Core & legs

I'm a 45-year-old man from Sweden, trained in calisthenics for 5-6 years with gymnastic rings. My grip strength is probably my greatest asset; I train it extensively. Currently, I'm engaged in a fierce battle of masculinity against my 25-year-old nephew to be the first to crush a walnut with my own manly fist, cheered on by invisible women with silent cheers. My chances of winning are slim, but the glory of trying is enough. I'm new to mountain biking, having only done it for 2 years, mostly focusing on trail riding with some easy downhill once a week. I also have short sessions trying to learn track stands and similar skills. My weaknesses: FOCUS: I've spent more time writing this than watching videos that could teach me something. Perhaps I'm harmlessly narcissistic, torturing people with text in hopes of gaining obscure internet glory in a smallish community. So, my focus may be lacking, but I build self-worth with text, and now I can pretend I'm important. Fellow narcissists, remember to like your own comments to show confidence. EXPLOSIVENESS, POWER, SPEED: I struggle with explosiveness. I can't recruit muscles quickly enough. I can do it once, like bunny hopping one obstacle, but I lose too much power to do another directly after. In my youth, I could probably do three in a row with most of my power. I either lack strength or just skill. My power endurance is lacking. CORE: Even though I can do L-sits and stuff, it doesn't help me much as I usually trained with my legs dead rigid, often straight, as in gymnastics practice. So, it doesn't help with mountain biking. MBA suggestions with horse stance exercises have improved my skill training. This has led me to reevaluate what would help me in mountain biking. As a beginner, I've realized I don't know what will help, and I don't have time to try it all out for myself. Improvements: Yesterday, I slowly rolled down a 5-second, 45-degree slope that ended with a small fallen log, a transition that can send me over the handlebars. I could use my full body as a unit and get the front wheel to smoothly go over the log. It felt like I could control the bike instead of jerking it. Currently, this is the hardest section I encounter on my rides. However, I think a 10-second slope of this would make me crash, as I believe that is my limit. Before, as mentioned in an earlier video from MBA, all my stabilizer muscles were just working together with my other big muscles to maintain a decent but rigid form. Also, I had to explode more to get the front wheel over the log in the transition. My body couldn't keep two halves together correctly. Resulting in a jarring experience, it took maximum effort to force my muscles to balance as I was too weak. It was enough to clear it, but not enough to guarantee avoiding a crash. Some might call it a risky move. Difference in body awareness: It's weird because when I wasn't keeping my upper/lower parts together, it felt like I did, probably because you exert so much force that you lose feeling where your body is. But now I feel like everything works like one unit. I feel the difference for me, like the handlebar and pedals were separate; now I feel like I am the connection between the handlebar and pedals. I couldn't see the difference because I had no contrast. I can now access this control, but I still have to concentrate. If I learn to do this without thinking, I think I'll take a step to leave the beginner stage.

Hahahaa the walnut comment crushed me lol

@@Sunesha I can't crush walnuts with my hands, but I like to crush apples with one hand for the same reasons you like to crush walnuts!

@@erichbachman7363 It would just be very satisfy.

No doubt!

Thanks Aaron!

Epic- glad this resonated. Self leadership comes first before leading others, good work getting a head start 💪🏻

Appreciate it

Glad it was helpful! Had fun making it

For sure! I hear this a TON from the riders in athlete accelerator (my flagship program) Good news is you’re active, you have a goal, and you aren’t weak lol Seriously though it can and will get better - keep at it friend

Aren’t they though?

Right?! I never realised how common it is to get paralyzed or worse, die from a crash.

I'm with you. I remember my first day of baseball practice in 6th grade. I was skinny as a twig and couldn't do a leg raise - I remember hating it haha. I had both a PT and a yogi/personal trainer tell me I had no core. I've spent about 3 years working on it, and my PT now says I have about an average core, which is a huge improvement. I'm planning by end of this year to finally get close to a press handstand. Just know I'm out there with ya! (won't be early morning because I take my kids to school) I usually work out mid-afternoon.

Do you have any recommended hip mobility routines ?

@@dootdootleloot To warm up I like to do exaggerated hip circles, 90/90 sits, leg swings (especially lateral) but the real money is in strength movements at end ranges of motion. Any stretch you can think of, find a way to load it in the stretched position. I would give you a list of exercises but I made a lot of them up. Do a bit of research into the ways your joints can move. I overlooked internal and external rotation for most of my training. Don't make that mistake! Focus on end range of motion under a small load and gradually increase unless it significantly limits you range of motion

@@martincattell6820 this is extremely helpful, thank you so much

The secret is that it’s in your body - our natural athleticism is really a gift! Proud of you

What probably happened was you got a spike in your T levels. That made you ride faster. The working out raised your T.

