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Cross Training / General Health & Fitness


throet

Cross Training and General Fitness  

63 members have voted

  1. 1. Do you ride to stay in shape or stay in shape to ride? Please elaborate below via comments.

    • I just ride MTB
      18
    • I ride MTB but also train on road, gravel, or stationary trainer
      13
    • I ride MTB but maintain my fitness in a variety of ways that may include running, swimming, or various forms of strenghth and flexibility training
      32


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On 10/10/2018 at 8:58 AM, Teamsloan said:

I'm the out of shape version of Mack_turtle. 6 years ago I ruptured a disc in my back. Since then I've "re-ruptured" it 3 times with minor tweaks happening about once a year. A lot of it is genetics, my discs are apparently thin anyways. But I've certainly not helped it by sitting most of the day staring at screens. My core strength sucks probably as much as my discipline. So it's been tough to get in to a routine to fix it. I pretty much want to stay in shape so that I can ride.

Maybe some daily yoga? I've done a decent number of yoga videos from Abi Carver, most are 15 minutes and she focuses on the specific needs of bikers either by targeting the spots that we over use or under use. Lots of hip opener stretches, core strength, neck and shoulder stretches, balance poses, leg stretches. Her new site is on the pricey side, imo. i never realized how bad my balance was, how weak my core was and how... un-limber I was until I did yoga.  https://yogaformountainbikers.com/

You can get access to her videos for less than that via The Sufferfest plus you get whatever else comes with The Sufferfest.

https://thesufferfest.com/pages/pricing-information

 

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I just started running/ jogging, partially as a result from some of y'all but also because I was dumb and signed up for the Austin 1/2 Marathon in February because the prize is a KA belt buckle. I've never run more than 1mile in my life but I've been working up to 6 miles now without killing myself. I was afraid of past knee injuries (Meniscus repair and MCL Tear) being a problem but so far doing some good stretching has helped a lot. Definitely started to build some different muscle groups than riding does. Riding has helped a ton with my heart and lungs however. I need to find some more hills to train on but so far that doesn't seem to be a limiting factor. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've gone to spin class at Gold's Gym Tech Ridge.  It was OK -- but small room crammed with sweating bodies was not so much my thing, especially because I'm pretty sure I caught a cold from *someone* (probably the instructor who was not as well as he thought he was) in one of those classes.  Also, saddles on the exercise bikes at Gold's Gym Tech Ridge are insanely uncomfortable, mainly because almost all of them are set at a very weird angle. 

If anyone has gone to a spin class at

  • Fitness Connection Tech Ridge
  • 24 Hour Fitness near Parmer/I 35
  • Anytime Fitness in the same area

please report on type of spin bikes, and general ambience.  

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 11/26/2018 at 11:26 AM, RedRider3141 said:

I just started running/ jogging, partially as a result from some of y'all but also because I was dumb and signed up for the Austin 1/2 Marathon in February because the prize is a KA belt buckle. I've never run more than 1mile in my life but I've been working up to 6 miles now without killing myself. I was afraid of past knee injuries (Meniscus repair and MCL Tear) being a problem but so far doing some good stretching has helped a lot. Definitely started to build some different muscle groups than riding does. Riding has helped a ton with my heart and lungs however. I need to find some more hills to train on but so far that doesn't seem to be a limiting factor. 

Sooo... 1/2 Marathon is over, got my medal, I can get back on the bike now. AKA Sorry about the rain being back... 

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Competive swimming from 8-14. Started playing squash around age 14. Continued on a pretty regular (3-4 times a week) basis until I mid-20s. Stopped until I came to Austin and discovered two courts at the Lifetime gym just 5 minutes from where I live. Been back at it for the past 10 years. Began playing rugby in early 20s and played for maybe 4 years. Took up golf in my late 20s and played for maybe 8 years, but started having back pain. Started mtbing a little after taking up golf, back in '94/'95. I thought it would be good exercise as I was putting on weight. Turned out that I really enjoyed it, and even pretty much gave up alcohol and weekend partying because of it (was just no fun getting up at 7am with a hangover to go riding).

In July 2014 I fell down some stairs while moving boxes. I thought I'd pulled a muscle in my back and just waited for it to fix itself. After a few months, although the back problem was still there, I got back to playing squash. Woke up one morning in late January '15 and couldn't walk. Turned out that I had a disc (L1 or L2) that had slipped/herniated and had become so inflamed that it had pushed back into a nerve. And if that wasn't bad enough, because I had continued to play squash with it, the nerve had been pushed back into a bone spur that's on my spine and had been rubbing against it. Turns out that I had dammaged the nerve and it had become very inflamed. I have never felt pain like that in my life. Literally couldn't walk for a few weeks. Saw a back specialist who said as much as he hated to, surgery was the only option on his side. But... If I were willing to give it a try, he knew a chiropractor who he had seen work miracles on a couple of his patients. My sister had back surgery with mixed results, so I said I'd give the chiropracter a go. And so I did. It took around 5 months of treatment process... And for the first maybe 6 weeks, after seemingly no positive headway with the chiropractic treatment, I struggled with the thought of just having the back surgery. I found out later on that even the chiropractor in his weekly updates to the back specialist had voiced his doubts about being able to help me. I stuck with him though, and little by little the pain began to subside. And by July/August I was actually playing squash again.

