getting my license, it mainly consisted of periodically sneaking into the local rec center with some friends and hitting the weight room 5 times in one day. I didn’t have a way to be more consistent but that changed when I got my license.
After that I got a membership to a small gym about 10 minutes from my house and started to go almost every day. Like everyone else back in the early 90’s I was following a bodybuilding routine, which had me training different body parts on different days and sometimes hitting the gym twice a day. I was reading Flex and Muscle & Fitness and following the advice from their pages and I put on some muscle and saw some changes in my body that made me more confident.
For a while if you had asked me why I worked out I would have told you that I was a bodybuilder. I worked out to get bigger and change how I looked. And part of the reason was that I didn’t know that there was another choice.
But then I started to come across magazines like Muscle Media 2000, which exposed the open secret that all the top bodybuilders were on steroids and that you couldn’t train like them unless you were too. I changed my approach to fewer days with more intensity - the ultimate example being the months I spent doing the Mike Mentzer One Set To Failure Program - but I still saw myself as a bodybuilder.
But then I started to see articles about this thing called “functional fitness”. People started to point out that a lot of the puffed up bodybuilders you saw in the pages of magazines weren’t very strong or athletic (except for Ronnie Coleman, who was every bit as strong as he looked). The term “looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane” started to get thrown around as a way to describe how a lot of people who followed bodybuilder programs came up short in the performance category.
It turned out that training to perform well and training to have big muscles were not the same thing. Athletes trained much differently and those training methods started to become more popular. Bodybuilding started to take on a negative meaning and everyone stopped doing curls and started doing Olympic Lifting.
And I jumped into this new fad with both feet. To be honest, I was a little disillusioned with bodybuilding. I’m not a naturally big guy and I realized that I was never going to be a mass monster. So training to improve my performance gave me another reason to hit the gym.
This was also around the time that I started mountain biking and seeing how Functional Fitness helped my riding inspired me to start MTB Strength Training Systems. I’ve been a huge advocate for functional fitness and have seen it help a lot of people…but I’m starting to realize that I may have gone too far.
Bodybuilding has a valuable role in your strength training toolbox, especially as you get older. The truth is that losing muscle mass is a big part of age-related declines in performance, which means that the more you have and the harder you work to keep it, the longer it takes for that decline to start and it is more of a gradual decline rather than a sharp drop off.
Muscle can also serve as natural “armor” for when you hit the ground and act as the catalyst for more strength gains. Considering everything that adding some muscle can do for us it makes sense to spend some time doing it.
And who knows more than anyone on the planet about building muscle? That’s right, Bodybuilder. So if you want to build and maintain muscle then they have some things to teach us.
If you want to learn more about the lessons we can take from Bodybuilders check out the video I shot last week. I’ve got the show notes below and a link to the live stream replay and the audio file from it as well. You can also find it on Itunes, Podbean, Spotify and all other major podcasting platforms.
- There is a difference between putting on muscle from starting to lift weights and purposefully lifting to gain muscle and there is some value to the latter.
- You need muscle for natural “armor” and as a way to fight against natural muscle loss.
- Muscle can also serve as the engine for more strength gains.
- Nobody knows more about building muscle than bodybuilders.
- Building muscle tends to focus on lots of volume with moderate to short rest periods.
- In general, 25+ total reps gets you into the muscle building zone with 30+ reps being optimal.
- Set X Rep schemes that fall into this muscle building zone - 3 X 10/ 3 X 12-15/ 4 X 8/ 10 X 3/ 5 X 5
- You can also use things like drop sets and other methods to create more fatigue through volume.
- Another thing to use are isolation exercises.
- Focus on Active Isometric Isolation Exercises where the rest of the body is creating a platform for the single joint to move from.
- Doing some arm training won’t kill your functional gains either.
- The off season is a great time to spend some time focused on building muscle in the early off season before switching to the strength and power focus we need on the bike.
- It’s probably not the best choice during the heart of the riding season due to the lack of resources for you to build muscle but it’s also good to throw in every 2-3 training phases.
- Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater - Functional Training is a great way to train but Bodybuilding still has some things we can gain from as well.
Hopefully I’ve given you a reason to dust off the ol’ dumbbell curls and work on adding some muscle this off season. If you need a training program that takes this into account then be sure to check out the Ultimate MTB Workout Program, where the early phases work on fixing your movement while also adding some functional muscle.
Let me know if you have any questions about this or anything else related to helping you improve your health and performance.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
Tuesday Dec 13, 2022
One of the hardest parts of learning to ride a mountain bike is how to make good decisions on the trail in the heat of the moment. A lot of wrecks are caused by bad decisions about speed and line choice and bad decisions can also lead to you working harder than needed
So how do you acquire the skill of good decision making on the trail?
