Archive for the ‘Training’ Category:
Mental Fortitude
After the week long break, we came back to High Point. The local boy Darryn Durham came out blazing in the first moto and led almost the entire race before giving the race win to Blake Baggett and Payton’s power house. Always one to root for the underdog, I was pumped to see “Double D” up front. However, you could tell that as the race wore on, little mistakes added up as he dropped to 4th by the end of the moto. On a big stage like that, it is good for Darryn to get some lead time, but learning from his mistakes could set up him for much better finishes in the future. Let’s look at this first moto through two perspectives: first Darryn and second, Blake.
DD37
Being the local at a big race is a huge advantage. You know the soil, how and where the track gets the roughest and solid lines later in the moto. However, with that home town feeling comes a greater amount of pressure from not only yourself, but fans and sponsors. Granted, not every racer is going to feel pressure from sponsors, so this could be parents, friends or anyone that supports you. Channeling this pressure into confidence could mean the difference between a podium and great experience or a moto you would rather forget.
With the home turf advantage you know the good lines, what gates to avoid and how to ride the track best. Not to take anything away from Darryn, but Baggett was simply faster than him. However, getting creative at the end of the day and using the local knowledge will help tremendously. Durham had solid lines late in the moto, but those silly mistakes cost him big. This goes directly back to confidence; this is your track and you are fast there. Ride your own race and charge ahead.
BB57
So far this season, what is there to say about Baggett? The kid is literally unstoppable late in the race. When you line up to the gate, you know that you will throw down the fastest lap late in the race and crush those last few people ahead of you. When you come to the line that prepared, nothing can stop you, but yourself. He almost reminds me of Mike LaRocco (and RC) because he will hunt you down no matter what. When Baggett saw Durham, it was blood in the water.
Having the knowledge of winning was a huge advantage over Durham. Baggett simply applied too much pressure and Darryn cracked. That comfortable feeling of knowing that you will pass the leader helped BB57 to take the checkers. He knows exactly what it takes to win and executed it without hesitation.
What this boils down to is mental fortitude. Staying strong and having confidence in your advantages will help you tremendously. When things can’t seem to go your way, keep plugging through and things will turn around. We all have to ride the same track, so have self-assurance in your abilities to make things happen.
Posterior Core Development
If you have read my site for over a day, you will see where I stand on strength training. Obviously, cardio is very important, but for me resistance training is what helps you push hard on a rough track, not that 10 mile run you did. However, cardiovascular training and resistance training build off of each other. Take this week at Freestone for example; the track was rough and extremely hot. As the track gets rougher, your muscular strength and endurance will help keep the bike under control in the braking bumps, those monstrous whoops and any close calls you have.
Most of this strength stems from your core. The core consists of 3 main parts: abdominals, lower back and glutes (that’s your butt if you slept through anatomy). There are simple exercises that can work the abs and lower back like leg raises and deadlifts, but how and why would you work the glutes? When doing lower body movements like squats, deadlifts, or lunges, your glutes assist the primary muscle groups and maintain stability when balancing to prevent you from falling to one side.
One exercise that targets both the hip flexors and glutes is the hip thrust. This movement looks a little crazy, but it very effective for posterior chain development. By throwing in this movement, you can build upon your current core strength and you will see that you can squat and deadlift more. Often times, imbalances between protagonist and antagonist muscles can cause mild injuries that may lead to bigger problems. When you add the hip thrust, you completely develop your core.
It is important to remember that you begin with light weight to get the movement down. Start with the bar and then work your way up to a weight where you can 15 to 20 reps.
Here is a quick look at the hip thrust:
Heat Acclimation 101
The Great Outdoors are upon us! What a way to start out the series. Chad Reed and Blake Baggett both put on incredible charges through the pack to take the overall. To be honest, I was extremely surprised the raw speed Baggett had at the end of the moto after training heavily for the Supercross season. Granted, temperatures were not as hot as years past, but the literal night and day difference between the two types of racing can wreak havoc on the body. Getting accustomed to the summer time temperatures is mandatory, especially if you live in the Southeast and/or plan on racing Loretta’s.
Heat acclimation is a process that should be taken seriously. Temperatures down here in Florida have been nice the past 2 weeks, but it has risen back to the normal 90o and above mark. When the body is in warmer weather, it makes physiological adaptations to compensate for its environment. For example, there is an increase in heart rate, sweat rate and blood flow is increased to the skin to try and cool the body down. This is why people with fair complexions look flushed.
The best time frame to get accustomed to higher temperatures is around 2 weeks. In the first 5 days, heart rate decreases and perceived exertion is much lower during exercise. In the second week, electrolyte conservation is utilized to help the muscles firing and keeping the body hydrated. If performing at normal levels of intensity in warmer weather, you will notice it is much harder to carry out the regimented workout. The body is forcing blood to not only the skeletal muscles, but also to the skin to maintain regular core temperatures. Because of this, it is recommended that you take things easy the first week and do less intense workouts to allow the body to adapt to the stress.
One important part of this process is to weigh yourself before and after workouts. If you are in hot enough environments, you will lose a few pounds from water weight. It is extremely important to know how much weight you’ve lost so you can rehydrate and see if you are drinking enough liquids. For example, if you weigh 150lbs on Monday and go for a run outside to come back and see you’ve lost 2lbs. This means you must rehydrate yourself back to 150lbs. If, the next day you weigh yourself and you are only at 149, you are not ready to workout outside. By constantly losing this water weight, you deplete yourself of electrolytes and water.
