Mtb Instruction & Skills

[indysteel]

What I've been struck by in what little mountain biking I've done so far is just how much core strength is involved. Pilates and/or yoga would be excellent compliments, it would seem, to MTBing. Which reminds me....I need to schedule another Pilates reformer session.....

[kimikaw]

What I've been struck by in what little mountain biking I've done so far is just how much core strength is involved. Pilates and/or yoga would be excellent compliments, it would seem, to MTBing. Which reminds me....I need to schedule another Pilates reformer session.....

Absolutely agree. I'm a huge proponent of yoga, as an important piece of anyone's fitness routine. The core and balance work is great for MTB, and the flexibility work (esp. hip opening) is very helpful for cyclists. But the piece often overlooked, and I think perhaps most important is how a regular yoga practice (esp. with a well trained instructor guiding/correcting your poses) is the increased mind/body awareness. I think this is a big part of my improvement on the trails. Just the sense of where my body is relative to the bike, and an increasingly unconscious ability to make minor adjustments. Believe me, I know I still have tons to learn, and plenty of room to improve - but at same time have made giant jumps in what I can do - and in my confidence in trying Heck, I even was going over little dirt jumps over the weekend. Not getting very airborn, but trying.

The winter before last in addition to my normal yoga practice, I took a couple of series of classes that were either bike/yoga or bike/strength training. Indoors on compu-trainers with a local tri-athlon instructor. First 45 minutes was on trainer, last 45 minutes either yoga or a circuit training session - both designed towards a cyclist. Hope to do same this winter.

(and do you like reformer work? Never have tried that...have done mat classes)

[indysteel]

Absolutely agree. I'm a huge proponent of yoga, as an important piece of anyone's fitness routine. The core and balance work is great for MTB, and the flexibility work (esp. hip opening) is very helpful for cyclists. But the piece often overlooked, and I think perhaps most important is how a regular yoga practice (esp. with a well trained instructor guiding/correcting your poses) is the increased mind/body awareness. I think this is a big part of my improvement on the trails. Just the sense of where my body is relative to the bike, and an increasingly unconscious ability to make minor adjustments. Believe me, I know I still have tons to learn, and plenty of room to improve - but at same time have made giant jumps in what I can do - and in my confidence in trying Heck, I even was going over little dirt jumps over the weekend. Not getting very airborn, but trying.

The winter before last in addition to my normal yoga practice, I took a couple of series of classes that were either bike/yoga or bike/strength training. Indoors on compu-trainers with a local tri-athlon instructor. First 45 minutes was on trainer, last 45 minutes either yoga or a circuit training session - both designed towards a cyclist. Hope to do same this winter.

(and do you like reformer work? Never have tried that...have done mat classes)

You are preaching to the choir when it comes to the mind/body awareness that yoga brings! I'm really happy to hear that my yoga practice could prove helpful on the trail. I'll take all the help I can get!

The reformer is hard. Really hard. I've only taken a few duet sessions, but I am amazed at how difficult some of it is. It is very, very good at isolating muscles. For me, that is significant to the extent I've developed some muscle imbalances over the years. It's very easy to compensate with other muscles, but the reformer will flush that out pretty quickly. It also takes a ton of concentration, which I really like. My mind will wander too easily otherwise. That's one of the reasons I like yoga, too. It requires you to be present. I get a whole lot of stress release out of things that require me to leave the rest of my life at the door.

I gotta say that, so far, I am SO jazzed about mountain biking. I really hope my husband remains ready and willing to go to BCSP frequently while I get my feet wet. He got away from MTBing himself for a few years because he just got tired of always having to drive to the trails. I understand where he's coming from, but I've been less than enthusiastic about road riding since moving from Indy in late 2009 (I miss riding with my friends, and we're just far enough away now that it's somewhat inconvenient to meet up with them on a regular basis), and MTBing is helping me get my groove back. Granted, I could go out there by myself, but (a) I like spending time with him and (b) I'm not quite ready to be out there without him.

