When it comes to technical riding, confidence, strength, and power make the biggest difference. - Kate Courtney, MTB XC World Champion

In an ideal world we would all be able to ride as much as we wanted, have a house cleaner do all our chores, and be able to eat whatever we want and still be ripped. Unfortunately, that’s not the reality for the vast majority of us and we are left always pinched for time, doing a “good enough” cleaning job, and making healthy-ish decisions when it’s convenient. In the search for a quick and easy magic pill, strength training is as close as you’re going to get to see the most gains with the least amount of time. Let me explain.
In order to ride a bike well we need to have the following: Stamina, Strength, Power, Coordination, Balance, and Endurance.
While we develop and improve the above list by riding bikes, it takes time. To develop stamina, strength, and power we should follow a strict training program, to develop endurance we must log hours and hours on the bike, and to develop coordination and balance we should ride technical terrain and work on our track stands. If you work full time, are a parent juggling a job, responsibilities, kids, and all the other curveballs life throws at you, you’re lucky if you can get out and ride once or twice a week. This is where strength training is your silver bullet. Commit to 2-3 hrs of strength training per week and you will improve all 6 of the factors mentioned above such that when you hit the trails you will feel stronger, be less likely to injure yourself, reduce issues such as low back or neck pain, and have more fun!

Let me give you 5 solid reasons to commit to spending 2-3 hrs per week strength training:

1) Get Strong. Riding bikes improves our aerobic capacity and muscular endurance but it doesn’t necessarily make our muscles stronger. In order to improve strength, we want to incorporate a resistance training program to increase muscular endurance, strength, and power. Lifting weights has the potential to increase the total amount of force applied to each pedal stroke, improves muscle imbalances, helps to prevent injuries especially from crashing, and increases bone density which is vital to those of us who aren’t getting any younger.

2) Be Time Efficient. As much as I love riding my bike more than most things (other than my wife and dog) I don’t always have time to get out and ride. I can be in and out of the gym in 60 minutes, especially if I have a well developed routine (more on that later). In the gym you can stimulate your body in ways that will have a direct benefit when you hit the trail. Think: core stability, no more quad fatigue, increased grip strength, and the ability to climb longer and faster.

3) Improve Mobility and Reduce Pain: Strength training has the added bonus of increasing mobility. What the heck does that mean? As little kids we squat, crawl, roll around on the floor, play outside, fall down and get back up. Kids have great mobility! As adults we sit, and we sit, and maybe we stand, and we occasionally walk around or chase our kids. Then when we go to put our bike on the roof rack, pick up our kids or a fully loaded cooler we realize our shoulders don’t feel great, our hamstrings are tight, and our low back feels wonky. Often times a tight muscle is a weak muscle and as we get stronger your muscles lengthen which helps to reduce pain. The other reason strength training can help reduce or even eliminate pain is if you strengthen your body appropriately, you won’t be compensating in awkward positions. For example, does your back ever hurt while riding? It you improve your front side core your lower back won’t have to work as hard to keep you upright and won’t be as achy! Through movements such as the squat, deadlift, push-ups, pull-ups and core work you will start to feel more connected to your body, improve your overall strength and mobility. Thus, when we hit the playground of life we are ready and don’t have to worry about pulling a hammy.

4) Burn more calories...white sitting. Well that sounds dreamy, tell me more! If you were to compare calories burned during a typical 1 hr ride or “cardio sesh” with calories burned during a 1 hr weight training routine, you would typically burn more calories doing the cardio (such as riding your bike or running). But that’s not the end of the story. The benefit to strength training is you build muscle. More muscle increases your Base Metabolic Rate (BMR) which is the number of calories you burn at rest. This means that as you get stronger and build more muscle you will be burning more calories as you sit at your desk (1) . There are also studies that show you burn more calories following a strength training workout than a cardio workout (2,3,4). Combined with all the other benefits of strength training, are you ready to carve our 2 hrs per week for your body?

5) Be Crash Resilient. With time, we all get weaker and our bones become more susceptible to fractures. If you’re over 40, your bone mass could reduce by as much as 1% per year! 5 Yikes! Lifting weights is the best way to maintain healthy bones into old age and reduce the chances of a fracture from a crash. Not only can strength training slow bone loss, several studies have shown you can actually build bone through resistance training 6. Cycling is a non-weight bearing activity which is great for folks who’ve struggled with knee pain, but it doesn’t place the sort of stress on your bones to improve their overall integrity. If you can incorporate 2 hrs of focused strength training into your routine per week you will be much more crash resilient!

What’s next? If you’re ready to start your own strength routine check out buildSOLO or buildTEAM. You can demo buildTEAM for 50% off now through July with discount code: buildTEAMdemoJULY

Turkish getups are an excellent way to build core strength, shoulder stability, and improve coordination. Photo by Nikki Rohan

5 Reasons to be Stoked on Strength Training

Newsletter Sign Up!

Stay in the loop and follow @brave.endeavors