adding strength to strength ??

Out-exercising a bad diet and adding strength to an already over-developed muscle were the two biggest obstacles I faced back in my personal training days. Most of what I read preaches about the importance of squats and lunges for mountain bikers and cyclists.

Adding strength to an area of strength is the cornerstone for developing overuse and repetitive injuries. Spending hours in the saddle hunched over, while pedaling can lead to all sorts of muscular imbalances. Addressing these imbalances is significantly more important for your bike performance and health than simply adding in a couple of squats or lung variations.

So how do I correct/reverse hours of sitting in the saddle?

Corrective exercises and cross training are your two best options:

1. Corrective exercises: Movement or exercise designed to fix a dysfunction.

2. Cross training: Athletic training in sports other than the usual sport or activity.

Main imbalances caused from mountain biking

The causes of overuse injuries from mountain biking are similar to those from running, muscle imbalances and inflexibility.

Overactive muscles

• Calves

• Quads

• Hip flexors

• Chest

• Traps

• Neck flexors - from forward lean

Underactive muscles

• Abs

• Butt

• Mid-back

• Rotator cuff muscles

• Neck extension muscles

The days of stretching tight muscles and strengthening weak muscles are over. Overactive/underactive muscles are reflections of muscle imbalances. Overactive muscles are not necessarily strong and tight. Underactive muscles don’t mean weak and lengthened. Just stretching a “tight” muscle for 30 seconds is not a solution.

pain is a signal

I had a four-year period where I averaged over 230 plus miles of riding per week, and the only thing that kept me healthy enough to ride was a daily dose of corrective exercises. The cascade of imbalances that get set into motion from prolonged time in the saddle can be dramatic.

Pain is a signal, and like all signals, the pain is trying to relay a message to you. Often times the location of the pain is not the source of the pain. The human body is one big intertwined network of the fascia.

The exercises for MTBers:

All the exercises below are from Pete Egoscue’s book: “Pain Free ”. Pete Egoscue combines chiropractic, Feldenkrais, physiotherapy, pilates and other techniques into one modality. His book is easy to understand and the simplicity of the exercises are easy to implement and can be done at home while watching TV.

These are the best corrective exercises for mountain bikers. You can YouTube these exercises for a demo. The Internet is already filled with perfectly good videos, so I’m not going to add any more to the World Wide Web.

• Cats and dogs – 10 to start

• Floor twist 1 min each side

• Groin Stretch – 5 min per side

• Static extension – 1 min

• Floor sit – 2 min

• Foam-roll the quads and calves

These exercises should be done daily or at least every other day. This takes under 10 minutes and can be completed during an episode of your favorite show.

Cross training options

Ideally, this other sport or activity should be as close to the opposite of riding a bike as possible. Mountain biking doesn’t require legs to be fully extended and doesn’t use any lower-body lateral movement.

Swimming, racquet sports, basketball, volleyball, surfing and hiking are examples of good cross-training activities. Sports that address the areas of under-activation are a fun and practical way to remedy these imbalances, without having to spend much time using corrective exercises.

• Hiking: This green exercise is one of the best choices for mountain bikers in the off-season or for cross-training purposes. Hiking is comparable in total calories and level of energy. The muscle activation pattern diffs, which is exactly what you want to help re-balance and correct any muscle imbalances you created from mountain biking. 

• Racket sports: Like mountain biking, racket sports are high-intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions. A sudden short burst of energy followed by periods of rest. The lateral movements and lunging action of reaching for balls are exactly what you need after a season of linear pedaling.

Climbing hills: exercises for improving anaerobic power

Anaerobic power or maximal power is when you go all out. Road cycling is generally around 98% aerobic. However, depending on the single-track, many MTB trails are steep enough that you’re working above your body’s aerobic capacity on the majority of climbing sections.

Exercises to improve hill climbing:

1. Sport-specific: Hill training on your MTB/road bike

   1. Find a big hill near your house and cycle up

   2. Work your way up to 3 rounds of 2 minutes each (2-3 times per week)

   3. Can also use an indoor bike by increasing the resistance

2. Gym exercise:

   1. Load the leg press with 40% of your one-rep-max and do as many reps as you can in two minutes (work your way up to 3 rounds of 2 minutes each, 2-3 times per week)

   2. Sled pushes (same set and rep scheme as above)

Balance exercises

Mountain biking requires you to constantly change body positions as your riding over rough and varied terrain. Your body positions change while pedaling over obstacles, rock gardens, roots, stumps, and while traversing rocks. 

In order to improve climbing, descending, and cornering you will need to optimize your balance, as your posture is constantly adapting to the diverse terrain. Especially during downhill sections, where strong shocks and rapid changes of direction pushes your balancing skills to their boundaries. 

Power is a function of balance. As we age our strength and endurance are relativity stable for years, but our muscular power (force x velocity of muscular shortening) declines rapidly, starting in our 30s.

Best exercises to improve muscular power & balance

High-velocity resistance training as opposed to traditional strength training is needed to increase your power output and improve your dynamic balance.

Studies show that 12 weeks of explosive heavy resistance training is highly effective to improving power and dynamic balance:

Leg press:

• 3 sets of 8 at 70% of 1RM (one-rep-max)

  • Up-phase as fast as possible

  • Controlled lower (one-second down)

  • Pause for one-sec at the bottom

Push-up:

• 3 sets of 8

  • Up-phase as fast as possible

  • Controlled lower

  • Pause for one-sec at the bottom

You don’t even need a gym membership. Home exercises that emphases explosive power are even better than leg presses done at the gym:

• Weighted-vest stair climbing/running

  • 3 sets of 4 flights of stairs 3 times per week

  • No weighted-vest for first week. Each subsequent week you should add weight to your vest (the principle of progressive overload)

power to weight ratio

Unlike in cycling where aerodynamic (aero) drag is the primary force that works against you, gravity in mountain biking is your greatest challenge. 

So what is the best way to improve your power to weight ratio? Depending on how much you weigh…slimming down could be the main focal point of your training and nutrition regiment. 

In speed camps for athletes, those that have 10% body fat or more, the main training mechanism for speed improvements come from losing body fat…..as this is the best way to improve power to weight ratio…..mountain biking is no different. 

If you incorporate the power and anaerobic training exercises from above, they will improve your muscular power and help with fat reduction. If you are 15+ pounds over-weight, then weight-loss through dietary means should be your number one priority for increasing your power to weight ratio.

Final Thought

We all enjoy riding singletrack and other trails. But nothing derails a ride like being injured. Keeping the body in prime bike condition through corrective exercises/cross-training while preventing overuse or repetitive type injuries is imperative to continued fun.

If you looking to improve your climbing, then you should focus on improving your power to weight ratio and increase your maximum power output.

Jesse is the Director of Pedal Chile and lives in La Patagonia. Jesse has a Master of Science in Health and Human Performance and a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology. Hobbies: Mountain biking, reading, researching, weight-lifting, craft beer and snowboarding.

Additional articles from Jesse at Pedal Chile:

• Muscles used in mountain biking

• Calories burned during mountain biking

• Can I use WD-40 on my chain? ……probably not