Motocross Training Blog

Moment of Silence for Andrew Mcfarlane

Andrew Mcfarlane passed away yesterday due to injuries from a crash during practice. Paramedics spent over an hour trying to revive Andrew.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family.

Sorry Guys

I know it has been a while since I have last posted. I have had exams and I am in the process moving/transferring, so time hasn’t been on my side. I will get an article out this week for sure though. Again, I am sorry for not posting anything. If you have any ideas, questions or comments, feel free to email me.

High Intensity Circuit Training

At this point in the season, finding that right combo of strength training and cardio training can be tricky.  Keep in mind that strength training should be taking a back seat and some kind of interval training should be your main source of cardio.  However, you can combine both weights and cardio in order to hit both spectrums at once; and still hit them effectively.  The best way to achieve this is to do circuit training.

In order to keep your heart rate up and the blood flowing, performing 15 – 20 reps will ensure that you are using the muscle till complete failure.  You can do 3 to 5 lifting exercises followed by a brief stint of intervals.  For the intervals, it does not have to be more than 5 minutes.  You can do 1 minute low intensity and 1 high intensity or 30 seconds low and 30 seconds high.

Here’s a sample workout to try:

Push Ups

Dead Lift

Pull Ups

5 minutes of interval training followed by 90 seconds rest

Clean and Press

Squats

Hanging Leg Raises

5 minutes of interval training followed by 90 seconds rest

Pull Ups

Squats

Russian Twists

5 minutes of interval training followed by 90 seconds rest

Training Issues: Back Pain

Training hard makes you better.  Plain and simple.  Training smart also works as well.  The two go hand and hand to make the saying, “No pain no gain” a little easier to deal with.  However, injuries do occur from training and it can be frustrating.  This just happened recently to me and my back is making me pay for lifting the wrong way.  Although, I should have known better, it is an opportunity for me to look at back injuries.  Stephan Roncada and most recently, Davi Millsaps and Josh Hill, have all had back pain to deal with.  It can make the easiest tasks a tough challenge.

Most of the time, when you have back pain, it is due to some distortion of the spine.  It is divided up into the three sections: cervical, thoracic and lumbar.  Cervical vertebra make up your neck, thoracic is your mid back and lumbar is your lower back.  The vertebrae are formed so they stack on top of one another and is held together by muscle fibers and ligaments.  When either the muscles or ligaments are stretched, torn and ruptured, it produces the distortion of the spine.  In addition, when the vertebrae move, this is referred to as a slipped disk.  This causes the nerves in the spine to get pinched or aggravated.

When performing strength training exercises like dead lifts, bench press or barbell rows, it is important to keep your back straight.  When you arch your back, the spine is compressing itself as it curves.  As it curves, the force strains the muscles and pinches the nerves in your back.  That’s why they say to lift with your legs, not your back.

The hardest thing for me, or any younger person, is to rest.  Any kind of inflammation will subside and give your back a chance to recover.  It is like recovering from any kind of hard training; your body needs to repair and rebuild itself.  Once most of the pain is gone, you can begin to do some light stretching.  The traditional toe touches are great from lower back injuries.  The hamstrings can get tight and pull on the lower back muscles, causing a stiff and painful back.  Hip twists help tremendously, allowing the spine to slowly warm up and get your back aligned.  Remember, give it some time and your body will eventually fix the problem.  Do some light stretching and you should be good in a few days.

Heart of Racing

Since I don’t have Speed Channel at my apartment, I am forced to read about the race results online and catch up in “racing marathon” when I get to my parents house.  I am now caught up all the way to Jacksonville and the past few weeks have just been insane!  The two races that really caught my eye were a) Blake Baggett’s first win and b) Villopoto’s win.  Now they weren’t “stick out” races because the two won, it’s because they show ridiculous amounts of resilience.

First let’s start off with Baggett’s race.  The kid came out in the heat, had some bad luck and had to go to the LCQ.  From there, he lucked out and got a restart with a good jump.  He dodged a bullet again, avoiding a near wreck in a rhythm section; eventually grabbing the last qualifying position.  The planets aligned just in time for the main and the rookie took his first win.  Now, to go from the last qualifying position in the LCQ to winning the whole thing took amazing mental toughness.  Granted, he did get through the first turn mayhem pretty cleanly, he still rode like it was his last race regardless of how he got there.  He went out did what he had to do and blocked out the previous heat and LCQ.

Now for Villopoto.  He got hurt in the first practice and sat out the second.  He got through the heat and won the main.  Now, if I had torn something and chipped a bone in my foot, I would be done for the night.  However, Villopoto is a champion and did more than salvage the night.  To ride 20 laps under that amount of pain is something that most people should never experience, but because of his mental toughness, he prevailed with much needed points.

Both riders could have easily said to themselves, “my night is over.”  But they didn’t.  To know and consciously think that anything could happen can be an underdog’s best weapon.  Baggett is a rookie that looked like he wasn’t even going to get in the main.  And Villopoto could have easily called it quits for the night, but both knew that anything could happen and they have a chance to win.  And that is the main reason we race, anything can happen.

Warming Up and Cooling Down

One of the most overlooked aspects of training is warming up and cooling down.  When I first started getting into training, I would never really take the time to properly warm up and cool down and the next day, I could feel it.  When you take a few minutes to warm up, you get your body ready to put it through the stress of training and prevent injuries.  Cooling down after your session is just as important because you can prevent soreness and promote a little bit of extra flexibility.

Before you begin to warm up, it is a good idea to get blood pumping through your muscles.  Bodyweight exercises like push ups, squats, and lunges really get the heart rate up.  Trying to stretch cold muscles is not as effective as stretching warmed up ones.  This also allows your joints to get acclimated to the activity at hand.  You don’t have to kill yourself with the body weight exercises, maybe 30 seconds of push ups and lunges, then ending with 30 seconds of jumping jacks.

Now, you can start to do your stretches.  I really like toe touches because it helps with the hamstrings.  When you have tight hamstrings, your lower back becomes tight and lower back pain can be extremely painful.  Doing about 5 minutes stretches is a good amount of time to get everything nice and loose.  Make sure to hit all of the major muscle groups like your chest, legs back and core.  Another tip is not to bounce when trying to warm up; when you bounce at this stage in your workout, you have a greater chance of tearing something.

After you have completed your normal workout, whether it is strength training or cardio, you should really take about 10 minutes to ease out of the intensity of your workout.  For a 30 minute cardio session, I like to walk or spin at an easy pace for about 5 minutes.  The longer your cardio session, the longer your cool down needs to be.  As for strength training, once you perform your last rep of your last set, you can start to stretch.  Unlike warming up, you can bounce a little bit when stretching for your cool down.  Your joint and muscles have had plenty of use and blood flow through them.  Again, hitting all of the major muscle groups will help prevent soreness and promote recovery.  For cardio, I really concentrate on the legs and hips, since that is what bothers me the most the next day.

Once you get your warm up and cool down routines down, it will be much easier to remember to incorporate them into your program.  After you have done this properly, you will notice your endurance and strength will improve while still minimizing injuries, recovery time and soreness.  It makes a really big difference and you will see the results quicker than you think.