Archive for December, 2009:
Training Resolutions
2010 is upon us. Ready or not, it’s here. As fast as this year went by, I couldn’t be more stoked for it. It is a chance to start fresh and start to implement those goals or “resolutions” you’ve had for the past few months. However, the whole idea of New Year’s Resolutions got me thinking. I was talking to a personal trainer at the gym I work at and we discussed that if someone was committed to losing weight, why wait till the New Year to start implementing it?
This applies to training as well. If you have a certain aspect of your riding or fitness you want to work on, waiting until the 1st only gives you less time to prepare for the next season. Granted the New Year is only in 2 days, but if you want something bad enough, you shouldn’t need to wait for a holiday. This is the time of year where you can really gain some ground on your competition. While they are eating themselves into a coma with left over stuffing and chugging champagne, you can keep training and get a step ahead.
Granted, this doesn’t mean to train like the pre-season with intervals and sprints, but this is where you work on your weaknesses and change your program if it wasn’t working too well for you. This goes along with the other posts as last week; if you wait till the New Year to get your Off Season training started, you have already lost half of the time. So don’t wait till the ball drops and bottles are popped, get on that new program ASAP!
Maintaining Your Energy
The other day I was working out and felt weak. I had a hard time finishing my sets and felt drained throughout my workout. I had gotten plenty of sleep the night before and I really didn’t exert a lot of energy that day, so I should have been rested enough. After my workout, I came home and had a protein shake and made dinner. I instantly felt better after eating; I had more energy and was more focused. So what was the problem?
Low blood sugar. I had work that day and I didn’t eat anything during my shift. I went about 5 or 6 hours without anything in my system. My body resorted to taking glycogen (which gets converted into glucose) from my muscles to sustain energy. When this happens, you feel tired, weak and you are not as focused. Because a good amount of my glucose stores had been used to keep me going at work, my workout suffered since there was no glucose left to supply energy to my muscles.
Consuming small meals throughout the day helps maintain your sugar levels. A good interval between meals is usually around 2 – 3 hours. Now, keep in mind, this doesn’t mean having lunch every 3 hours. You could have a salad and then a sandwich a few hours later. Avoiding sugary foods also helps maintain a constant amount of sugar for your body and you will avoid those “crashes”.
As I stated in my post workout nutrition article, these sugars are essential after a workout as well. Technically, they are considered carbs because of the chemical makeup. This does not mean you can eat junk food and drink a Coke after training. The right sugars are found in sports drinks like Gatorade or Powerade. Drinking a little bit of these within 15 minutes of training will help replenish the glucose in your body. A good idea I heard recently is to get the Gatorade powder and put a little bit of it in your post workout drink. That way, you get your protein and necessary carbs to keep you from “crashing”.
Mastering Starts
Listen to any pro’s interview and they will always say they need to work on starts…unless you are Mike Alessi. Anyway, the point is that the start is one of the single most important aspects of winning. If you can holeshot, you just saved yourself a lot of tear offs. Shawn Simpson (European GP MX2 racer) has once said that “Getting the holeshot is 50% of any race. If you don’t get away with the top three, you have lost 15 seconds or so by the end of the first lap, not to mention getting filled with roost and having to pass a lot of other crazy fast riders.”
So, what is a solid way to get good starts? First of all, you have to see yourself getting the holeshot. Like I said in my visualization article, see yourself getting the start from your perspective, then through the eyes of a spectator. If you can conquer this mental monster, you have beat half of the guys on the line who doubt their abilities. Now, don’t get cocky; just know you have as good a chance of coming out first as any other rider on the gate.
Most of the gates now are dirt; even the Supercross and National races are all natural. For me, I always had an easier time with dirt because I could “feel” my rear wheel spinning. I have had the best results with gates that have the straightest rut outside of the gate. When you come off the line, you don’t want to follow a sideways rut from a 450 Beginner. You will lose forward drive and momentum. So, if you are allowed, try and get a peek before your class lines up. Be warned however, that the shortest distance to the first turn is not always the fastest line. You have to take into consideration of getting cut off or pushed out. That is why you want to look for the straightest line.