Let me know when you're in town next. If you'd like to take a duet reformer session with me at my downtown studio, I could set that up.

[Artista]

Interesting input on Pilates & Yoga. I've been thinking about what I can add to my fitness routine next winter to keep things interesting. I usually lift weights but I need to spice things up a bit. I think I'll look in to these two.

[solobiker]

I have had a bad back for well over 11 years and Yoga has almost always helped it. I need to get back into a conisitent routine with doing it a few times a week. I have only done it by myself with a DVD for instruction. I would love to try Pilates sometime. I know I have a very weak core.

[Catrin]

FINALLY got in a good drills session this afternoon. For some reason on Friday I couldn't seem to get anywhere, I think that it was difficult to focus because of where I was. This morning I found an empty lot in my favorite park, laid out sticks as markers and practiced tighter curves and weaving in and out of them. Needs work but I could see improvement.My body is also starting to get the idea of the body/bike separation required in the sideways "windshield wiper" movement... lots of practice needed here as well.

Also just played around in several grassy areas riding around trees and so forth. It always surprises me at first how much more quad strength is required from the additional resistance. A few of the roadies riding in the park looked at me a bit odd - they aren't used to seeing full suspension mountain bikes there

I want to get two more sessions in, hopefully Wed and Thursday, as I am planning on returning to Brown County State Park Saturday for the first time since the Clinic and hitting the mountain bike "bunny slope". It might be that for more advanced mtn bikers but it is quite challenging for me.

Believe it or not I am a little nervous about the idea of riding it solo (ME?) and I am going to see if anyone I know will be there who might be able to ride it once with me - but that isn't going to stop me If I wait until I find someone to ride with me then it might not happen - and I NEED to get out on the trail before my nerves keep me off of it. My lovely Jamis is getting tired of pavement & grass and needs to get dirty

I also found a grassy slope in this same park where I might be able to practice descending properly - the instructor with me the last time had me stay seated on the trail...

BTW, it is interesting to me how much easier it is to get in the right positions on my mountain bike. I've tried some of the same things on my Gunnar (basically a rigid mountain bike frame outside of the fork) and found it really hurts my knees to do so. I suspect it is due to the saddle being lower on my mountain bike... this even applies to holding my pedals at 3 and 9:00 when coasting on a straight bit of road.

[Artista]

I've had virtually no time to drill, or even ride, for the last couple of weeks. I rode a technical trail last Thursday & felt that I had lost some of the muscle memory that I had started to develop when I was drilling regularly. We rode the same trail again yesterday, but this time I did about 10 minutes of drills immediately before hitting the trail. That 10 minutes was all it took to reawaken the muscle memory so that the technical sections were much easier to negotiate.

[indysteel]

I've had virtually no time to drill, or even ride, for the last couple of weeks. I rode a technical trail last Thursday & felt that I had lost some of the muscle memory that I had started to develop when I was drilling regularly. We rode the same trail again yesterday, but this time I did about 10 minutes of drills immediately before hitting the trail. That 10 minutes was all it took to reawaken the muscle memory so that the technical sections were much easier to negotiate.

I'm going to remember that the next time we go out, as I do better with a skill warm-up of some sort, too. We went out again today, and I started with the easiest of the easy trails. We did a couple of laps, and then I worked on a section that had been bothering me (it's a descent into a tight left turn over a bridge. I finally got it, mostly because I finally got out of the saddle to do it. Duh!!!! The sheer act of finally getting something right is a real confidence booster.

I did pretty well today on the more technical aspects of the second trail we did...until fatigue started to set in. I'm in good shape, but it's amazing how fast the trail tires me out. Because I still ride pretty tense, I think that's part of it. I also want to work on having a better idea what my rear wheel is doing. There's a drill in one of my MTB how-to books that is supposed to help with this; I'll have to try it this week.

I'm really thrilled at this point though. I have a long way to go before I master anything, but with each time out there, I feel a bit more secure and skilled. Getting out of the saddle and moving around the bike is SO helpful. I just need to build up my endurance for it.