The Riding For A Lifetime Podcast

Most riders try to get faster by doing more cardio or riding harder… but the real performance breakthrough comes from learning how to breathe better and control your tension. In this podcast, I’ll show you how to use Breathing Gears — a simple system that matches your breathing to your effort — so you can stay ahead of fatigue, climb stronger, and ride longer without gassing out. You’ll also learn how to use Ramping Isometrics to train your breathing control and strength off the bike. Together, these two tools can make a noticeable difference on the trail in just a couple of weeks. ✅ What you’ll learn: How to “shift” your breathing before the trail forces you to The 3 Breathing Gears every rider should know What to do if you struggle with nasal breathing How to train your breath and body with Ramping Isometrics Why these are game changers for 40+ riders Whether you’re looking to crush climbs, improve endurance, or simply enjoy your rides more, this is one of the easiest (and most overlooked) upgrades you can make. 👉 Get started with my Strength & Cardio Basics for the 40+ MTB Rider program here: https://www.bikejames.com/40-sc-guide/ Do what most riders won’t… and you’ll perform like most riders can’t.

Perhaps no term gets thrown around more when talking about riding your bike than “body position”. It is recognized as being an essential part of your riding skills and performance, but what does the term really mean? For something so important there is a lot of confusion surrounding it. Do you want to be in a low “attack position” or in more of an upright “throne position”? Do you want your weight on your feet with little to no weight on your hands or do you want to have weight and pressure through your hands? It seems like the answers to these questions depend on who you talk to and what system they preach. There is a whole industry around this question, with qualified skills instructors from various backgrounds each trying to convince you that their version of body position is the best. Well, what if I told you that the whole concept is kind of nonsense. I mean, obviously how you stand and hold yourself on the bike is important but the idea that there is an ideal body position when riding your mountain bike is incomplete at best. The reason that I don’t like this term or the discussions around it is because it leads riders to believe that there is an ideal body position that they need to try and get into and maintain while riding. But this idea may work when doing drills in a parking lot, it isn’t how riding your bike works in the real world. On the trail you are participating in a dynamic relationship between your body, the bike and the trail and these three things are rarely static. Conditions change all of the time and this means that your ideal body position is constantly shifting as well. In fact, the worst thing you can do for your performance and safety on the trail is try and maintain an “ideal” body position. Instead, you want to change your body position to match the needs of the trail. For example, let’s say that you are riding a section of trail that starts with a relatively flat section before feeding you into a technical rock garden that proceeds a short climb. What is the ideal body position for something like this? You guessed it, there isn’t one and you have to shift your body position to meet the needs of the moment. When you are on the flat section you can get into a traditional position where you are keeping more weight on your feet than your hands and you are maintaining your position as you pedal. When you get to the rock garden you will need to preemptively shift your weight forward in anticipation of needing to perform a rear weight shift to unweighted or even lift your front wheel to help get over the first trail obstacle. As you proceed through the rock garden you will need to dynamically shift your weight forward and backward to weight and unweight your front end to help you flow through the rocks and trail obstacles. Your body position will be very fluid and dynamic as you use your weight shifts to help navigate your bike through the technical trail section. When you get through it and hit the climb you will want to stand up and shift your weight forward, putting weight on your hands and applying aggressive pressure through the rear wheel as needed for traction. If there are any obstacles on the climb you will also need to shift your weight back to float the front wheel over them before getting back into your aggressive climbing position. So in this scenario you have gone from a “light hands, heavy feet” position to a dynamic position with a lot of front to back weight shifts and finally an aggressive standing position with your weight slightly forward on your hands. So what is the right body position? The right body position changes depending on the demands of the moment. It isn’t based on someone’s theory of what the optimal position is and is certainly isn’t a static thing, However, I see riders all the time who would try to ride through this same scenario trying to use and maintain a single body position (usually seated). This is usually due to someone telling them that it was the