Once my gate is picked out, you have two choices for prep. You can either put some more dirt back into the rut and pack that down or you can clear the loose dirt out of the rut and pack it down. Both have drawbacks. If you put dirt in the rut, you run the risk of not packing it hard enough and your rear wheel will just spin. However, if you choose to clear it out and pack it, your rut will be deeper and you have a greater chance of wheeling out of the gate; this forces you to slip the clutch and loose drive. Each gate and every soil is different. Experimenting with different scenarios would be a smart thing to do each time you ride.
Now that you are set up on your gate, start to go over the visualization again. Get into that “zone”. For dirt starts, a solid spot on the seat is that “dip”. Maybe a little bit further up depending on your weight. You want your weight shifted forward, but not too much because you will spin the rear wheel if you are too far forward. When that 30 second board goes sideways, it’s time to get those RPMs up. When looking at the gate, some people say to look at the pin holding the gate up, others look at the actual gate itself. However, it is up to you.
As for throttle amount, I like a little more than half throttle at the gate. That way I can still get on the gas harder (if need be) or if I mess up, I can still let off a bit. A good way to tell if you have the clutch out enough is when your chain tightens up. This is the point where the clutch is almost un-engaged and all you have to do is GENTLY let it out. When you let the clutch out, don’t dump it and stab the throttle. You want everything to be in motion, smooth motion.
For 250f’s, you can get away with 2nd gear. For the bigger bikes, it is personal preference. Once you are out of the gate, you want to keep both feet down (start with both feet down on the gate, placing all your weight on the seat) throughout the gear you started in. If I started in second, I want to keep both feet down until I have to shift up. When I need to shift up, I bring both feet up. Shifting with your heel is spotty at best. Try to get it normally.
It’s a lot to take in, but this is a broken down process. Try it a few times and it will get easier.
Joint Injury Series – The Shoulder
The last major joint I want to go over in this little series is the shoulder. Over the past few seasons, it seems like Reed always has some sort of joint trouble; the most recent being his shoulder. Separating your shoulder is not something that should be taken lightly. You won’t feel that way when you the pain almost blinds you….okay, that was a little intense, but it is pretty serious. Just like the other 2 joints I covered, your shoulders take a lot of abuse, especially when you fall. The deltoid, clavicle, humorous and ligaments/tendons all take a beating when your front end washes out, sending you to the ground on your shoulder.
The main part of the shoulder girdle is where the head of the humorous inserts into the scapula (shoulder blade). The point at which these two bones meet is called the glenoid fossa (fossa refers a small indentation in a bone). Thus, the joint is called glenohumoral. From here, you start to get into the tendons and ligaments. What’s the difference between a tendon and ligament? Tendons connect bone to muscle and ligaments connect bone to bone. There are a number of rings that are composed of tough fibrous tissue and synovial membranes in this area similar to the knee.
Now that we have an idea of the main joint, we can look at the “roof” of the shoulder, which involves the clavicle. The clavicle (collar) bone is considered to be part of the shoulder girdle and is one of the most common injuries. Because runs across the body, it is open and easily accessible to forces. The clavicle connects to the scapula at a point known as the coracoid process. Ligaments attached to the coracoid process, the clavicle and acromion (another part of the scapula that helps form the “roof”) form a web of connective tissue that holds everything in place for the “roof”. When you separate your shoulder, this web is ruptured.
Looking more closely at a separated shoulder, the ligaments that form this “roof” are stretched when the clavicle come apart from the web. Like the other joints, the mild to severe categories are called Grades for the shoulder. Grade 1 separation includes the tearing of the acromioclavicular ligament, Grade 2 is rupture of the acromioclavicular ligament plus strains of the coracoacromial and coracoclavicular ligaments; Grade 3 is a rupture of the acromioclavicular and coracoclavicular ligaments plus strain of the coracoacromial ligament.
In addition to the separated shoulder, you can also have rotor cuff injuries. The rotor cuff is comprised of the teres minor, infraspinatus, supraspinatus, and subscapularis muscles. These all are attached to the scapula and extend to the humorous. These muscles help give you all of the controlled motion of the shoulder, plus they help stabilize it as well. Most of the time, when you tear the rotor cuff, it is the supraspinatus. Usually, you can tell if something is injured in the area when you lift your arm out directly to the side. Depending on the severity, rest is the best answer. However, surgery may be necessary if there is a rupture.
