Increasing fitness when unable to ride

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Increasing fitness when unable to ride
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flag mwilliams
Posted: Aug 20, 2016 at 3:48 Quote
I work away from home so regularly have 3 weeka at a time where I can't ride my bike.

I have access to a basic gym Inc exercise bike, how long should you spend on the bike to keep or increase fitness? Iv tried a trip doing half hour a night but i still didn't feel like it had helped me at all when I got back in my bike.

Or would a proper gym workout be better than just the bike?
flag dirtrider76
Posted: Aug 23, 2016 at 9:54 Quote
I'd like to get some input on this. I just suffered a AC separation in my shoulder and my friend was going to loan me his trainer. Planning on 1-2 20 mile spins a day to not loose any ground and keep fit. I can support my self on a trainer no issue just trying to make sure it going to be worth doing I guess.
flag Bjorn240
Posted: Aug 23, 2016 at 12:06 Quote
mwilliams wrote:
I work away from home so regularly have 3 weeka at a time where I can't ride my bike.

I have access to a basic gym Inc exercise bike, how long should you spend on the bike to keep or increase fitness? Iv tried a trip doing half hour a night but i still didn't feel like it had helped me at all when I got back in my bike.

Or would a proper gym workout be better than just the bike?

On an exercise bike, you should continue to do whatever structured workouts you would otherwise do on the road or on the mtb. Generally, I try to structure my weeks something like this:

M) Rest or 30m zone 1 recovery
T) Hill climb intervals (5x 5minutes @ anaroebic threshold + 5-10 beats in a high gear)
W) 90m ride
Th) 2x 20m intervals at 95% of anaroebic threshold
F) Rest or 30m zone 1 recovery
Sa) 3-4 hour ride with jumps/sprints/some hills
Su) 90-120m ride in Zone 3 with some jumps and hills

You can complement this with gym time (bench/overhead/rows/pullups/core/balance), but for riding bike, best exercise is riding bike.
flag Bjorn240
Posted: Aug 23, 2016 at 12:10 Quote
dirtrider76 wrote:
I'd like to get some input on this. I just suffered a AC separation in my shoulder and my friend was going to loan me his trainer. Planning on 1-2 20 mile spins a day to not loose any ground and keep fit. I can support my self on a trainer no issue just trying to make sure it going to be worth doing I guess.

It is definitely worth doing. Just riding won't hurt, but you'll definitely see better benefits if you structure the work some. I would avoid doing any max efforts where you have to pull on the bars, but if you're riding every day, maybe alternate something like:

M) 90 minutes Zone 2
T) 5x 5minute intervals at 105% AT
W) 60 minutes Zone 2
Th) 2x 20 minutes at 95% AT
F) Rest
Sat) 90 mins Zone 2
Sun) 30 mins Zone 3

Structured work is boring, but what the hell, you might as well do it now that you're injured. You have nothing better to do, right?
flag dirtrider76
Posted: Aug 23, 2016 at 14:34 Quote
Bjorn240 wrote:
dirtrider76 wrote:
I'd like to get some input on this. I just suffered a AC separation in my shoulder and my friend was going to loan me his trainer. Planning on 1-2 20 mile spins a day to not loose any ground and keep fit. I can support my self on a trainer no issue just trying to make sure it going to be worth doing I guess.

It is definitely worth doing. Just riding won't hurt, but you'll definitely see better benefits if you structure the work some. I would avoid doing any max efforts where you have to pull on the bars, but if you're riding every day, maybe alternate something like:

M) 90 minutes Zone 2
T) 5x 5minute intervals at 105% AT
W) 60 minutes Zone 2
Th) 2x 20 minutes at 95% AT
F) Rest
Sat) 90 mins Zone 2
Sun) 30 mins Zone 3

Structured work is boring, but what the hell, you might as well do it now that you're injured. You have nothing better to do, right?


Thanks, I cant pull on the bars but I CAN rest on them. My downfall currently is spinning on hills so I'm hoping to help that!
flag dirtrider76
Posted: Aug 27, 2016 at 18:39 Quote
After Bjorn suggested structured work I was messing around and found Strava has training videos. So I tried one and basically its structured work but you just flip it on and let the video run and it prompts you. I followed it and it gives you little tips along the way. I did my warm up, full video and then the cool down and felt fine. It was very noob friendly and easy to follow.


I'm going to try their 4 week trainer plan starting Monday. I've got 5 more weeks till I can go back to work so I might as well crush the training.
flag jasdo
Posted: Sep 9, 2016 at 16:34 Quote
You didn't specify what you are training for so I'll assume general 'trail' do it all fitness. I think those suggestions for the zone training are pretty good, but from experience I will tell you that 90 minutes at zone 2 is boring as hell. Better have a podcast or TV available. I start to go insane after about 45 minutes on a trainer. Anyways, there's a lot out there on the internet on how to use a trainer and zone training (e.g. Joe Friel's blog), so I'll suggest a couple of things that have helped me when the winter snow sets in and I want to do something different.

1. Treadmill set up at a steep incline. Either walking (think of it as hiking) or a very slow run and target your heartrate to zone 3 or 4 for longer intervals, 20-60 min. Also do some high intensity short intervals, 1-5 minutes, to maintain/improve your VO2max. Can use a stairclimber in the same way.
2. Leg presses and leg extensions, or squats, with weight towards your max with low reps. Will help you maintain some neuromuscular power for help with sprints and uphills in MTB.
flag EdPhelan
Posted: Sep 22, 2016 at 7:54 Quote
I would look to incorporate some compound leg exercises, including:

Squats.
Hack squat.
Deadlifts.
Dumbbell Lunges
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