You can spend thousands on upgrades for your motorcycle but without a rider in good shape they become worthless. If you are out of shape or get tired very easily while riding this can be both a dangerous situation and can hamper your riding ability. It doesn’t matter if you are tearing around the local track or running through twisty mountain roads. It takes a lot of physical strength and endurance to wrestle a 300+ pound motorcycle through a corner at speed. Fitness plays an important role in riding motorcycles at near or at your riding capabilities edge. The closer you ride to that edge the higher your fitness level needs to be in order to maintain the pace.
Go for an hour or so ride through twisty canyons and you will see physically fit riders ride away from your beer-chugging weekend warriors. They may not be better technical riders necessarily, but their increased fitness allows them to stave off fatigue. Fatigue has a number of negative effects. First, you won’t have the power to control your bike as well as you could if you had better conditioning. Second, and most importantly, two major symptoms of fatigue are a loss of judgment and decreasing reaction times. Simply put, you will start to make mistakes and your judgement impaired by lack of energy. Proper fitness won’t protect you from bad decisions or poor form, but it can help you sustain better technique longer and have more fun on the bike.
So what should you do to get in shape for the upcoming season? Well we have several different options listed below. Just remember that you need to slowly work into a fitness program and not go full throttle from day 1. Slowly build up into a routine and don’t hesitiate to ask a personal trainer to tailor a program to your specific needs. Be sure to describe to the trainer what you are training for (track riding, racing, road riding, etc) this will help the trainer understand what kind of program is needed for you.
So what are your options? See some different options below. Remember only you wil know which program is best and will keep you motivated. Keep a variation in your workout to avoid getting becoming stagnate and try to workout with other people to help encourage you to keep working out and stick to your routine. For some more help visit Spark People to help build a diet and workout program with also contains an excellent iPhone application. Finally, please consult a professional trainer to help design the best workout for you.
The Workouts
Cardio Fitness
Since your aerobic fitness is determined by your ability to do work for an extended time, building your cardiovascular strength requires sustained exercise. Don’t start by running up the stairs of a 19-story office building. Instead, begin at a low to moderate intensity; you should be able to carry on a conversation while you exercise (not an oratory, but be able to speak coherently). You want to get your heart pounding–not leaping out of your chest.One way to gauge your workout intensity is to monitor your pulse rate. Once you have that number, you know whether to push yourself harder or ease up by comparing it to your target heart rate in beats per minute (bpm). Calculate your target by subtracting your age from 220 to find your maximum heart rate. Next, generate the numbers for different levels of intensity by multiplying your max heart rate by 0.65, 0.75 and 0.85. Your target range will be in the 65 to 85 percent range. When you start a cardio fitness program, strive to keep your pulse rate in the 65 to 75 percent range. For example, a 38-year-old would aim for 118 and 136 bpm.
Bicycle Fitness
A couple different options here. You can either choose between road bikes or mountain bikes. Either way you need to make sure the bike fits you and you start out slow. Be sure to visit your local bike shop for recommended ride intervals for beginners and a recommendation for bike clubs which will help motivate you by riding with other people. Either way work your way into riding you won’t be Lance Armstrong within a week. If you’re taking a spin class, tell the instructor it’s your first time and ask for help.
Running
For running, make sure your shoe soles aren’t sacked out. Running shoes use a high-void EPS foam that sacks out relatively quickly. Elite runners will wear out a pair of shoes in three months. When possible, run on dirt or grass rather than pavement, which is more jarring to your joints. Some prefer trail running since it is more interesting than its road counterpart. Trail running teaches motor skills as you run over obstacles, and also helps develop more balanced muscle groups. Go to your local running shop for advice on where to run. Do not run hills for the first three weeks of your new program; you can overstress muscles and connective tissues.
Strength Building
Although motorcyclists use their whole body when riding, the stomach, forearms and inner thighs are of primary importance. While working on your arms and legs, don’t forget to develop core body strength. Your core, also called your trunk or center of gravity, is the fulcrum for many athletic movements and is therefore the center of strength in your extremities. Core muscles include the abdomen, lumbar region, chest (pectorals) and shoulders (trapezius and laterals). As your trunk strength increases, you’ll find that you rely less on your arms to support your body while riding, freeing up your arms to control the bike with less effort.
As with beginning an aerobic training program, use moderate weights when you start strength building. The bigger weights will come soon enough. Try two to three sets of 15 to 20 repetitions each, rather than going for higher weight and low reps. It’s not necessary to spend lots of time on these exercises. A half hour of weight work two to three days a week is plenty to build your fitness.The exercises shown can be done at home with a set of dumbbells and with improvised equipment. Good weight lifting form is slow and steady; don’t blast through the exercises or you’ll cheat yourself out of a proper workout. Exhale when lifting and inhale when reversing the lift. Avoid holding your breath or resting too long between sets. If you’re working one side of the body at a time, don’t alternate sides with each rep–do all the reps in a set on one side, then switch.
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I like the article generally – its an often overlooked part of the off season. I think non-stationary bicycling is very important (See Troy’s Story for how Bayliss does it for hours and hours on end) but its not crucial to have the latest and greatest road bicycle to get in shape and keep your sense of balance on two wheels. Any old bike, road or mountain, can accomplish this goal.
Similarly, weight training is very important. I would move this up the article quite a bit. In all powersports where the athlete/rider must manhandle the vehicle to turn (or land or jump, etc), a solid core is a must. Every athlete/rider should strive to do large lifts that incorporate the most number of muscle groups – activating the most groups – for the most efficient progress. Exercises such as the squat (not on a smith machine!) and the deadlift are incredibly useful and a high “bang-for-your-buck” exercise. Starting light is ideal to establish proper form, but then the numbers (weight) should progressively go up as the number of reps per set decreases. A complete workout of 20-30 reps is often cited as ideal in the training community – and the athlete/rider can divide these up in many ways for reps/sets to get there: 5×5, 8×3, 3×8, 6×4, 4×6.
The last note that I think should be reiterated is that often EGO causes problems near the weights. Men often go for the gold and try to impress other guys by going for all the marbles when they shouldn’t, and women typically shy away from free weights all together and stick to limited range-of-motion machines, or use the pastel dumbells. The men don’t understand why they are prone to injury from over-exertion and many ladies often complain of no-progress.
Fear not folks, the end of the winter is nearly in sight! Hold out just a little longer and we will all be back on the roads again!
Food for thought, guys and gals!