[geargrrl]

I've found that as I've concentrated on riding and stay out of the gym I've lost a lot of conditoning over the years in my upper body. So I"m starting to lift again... if nothing else so I can get the bike up on the roof rack. (I'm a short small woman)

Anyone have any good mtb-specfic routines /sets they'd like to contribute? I am a formet body builder ( llooooong time ago) and I really like to do supersets type training

geargrrl

 

[Mecannoman]

Anything that resembles your riding. Pull backs, rowing, chest presses, tricep curls, shoulder shrugs, etc. (Triceps esp. for the long descents).

Joe Friel has plenty o' suggestions in his 'Bible' series.

 

[monkeywench]

I'd also suggest lots of abs and core conditioning exercises. Crunches, leg lifts, superman pose lifts. I find my lower back takes a beating if my core is compromised.

 

[Jorvik]

Your core cannot be strong enough. Deadlifts! Inverted Situps w/ Weights! Oblique Side Lifts!

There are many variations of the Deadlift which will help out your MTBing, e.g. instead of a normal powerlifting staggered grip, grip overhand: knuckles out, palms facing towards you. Great hand and forearm developer. There's the Snatch Pull as well, use a very wide hook grip, and finish with a shrug.

I like deadlifts, in case you haven't noticed...

I will offer this advice about sport specific training. It sucks. I think building general strength is far more important. Stick to as many compoud exercises as you can. Bench press, squats (leg press if you must), deadlift, etc. This is the best way to gain overall strength in my opinion.

 

[geargrrl]

Originally posted by monkeywench
I'd also suggest lots of abs and core conditioning exercises. Crunches, leg lifts, superman pose lifts. I find my lower back takes a beating if my core is compromised.

superman pose? please explain

geargrrl

 

[monkeywench]

Lie on the floor face down, arms pointing forward. Lift legs (how much determined by flexibility), and arms off the floor. Start with 5-10 lifts, holding for 10 seconds at a time. Done gently, it gives the lower back a stretch and causes the core muscles to hold your body stable.

 

[laura]

Originally posted by monkeywench
Lie on the floor face down, arms pointing forward. Lift legs (how much determined by flexibility), and arms off the floor. Start with 5-10 lifts, holding for 10 seconds at a time. Done gently, it gives the lower back a stretch and causes the core muscles to hold your body stable.

and it feels so goooood afterwards.

 

[monkeywench]

Originally posted by laura
and it feels so goooood afterwards.

Amen sister!

 

[SuspectDevice]

standing and seated row, lat pull down, shrugs, preacher curls, tricep extension, chest press.

that pretty much covers your basics.

 

[dan_mtcycle]

I posted this on mtbr recently (and I agree that there really is no good sport-specific training)...

It's the ultimate site for fitness. Start with the foundations (http://www.crossfit.com/misc/found.html) to get an idea of what it's all about. I've been doing similar workouts for the past 6 months, the results are unbelievable. Pay particular attention to interval training, you don't need long workouts to build cardio. As an example try tabata intervals on a stationary bike (that's 20 seconds at max effort followed by 10 seconds of rest) repeat 8 times. That's a total of 4 minutes and you'll be ready to puke. Try the same for air squats (yes, that's no wieght) balls out full range of motion. Intensity is the key. As far as weight training stick with olympic type lifts (clean & jerk, etc.) as well as core strength (dead lifts, squats, bench press). Follow their workouts to start. Lot's of great links off the site as well plus a message board. Good luck.

 

[toughguymagee]

Originally posted by monkeywench
I'd also suggest lots of abs and core conditioning exercises. Crunches, leg lifts, superman pose lifts. I find my lower back takes a beating if my core is compromised.

Some other good core exercises are face down planks and side planks.

Face Down Planks: Your body position is like a push up but instead of being on your hands, you place your forearms flat on the ground. Stay on the tips of your toes and make your spine flat like a plank. Suck your belly button into your spine to lock down your abs/core. Hold this position, remaining static, for 30, 45 or 60 seconds. (depending on your level) Do this exercise 3 sets of 3. This will work the core, abs, shoulders and many more.

Side Planks: The procedure is the same as the Face Down Plank but now you are on your side. One forearm will be on the ground and your feet will be stacked on top of one another. Make sure that your spine is straight and that your hips do not fall down. Once again, suck your belly button into your spine to lock down your abs/core. Hold this position, remaining static, for 30, 45 or 60 seconds. (depending on your level) Do this exercise 3 sets of 3. This will work more oblique as well as your core in a different way.

I also agree with Monkeywench, lower back also needs to be worked, especially for XC and Cyclocross riders.

 

[Snacks]

To me push ups are the best for improving upper body strengh. They work the chest, shoulders, arms, back, and abs. Just remember to keep your form, back flat - no saging!

The Super Man pose is also a great one for your lower back.

 

[Jorvik]

Originally posted by Snacks
To me push ups are the best for improving upper body strengh. They work the chest, shoulders, arms, back, and abs. Just remember to keep your form, back flat - no saging!

The Super Man pose is also a great one for your lower back.

Pushups don't really get you all that strong. While, granted, they are good fun, there is so little resistance (equal to pressing about 2/3 your body weight) that you'll plateau strength wise rather quickly. You'll be able to do more pushups for a while, but then you'll realize that you arn't getting much stronger.

