It’s time for off season mtb strength testing with our pro riders who are finally back in the gym! It’s been a strange year for everyone involved at Fit4Racing and we’re stoked to welcome back some pro mtb riders into the gym.

Adam Brayton, Elliott Heap and Ant Hale dropped in to test the strength benchmarks that we use for all Fit4Racing subscribers to set us up for the start of the off season here in the northern hemisphere and we also treated them to a short but exciting workout to finish the session off.

The Testing

Our key fundamental strength tests are based on 3 rep maxes of;

Back Squat
Overhead Press
Deadlift

We use a 3 rep max instead of a 1 rep because a 3 rep max doesn’t completely overload the strength system in a dangerous way. We can also calculate a 1 rep from the 3 reps if we need to, but we like to keep things as safe as possible. These three lifts – when tested periodically – are a great benchmark to have noted down after training blocks to measure progress.

Being Pro athletes that have had a relatively easy summer in terms of racing and fatigue, their numbers are starting very high for this off season, all three achieving strong numbers against their bodyweight (check the video for the numbers!) This gives us a great place to start from in terms of strength and conditioning this winter. They’ll be back every week to train with us until racing starts again in 2021.

The Workout

As they were heading for a ride after this session we went easy on them for the workout and threw a spicy 5 minute number together for them to enjoy;

5 Minutes
10 Cal Assault Bike
6 Over Box Burpees at 30″
6 Pull Ups

Watch the video to see how they got on and if you’re thinking of having a go at the workout, scale the movements and box height appropriately for your skill level. Enjoy!

If you want to take the guess work out of your training this off season, sign up to one of our programs and get the same mtb strength testing and training as the pros do.