As you get older dealing with pain becomes more and more of a reality. Old injuries flare up, wear and tear add up and it all leads to more and more pain. Pain leads to time off or even surgeries and surgeries definitely lead to time off. Time off leads to loss of fitness and motivation which can lead to quitting. So one of the best strategies for riding for a lifetime is to do everything you can to address pain early and to prevent it from getting worse. Prevention is the best plan of all because pain that you never had doesn’t need to be addressed at all. In an effort to help more riders achieve the goal of Riding For A Lifetime I wanted to start sharing some tips on addressing pain for some of the most common problem areas faced by riders as we get older. In this post I wanted to start with one that almost every rider faces at some point, which is knee pain. The knees take a beating on the trail. Everything we do on the trail involves the knees, from standing to seated efforts, from uphills to downhills and from techy trails to smooth flow trails, the knees are working hard to help us perform at our best. The knees are an amazing structure that need to be both stable and mobile. Lacking in either of these things can lead to stress being placed on the wrong areas, which lead to pain and loss of performance. On top of that, you need your feet to be supported properly so that your legs can move in the most functional way possible. Poor foot support is a major cause of knee pain both on and off the bike and an area that a lot of riders are confused about. So let’s break down what each of these things means for us on the bike and how we can support our goals of having strong, stable knees that can take a pounding and come back for more. Until next time... Ride Strong, James Wilson

When I started MTB Strength Training Systems in 2005 I did it so I could share how functional strength training could help my fellow riders enjoy riding more. I was 30 at the time and my focus was on helping riders maximize their performance, which led to my involvement with several pro riders and teams. 10 years later I turned 40 and found my priorities changing. Now I was interested in longevity as well as performance and I was finding that my old training methods weren't having the same effect. Now I'm quickly approaching 50 (holy shit, how did that happen?) and I've found that a lot of riders are also wanting to learn more about Riding For A Lifetime. I've been sharing a lot of my new training methods and programs over the last few years and they are always among my most popular posts. I've shared a lot of great info on this subject over the last several years and I understand that it can be hard to keep track of all of it. So I wanted to put together my Top 5 Tips To Ride For A Lifetime. This is just a quick summary of these concepts so be sure to check out the links at the bottom of this post to find more detailed posts. You can also find a video and audio summary of these concepts below. Strength Training Is Essential As we age, the physical decline of strength, power, and muscle mass becomes inevitable, affecting our overall physical capacity. This decline starts to accelerate after the age of 40, making strength training a non-negotiable part of any fitness regimen. Strength training has been proven to slow or even reverse these declines, enabling you to maintain a high capacity both on and off the bike. To combat this, aim to incorporate strength training 2-4 times a week. This will not only enhance your biking performance but also set a strong foundation for Riding For A Lifetime. Building and Maintaining Muscle Mass One of the significant changes in strength training for the 40+ MTB rider is the increased need for muscle mass maintenance to combat sarcopenia, the age-related loss of muscle mass. Muscle mass acts as the engine for both strength and power and is closely linked to overall health and longevity. Including bodybuilding elements in your workout plan—such as 3 sets of 10-15 reps and isolation work for the arms—can help maintain or even increase muscle mass. The more muscle mass you have, the longer it will take to decrease to a level that impacts your physical capabilities. Isometrics for Safe and Effective Strength Building Isometric exercises, which involve creating tension without movement, are excellent for building strength safely, especially for those dealing with past injuries. These exercises are also beneficial for high blood pressure, comparable to the effects of medication in some studies. By incorporating isometric exercises such as Push-Up Holds and Lunge Holds for 30-90 seconds into your strength training program, you can build the stability needed for effective movement while minimizing injury risks. Anti-Glycolytic Training (AGT) for Cardio Traditional interval training is effective but it tends to be most effective for 6-8 weeks, after which it stops delivering the same results. Plus, it can be hard on the body and may negatively impact mitochondrial health, which is crucial for fitness and longevity. Instead, consider Anti-Glycolytic Training (AGT), which involves short bursts of effort followed by near-complete rest. This method supports mitochondrial health and is particularly effective for activities requiring repeated high-intensity efforts like mountain biking. Aim for 5-10 seconds of work followed by 1 minute of rest for 10-30 minutes, using exercises like KB Swings, Jump Squats, or an exercise bike, 2-3 times a week. Daily Mobility Work Aging often leads to stiffness and reduced mobility, increasing injury risk and affecting your ability to display strength and endurance. For mountain bikers, this loss of mobility can also negatively impact