The best place to start is with the decision making process and the best model for this that I have found is the OODA Loop. OODA Loop was developed by Lt. Colonel John Boyd to explain where good ideas came from, particularly in the heat of the moment.
It consists of 4 parts, with each part flowing into the next while also informing the previous stages as well.
Observe: You observe what is going on through your own observations and other information coming from outside sources. Example: You see what is coming up on the trail/ You have someone tell you about what is coming up.
Orient: You orient yourself to the situation based on the information you have at hand, your past experience and even your genetics.
Decide: Based on your Orientation to the situation you make a decision about the best course of action.
Act: You take action based on your Decision.
The Orientation process is the generally most important part of The Loop. The more you are able to bring to the Orientation process the better Decisions and Actions you can take.
To improve your Orientation process you can gain more experience through more riding, training camps/ clinics, reading books, watching videos and thinking about the problems you are facing.
This is one of the reasons that new riders struggle with their Decisions on the trail - they simply don’t have the resources for their Orientation process. New riders need to be able to ride, make mistakes and learn from those mistakes.Instead, well meaning riders tend to over-coach and over-recommend technology to make up for what is simply a lack of experience.
Another thing to take from this is that the faster you can go through the Loop the faster you can act. Being able to make decisions faster can make up for a lack of speed and power.
Visualization can also help with the Action part of the Loop. Once you have Decided on an action, you can see yourself doing that action successfully. This will help you be able to Act faster through familiarity of the action through visualization.
You also can’t get through the OODA Loop if you are stuck in the Fear Loop. You have to deal with your fear and make a decision to act before you can start to move through the OODA Loop.
Controlling your breathing is one of the best ways to help you move through the Fear Loop and into the OODA Loop.
Knowing where you get stuck can help you identify what you need to work on to improve your decision making on the trail.
Fear Loop: Change your relationship with fear to move out of it and into the OODA Loop.
Observe: Learn to pay better attention and to use your peripheral vision.
Orient: Get the experience you need to improve the information you have to draw on.
Decide: Visualization to try out different ideas.
Act: Visualization to see yourself performing the idea you decided to act on.
Your best asset on the trail is your brain and its ability to run through the OODA Loop faster and more effectively. Hopefully this information can help you ride with more confidence and flow.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Thursday Dec 08, 2022
Everyone wants to improve their cardio and a lot of riders invest time and money following programs to help them do that. While things like intervals and steady state cardio are well known things that can help improve your cardio, there are other things that can help that most riders don’t know about.
Over the last few years I've been diving into the science behind some other training methods that have been shown to improve your cardio and endurance on the trail. These things don’t get the press that other methods do right now but as more evidence to their benefit comes out you can be sure you’ll be hearing about them more.
But you don’t have to wait, you be ahead of the curve and get an advantage on your riding buddies/ competition that don’t use these methods yet. If you want to maximize the results of your cardio training program you should consider including these things as well.
I shot a Live Stream going into this subject in depth and this podcast is the audio replay from it. You can find the show notes below:
- Isometrics
- Great way to learn how to apply proper breathing to different levels of tension in important positions.
- Increases the enzymes responsible for aerobic metabolism.
- The highest level of High Tension Cardio you can achieve.
- Breathwork/ Breathing Drills
- One study found that you could double your results from a cardio training program simply by adding in some breathing drills.
- Breath Hold Cardio
- Doing breath hold cardio can improve CO2 tolerance, EPO -> Red Blood Cells -> Hematocrit Levels, the strength of the respiratory muscles, and the buffering of lactic acid.
- Bonus - Strength Training if you aren’t doing it
- When done right, strength training should be making you a more efficient mover, which means you will burn less energy for the same amount of effort.
If you want an easy way to start applying these things to your training program be sure to check out the Atomic Strength Isometrics Program and the Better Breathing For MTB Program. Both can give you the tools you need to take your cardio and performance to a level you can’t get to without them.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments about this post and I hope that it gave you some new things to think about as you get ready for the off season.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
Tuesday Dec 06, 2022
I’m doing something a bit different with this podcast. I’ve decided to start shooting a YouTube Livestream video 3 days a week to get more information out there faster and this is the replay of the first episode.
In this one I answer a rider’s question about how to gain more confidence on the trail. I’ve got the show notes below and you can listen to the podcast with the audio file from it as well.
Right now I plan on doing the livestream on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 9:45 a.m. I’ll get the schedule more official in the next few weeks but if you can tune in for one I’d love to see you there.
Q: How do I gain more confidence on the trail? I’m a newer rider and pretty fit but I struggle to wrap my mind around some of the obstacles I come across on my rides.
A: This is a common question for new riders. I have a couple of things I suggest because not all of it is "mental", as in all in your head. Some of it is gaining confidence through success and setting yourself up for that success.
