Study Shows What Type Of Strength Training Works Best For Mountain Biking.

If you haven’t done it already then this is the year that you need to start making strength training a priority for improving your MTB specific fitness. Improving your strength can help your fitness, your skills and your ability to walk away from a wreck.

But not just any type of strength training program will do if you want to see results from your off season training and have them stick around until the end of the riding season. While a lot of riders assume that since we use a lot of cardio and endurance that we need to emphasize high reps and low weight, this approach isn’t what works best. 

Science is starting to reveal what the best approach for mountain bike strength training is and it seems to favor a more aggressive approach in the gym. 

This study that I came across looked at the effects of a traditional strength training approach to cycling - using a more endurance based protocol and stopping strength training during the riding season - with a less traditional approach which used maximal strength training in the off season and continued with it during the riding season.

Show Notes:

• Participants had at least 5 years of consistent cycling experience and not done lower body resistance training for at least 6 months. They were all competitive riders on the regional and national level.
• In the off season both groups followed the same program with two days of strength training.
• The Endurance-Strength (ES) Group did 8 weeks of high rep strength training (3 sets of 20-14 reps with the reps decreasing each week).
• The Maximal Strength (MS) Group started with 3 X 20 and then shifted to 3X8, dropping 1 rep each week to get to 3 X 4.
• During the riding season the ES group stopped strength training and the MS group did one day a week of 2 X 5 at 85% of 1RM and 1 X 6 RM.
• They used a Half-Squat, Leg Curl and Single Leg Leg Press. They also used the Wingate Test (30 seconds all out) as a way to measure power endurance.
• At the end of the study they found that there were no significant differences in endurance measurements between the groups.
• They did find that the MS group increased peak power from pre- to mid-season and they were able to maintain most of it through the season.
• They also showed an increase in the most power they could produce over 5 seconds from pre- to post-season as well as an increase in 1RM strength from pre- to post-season.
• The ES group showed a decrease in their power over the last 5 seconds of the Wingate Test, a decrease in their 1RM strength and an increase in the Fatigue Index from the Wingate Test from pre- to post-season.
• In a nutshell, both approaches helped to improve their endurance while only the Maximal Strength Group improved their anaerobic capacity and maintained it over the whole season.

The conclusion was that adding non-traditional strength training to a XC racers program could help them maintain and even improve their anaerobic fitness and power. Mountain biking requires more anaerobic power and endurance than road cycling, which is why real strength training helps to improve performance. 

So remember that next time someone tells you that strength training doesn’t help you mountain biking performance that context matters - the studies that say that are done on road cyclists and that using maximal strength training delivers better results than endurance based strength training.

Both the science and the real world evidence tells us that if you want to maximize your MTB fitness - and fun - then you have to do strength training as part of your routine.

Until next time…

Ride Strong,

James Wilson

MTB Strength Training Systems

p.s. Are you still looking for the right program to get your off season training started? You only have a few more months left so you don’t want to waste any more time.

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