When it comes to building MTB specific cardio, the best method is to actually ride your bike - that is the most sport specific training you can do. However, there are times when you can’t ride as much as you would like or you want to focus on specific qualities that you need on the trail but don’t use enough on the trail to continue to improve. There are also health benefits that you can get from a smart conditioning program that you can’t get from riding alone. This means that if you want to maximize your performance and your health then cardio training has to be part of your overall plan. In this episode of the Riding For A Lifetime Podcast I share a new cardio training method that I feel has a lot of potential for the 40+ year old rider. Let me know if you have any questions or need help getting started with this workout. This is just one way to go about it and I’ll be sharing more workout ideas with you as I get a chance to test them. Until next time… Ride Strong, James Wilson MTB Strength Training Systems

As you get older, strength training changes from a “good to do” to a “must do” status. Losing your strength, muscle and power are all realities for the 40+ year old rider and strength training is the best way to slow that process down. This is the #1 tactic for riders who want to do this for a lifetime - get and stay strong and you’ll avoid age-related physical decline for as long as possible. Plus, improving your strength, power and muscle mass can help improve performance and reduce your risk of injury, so it helps now and acts as insurance against future losses. And while a lot of things can help, if you want to maximize your results there are some basic principles that the 40+ year old rider should be observing. First, almost anything can “work” but it eventually stops working and it may not build the strength and fitness you need for riding. The goal is to follow a training program that will help us on the path towards riding for a lifetime: improving our MTB specific fitness and our overall longevity/ health. With that in mind, here are some basic guidelines to help you with designing or choosing a training program. Podcast Notes: 2-4 days a week is plenty and the specific number depends on how much you are riding and your ability to recover. The more you are riding and the more important your performance the fewer days you will lift. The more you are trying to focus on strength training/ building muscle the more often you need to lift. So this breaks down to 2 days a week during the riding season and 3-4 days a week in the off season depending on time available and goals. You want to focus on big, compound movements but doing some isolation exercises won’t make you dysfunctional and can be beneficial in some cases. You want to focus on getting stronger or doing more volume with the main movement patterns and the exercises that train them - Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Carry and Rotate.I’d also break them up into unilateral and bilateral exercises But doing some isolation exercises like curls and tricep extensions can help with total body isometric strength as well as help with muscle building/ preservation. You want to use a variety of set and rep schemes, with the bulk of them focusing on the 2-4 sets of 3-8 reps. 2-4 sets is enough volume to build strength and power without excessive fatigue. 3-8 reps covers the strength and power end as it gets into the hypertrophy end of things, giving you a variety of training stimuli to pick from. I’d recommend 80% of your training falling in this range and the other 20% falling into the higher rep ranges, going up to 20-30 reps. I don’t recommend spending time in the 1-2 rep range as the risk to benefit ratio isn’t high enough for me to be comfortable with recommending to most riders. You don’t need to train to failure to see results and IMO it should be avoided as a 40+ year old rider. There is a lot of science that tells us that you don’t need to train to failure (or beyond) to see results. You can train to near failure and see the same results while also saving your body some wear and tear and also lowering your injury risk. Training to within 1-3 reps of failure is plenty to see results. This usually occurs when you start to slow down the concentric portion of the exercise, so as long as you go until you start to slow down then you are fine. Leaving 3-1 Reps In Reserve (RIR) also helps avoid injury since the closer you get to failure the more likely you are to see a technical breakdown that can lead to an acute or overuse injury. Don’t use bodypart training and instead focus on total body or upper body/ lower body splits. Using bodypart training split (where you train the body by body parts like Chest, Back, Legs, Biceps, ect.) is a great way to build muscle but not the best way to build functional strength and power. Like I mentioned before, you want to focus on training movement patterns and so you want to divide your workouts based on those movement patterns.