How are you able to do the things talked about the video already for a week, when your comment is posted within a day of the video being posted?

Probably because they tried something from another video. I talked about some core and balance stuff in other places

Oh for sure!

lol probably true. What kind of wreck was it?

10 hours of sleep is what many olympians / elite athletes do. Mostly they get naps to bridge the 7-8 to 9-10 hour gap. For MOST people who aren’t elite athletes 10 hours is stupid lol

Nutrition is incredibly important. Mines always been good, I saw a picture of me 2 years ago and frankly I look less healthy and bloated than now. Didn’t even change much.

What kind of balance pad do you use? I stick to flat ground, slackline, and plyometric drills but I’m looking to get into more.

​@@mountainbikeacademy AIREX. Recommended by the PT I was using when I was in rehab for a shoulder injury I encountered due to a blown Rockshox air bladder. Thank you Rockshox.

If I could do it again I’d hire a physical therapist before I got injured. I had some high school injuries that manifested as poor movement patterns later in life. Just because you’re healed and not hurting doesn’t mean you’re 100 percent. Another thing is you could follow my bro in law on IG @themovementjourney. He does all the programming for our top athletes.

​@@mountainbikeacademyDoes he have a youtube channel? IG&tiktok are not a nice place to be

So glad you've got that background. Definitely helps doesn't it?

lol sorry

Man I’m glad this helps!

AIKIDO flow 🤙🏾

I have to be careful encouraging this of course but strangely I found aikido to be helpful too!

Crashing is a skill that can be learned! Ask anyone who rides BMX or skateboards lol an opinion of mine is that clipping in can cause more severe crashes on certain instances.

the stick on the thighs is to signal that you are low enough in the squat. If your thighs are not parallel to the ground, or lower, then the stick will roll off.

Very lucky indeed!

Trying to make as many as possible! Yes

Yeah, because looking into his eyes, hearing his sincerity, and listening to a pro is excellent. You already know what to do. Take some advice.

I use to work out very generally. Now that I train to ride:- Lots of press up variations. Lots of own weight core exercise. I do isolate my shoulders and bi/tri’s too, but I think that’s vanity.

Legend. I owe you 12minutes of my life

Uh oh I already watched it, what do I do now?

IMO vanity makes you 17pwrcemt more likely to send a worthy jump

Grateful you took the time to say this!

Do you have a breathing technique when you doing the stance???

@@Rikson_27 Through the nose and out the mouth . Never walk around with ya mouth open , it makes you look stupid rofl . I can't remember but that's what they told us to do back then . Those guys were so nasty . They will make quite few out there cry I recon . If you want to get ultra fit take up Kung fu . I couldn't handle it now , I have arthritis on my wrists and hands . Makes trying to a push up almost impossible . I lost 20 kgs in about 3 weeks lol . Because you are just sweating like mad for over 3 hours each time you go . I use to go like 3 times a week . You had the choice of not going one day a week , but I didn't want to come across as soft lol . I was doing this Outdoor pursuit class and I came back from my holiday and everyone's like you look so strong , I said it's the kung fu lol . They don't fck around , that's for real . I saw so many people give up and say to me this shit is way too hard lol . I was like yeah that is the half the point . You want to be one tough as mofo , ya going to have to work for it lol . What they are doing is teaching you to handle pain . I got punched in a fight a few times and just laughed my ass off . Your pain threshold is so much more after doing that stuff . Can't imagine the shit Bruce lee put himself through , looks super nasty . I just did it to feel more confident about myself , it sure does work in that way .

Dantian breathing

@@Rikson_27 Through the mouth and out the nose . That's what we were told . I quite often forget to breath lol .

Also you generally don't want to supplement mire than 2,000 iu vit D imo

This one’s for you lol Always there for me hahaha

learned a lot from your videos, everybody just tells you to do this and that but never really consider other factors such as physical well-being which is more emphasized only in your channel.

Yes - covered this in the other vid I just made! kzfaq.info/get/bejne/gLSIYMiczK-slmQ.html

Forearms probably very strong then :) helps with dh

Depends. This is my KZfaq channel I don’t want to be telling people things that could hurt them. It’s not the best core training exercise at all. It’s great at mimicking what you need to activate while on the bike without cheating.

Pump track is money

This would be a good place to start: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/n72JptN_qKjOl6M.html James Wilson has a ton of MTB-centered strength and mobility content on KZfaq: www.youtube.com/@mtbstrengthcoach Wilson's teachings are well-aligned with Mountain Bike Academy's. I've purchased a few of Wilson's programs. I think that they are well worth their price is money, time, and effort.

Yeah I know lol but lots of hard working people can too even if they don’t sit at a desk 60 percent of jobs in USA are clerical or similar.

