Mobility is so important so we’ve teamed up with downtime podcast to give you more help. In this article we will educate you on how to improve mobility for riding.

Before we start, this articles was created to accompany the Downtime Podcast we recorded about training from home. If you haven’t listened to it you should. In there we cover some broad subjects to keep you on track with health, fitness and mental health while you’re at home. Follow this link to listed to the full podcast – Downtime Podcast

To summarise some of the points we covered….

MOTIVATION  vs HABIT

You might think the most motivated people are the ones who make most progress, I disagree, it’s those of us who have the best habits. We all need motivation to train, eat well, work hard, but how much motivation can you call upon, and if it runs out what then?

Habits on the other hand are “just what we do”. So forming good habits keeps us consistent, and consistency trumps intensity every time. Consider this – you are super motivated and train for 2 hours every day for a week, then your motivation dwindles and you don’t train for 3 weeks. OR you train 3 times per week for an hour for 4weeks. Which do you think would be better for you? Actually, the first adds up to more training time…

By training consistently you help form the habit, and that’s when real progress is made – marginal gains. We need to find ourselves in a state where there is no choice, we just do. 

Scheduling/routine

This is a great way to to remove temptation and indecision, which is a massive drain on your free will. Pencil a rough schedule for the areas we’ll explore today – Meal times, workout times, cardio times, mobility times, downtimes ; ) Even jot down what you will be doing in those times so when you get there you don’t haver to second guess. When we have too much choice it’s easy to fall into bad habits or simply fall at the first hurdle. Set an alarm, stay mentally strong.

Strength and Conditioning

Maintaining, or even increasing strength. Many riders simply don’t do any strength and conditioning, here is an excellent opportunity to see the benefits. Simple work will pay dividends in the future. During “lockdown” scenarios people’s activity level is likely to be dramatically reduced. Therefore doing all you can to maintain fitness will also be a very healthy way to live. Steady state cardio in the morning, S&C and or interval training in the afternoon/evening. 

Steady State Cardio

Cycling, running, rowing… anything you can get access to right now. Zone 2 60-70% of your max HR. A lot of MTB riding is in this zone, especially social rides we normally do at weekends. Therefore it’s important to keep up that ability, or even improve it as you’ll have the time and frequency to do it well. 40-60 minutes 3 times per week to start, increase to daily if you can or you’re already “fit”. 

Nutrition

Essential for both health and fitness. Maintaining a healthy balance when boredom eating sets in or you have limited availability. Explore intimating fasting. If you’re currently overweight eat between 12-5 daily and it’ll not only help you lose weight but also take your mind off the choices you have to make through the day. HYDRATION – often when you feel hungry it’s actually because you’re dehydrated. Get used to drinking regularly, not only will it help curb cravings but it’s also really good for you. 

Mental Health

Stay off social media and the news, or at least schedule it in. The most important things to focus on are the things in your control, otherwise you’ll raise cortisol levels. Scheduling, as mentioned in the first part, is a great way to keep mentally positive. You can easily slip into a state of anxiety when you have too much choice and fall back on bad habits – which you inevitably feel guilty about.

Core

Can be done daily if you have the motivation, but be careful of your choices. Prioritise isometric holds like planks, side planks and bird dogs over dynamic movements like sit-ups. We have way more on this subject in this article we did recently – MTB Core Exercises

Mobility

A commonly neglected area, but one of the most important for health. Once you can’t wipe your own ass you go in a home, then your life expectancy is reduced massively. Mobility is something you have to work on continually, forever. Movement is great and practicing good positions alongside big value movements/stretches. Put simply – you can do 1 hour of mobility a day while you can or 10 minutes a day in your routine at the other end, simply focus on the more needed areas when you have less time but continue to spin those plates.

What Next?

Fit4Racing the pinnacle of Strength and Conditioning training for riders – includes Fit4Riding, 5 days of training (Bodyweight options on all) and at least 5 days of bike/running or static cardio equipment sessions (intervals, base training, recovery)  – Fit4Riding. We listened to you and have provided a program for the every day rider, or suitable for those who want to maintain their strength and conditioning over a buys riding season. 

Scroll our website and find the program that best suits you. And for a limited time we are offering a FREE TRIAL of 2 WEEKS. We have never done this before but during this crazy time we feel it can help so many people.

See you on the other side.