First, make sure you are riding flat pedals. I highly recommend the Catalyst Pedals that I invented because it gives you the most stable platform for your feet. But any good flat pedal will be better than clipless pedals. There is a learning curve with flat pedals but once you get past it you'll be much more confident.
Second, spend time drilling things like front wheel lifts, rear wheel lifts and trackstands (practice with both left and right foot forward). These are the basic skills that make up most of what you do through technical sections on the trail and if you have dialed in then you will be much more confident using them on the trail.
Third, there are a lot of great books on the subject of sports psychology - one of my favorites is Psych by Jud Biasiotto - but in my experience you have to gain confidence through success more than anything else. Hopefully this helps, let me know if you have any other questions.
Last, make sure that you are controlling your breathing and know how to use visualization on the trail. Making sure you don’t fall into “stress breathing” and seeing yourself ride through something in your head will go a long way towards helping you do it in real life.
You can check out the new Better Breathing Program to help with this if you need help with using your breathing more effectively on the trail. .
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
Thursday Dec 01, 2022
10 years ago I decided to become a literal white belt at something new - Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I had been riding bikes for 12 years at that point and had achieved a reasonable level of skill and fitness. But my progress at that point was only in small increments, which is typical when you reach a certain level of proficiency with anything, and I wanted to feel that thrill again that came with being new at something.
You know what I mean - that feeling that you're progressing in big jumps and that you're able to do something new on a regular basis. I remembered what that was like when I first started riding and wanted to start Jiu Jitsu as a way to inject it into my life again.
So I found a Jiu Jitsu school near me and started on what has turned out to be a profound chapter in my life. Jiu Jitsu has taught me a lot about myself and helped me to be a better person and coach, both of which have helped the mountain biking side of my life.
A few weeks ago I was honored to receive my black belt in BJJ, which is something that only happened because of the help of some great people along the way. The journey has had its ups and downs but in the end it’s been a journey that has changed me in a lot of ways.
When I look back on my journey I see that there are lessons that I took from it that have a lot of carryover for mountain biking as well. Musashi told us that in order to understand your chosen art better you must study other arts since they hold lessons that can help us on our chosen path. For me, BJJ has been a way to deepen my understanding of mountain biking and what it takes to be a “black belt” at it as well.
You can stream or download this episode from the link below or you can find it on Itunes, Podbean, Spotify and all other major podcasting platforms.
USE IN BLOGPOST:
Click Here to Download the MP3 File
USE IN NEWSLETTER:
Click Here to Stream or Download This Podcast Episode
You can also check out the notes below in case you don’t have time to listen to the podcast.
Lessons Learned From Earning My BJJ Blackbelt for MTB
- Prepare people for the journey and take the pressure off of fast progression for beginners.
- A black belt is just a white belt who didn’t give up.
- You have to take care of your body if you want to get a black belt - 10 years is a long time getting your ass kicked.
- Black belts think about less than the beginner, they just know exactly what the most important thing to focus on is.
- You can’t go hard all of the time.
- Focused drilling is the key to progress BUT don’t drill for muscle memory, drill to understand the principles behind the technique.
- Technique is the window into the principles that make up the sport.
- Identify a problem -> Research an answer -> Drill the technique -> Apply the technique
- You learn on easy opponents and pressure test stuff against hard opponents.
- Nothing can replace time on the mats.
- How to compete and why it is important.
- Focus on the journey.
- You can’t get better by yourself.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson
MTB Strength Training Systems
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
Tuesday Oct 18, 2022
In this episode of the BikeJames Podcast I share some advice about how to train with your teenager. These are lessons I've learned from working out with my own daughter over the last year or so and can apply to working with your kid or even kids in general, like if you work with a NICA team.
You can stream or download this episode from the link below or you can find it on Itunes, Podbean, Spotify and all other major podcasting platforms.
Below you'll find the notes from this episode:
- The sooner they can get exposed to the basic movements and lifts the better.
- Don’t push them to be as serious as you are.
- Alternating Periodization:
- Bodybuilding (3 X 10) - Builds skill and muscle/ armor
- Strength (5-3-2) - The foundation for performance
- Hybrid (5 X 5) - Lots of reps with moderate weight for both muscle and strength
- Strength Endurance (Rep Ladders) - Because we’re strength-endurance athletes
- Focus on the basic movements and lifts:
- Push (Vertical and Horizontal)
- Pull (Vertical and Horizontal)
- Squat
- Hinge
- Lunge
- Carry
- Windmill
- Arms (Bis/ Tris and Shoulders)
- Train the arms, they make for great active isometrics and everyone likes to see their arms get more muscular.
- In the workouts have a Focus Circuit (2-3 exercises following the main set and rep scheme) and a Secondary Circuit (3-5 exercises following a different set and rep scheme appropriate to the exercise).
