Forum

Do any of you guys do any to help with your MTBiking?

I used to do a lot of press ups and stuff to maintain some kind of strength, but not done anything in years.

If i do any of these Enduros, i think i may need to start doing something?

Suggestions?

I can't really talk as my legs are like rugby players and upper body more akin to a female.

However, I think swimming is your best bet, it's a full body workout, and builds muscle as well as endurance.

found this as well a while back:

http://ride.io/forum/index.php/topic,147547.0.html

finally, pinkbike has articles sometimes on increasing fitness which are usually quite good.

There are often training articles on pinkbike

i used to train a year or so a go and i used to keep all the training all body

Tom, I dont want to baulk up, i worked in Gyms, i was wondering what you guys do for MTB strength?
My general fitness is good, i can get my legs and breathing to good level in a reletivly short time, i'm just worried about holding on

Andy, was it weights or exercises?

Ah, see what you mean.

Realise it sounds stupid, but the more riding you do, the stronger you will be in terms of riding strength. Weights will make you stronger, but won't increase the stamina of the muscles.

Rowing is a good happy medium between muscle building and endurance. Like i said before, swimming is very good for you as well.

Chin ups are good for upper body and abs!

I did a mixture of weight training,
rows, wide arm pull ups and lots of squats
then plenty of floor exercises
keep it body weight and simple to start with mate.

For hands. Wrists, lower arms get a gyro ball or get one for each hand.. Also heard them referred to as w&nking balls.. Keeps arm pump at bay and you'll have a superman like grip...

I have one of those, never used it, i gave it to Minion when he broke his wrist. it might be here in the office?

Andy, i think your right, keep it simple, like me

Its probably the same as surfing, there's little to nothing that you can do off the board to build the correct muscles up !

Sent using the force...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DOOR-GYM-CHIN ... 3cc74e1d7a

i use this all my own body weight stuff!

I'm a bit out of shape as haven't been doing anything regularly since the Autumn and really noticed that my arms felt weak last time at Aston Hill. I guess it depends on how much gravity riding you do to how strong your upper body needs to be, so if I where preparing for Enduros personally I would include upper body training. I enjoy MTB and other sports much more when I'm in shape as it's not fitness holding you back. I'm need to get back into the routine, I was doing just a little bit of standard upper body stuff; press ups, pull ups, dips, curls, sit ups, once or twice a week and that was ok to feel strong enough. Also I think being in shape is much better for preventing injury, recovery and minimise injuries from crashing - get strong enough to fight back against the ground!

I used to train a lot a few years ago and the general rule was that If you cant do 20 press ups 20 pull ups and 20 body weight squats then you shouldnt touch a weight. making your body adapt to its own weight through a full range of motion first is a great basis for most sport.

I agree with unityjon that the best way to get fit for riding is probobly just to ride, but you working with weights off a swiss ball will help with stability and fast twitch muscles, and probobly stop you carring round muscle bulk that wont beifit you riding at all....

cheers for the link it reminded me i've been meaning to pick one up!

i tried making a bar from some scaffolding in the shed but its not the same



this is why i stopped going to the gym, i used to do more injuries in the gym than i did biking! and i hate having time off the bike due to injury!

Ive got a physical job with a fair amount of lifting plus i like to skip which is a good all over workout plus use punch/kick bags, also do crunches at home most nights. a lot of martial arts too although have backed off that recently as needed a break form it. did used to do a lot of weight training but havent really bothered since ive been riding..