While pretty much anyone who has ridden a mountain bike realizes that grip strength is extremely important, it is a widely misunderstood subject when it comes to how to best improve it for the demands of trail riding.  This has led to an epidemic of riders who lack the functional grip strength needed to most effectively - and safely - interact with their bike through their hands. This shows up as wrist pain, hand numbness, elbow issues and reliance on “winged grips” to secure the hands on the handlebars. The problem is that there is a very important aspect of grip training that most rider ..read more

I have a special guest for today’s podcast. Steve Maxwell is one of the most influential people in my strength coaching philosophy and has been responsible for a lot of “aha” moments for me that have helped improve my training programs. I’ve been following Steve for well over a decade, first as a leader in the kettlebell community and later as an expert on training for a lifetime. He has been a part of the physical culture of this country for 50+ years and knows a thing or two about how to keep fit as you get older. I was lucky enough to get Steve on the podcast for an interview and had a grea ..read more

While we all breathe, few of us are conscious of it and the impact that it has on our performance and health. This is unfortunate because how you breathe is an important factor and most of you reading this have one or more breathing dysfunctions. One of the most common is Overbreathing. This is where you breathe more than is necessary to meet your metabolic needs, breathing in more Oxygen (O2) and breathing out more Carbon Dioxide (CO2) than is necessary. While this may not seem like a big deal, chronic Overbreathing can cause some health and performance problems. So how do you know if you suf ..read more

Over the last few years I’ve had my eyes opened to the importance of medical training in case of an emergency. Most of us are never exposed to the realities of incurring a serious injury on the trail and few are really prepared to do anything if something happens. It doesn’t take much for a ride to go from fun and casual to a potential life and death situation. And even if it isn’t a life and death situation right away, a few bad breaks and things can go from bad to worse pretty quickly as well. The reason I bring this topic up isn’t to scare riders away from riding but to empower them to be t ..read more

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of using Isometric Training to improve your health and fitness. I’ve posted a lot of articles, podcasts and videos going over how mountain bikers can use this powerful training tool in their programs. But I’m not the only one out there who is obsessed with spreading the word about Isometric Training. There’s a man who has been working tirelessly over the last several years to get isometrics into the training programs of weekend warriors and high level performers all over the world. Brad Thorpe is considered by many to be the world’s leading expert in isometric ..read more

One of the best things about mountain biking is that it allows you to get away from civilization and out into nature in a way that nothing else can. The ability to cover a lot of ground and do it in a human powered way means that we can get to places and enjoy trails that not everyone can. And while this is one of the things that draws a lot of us to riding, it also presents a unique danger that not many riders really consider. The truth is that most mountain bikers are woefully unprepared to deal with a medical emergency or a survival situation on the trail. While most of us carry something t ..read more

One of my favorite people in the mountain biking world is the legend Ryan Leech. Ryan spent decades changing what we thought was possible on a bike and has shared his passion for riding through in person coaching and his coaching website https://www.rlc-mtb.com. I’ve had Ryan on several times and he always brings a unique and interesting perspective on our sport and how to improve your skills and mindset. In this podcast we talk about the impact of social media on mountain biking, how priorities change as we get older and what it really takes to improve as a rider over the long run. Until next ..read more

If you haven’t done it already then this is the year that you need to start making strength training a priority for improving your MTB specific fitness. Improving your strength can help your fitness, your skills and your ability to walk away from a wreck. But not just any type of strength training program will do if you want to see results from your off season training and have them stick around until the end of the riding season. While a lot of riders assume that since we use a lot of cardio and endurance that we need to emphasize high reps and low weight, this approach isn’t what works best ..read more

One of the things that I’m known for is that I am a big advocate for standing pedaling. In a sport where riders are told to use seated pedaling - particularly high RPM seated pedaling - as much as possible the advice to stand up more really surprises some riders. My opinion on the subject comes from my background in functional movement and how to best apply it to the bike. It also comes from understanding where the “sit and spin” advice comes from and why it is flawed if you apply some critical thinking to it. First, I am not saying you should stand up all of the time. I have something I call ..read more

Something that I try hard to get riders to understand is that everything they do starts with their breathing habits. How you breath affects not only your cardio and endurance but also how well you move and can execute your skills on the bike. If you have bad breathing habits then the easiest thing you can do to improve your performance is to fix those bad habits. You didn’t start out with bad breathing habits and your body wants to breathe in a more efficient and effective way if you give it the chance. Something that can go a long way towards helping you do this is to use nose breathing as mu ..read more