| A common concern from mountain bikers about | | | | Excessive muscle soreness is caused by doing too |
| strength training during the riding season is the | | | | many different exercises and too many sets and |
| soreness they usually get. This is a valid concern and | | | | reps on one body part/ movement pattern. If you |
| one I wrestled with early on when trying to figure | | | | are too sore then do a little less. Again, if your |
| out good training strategies for our sport. | | | | weight lifting causes you to be too sore to ride well |
| If you are too sore to ride is your workout really | | | | then it is not helping your riding. |
| making you a better rider? Probably not. However, | | | | A routine like this would work well - |
| you don't have to get sore from strength training. | | | | Workout A: Push Up/ Cable Row/ Deadlift 4 X 6 |
| Soreness is not to be confused with | | | | reps each |
| effectiveness...how sore you are means nothing in | | | | Workout B: DB Shoulder Press/ Chin Up/ Single Leg |
| regards to how effective the training was for you as | | | | Squat 4 X 6 reps each |
| a mountain biker. | | | | Do this as a circuit and you'll get a decent cardio |
| The best way to avoid the "too sore all the time" | | | | effect as well. Just alternate these two workouts as |
| problem is to avoid the bodybuilding influenced | | | | often as you lift each week (I recommend 2-4 days |
| programs. Using body part splits (where you train | | | | per week) and you'll find you're not as sore and you |
| different body parts on different days) and using a | | | | will get much stronger on the trail. |
| lot of different exercises to "attack the muscle from | | | | BTW, weight lifting is a MUST for mountain biking. |
| different angles" are tactics that bodybuilders use but | | | | We can debate whether it impacts performance on |
| really have limited use for mountain bikers. | | | | the trail (which it does) but you can not escape the |
| Doing total body training splits where you train an | | | | fact that mountain biking causes strength imbalances |
| upper body pulling, upper body pushing and lower | | | | in the body. These imbalances will result in overuse |
| body exercise in the same routine is a good way to | | | | injuries over the years so if longevity is important to |
| go. You can not do as many set and reps per | | | | you then you need to do some strength training to |
| exercise this way which will keep the overall volume | | | | help restore and maintain the balance your body |
| low and limit how sore you are the next day. | | | | needs to function properly. |