Why Mountain Bikers Should Be Strength Training - Part 1

Yes, Strength Training for Mountain Biking, that thing that every season you hear your fellow riders talk about. How they’re going to get after it in the winter so they’re better prepared for the next season, yet year after year it never happens. While we can dive pretty deep into why you should be strength training, we’ll keep things nice and simple to start.

Do you like to mountain bike? Do you want to be able to mountain bike as deep into your life as possible? If you’re like us, the answer is most definitely yes. And while regular strength training has a whole host of benefits for mountain bike riders, both on and off the bike, the simplest, and most basic reason you should be doing it, is because it’s going to allow you to have fun and stay on your bike as long as possible.

Let’s be clear. Just riding your bike and staying consistent with it as we age is not the most effective way to ensure maintained function into your later years, in fact, aside from doing nothing, just riding the bike is probably one of the least effective ways to keep performance and ability up on the bike as you age.

While staying on your bike will certainly keep your skill set sharp for the sport, it does little to build bone density, maintain strength in areas that aren’t heavily used on the bike, maintain mobility, etc. We love to ride bikes, and biking in itself can help create some great fitness and strength in certain aspects, but like any sport/activity, just doing that activity doesn’t cover it when it comes to checking all the boxes that help keep you fit and healthy for life.

Ever show-up to the local busy riding spot and see that most long time mountain bikers who are middle aged or older are showing the classic signs of copious amounts of time on the bike, because they’ve done nothing to complement their riding…hunchbacks galore, can’t put their arms over their heads, ankles, knees, and hips are tight and immobile, the list goes on, and this is not the minority, but the majority. While there are plenty of great physical fitness benefits to riding a mountain bike, there are also plenty of drawbacks when it comes to developing or maintaining long-term functionality and mobility through your body.

As riders, racers, fitness enthusiasts and professionals, one thing rings loud and true for us. We love mountain biking, we like being able to push our limits and know that if we take a small spill we have the “armor” to deal with it, we like knowing we have the power output to punch up a steep climb, or the strength to just put our bike up on the roof rack. And for us that’s not something we want to lose, ever. And while the symptoms of age are inevitable for all of us, there is an awful lot we can do to keep father time at bay and allow us to shred turns and suffer up climbs late into life.