The term “MTB Specific Training” gets thrown around a lot but what does it really mean? At its core, it means using a training program that helps you ride faster, longer and with more skill. While the most “MTB specific” thing you can do is to actually ride your bike, there are certainly things you can do off of the bike that can help. In the gym this takes the form of strength training that improves your strength and movement quality in ways that help your riding. Strength is one of the more general physical attributes, meaning that what works for an athlete in one sport will generally work for another. About 80-90% of what you do with an athlete will be the same from sport to sport but there are some MTB specific things you can do to enhance your results. And no, this doesn’t mean using light loads and high reps because you need to build more endurance. In general, getting stronger in the 2-4 sets X 5-10 reps range will get you what you need. You can benefit from time spent outside of this range but this should make up the bulk of your strength training. You should also focus on the basic movement patterns of Push, Pull, Squat and Hinge. But once you have the basics covered there are some exercises that will help your MTB specific results. You can stream this episode or download the MP3 file by clicking the link below. You‌ ‌can‌ also find the podcast ‌on‌ ‌‌Itunes‌,‌‌ ‌Podbean‌,‌‌ ‌‌Spotify‌‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌all‌ ‌other‌ ‌major‌ ‌podcasting‌ ‌platforms.‌ ‌ Show Notes: Windmill If there was one exercise that I wish every mountain biker would add to their program it is this one. This movement is the core movement pattern behind cornering on your bike and the #1 reason that most riders struggle with this skill is because they lack it. It is also an essential skill for riding switchbacks and, coupled with track stands, would make it much easier for riders to execute this skill as well. You can do it with no weight using a stick on your back. You can also weight it by holding a weight over your head or by using a Steel Mace on your back. I recommend checking out the videos I have posted at https://www.bikejames.com/strength/carving-faster-corners-with-the-stick-and-kb-windmill/ to learn more about how to execute this movement in the most MTB specific way possible because there is a lot of bad instruction around this movement. In general, you are getting into a pedal stance position with your feet and shifting your weight to the back leg while rotating your shoulders as you hinge back. If you do this movement and struggle to keep your weight on the back leg then you are “tipping” over instead of “corkscrewing” your way down, which is how you end up leaning too far inside of a corner and crashing. BTW, the lack of this movement pattern is what has led to the “lean your bike and not your body” advice, which is wrong. You have to lean your body but you have to do it in a balanced way. This is also a great way to work out the differences between right and left cornering that most riders have. I recommend doing 2 sets of 5 reps for this exercise although you can also do the Stick Windmill on a daily basis as part of your mobility plan. 2. Elevated Lunge This is something I started using a few months ago and I really like it for improving a rider's Standing Pedaling ability. It has you using a box that is 6-12 inches high and stepping back into a lunge. It is a cross between a step up and a lunge and it really works on the range of motion in the hip flexors. Lunging is the movement pattern behind Standing Pedaling and elevating your front leg helps build the movement skill of being able to stand up and pedal without rounding the low back to make up for a lack of ROM in the hip flexors. Plus, it targets the glutes a bit more since you are getting more of a stretch at the bottom, which helps with pedaling power and looking good from behind. I recommend doing 2-4 sets of 5-10 reps with this exercise, starting with a 6 inch box and wor

Something that I try to impress on my kids is the importance of being able to admit when you are wrong and make a change. Too often we spend our time trying to justify why we do what we do rather than trying to challenge it and see if it holds up. But that isn’t how we grow. There is a saying about how there is a difference between 10 years of experience and the same year of experience repeated 10 times. For too many people they end up repeating the same things over and over and never really grow or gain experience. One of the areas in my life where this is most apparent is training. I’ve been working out for over 35 years, I’ve been a professional trainer for over 20 years and I’ve been working with mountain bikers since 2005. And in that time you better believe that I’ve made some mistakes and learned some valuable lessons. In this podcast I wanted to share some of those lessons with you. Hopefully you can learn from some of these mistakes and avoid the same problems I ran into. You can stream this episode or download the MP3 file by clicking the link below. You‌ ‌can‌ also find the podcast ‌on‌ ‌‌Itunes‌,‌‌ ‌Podbean‌,‌‌ ‌‌Spotify‌‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌all‌ ‌other‌ ‌major‌ ‌podcasting‌ ‌platforms.‌ ‌ You can also read a summary article from the notes for the podcast below… Not doing any “isolation” or “bodybuilding”/ Focusing too much on “functional training” I’ve talked about this a lot lately but something I’ve been doing more of in the last few years is more isolation and bodybuilding type training. I came up at an interesting time in the strength and conditioning field where we were making the switch from bodybuilding to Functional Training. The problem is that you need “isolation” exercises - which build isometric strength and joint strength - and you need bodybuilding type training to build and hold onto muscle mass. You can train like a bodybuilder and still be functional if you are doing other stuff outside of the gym. Plus, as you get older muscle mass becomes a valuable commodity and needs to be trained for. Using too much unstable surface training This is one I haven’t been using for a while but back in the day I was really into unstable surface training. I was around when the Swiss Balls first got introduced to the fitness field through a guy named Paul Chek. The rationale behind UST seemed good and I ended up with every size Swiss Ball you could get and used them for just about everything. The problem was that I couldn’t get strong or add size, I just got better at balancing on things while lifting weights. Several studies have shown that UST lowers motor unit recruitment, results in lower strength and muscle gains and have very limited carryover to other activities. In other words, it may look cool on Instagram but the results are lacking. Giving too much weight to strength training This is a common mistake with new strength coaches. I had seen how getting stronger had helped me and so it made sense that getting stronger would make you a better athlete. I had literally tried to talk some of my athletes into skipping sport training so they wouldn’t miss strength training. The problem is that strength training is only the most important thing you can do if you are really weak, and even then your sport training should still take precedence. The only thing that will make you a better mountain biker is time on the bike and strength training is supposed to support that, not take away from it. Thinking that Long Slow Distance training was a waste of time This is a bit of a tricky one because context matters a lot here. One of the first things I got known for in the MTB world was advocating for the use of High Intensity Intervals instead of Aerobic Base Training for MTB. Back in 2005 this was unheard of since roadie training programs dominated the scene. A lot of riders who followed these programs felt that they weren’t actually in shape for training riding when the season started and they had to ride themselves in

