10 STEPS TO IMPROVING
YOUR FITNESS

1: RIDE WITH OTHER CYCLISTS

Riding with others exposes you to different techniques. You can learn more about climbing, bunny-hopping & cornering by watching and emulating fellow cyclists than by reading every word written on the subject.

It inject a healthy dose of competiveness, and it is fun!!

2: INCREASE YOUR BASE MILEAGE

Base mile rides consists of long duration efforts (more than 2 hours), with low intensity. Riding long slow distance  miles is vital to increasing your long distance muscular efficiency, & cardiac output.

You can’t expect your fitness to improve after riding your bike an hour or so each week.

3: TRY SOME SPEED  TRAINING

Make a game of doing several short sprints, or “attacks”.  Just as you’d reserve one or two days for slow, long distance rides, you should also reserve a few days for short-duration, high-intensity workouts.

Follow the sprints with some very slow riding, so that you are able to catch your breath, regain your strenght & ready yourself  for the next sprint. Keep  the speed sessions short, but it is the beauty of such rides. Speed training will help you gain short-distance sprinting strenght.

4: USE A HEARTRATE MONITOR

With heartrate monitors, measuring the intensity of our workouts has become much easier!

Measuring your heartrate helps you to pinpoint how hard your riding , if your going too hard or too slow. The better your heartrate,  the more blood will reach your body but with the same amount of strokes.

5: HIT THE WEIGHTS

A well planned weight training can help increase your speed and strenght. Start light & gradually ease into lifting exercises.

Squats & lunges for lower body chin-ups & tricep kickbacks  for your chest, back & arms!!

6: STRETCH BEFORE AND AFTER EACH RIDE

Proper streching is very important. Warm up with some light calisthenics followed by a series of easy stretches. You will increase bloodflow to your muscles & joints. It will prevent torn muscles, trendons & ligaments. Took 5min before & after a ride, to stretch, if not you could spend  5 months recuperating from injury.

7: AVOID OVERTRAINING, TAKE TIME TO REST AND RECOVER

Our bodies only became stronger through proper recovery & adoptations to exercise. Too much leads to your body can’t recover from previous workouts, leads to chronic fatique, and drop in performance. It won’t hurt to take a few days off  each week to relax & recuperate!.

8: MAINTAIN A HEALTHY DIET–BEFORE, DURING & AFTER EACH RIDE

To starve off the dreaded fatigue , you need to drink about one litre of water & consume around 60 grams of carbos, during each hour of riding! Continue  to take in carbos & liquids immediately following each ride. It speeds up the glucose delivery to your muscles & help your body preparing for the next days adventure!

9: TRY SOME URBAN TRAINING

Take one day off each week to hop on your bike & horse around your neighborhood. Start by bunny-hopping dustbans , or climb steps. You might be surprized , but the skills gained from mastering these obstacles will prove essential on the trail when it is time to clear a tree branch, or power over a root infested climb.

10: GET INTO THE PROPER MINDSET

Stay calm, controlled and most of all, remember to enjoy yourself out there on the dirt. If you can do all that, your riding will benefit a thousandfold.