Motocross Training Blog

Happy Halloween!

If you are riding, be safe and ride good. If you are trick-or-treating, have fun…just don’t devour 10 lbs. of candy at once! haha

Off Season Training

As the winter comes, the racing in the Northern states slows to a halt.  If you are not lucky enough to be able to train in the warmer states, this winter is actually a great time to work on your strength training.  During the racing season, it is important to keep your cardio up during the week.  However, since you are off the bike, you can get your strength up.  That way, when you fire up the bike when the snow melts, you will have that confidence and be able to throw the bike around where you want to.

Here’s a full body workout to shock the body back into future strength routines:

Chest:  Bench Press – 12 reps, 10 reps

Back: Bent Over Rows – 12 reps, 10 reps

Triceps: Over Head Extensions – 12 reps, 10 reps

Biceps & Hamstrings: Lunges with Curls – 24 reps, 20 reps (each rep is one leg)

Quadriceps, Lower back, core and Shoulders: Clean and Press – 12 rep, 10 reps

Squats: Quadriceps: 12 reps, 10 reps

This gives you a pretty good full workout.  Remember to stay light with the weight so you give your tendons and ligaments a chance to warm up.  If you try to go wide open in the first workout, you are risking tearing or straining something.  Don’t forget to warm up before and cool down with some stretches as well.  Try this out for a few weeks, giving your body a day of rest between workouts.

Ski Jumps

The best thing about riding a motocross track is the elevation change.  This gives you more dimensions to the track and allows you to “spice up” some obstacles.  One of these obstacles is the ski jumps.  Most of the time, you find these jumps right before a downhill and there is no real lip or face.  This sort of jump can be used to your advantage, if you do it correctly.

The most important part of this type of jump is approach.  You want to be in the attack position so you are ready for the upcoming drop.  Depending on the situation, there could be a lot of braking bumps, and being in the attack position really helps you get through the bumps without the bike dancing underneath of you.  Don’t forget to grip with the knees and look ahead.

As you are about to make the drop, you want to be slightly leaning back.  If you are leaning to far forward, your front end is going to drop because there is no lip to give you that “pop” and raise the front wheel.  It also helps to be on the gas, if possible.  If it’s not, stay in a higher gear so the engine braking doesn’t drag the front down.

As you leave the ground and make the descent, you want to make sure your front tire is slightly higher than the rear.  When landing down a hill, you don’t want to land front wheel first.  This throws a lot of your weight and momentum to the front wheel and you have a greater chance of going over the bars.  So, land rear wheel first and be on the gas.  Most down hills are going to be rough; so, getting on the gas when you land gives you forward momentum through the rough stuff.  It helps to jump a little further than everyone too.  This isn’t normally the case with average jumps, but in this case, when you jump further, you keep your speed and momentum up.  Plus, you have a chance to jump past the slower riders’ bumps.  These jumps are usually low visibility, so make sure you know what the next obstacle is or you could end up like Doug Henry (i.e. broken back).

Overtraining

A lot of times I stress to push yourself.  This is necessary in order to make gains with your cardio, strength and lap times.  However, pushing too much can be a bad thing.  This often results in over training.  You will often feel like you aren’t where you should be with your riding and training.  You feel weak and tired all of the time.  For this, rest is the best only way to get around this.

So what are they symptoms of over training?  The physical symptoms are a lack of strength, endurance, speed, etc.  You will often feel like you are getting weaker and can’t go as long in your cardio.  When this happens, you become mentally taxed as well.  You will become more irritable, experience anxiety, defiance, and dullness and find it hard to sleep.  When this happens, you begin to doubt yourself.  And when you doubt yourself and your training, you will not have that confidence on the line.  And everyone knows confidence is a huge factor in racing.  Everything builds on each other.

That confidence and “swagger” you get from a solid and effective program takes a while to build up and when that swagger is lost, it takes a long time to get it back.  This goes back to doubting yourself.  You don’t look forward to hitting the gym or even riding (in extreme cases) because you’re exhausted and you don’t think it is worth it to train.

The only way to get back to normal is to take a step back reevaluate your training program.  An efficient and great program is going to allow your body to rest and rebuild itself.  When you put your body through the stresses of riding, jogging or weight lifting, it breaks down.  When you rest, it builds back up and repairs.  A good rule to follow is to give your muscles 48 hours of rest before hitting it again.  For example, let’s say you hit your back and shoulders on Monday.  Wait at least until Wednesday to hit them again.  The same goes for cardio.  Give yourself a day to recover.  Don’t forget to get plenty of sleep!  If you have been feeling weaker and you haven’t been training with as much intensity, give yourself some rest and it will make a big difference.

Halloween Survival Guide

Food is my weakness; plain and simple.  If I like it, I will eat A LOT.  This is not a good in many different ways, especially during Halloween (which is Saturday by the way).  And Halloween means candy.  Candy is really just a bunch of simple carbohydrates and sugar.  However, there are a few safe choices for you.  If you are serious about food intake, you will take it easy with the candy!

Look for dark chocolate.  This was one on the super foods list I had a while back.  It contains flavenoids, which is also found in grape juice and red wine.  This is the stuff that makes a glass of red wine per day, healthy.  There isn’t quite as much sugar and fat.  It has been shown to lower blood pressure, unclog arteries somewhat and purify blood too.

Another good candy is something minty.  York Peppermints are good and are lower in calories and fat. They won’t kill your breath either.  Mint has been shown to help you chill out and reduces anxiety and fatigue.  Another good mint candy is Milk chocolate mint sticks from Hershey.

Almond M&Ms are a great alternative.  They have chocolate and the nuts give you a little bit of protein as well.  The almonds are low in fat and low calorie and have good fat in them which is good for your heart, which help stabilize all of the sugar you’re consuming.

Hard candy and fruit stuff is okay.  Jolly Ranchers are great because you can have one for a while and the sugars and calories will last.  Butterscotch and Carmel hard candies are the same way.  For fruit, fruit roll ups and those kind of things are okay as well.  But you have remember, MODERATION.  If you think that since you are eating decent candy and you can have more…you have the wrong idea.  Just be conscious of what you are eating and the next week of training won’t be so bad.

Sean Hamblin Gooning Hard!

Here’s a pretty funny video from Transworld Mx that has been around for a while.  But its a classic!