Core Strength and Core Training are two buzzwords that dominate discussions around improving your MTB specific fitness in the gym. It is pretty widely recognized that having a strong core can help improve your performance and prevent injuries but what is Core Strength and what is the best Core Training? In this episode of the Riding For A Lifetime Podcast I cover core training for the 40+ year old rider. While a lot of the things I discuss are just good core training strategies, I look at them through the lens of the older rider and what we need to consider that the younger rider may not. BTW, in the podcast I talk a lot about the importance of the Windmill exercise for core training. If you haven’t seen it before you can find a video demo of how I recommend you perform this exercise by clicking here. You can stream this episode or download the MP3 file by clicking the link below. You‌ ‌can‌ also find the podcast ‌on‌ ‌‌Itunes‌,‌‌ ‌Podbean‌,‌‌ ‌‌Spotify‌‌ ‌‌and‌ ‌all‌ ‌other‌ ‌major‌ ‌podcasting‌ ‌platforms.‌ ‌ You can also read a summary article from the notes for the podcast below… First, what are the “core muscles”? While a lot of people think of the abs and low back, the core actually involves everything in the torso - if you chopped off your arms, legs and head you’d be left with “the core”. This includes everything from the hips and the shoulder girdle. Second, what is the function of the core muscles? While you do need to be able to move through the core muscles, the main function for us is providing stability to protect the spine and to provide a platform to move from. This is a good time to point out that “stiffness” is not the same as “stability”. Stiffness is something that you can’t turn on and off - it is always there - and stability is something you can turn on and off. This is why it is important to maintain or even improve your mobility in the core while you are building better core strength and stability. Something like the Sun Salutation from yoga goes a long way towards helping with this. Last, does mountain biking build adequate core strength and do we even need to worry about training our core muscles off the bike? I believe that the reason mountain biking has gotten a bad rap for not developing good core strength and needing a lot of supplemental core training is that most riders rely too much on seated pedaling. When you are seated your core is in a rounded position and isn't engaging the same way as when you are standing up. This develops core strength in a bad position and you don't get the same level of core strength due to the lack of engagement. This means you need to do core training in the gym to make up for this. But if you stand up more, especially during hard efforts, you build core strength in a more functional way that doesn't require as much work to correct. Even then you still can benefit from some core training like the ab wheel, leg raises and windmills as a way to build a strength reserve - one of the goals of strength training is to help you gain more strength than what you get from the sport alone so you have the reserve needed to handle unexpectedly high loads. But if more riders stood more to pedal then I don't think you'd need to worry as much about it and you wouldn't see as much low back pain, which usually gets blamed on poor core strength as well. So, in summary, the core is the platform that provides stability when we move and while you can get better core engagement from standing up more on the bike, it does help to train your core muscles off of the bike to build the strength reserve needed to increase performance and help prevent injuries. Remember too that if you are doing freeweight exercises then your core muscles get engaged from simply lifting weights - squats, deadlifts and even things like standing bicep curls and lateral raises all build core strength so you don’t need to go crazy with core specific training in the gym. With that said, there are two skil