What can you do when you can’t ride? Newly appointed YT MOB fitness guru, Fit4Racing’s Jonny Thompson shares his top tips for indoor training.
As much as you may want to get out and shred the trails, sometimes life gets in the way; whether it’s a washout downpour of rain, non-bike commitments (whatever they are!), or perhaps your bike is in the shop for some much-needed TLC. If you’re itching to spend energy, Jonny Thompson from Fit4Racing has indoor training tips for exhausting your motivation.
You don’t have to get a turbo trainer and drown yourself in sweat to feel the befits of training indoors. In fact, if you can dedicate 1 hour, 2-3 times a week, to functional training, you’ll return to the bike even better than when you left. Skill on the bike can’t be replaced in the gym, however, so some time on the bike is necessary, but you can certainly build the physical foundation to take your riding to new heights off the bike.
Don’t let time off the bike get in the way of your fitness, aim for ultimate good times this year and become a better rider with these 5 tips from Fit4Racing.
Get Strong – Squat, Hinge, Press and Pull
If you know anything about Fit4Racing, you’ll know we love strength foundations. I won’t go into too much detail here, but ultimately, strength takes the longest time to gain vs cardiovascular capacity and deserves a conscious and consistent approach. And with strength as a foundation, you will not only be able to pedal longer, shred harder and faster, but you will also be more injury resilient.
The absolute basics done well is a better approach than the most complex movements and programming, so start simple with this approach:
Squat, Hinge, Press and Pull 2-3 times per week, and each session, increase either the number of reps or weight you are using.
When your increases slow or stop, change up your training for 1 week and restart with a different variation of the movements you began with, adding reps or weight each week.
This is a simple principle called progressive overload. By following this, you’ll make progress for a long time to come.
Work your Core
Undoubtedly, the core is the most neglected area for all mountain bikers. Simply improving your core strength and stability will improve almost all riders’ ability on the bike.
Again, keep it simple by adding time or difficulty to your core movements of choice. Our favourites are Dead Bugs, Side Planks and Bird Dogs.
Try 3 days on and 1 day off of core work for 30 days, and you’ll see the difference in your riding. Your upper and lower body will feel more connected which in turn will allow you to move more freely on the bike and control yourself and the bike when things get dicey.
Stay loose, stay healthy
Some find mobility boring, but your riding can benefit massively if you establish a good routine. If nothing else, you can bulletproof yourself from niggling injuries caused by tight muscles, particularly hip flexors.
Science now suggests that only 30 seconds per stretch is almost as good as 2 minutes, meaning mobility doesn’t have to take as long as you first thought.
Dedicate 5-10 minutes to working through simple stretches; you’ll know where you’re tight, so spend more time on those areas. And look, if you don’t do anything else, perform the couch stretch for 30 seconds on each side once a day, and you’ll be less likely to suffer back pain. You can’t tell me you don’t have 1 minute a day to spare!
Less time to train on the bike? HIT intervals
If you only get a short time on your bike, add a set of intervals to your ride. You can perform them on a fire road climb, so it isn’t time wasted, and you still get to ride downhill after!
A very simple yet extremely effective interval session is 10 x 30/30. Simply pedal as hard as you can for 30 seconds, then reduce the pace significantly to recover in the next 30 seconds and repeat 10 times.
If you’ve never done intervals before, add 5 sets of 30/30 to one of your fire road climbs. It might impact you more than you expect, so try it towards the end of your ride; we don’t want you to miss out on any downhill time!
Ride your bike and have fun!
It is only in very rare cases you can’t ride at all, even if the weather is stinking! It’s just a matter of wearing the correct clothing and washing your bike after. The effort is always worth it, and ultimately, you can only build skills when riding.
Perhaps consider finding less exposed trails that challenge you in a different way. Wet roots are a skill to master, and poor weather conditions make for an ideal time to practice. As with most riding surfaces in the wet, less traction = more skill needed.
So spend time being uncomfortable on less grippy surfaces, and your skill level will increase massively in fewer rides. Then, when fairer weather comes around and the trails become more grippy, you’ll be flying!