The chiropracter's name is Dr. Davd Alverado and I would not hesitate to give him the highest recommendation to anyone looking for injury help. He is extremely patient and methodical, mixing in acupuncture, massage, heat, electrical, and stretching along with his chiropractic adjustments (which he didn't introduce to mytreatment until maybe 10 weeks into it, when he felt confident that the inflamation had gone down). And at the end of his treatments if there was one thing he wanted to impress on me was... Strengthen the core... Strengthen the core.

Unfortunately neither mtbing nor squash do that. Great for two different types of cardio, and other things such as hand/eye coordination... But not really core development.

Planks, ab crunch, knee lifts, bicycle, hip lifts/back arch, hip crossovers are just a few that will, along with weight squats. All of which can be done at home.

Walking. My father, who just turned 96, pretty much walked outdoors all of his adult life... 3-5 miles each morning at around 6am. Including hills if they were around.

Swimming. About as good a whole body workout as you can get... Without the strain on the joints.

Rowing. Low impact (no strain on joints), great cardio and total body workout.

And get outdoors as often as possible... Although Seth focused on the exercise aspect of digging... The outdoor aspect is just as important. There's something greatly beneficial about keeping in touch with nature.

 

Edited by RidingAgain
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14 hours ago, RedRider3141 said:

Sooo... 1/2 Marathon is over, got my medal, I can get back on the bike now. AKA Sorry about the rain being back... 

How was it?  Will you try a full or something else?  I've done one half (3M) and was a bit slower than expected.  I have no inclination to do that again or a full marathon, but strangely the ultra marathons have a calling to me.  Keeping an eye on the running version of the Dragon Slayer...

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I've done a 50 mile trail race and it was an experience that I will never forget.  My suggestion would be to find a race on a trail that you enjoy and don't be afraid to travel.  When you're deep in the pain cave, having amazing views burned into your head will be worth the trip to get there.  Your body only has so many of those type of efforts in it so make them count.

 

My wife has done a 100 mile race and several ultras.  She works at Austin Trail Running company and if you have any questions or want to talk to some people that know what you're getting into, swing by there and hit them up.

Edited by Tree Magnet
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13 minutes ago, RidingAgain said:

Although Seth focused on the exercise aspect of digging... The outdoor aspect is just as important. There's something greatly beneficial about keeping in touch with nature.

Fact: dirt contains bacteria that makes humans (and mice) feel good. The original research comes from mice exposed to Mycobacterium vaccae, a friendly soil bacteria.  The impetus for this research came from beneficial results for cancer patients treated with Mycobacterium vaccae.  

 Soil Bacteria Work In Similar Way To Antidepressants

Snip from this very interesting article: 

Quote

"They also leave us wondering if we shouldn't all be spending more time playing in the dirt," he added.

Dr Lowry and colleagues became interested in the project when they heard that cancer patients treated with the bacterium Mycobacterium vaccae reported increases in their quality of life. They speculated this could be because the bacteria were activating brain cells to release more serotonin.

When they treated mice with Mycobacterium vaccae they found that it did indeed activate a particular group of brain neurons that produce serotonin - in the interfascicular part of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRI) of the mice, to be precise. They established this by measuring the amount of c-Fos in the area, a biochemical marker whose presence indicates that serotonin releasing neurons have fired.

Serotonin, also known as 5-HT (short for 5-hydroxytryptamine), is found in the gut, brain, nerves and blood of humans and other animals. There are 14 different receptors that bind to serotonin each working a different property of this highly multi-functional chemical messenger.

Riding bike to Hyde Park Gym to work out today. 

Edited by June Bug
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5 minutes ago, AntonioGG said:

How was it?  Will you try a full or something else?  I've done one half (3M) and was a bit slower than expected.  I have no inclination to do that again or a full marathon, but strangely the ultra marathons have a calling to me.  Keeping an eye on the running version of the Dragon Slayer...

It was good and I did have fun! Plus my lackluster training did help. Unfortunately 3 weeks before my whole household got the stomach flu that was going around and any training took a backseat until the weekend before the event. Before this, based on my progress I was hoping for a 2:45 time but after the setback in training set a goal of under 3 hours. In the end I achieved a 2:55 and went home happy. I'm glad I did it, the medal/belt buckle is pretty sweet but I don't see me doing any other long distance runs. I will however try a local 5K or two. I definitely have seen a benefit to my overall health and biking stamina because of my 2-4 mile training runs. 

