two major issues adult bmx racers face
A while back, on social media, I asked for some questions that y’all would like answered.
One question I received was from my man, Eric Gregory.
He asked how to structure training with a 4x10-hour work week.
I could give you a specific answer on how to structure training based on intensity and load management, but...
But I don’t think it will give anyone optimal results.
If you're working a 4x10-hour week, I’m assuming you’re an adult with grown-up responsibilities.
Unfortunately, bike riding isn’t always at the top of the list of responsibilities.
I think a better way to think about it is instead of optimizing training days, you need to optimize 2 more important things for long-term success.
Lifestyle
Movement quality
Lifestyle
Speaking from my experience as someone trying to be a serious athlete and manage to have a more than full-time job and family… it doesn’t leave you time or energy for training.
When I turned 30, I set the goal of getting NAG 1 in my class.. The previous year I just came back to racing BMX and got NAG 6. I figured if I actually start lifting some weights, improve my nutrition, and do more sprints that goal should be achievable.
That year, however, was terrible.
I completely lost my mojo. Lost confidence. Lost speed in my legs. I crashed so hard so many times.
My training was technically better than it has ever been. WTF?!
In hindsight, I had taken a new position at work with erratic hours. My previous position wasn’t easy, but it was more of a 9-5 kind of thing. My new job had me waking up super early. Or sometimes working at night.
I was only 30 so I felt like I could handle it. My nutrition was good. I was quite strong. I felt pretty good.
But…
I just think we need consistency in our lives to be near our best. More effort does not equal more results. In fact, it was the opposite for me.
Look at ways to optimize your lifestyle to support your smart training rather than smarter training to support your dumb lifestyle.
Movement quality
Hot take: I’m absolutely convinced that most adults don’t need more strength.
I was a personal trainer and owned a gym. People paid me to teach them to lift weights.
One thing that came out of it as well as watching people ride bikes… that weight training is highly overrated.
I’m not saying any weight training is bad, just too much of it has diminishing returns.
Actually, too much weight training has negative returns.
I think of it like salt.
Eggs without salt are no good. Eggs with salt are much better. Eggs with way too much salt are worse than no salt at all.
Some people benefit immensely from strength training. Particularly teenagers and people that are un-trained.
But I see a lot of dudes especially that are already strong that think improving their back squat will improve their ability to pedal faster.
It does not. (Specific example below… keep reading)
At every BMX track across the world there’s a teenage boy named Colton or something that just went through puberty. He’s under 130 pounds and has legs the size of your wrist. But his first straights are way faster than anyone in the dad classes.
Is he stronger?
NO!
His mechanics are better.
As we get older and “stronger”, we tend to compress. Our bodies default to high tension compression of muscles as their strategy to propel us. We squeeze ourselves. This results in high force but low speed.
Colton is relying on coordinating his joints, muscles, connective tissues, through better pressure management. He does a better job at applying just the right amount of force at the right times.
As we get older we need to try to regain the ability to relax and decompress just as much as we need to build more strength.
Below is one example of an activity that I would recommend for most adults who are already pretty strong.
How in the world will this improve my performance? Well, a lot of people are compressed front to back through their ribcage and pelvis. Heavy strength training just compresses you more.
If you’re training to win a powerlifting competition, this compression is needed.
But if you’re trying to improve something like your gate starts, then a compressed pelvis means that you will be lacking range of motion.
Here’s one example of what I’m talking about.
A bunch of compression of your ribcage and pelvis will reduce your ability to flex and rotate your hips. Those are important things when you’re pedaling a bike. You will compensate by hiking your hip more and more. Instead of flexing the hip and using your big ol’ butt muscle to drive the pedal down you will flex and extend through the spine to substitute for missing range of motion in the hip.
Strength is important but if you’re in a poor position, more strength will not help you.
So in summary…
I would worry less about optimizing your training based on day of the week and training stress. Honestly, we have little idea of how our nervous systems will respond to a particular stressor unless we live in a bubble and track this stuff for a long time.
If you crush yourself at work or on the bike, take a couple days to try and restore before doing something hard again.
Be consistent. The body will respond better when it’s use to the demands of training. It will also respond better when you sleep consistently and have consistent stress loads.
Evaluate if you actually need more strength to pedal your bike faster.
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