Kettlebell workouts look medieval. I love it.

Cleans presses and front racked squats with a couple of heavy bells hit your hierarchy pretty well 👍🏻

Yup - have you found it true that the more you move the more energy you have?

What’s your plan? Let’s get after it.

9/10 rocket scientists agree 😅 lol thank you

Agreed, however I'm crossing into dangerous territory by recommending how to crash IMO. Tucked necks are the reason for broken necks if you f up and miss.

@@mountainbikeacademy thanks, but I'm afraid you're not quite correct. Neck hyperextension is associated with more severe spinal injuries than hyperflexion . If I told you I was going to violently pull your neck and you could choose whether it's chin to chest (extension where your chin limits the movement) or back the way (flexion until your neck snaps) then we both know what you'd choose. Hyperextension is a big issue with full face helmets, hence the inclusion of neck braces in DH race rules, and why is generally consider trying to roll if you're being bucked over the bars is probably a better approach. Obviously if it's a Gee Atherton style 90ft cliff crash then you're in serious trouble regardless but most of us thankfully won't be in that boat. And yeah... You definitely shouldn't make a "These 5 tips will prevent injuries in a crash" video and open yourself up to all forms of litigation

I once fell to the side. I pulled my arm in to protect it. When I hit the ground I rolled. But the side of my abdomen landed on my forearm, knocked the wind out of me, broke a rib, and tweaked my spine. That led to thoracic spine mobility problems which in turn led to shoulder and neck pain and months of painful therapy. I fell to the side again, but this time I reached out to save from landing on my head. That broke my wrist, forcing me to have surgery and a year of painful therapy. It also led to trigger finger which took almost an entire additional year of therapy to resolve. Both of those injuries were preferable over head and neck impact trauma. A factor in both wrecks is that my saddle was extended to max height, which prevented me from dismounting safely. Draw your own moral to this parable.

Never hurt my ribs knock on wood it’s almost always twisted joints for me

@@mountainbikeacademy both minor injuries this year have been bruised ribs did the right then the left side

Yeah muscle mass is definitely helpful. Glad this looked good to ya.

@@mountainbikeacademy you are very insightful and obviously very knowledgeable from your perspective as a person who loves mountain biking and sees the benefits of thinking about wholistic health. I personally use tech since I have been a user of heart rate monitors and power meters since pre-Apple watches and Strava APPs. Now analytics of my heart rate , sleep,activity and diet is just routine for me

Yes - I use whoop. Not into massive amounts of data- just what’s the data that matters to me :) good work

@@mountainbikeacademy You see people everywhere with Apple Watches and iPhones 📲 yet they don’t use any of the APPS or if they do they still seem to be unable to understand the basic information that you touched on. Core,Cardio,Strength,hydration,nutrition,supplements,flexibility, rest,recovery and CONSISTENCY! When you have goals you are more focused on consistency. Fail to Plan then you Plan to Fail.

Fault to plan you plan to fail = underrated philosophy

It's tough I feel ya - couple times I had 80 hour/week jobs plus traffic (ATL, medical devices for example) it was ROUGH. I did night rides and my fitness suffered greatly.

Different format here for sure. I mentioned “no specific exercises” in this video. There are millions of exercises you can do and a number of combinations that are optimal and sub-optimal (and a few dangerous) for you. I definitely sell a version that works extremely well for most. Stay tuned I’ll have more specific type content too!

One of the secrets^

Been doing FP for couple of years and my MTBiking skills and performance did improve drastically. I’m the pilot of my bike for sure, not the passenger anymore. Great video 🤙

Very good tip! Thanks for sharing

Nah it’s worse I’m David davidson jr - dead serious. Grandpa is Jack davidson. They liked the name David and my dad wanted a mini-me.

Yaj or buy your own weights. You just need to do 3 workouts and many sets as you want. Youll be surprised how strong you are! I did my training on a intermediate trails with alot ascending and technical here in Arizona 😊

Probably

@@mountainbikeacademyI just think it’s more about consistency than exercise selection - also athletic talent iow genetics play a major role in mobility potential

I certainly agree - however genetics is laughably far from the constraint I’ve seen (based on creating thousands of custom workouts for athletes 40+) I don’t create the workouts my bro in law is the movement coach for Mtb academy. Good point though- and I super appreciate your comment! Frankly, If every rider did a meh workout consistently we would all be far better off! 💪🏻

Same with a proper deadlift. But for people who dont lift a ton they might not even be bracing.

That is odd haha

Absolutely true. Respect.

that's weird but hey whatever it takes to ride your bike better

@@mountainbikeacademy lmfao

Same

27% is his forearms True

Haha sorry

so true!

They call me slim shreddy