 

2019-02-20 11_04_44-2019 Austin Marathon Leather Belts – ALVIES.jpg

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  • 6 months later...

Finally broke down and joined a gym. My wife has been going to 24 Hour Fitness for years. If you shop at Costco, a 2 year membership is $429. If you're in town 50 weeks a year, that's less than $5 a week for all the weight machines, treadmills, yoga classes, etc you can handle. Surely most of us spend more than that on bike parts. When it 100°+ outside, I don't ride at all or ride rarely. Who am I fooling?

Go find an intimidating machine: push that thing, pull that bar. Run and go nowhere like an idiot for 30 minutes. Go lay on a mat for 30 minutes doing Russian twists until you collapse. Stop being a puss. Your ability to ride a bike will be better in the end and you might live longer.

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  • 1 month later...

Just about done with the home gym setup. All that's left to do is mount a small TV above the new ProForm Smart HIIT that I just finished assembling. For anybody in the market for fitness equipment, Sears Online is selling ProForm's stuff for hundreds less than any other retailer. This one was on sale for $999 either direct or through Dicks, but I got it for $599 with free delivery from Sears. Also, Sears includes a 1-yr iFit membership whereas the others do not. I would never have believed you could get a machine put together this well for $599. Anybody on here ever used iFit? With 32 onboard programs, I'm not sure that iFit is going to do much more for me. I'd rather listen to music or watch sports on TV than listen to an online coach telling me how well I'm working my glutes.

  

IMAG2708.jpg

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That looks like a nice rig ...

but, I don't see myself buying more fitness equipment until I get rid of the Soloflex (purchased in the 80's) that I have stashed in pieces across various nooks and crannies around the house. :classic_dry:

Clearing a space at my house to set up something like that would be a pretty good workout in itself.

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21 hours ago, Ridenfool said:

That looks like a nice rig ...

but, I don't see myself buying more fitness equipment until I get rid of the Soloflex (purchased in the 80's) that I have stashed in pieces across various nooks and crannies around the house. :classic_dry:

Clearing a space at my house to set up something like that would be a pretty good workout in itself.

Admittedly the new cardio piece is likely to get a lot less use than the weights, which are used regularly by me, my wife, and my son. I've always made the argument that I can get all the cardio I need on my mountain bike, but with injuries and sweltering summer heat, I'm going to try supplementing my biking with some time on the machine indoors. My wife is eager to try it as well since she has really never gotten any form of cardio exercise. 

I know what you mean too about clearing space. I claimed that room for the gym as soon as the room was vacated; otherwise it would have quickly filled up with "stuff".  

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  • 3 months later...

I used to do 12 week programs off bodybuilding.com that really did whip me into shape and had a great effect on my riding.  I want to find another program similar to that but mountain bike specific.  If I have a plan written out for me I’ll have a much better chance of sticking with it.  Does anyone know of a good MTB strength training program that includes rides and interval training available for download? Seems like there are a few ads I’ve seen on Instagram and Facebook. 

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6 hours ago, Andrzej said:

I used to do 12 week programs off bodybuilding.com that really did whip me into shape and had a great effect on my riding.  I want to find another program similar to that but mountain bike specific.  If I have a plan written out for me I’ll have a much better chance of sticking with it.  Does anyone know of a good MTB strength training program that includes rides and interval training available for download? Seems like there are a few ads I’ve seen on Instagram and Facebook. 

SufferFest added strength training to their system but I have no idea what it looks like.

 

I second AntonioGG's suggestion to watch Dylan Johnson's channel. It is a guideline, not a specific plan, but he refers to research to support his recommendations. Plus Backwards Hat Dylan is super relatable. 

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/29/2019 at 10:12 AM, throet said:

 IMAG2708.jpg

The home gym investment is definitely paying off now. I'm doing 25-30 min of intense interval training each morning followed by legs / upper body on alternate days. My HIIT machine has a 10" vertical path with a 5" horizontal path, which seems to offer great cross training for out-of-the-saddle episodes on the bike. I don't schedule rest days but generally end up skipping a day once or twice a week. Between the consistent workouts and strict diet, I've now dropped close to 20lbs in 12 weeks with only limited time on the trails. Still drinking beer too, but much less than I used to.

On top of losing the weight, eating right has enabled me to stop taking Omeprazole and Linzess for various gastric issues. It's truly amazing how much my body has appreciated good food and healthy portions. Still taking cholesterol lowering meds though, and don't intend to give up red meat anytime soon. Gotta pick your poison! 

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