- 2 days movement based training, 1-2 days of isometrics.
- If you train kids - like a NICA team - and don’t have access to weights then isometrics are a great place to start. Have them do a push up hold, a lunge hold and a single leg RDL hold if nothing else.
- Use a basic warm up that takes less than 5 minutes.
- 3 Reasons Training With Your Kids Is Good For You
- It forces you to get a routine and stick with it.
- It gives you a training partner who sees what you do both in and out of the gym.
- It lets you pass on what you know, which helps you learn it better and helps the next generation of strength trainers.
Monday Sep 12, 2022
Monday Sep 12, 2022
I’ve got a new podcast for you today covering some important topics to help improve your training and riding. In it I’ll be sharing my thoughts on dumbbells for MTB specific training, the findings of a study that looked at breathing patterns and functional movement, plus I’ll answer a rider’s question about how narrow is too narrow when it comes to handlebars.
You can stream or download this episode from the link below or you can find it on Itunes, Podbean, Spotify and all other major podcasting platforms.
You can also check out the notes below in case you don’t have time to listen to the podcast.
Training - In Defense of Dumbbells
I’ve used both tools extensively over my training career and while kettlebells are a great tool, there are some things that I think the dumbbell does better. Here are 3 things I think dumbbells are still a valuable tool for the mountain biker to use.
- The DB Cheat Curl is a better power movement than KB Swings
By using a narrow stance, the DB Cheat Curl is more specific to the explosive hip hinge we use on the bike. Plus, you can do Stagger Stance and Pedal Stance to make it even more specific, which you can’t do with a KB Swing.
- The 5 pound weight jumps are much more manageable, especially at the lower weights
KB’s use 4 - 8 kg jumps, which is 8.8 - 17.6 pounds. This is a large jump, especially when you are looking at it from a % of the previous weight. Going from 16 kg (35.2 lbs) to 20 kg (44 lbs) represents a 26% increase in weight, while going from 35 lbs to 40 lbs represents a 14% increase.
- DB’s don’t smash into your wrists and forearms and are more comfortable to train with
I know this is a personal preference but after taking some time off from heavy KB lifting and trying to get back into it I realized WTF am I doing? I can get the same results with DB’s without the forearm grinding nonsense.
I know that some people will say “What about the offset weight of the kettlebell? Doesn’t that make it more functional?” To which I say, it isn’t offset that much and so no.
If you really want to work with an offset load then get a Steel Mace or Heavy Indian Club. These are tools created to train that specific strength quality, which I think is very important.
However, the KB isn’t really offset that much, especially when compared to these other tools. If you want to train that quality, use a purpose built tool that does it much better.
I’m not saying to go smelt your KB’s, I’m just trying to defend the DB as a needed training tool. You’re not at a disadvantage because you only have DB’s and the DB Cheat Curl may be worth making sure that they are a part of your training program.
Bro Science - Breathing Pattern Disorders And Functional Movement
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3924606/
Study looked to find a relationship between Breathing Pattern Disorders and Functional Movement. They found a strong correlation between BPDs and low scores and failures on the FMS.
Of those that scored 14 or more on the FMS, 66% of them were diaphragmatic breathers. 18 people scored 14 or greater, so that means that all but 6 were diaphragmatic breathers.
However, to pass you have to have a score of 14 or more and you can’t have any asymmetries. This brought the number of people down from 18 to 8. Out of them, all but 1 were diaphragmatic breathers (87.5%).
Two takeaways here. First, out of all the tests they used, the simple Hi-Low Test worked the best. It had the strongest correlation and so you don’t need anything fancy to test your breathing. This is why the Hi-Low Test is part of the breathing assessment in the 40+ MTB Rider Training Program.
Second, if you value functional movement and how it can help you on and off the bike then you need to give breathing the attention it deserves. While you can do it - one person did in the study - the odds are greatly stacked against you. Better breathing also leads to improvements in other areas as well, making it a low hanging fruit that’s a great investment in your performance.
Rider Q&A - What is “too narrow” for handlebars?
Q: I tried the handlebar width exercises. Falling forward is consistently 610mm and similar to push ups when I keep my elbows in. I think a 610mm handlebar width is a bit too narrow! Do you have any thoughts?
A: I would guess that 610 cm is a bit too narrow from a steering point standpoint. The narrower your bars the less input you need to get the bike to start leaning over when turning and too narrow can make it "twitchy". My handlebars are about 675 mm wide, which is a bit wider than my push up test but wide enough to keep the steering from feeling twitchy.
Of course, the only real way to know is to test it but that requires handlebars you can cut down and be fine with throwing away if they don't work. Maybe your local shop has a used pair you could get for cheap and experiment with.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson