Why You Should Train Off The Bike
If you put in the effort off the bike, you’ll reap the rewards on the trails…
A lot of people think that training on the bike is the best way to train, and to some extent that is true- almost nothing can prepare you for riding like time in the saddle. By putting the miles in we can improve our general bike fitness and fine tune our skills. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect; the more we ride the more we train our bodies for our sport and slowly we will improve. But, that’s not to say there isn’t a better way to improve our fitness and overall skill. The key is to constantly challenge ourselves enough for our bodies to make sufficient adaptations to the pressures we put on it, and you can have a lot more adaptability with different types of training. - How our Bodies Adapt to Exercise -
Our bodies have the unique ability to adapt to meet the demands we place on them in order to improve efficiency in that particular movement. Over time that exercise will become easier because our body has met the demands sufficiently.For example, our muscles are made up of different types of muscle fibres; if we’re training for uphill riding, our bodies will recruit more of these specific muscle fibres to help with this particular job- our nervous system plays a part in this too and becomes more efficient at communicating with our muscles in these particular patterns. Therefore, over time, we begin to recruit more of the correct muscles fibres in a quicker and more efficient way. The exercise will no longer feel as challenging as when we first started- our bodies have adapted! - The Problem -
This all sounds great, but there's a problem. A lot of riders will get to a point in their riding where they will have good general bike fitness for their level of riding, but are no longer seeing any improvements.Say, for example, you’ve been working on your climbs; you can pedal to the top in a time you’re pleased with, but you still need to take a breather when you get there. It seems that no matter how many times you do it, you still need to take that breather rather than crack on with your ride.- The Reason -
So, we’re not seeing any improvements when we would like to; this is called a plateau and it’s super common in all areas of sports and fitness. This happens because we’re no longer putting enough stress on our bodies to elicit further adaptations. Our bodies are the masters of energy conservation thanks to millions of years of evolution, so if it can get away with the bare minimum, it will. It’s not going to adapt if it’s doing a ‘sufficient’ job- instead you need to train your body in different ways in order to see an improvement.- Work Smarter Not Harder -
The fitness industry measures how hard we are exerting ourselves with ‘training zones’. To keep things simple, there are very specific thresholds within these zones where we will see adaptations, or improvements, happening. Without proper guidance it can be really difficult to know how to train within these zones correctly, and a lot of us end up working so hard on the bike that we can’t actually continue. Because we are feeling tired and sweaty, and pushing ourselves hard during a ride, we feel like we are pushing our bodies in the correct way to see improvements in fitness.The reality is, that most of us are often working in what’s known as a ‘dead zone’. If we push too hard to be able to sustain our intensity for a long period of time, we have to stop due to exhaustion and our body does not need to adapt. We stopped to recover, and stopped the body’s learning process. So, after all the hard work we’ve put in, we’re essentially just maintaining our current fitness level. Whilst specific training can be done on the bike to target these thresholds, it involves heart rate monitoring and taking the bike out for very specific workout based rides which can be really time consuming- especially if you only get an opportunity to ride a couple of times a week. Instead of sacrificing sacred time spent in the saddle ftor a workout focussed ride, these thresholds can instead be targeted in workout sessions off the bike.We’d all rather spend our time on two wheels enjoying trails, chatting with friends on the way up and sending new features than pedalling to set an intensity for a set period of time, before initiating a recovery period and repeating. Training off the bike can help us improve quicker without compromising any precious bike time we have.- Specificity- Target Weaknesses & Strengthen Riding Muscles -
It can be extremely difficult to train specific areas of the body whilst on the bike, it normally feels like a full body workout! To train off the bike means we can target really specific areas where we’re lacking strength, and focus on improving them individually. For example, having a weak upper body can easily prevent you from having full control over your bike, meaning a reduced ability to maintain traction when riding over rocks, roots and holes- we all know where this leads.Off-bike training would allow us to target your back, neck, shoulders, forearms, hands and even fingers in order to build strength in a systematic way. There are countless exercises that allow us to strengthen these areas, and doing it in different ways gives us way more adaptability. - Improve Mobility & Correct Imbalances -
In addition to our strength, whilst training off the bike we can work on any muscular imbalances or lack of mobility we may have on the bike- check out our blog on Why Is Mobility Important For Mountain Bikers? for more information. Our imbalances can severely inhibit any improvements we’re trying to make through a chain reaction of muscular compensation.Muscular imbalances in the lower body, for example, can reduce the amount of power we put through the pedals- meaning each pedal stroke is lacking power resulting in a shorter distance travelled. These imbalances may well be miniscule and unseen by the naked eye, but if you take into account the thousands of pedal strokes you can make on a ride and add them up, you see the problem. Why work harder than we need to?Imbalances can worsen over time if left unchecked, and will begin to impede the progress we are trying to make on the bike. Whatsmore, if these issues are not addressed, they will eventually lead to injury, which equals time off the bike.Definitely something to try and avoid. - Improving our Neuromuscular (Mind/Body) Connection -
Earlier, I spoke about our nervous system playing a part in making our bodies more efficient during exercise. Well, we can actually take advantage of this when training our bodies. By mimicking our riding movement patterns whilst off the bike, we can actually train our bodies to recruit muscle fibres in more efficient patterns in much more specific areas. This will translate directly back to our on-bike riding habits as we have improved our motor skills and given our bodies the ability to better deal with the impacts and balance required to ride effectively.We will have quite literally improved our neural pathways by teaching our bodies how to work more efficiently than before without even sitting in the saddle. - So Let’s Train off the Bike -
Let’s finish with an example. Only training on the bike would be like riding only flow trails for the rest of your riding days; yes, you’d have fun and you’d be pretty good at riding flow, but you’d also be missing out on a whole other world of riding and a whole other set of skills. Riding a good mix of technical trails, challenging single track and flow would make you a much better all round rider with better balance, stronger grip and way more two wheel ability. So yes, get out there and pedal hard- being in the saddle is undoubtedly great for general bike fitness, honing our skills and improving our balance. But if we really want visible improvements, training off the bike in addition to riding will get us there much quicker. Most riders spend time in the gym, or doing some other form of fitness in their day to day lives; so why not train specifically for MTB. You’ll be working out and getting your usual gym time in, but you’ll also be positively impacting your riding- it’s a win, win.
If you want to see results then check out our MTB specific training plan, it’s a sure-fire way to see fast and effective improvements to your riding, without sacrificing time in the saddle with your crew.