Motocross Diet For Motocross Racers. Last Edited: 2015-02-24 13:42:27; Looking to improve your overall riding by changing your eating habits? Improve your health, lifestyle, diet & nutrition with Freestyle BMX news, facts, tips, & other information. Educate yourself about Freestyle BMX & help. BMX Star Tells How to Train. Adventure Sports Weekly; Whether you ride a BMX bike or a mountain bike, both kinds of wheels demand agility and the use of body English. ![]()
BMXtreme. com. Live to Winby Grant Hansen. BMXers, for the most part, are lazy. In fact, most won't read this article because it's about training your body for top race performance. I don't mean to bag on BMXers specifically; most people are lazy by nature. That's why only a few excel in areas where most could. BMXers are at a disadvantage because BMX is not an organized team sport like basketball, baseball, football, etc. Teams usually have set practices; set exercises like running laps, doing suicides; and skills training. For BMXers it's up to the individual, and there's no risk of being kicked off the team for not showing up to practice. ![]() I bet not many. In fact, my buddies down at the track poke fun at me because I train! Well, they're not laughing when I beat them to the finish line. There are a bunch of guys who have more talent in their one finger than I have in my whole body (and I respect the hell out of that), but when it's race time, they don't measure up. But then there are the people like me. How can we mesh the two to create the ultimate force in BMX? I'm glad you asked. That's right, training is the easy one! It's getting off your fat ass that's the difficult part, but once you're actually training, it's easy. You don't need special skills, you don't need to build anything. I'll break down the few simple exercises you have to do to get your body in the perfect shape for BMX racing. Plyometric jumps. Abdominal exercise. That's it. Sure, there are plenty of other things you can do but the above list is all you really need to do. But the key is to do each of these with intensity. Going through the motions is a waste of time and you'll achieve zero results. Work out till it hurts, like the old saying goes: . Now that's intense! Like any form of exercise, sprints can be boring if you do them by yourself. If you can find a training partner it'll make the whole experience so much more enjoyable. But if you're on your own don't worry. Be dedicated and handle the situation. I recommend sprint training 3 times a week (and a race day can count if you work really hard that day). One day do about 2. This will not only increase your speed but it will also develop your explosive power. On your next sprint day, increase the distance (to about 1. When doing these longer sprints, really concentrate on your spin. On the third sprint day (if it's not a race) I like to mix it up. You can do some long, some short, some uphill, some downhill. Play around and have fun, but make sure to put out 1. I guarantee you stick to the sprint program I have laid out for you, you will get faster. For those who don't know what a plyometric (plyo) jump is, I'll explain. Basically, it's jumping in place. Bend your knees until you can touch the ground with your finger tips, then explode up and jump as high as you can. Repeat until failure. Plyo jumps are an intense workout and really develop your explosive power and stamina. Start out doing 3 sets, each until failure. If you can work up to 6 sets of more than 3. Developing your upper body is important for BMX because you use your arms, chest, and back for jumping, pumping through rhythm, and for snapping out of the gate. While most physical trainers may tell you heavy weights and slow repetitions are the best way to build muscle size (and they may be right), that's not necessarily to best way to train for BMX. You want to build explosive power for speed, rather than bulk which will slow you down. I recommend doing each of the above exercises with a moderately light weight, so that when you get to the 2. Do 3- 4 sets of each. Working out your abs is very important because it also develops your lower back, which is extremely important for BMX. Simple crunches and leg lifts will get you on your way. Cardiovascular. This is more important for some than others, but a BMX racer doesn't want to be carrying excess baggage around the track. One day at the local track a little pudge of a kid was telling me how he was getting these hubs, those rims, and that crank set to make his bike the lightest it could be. I told him, . Before you go worrying about how light your bike is, worry about how heavy you are. If you don't stretch, your muscles are prone to cramping and soreness. Respect the work that your muscles have been doing for you and stretch them before and after every workout. Your muscles will recovery more quickly and have a better chance at growth. Stay tuned!) Anyway, while I think training is the easiest thing to do, I think diet is the hardest. First of all, I like to eat. And I like to eat until I can't move. This is horrible! And I know it, but sometimes I can't help it (perhaps it stems from my Italian upbringing). A recent article in Muscle Media magazine really put this in perspective for me. Look at the animal kingdom. Let's take a bear. It binges and then goes weeks without eating, so it's body is conditioned to store fat. Likewise, a bear is a big burly animal. Now let's take a horse. It grazes all day long, eating a little bit at a time. A horse is a lean, fast animal. It's body's metabolism is used to processing food. Get the picture? Whose going to win a race: a horse or a bear? Be the horse. Well these are just excuses. If your school or workplace has a grease- filled cafeteria, prepare you lunch. And prepare ahead of time small snacks that you can eat at your desk. Or buy some protein shakes or bars! You'll quickly find out that when you eat small and often, that you won't die from hunger pangs. You'll feel fine all the time. Most foods don't contain much protein, so I and other athletes turn to protein shakes like Met- Rx or Myoplex. Two shakes a day with skim milk will give you 7. What's a lot? It's not that hard if you keep a bottle of water with you at all times and take sips here and there. Don't down a glass of water just to get it in you because you're bladder will get very pissed off at you (no pun intended). Stick to fruits, veggies, pasta, chicken, turkey, and fish. No chocolate bars dipped in peanut butter! So it's important to become one with your bike. This can be achieved by practicing manuals, bunny- hops, wheelies, and riding trails. A trail boss who possesses speed (like Brian Foster) is a scary person to have next to you on the gate. So be that person. I'm not going to go into how- to's right now, but if you practice, the skills will come. You won't achieve immediate results because this stuff is hard. But once you get good, you can then pedal around each part of the track as fast as you can. Most of the other guys at the trails will encourage you to get better and will show you how to do certain things. Don't be intimidated. If you're already a good jumper, work on other things at the trails like transitions, staying low, and building momentum. Nothing is ever too easy if you're creative. You'll get out of BMX (or anything else for that matter) what you put into it. Winning isn't everything to a lot of people. And that's cool. But for me, winning is everything. Winning is fun. So I work as hard as I can to make sure I keep winning. I appreciate your thoughts or comments of what I have written. All rights reserved.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2017
Categories |