Take things easy to make sure your ready for the heat. Heat exhaustion and stroke are not fun, so save yourself the misery and work your way up to the normal intensities. Trying to speed things up in a hoodie and sweat pants is not the best idea as well. Like I said before, your heart is working overtime to supply the skeletal muscles and skin with blood. You are only putting more, unnecessary strain on your cardiovascular system as well as an increased rate of water loss. Just don’t do it.
Plyometrics for Motocross
When most people hear the words power and strength, they usually think they are the same thing. Strength is simply how much force you can exert, while power is the force exerted over a certain time and distance. Think of a those meat heads you see in the gym; they spend countless hours benching to increase their strength (how much weight they can lift). When you see a power lifter perform a clean and press, he quickly “jerks” the bar up and then presses the weight over his head. The person doing the clean and press is not only exerting force, but he is exploding the weight up over a certain distance as quickly as possible (aka power).
Ok, enough physics. How does this apply to motocross? Obviously you need to be strong to take control over your bike, but you also need that power to quickly make adjustments. Anyone who has had the rear end swap out knows you need to act as soon as possible. That power training will help you bring the rear end underneath of you and continue riding.
To get this power training, one of the best methods is jump training, or plyometrics. This is just how it sounds. You can use small boxes that are about 18 inches high and jump on, off, over and any other combination you can think of. Plyometrics is just like resistance training in the sense that you have reps and sets, except you can take a 5 to 10 second rest between each rep. For a total volume, you measure in foot contacts to the floor, so you might have 50 taps you want to complete. You could do 5 sets of 10 reps. You can also incorporate weights as well; only use up to 30% of your 1 rep max. If you squat 200 lbs, the weight you would use for jump squats would be 60lbs.
Because it is a higher impact training, you need to treat it like a strength training workout. Have a day off after with no other strength training the following day. To keep your joints in good shape, you never want to land flat footed or on your heels. You want the impact to start at the toes and lightly tap the heel. With any other type of training, always warm up, stretch then cool down.
Here is a sample lower body plyometric workout:
Depth Jump – 50 contacts
Split Squat Jump – 50 contacts
Standing Long jumps – 50 contacts
Weighted Jump Squats – 30 contacts
Here are also a few videos to show you how to perform each exercise:
Depth Jump
Split Squat Jump
Standing Long Jump
Treat Your Body Like Your Bike
When you look at the title of this article, I am not referring to washing your body and loading it up with decals. I’m talking about taking care of your health and fitness. Motocross is known to be the true man and machine sport, with the athlete and bike needing to become one. But so many times I see racers only find it necessary to take care of their bike and do not bother take care of their bodies. I have seen people eat candy on the way to a race and talk about drinking beer the night before, but when I see their bike, it looks like it just came off the show room floor because it has been taken care of so well.
What I am trying to say is motocross and offroad racing is demanding on your body just as it is on your bike. Racer’s often want to put the best race gas in their bikes but will not eat healthy foods leading up to the race. If something is wrong on your bike or it needs fixed, everybody makes sure it is ready in time by the next race, but will probably 
neglect some knee pain or some fatigue issues. These are just some examples of typical scenarios of what amateur racers will do. I like to use and believe in the phrase, “train like the pro’s.” Learn from the pro’s, they do something better than you do, so take advantage and learn from them whenever possible!
One thing you may notice is that most top riders will hire a trainer to make sure their bodies are properly prepared. Going back to the way of thinking, treat your body like your bike, they hire a trainer to be their mechanic for their body. So if you work on your bike yourself, always remember, when you go out to race or ride, it’s not just the bike going out there doing the laps, it is the rider too! I hope this can be a different perspective on the way of thinking about your bike being in relation to your body. So try to make improvements on your health and fitness every week. Keep making minor changes that will help you on and off the track, so not only will your bike be running good, but so will you!
My name is Joel Younkins, I am from Hubbard Ohio. I am an Exercise Science Major at Youngstown State University. I played football at YSU until I hurt my back last summer which ended my career early. After my injury and rehabilitation I began my own training business Joel Younkins Training. You can look me up on Facebook (Joel Younkins Training) or Twitter @j43y. I train motocross racers, all athletes, and general population. Also since I am done playing football I am now a student strength coach for the university in which I work with all sports.
Editor’s note: Joel is now training XC2 championship contender, Jason Thomas in the GNCC series.
Getting more out of Practice
I want you to do something next time you go to the track. Look at all of the riders who just ride around the track, aimlessly looking for more speed. What do you go to the track to do? You go there to get faster and have better technique. When you learn math in school, you don’t try to figure everything out in one semester. You break down one part and when you have all of the concepts down, you can tie them together. The same goes for moto. By breaking down each section of the track, you can concentrate and master it.
Start with your weaknesses and work up from there. If you have a problem with a certain corner, start with that. Of course, start extremely early or later in the day when the track is not crowded; no sense in putting yourself and others at risk. Start with the fundamentals like braking correctly, head up and looking ahead. Once this is like second nature, work on speed.
After you get some of your trouble spots conquered, you can start linking sections up. Take a few corners and string them together to get comfortable. Again, continue working on the fundamentals as this will lay a base for your speed to come quicker. Eventually, you can tackle the whole track and if need be, you can go back to certain sections again.
At different points in the year, instead of breaking the track down you can work on sprints or your endurance. If you feel like you can go hard the whole moto, try throwing down some fast laps to get the lap times down or try to ride a couple of laps more than usual. Simply going to the track each week is good to keep yourself from going crazy, but if you are looking for speed this won’t suffice. Get creative and work on your weak points to make yourself a more rounded racer.