As I have stated before, strength training helps the tendon and ligaments get stronger. Not only that, but the muscles in the shoulder girdle become stronger and help provide you with a greater source of protection. If injured, apply the RICE method until certified medical help arrives.
Joint Injury Series – The Ankle
So, yesterday I covered common knee injuries and the basics structure. Today I wanted to cover the ankle. This is another place to injuries to occur because of dabbing your foot or casing a jump. Not only does the ankle have to be incredibly strong to withstand the forces applied to it, but it much must able to be flexible enough to absorb the forces when changing direction. It can also be divided into 2 “joints”. The ankle joint allows you to move your foot up and down, while the subtalar joint allows movement from side to side (i.e. letting you walk on the side on your foot).
The ligaments that hold your tibia, fibula, calcaneous (the heel), and foot together are a little more complicated than the knee. The lateral (outside) portion of the ankle has about four ligaments attached to the bones. On the medial (inside) and posterior (behind) portion of the ankle, there are another three or so ligaments. Each one is named to the bone they are attached to and whether they are posterior or anterior. So there is a little more to the ankle than most people think.
When someone says they have sprained their ankle, they are most likely talking about the anterior talofibular ligament, which is located on the front part of the foot, towards the lateral portion of the ankle. Just like the knee, whenever the ankle is pushed too far past the normal degree of the ligaments, they are going to either get strained, torn, or ruptured. This is the same scenario for a major tendon, the Achilles Tendon. Injuring this can be from having your feet too far back on the pegs and landing off of a jump. This sends all of the downward force on your ankles and pulls the Achilles Tendon away from the insertion points.
The healing process should start as soon as possible. To get this going, a great place to start is to use the RICE method; Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevate. Depending on the severity of the accident and condition of the ligaments, putting the ankle in a brace for a couple of weeks is pretty normal. After a few weeks, close supervision of movement helps the joints from getting too stiff. Like the knee, any tearing of the ligaments or tendons takes a lot of time to heal. Tomorrow I will go over the shoulder girdle.
Joint Injury Series – The Knee
Pain is a part of every real sport and Motocross is not different. Broken bones, concussions and bruised egos are inevitable. Collar bone breaks are very common among riders, but another common injury is one to the joints. Your knees, shoulders and ankles take a heavy beating and over time, they could become weak and give out at the wrong time. Knowing what is happening and what to do is important to know so you can get on the bike faster.
Knees
Every part on the human body is important, but the knee is extremely critical in motocross. And it probably takes the most abuse. Your knee is a simple ball and socket joint with lateral (outside), medial (inside), anterior (front) and posterior (back) ligaments. Supporting your knee, you have a tough fibrous tissue called a meniscus lateral and medial to the ball of the femur (thigh bone). Varying degrees of angles usually determine if an injury to the knee is mild, moderate or severe.
For mild injuries, a few days to a couple of weeks should be a good amount of time for recovery. Moderate ones take a few weeks to a few months and severe injuries take months or even year(s) to fully heal. When you injure your knee, you are tearing a ligament, breaking one of the bones or damaging a meniscus. On average, the severity of damage is measured in increments of 10o. 10o being mild and 30o being severe. When you reach 30o, ligaments are ruptured and your meniscus is shattered.
Take for instance, a force directed to the outside of the knee. The force is applied to the lateral ligaments, which are compressed. However, your medial ligaments are pulled away from the insertion points. This can result in strains (mild), tears (moderate) or even ruptured (severe) ligaments. Your meniscuses are crushed and/or ripped apart. Another common motocross injuries results from hyperextension. This is where your knee is bent the wrong way, but far enough to injure the lateral and medial ligaments.
Now, I know this sounds pretty bad, but your knees are pretty resilient to most forces. Wearing knees braces helps tremendously with the prevention of almost every type of knee injury out there. With these types of injuries, they take a long time to heal; and once they do heal, odds are they probably won’t be the same again. Protection is crucial in avoiding the pains of tearing something and paying the bills. Tomorrow I will dive into the ankle and common injuries for that. I will also get you some info on healing these types of injuries. Stay tuned!