One handed pushups, however...

 

[MTBDOC]

Lots of good suggestions here, but I TOTALLY disagree with the post above about "no sport specific training" because that is foolish. Different sports require different conditioning paradigms. Bulky upper body muscles (for example) are a detriment in XC racing with lots of climbing. Look at the size of the top pros...they are quite skinny.

Now, for women, there is often a greater need for supplemental upper body work due to MOST [certainly not all!!!] women having relatively poor upper body strength, and I hear more complaining about rough downhills where SOME strength is needed. Core movements are useful for almost all mountain bikers. Pulling motions are used a lot on the bike, and pushing movements will certainly help on those downhills where your triceps are killing you. BTW, that is a situation where doing LOTS of pushups IS helpful, as absolute strength is not needed, but endurance in those muslces. Being able to do 30 or 40 pushups consecutively builds that kind of muscular endurance...

A personal favorite is an upright dumbell fly...utilizes delts, traps, and the smaller upper back muscles that tend to fatigue. Upright rows certainly duplicate lifting the front wheel over obstacles. And for any of you singlespeeders out there, DEFINITELY do some deadlifts.

 

[VTinCT]

Lots of good advice here, I have to second and third the dead lift vote. Bent knee deads rock!

My favorite arm move that I didn't see was the reverse grip curl. Its great for mimicing the bar grip in riding postion. It hits the top of your fore-arm, outer bicep, as well as helping wrist strength. This is one to start light, and work up slowly on, as bad form can fok your elbows. I perfer standing with a straight bar to preacher style, but both work.

 

[Jorvik]

Originally posted by MTBDOC
Lots of good suggestions here, but I TOTALLY disagree with the post above about "no sport specific training" because that is foolish. Different sports require different conditioning paradigms. Bulky upper body muscles (for example) are a detriment in XC racing with lots of climbing. Look at the size of the top pros...they are quite skinny.

Very true, in that having incredibly bulky muscles is going to be detremental to XC racing. However, she said she wants to lift her bike off the roof rack, which I interpreted as real world strength. She did also ask for MTB specific routines. I say eschew that unless you are going the XC racer route, in which case I say you ride your road bike a lot more.

I hope you can realize that a general strength program will be more beneficial than a sport specific program. I did after I started lifting doing racer's lifting programs, namely circuit training. Talk about no gains. Once I started a powerlifting regime my results were apparent quite quickly in everything, riding, real world strength, and looks as well. Bollocks to sport specific crap unless you are paid to do so.

Lots of good advice here, I have to second and third the dead lift vote. Bent knee deads rock!

My favorite arm move that I didn't see was the reverse grip curl. Its great for mimicing the bar grip in riding postion. It hits the top of your fore-arm, outer bicep, as well as helping wrist strength. This is one to start light, and work up slowly on, as bad form can fok your elbows. I perfer standing with a straight bar to preacher style, but both work.

Overhand deadlifts will work out that forearm and all your biceps. I'm starting a new power cycle with them. Needless to say, I'm stoked.

 

[MTBDOC]

I understood her point about lifting the bike off the rack, and I agree, however, we part company in some areas, such as:

QUOTE]I hope you can realize that a general strength program will be more beneficial than a sport specific program. I did after I started lifting doing racer's lifting programs, namely circuit training. Talk about no gains.[/QUOTE]

"Circuit" weight training is not remotely sport specific training for cycling. In fact, what I see Friel discuss isn't either...no way doing 50-60 reps on squats is useful on bike. The problem with lower body weight work for cyclists is that no one has stepped back and really tried to look at the relevant issues in cycling...although, actually that's not true. Several years ago Dave Morris published a paper on this subject; Chris Carmichael liked it so much that he copied it word-for-word on his own website, before CTS got running! Dave has a superb book coming out any day now will talk about this (and many other training issues).

Also agree with overhand-grip deads...the only lower body work I'm doing, and that's because I'm an old man [fast, but old!] and struggle with back pain at times. Also this is useful for singlespeed racing.

 

[geargrrl]

ok guys... chill.... when I meant MB specific I was looking for info like, lat and core strenth is important. For you guys that don't get it, weight training does not mean you have to turn into Arnold... there's a lot a room between full on body building and improving strengh ( all over or specific issues ) as it relates to sports. When I was doing ski fitness work, I focused on certain muscle groups, but not to the neglect of others. Different sports have different types of strength requirement. I don't disagree that an all-over program is a good idea, but different sports have differnt specific needs.
I"ve already got thighs of iron thank you very much. I imageing that in cycling like running you can get imbalances in muscle groups... runners notoriously have quad/hanstring imbalances and this is something you can correct with weight training.

It would take me 100 years to bulk up, I've got stingy mucles that just get defined.

geargrrl

 

[Jorvik]

Word, word.

As we've said far too many times in this thread, deadlifts are the numbero uno excercise. Doesn't neccesarily make you huge, but gets you so much stronger. What boggles my mind is how so many people not only don't do them, but have no idea what they are. I think we can all tell that deads are my favorite exercise.

"Circuit" weight training is not remotely sport specific training for cycling.

I should've been more specific about that. I was on a cycling specific workout based around circuit training.

Weight training is so much like religion its spooky. So many different sects trying to answer the same question.