Video: Jack Reading & Dan Slack Demonstrate a Workout to Improve Grip Strength
Here's a great workout for riders looking to improve grip strength!
In this video, we show you an intense workout for MTB riders. It’s a bit of a beast and it’ll challenge you all, best thing is, you don’t need a ton of equipment to do it! You could do it with a single dumbbell if that’s all you have!
We were lucky enough to be joined by seasoned pro Jack Reading and his protégé Dan Slack – who came second in the Junior men's Downhill World Champs in 2020!
So what do you have to do for this brutal strength workout?
Alternate every minute until you fail:
Start on minute 1 with 7 Thrusters
Then on minute 2 complete 7 Dirty Cleans
Rest the remaining time within each minute, starting each rep cycle at the start of every minute.
Once you are comfortable with that, increase the reps. The pro riders in the video were up to 15 reps on each which is massive.
In this particular video, we swapped them between a pair of dumbbells and a barbell for each round of 2 minutes, this kept things spicy for them and changed the stimulus slightly.
See if you can keep up with Jack and Dan! Tag us on social media for a shout out!
Take a look at our website for more awesome free workouts for mountain bikers - Fit4Racing
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Grabbing onto a mountain bike grip is literally the easiest possible hold a climber could be presented with. Much easier than any pinch hold. That said, climbing is often a pulling sport whereas mountain biking is more of a pushing sport. So I do think the video you shared has some good points in establishing that pushing is important, which requires stability in the wrist.
The other thing I've found is that long mountain bike descents create lactic acid buildup in a way that's similar to long sport climbs, but different since one's hands remain in the same position without clenching and unclenching over and over, which helps flush out pumped forearm muscles. I've found Theraband Flexbars and gyroscope exercise balls to be the most efficient in training for that consistent grip position for prolonged periods of time.
Fit4Racing submitted this article with reference to the benefits of grip in the text body, not the headline. PB editorial has given it this headline without our approval (of which we wouldn’t give). If we were to give you an article with grip in the title it would look much different.
We also submitted this article with a different thumbnail, PB editorial chose to take a screenshot of the video and use that instead, again, without consultation or our approval.
Fit4Racing is a well established service providing strength and conditioning to mountain bikers globally. We are responsible for over 30 DH World Cup, multiple EWS and hundreds of amateur riders. The British Navy and Marine MTB team and Royal Air Force have both adopted our program for their riders. We work with junior riders such as Oisin Ocallaghan (junior world champ) and have done for 4 years now, and also having 1,2,3,5,7 place finishes in the DH overall last year.
We know the value of good movement and appropriate programming, the shame of most of the comment we are reading is that a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing and non-trainers become experts. I have a black ground in coaching Olympic lifts and know how to coach movements with SAFETY as a priority. This principal of safety is soon lost when the “ass to grass” crew see a squat that isn’t “full depth”. The reality is, most of the athletes you see in our videos are still working on mobility to be able to perform lifts with full range, if they were to simply squat lower their mobility challenges would necessitate the change in position elsewhere, namely the lower back therefore making the lift unsafe. The same applies to overhead position.
As a coach of professional athletes, there are many obstacles to overcome with every athlete. Namely mobility, form and time. Our goal is to prepare riders for the upcoming season and beyond without hurting them and striving to appease the keyboard experts on appropriate depth of squats.
Hopefully this has answered some questions but if you have more feel free to reply to this comment, otherwise I’ll try and get to some specifics that have already been asked in the previous comments.
What cracks me up is there are a LOT of people who think there is a RIGHT or WRONG way to getting fit. As long as you are able to see improvements without causing burnout or causing immediate or potentially long-term/down the road injury, it's ok in my book. Seeing these guys who may relatively early on in their fitness journey lift and work their way through these movements is really fun to watch. Cool to see someone who makes MTB look so effortless actually have to work through something that is challenging to them. Also would be really cool to see their gains after an off-season of training, and see how that equates on the track.
I believe Aaron Gwin was training with Marcus Filly, the creator of Awaken Training Series, and have to say, that's another GREAT program to consider. After completing ATS 1, I felt faster on the bike (clock proved it was a small increase) BUT I also felt like I could ride a lot longer and more consistently, and could recover from slams much quicker.
Anyways, TL
Keep it coming @fit4racing !
Technique looks acceptable and in the true meaning of the phrase, "fit for purpose"
I don’t see what you’re referring to re the knee.
Which part of the video!?
If you stop before about parallel (some people a little more some less) the quad stays under full tension and when you return the weight the load stays in your quads and your knees with a shearing force. If you do a "proper squat" your hamstrings decelerate you and your glutes and hamstrings will take that load. That saves wear on your knees, builds your posterior chain and all around makes you stronger. The only L you take is a smaller number on the barbell.
Guess Fit4racing is doomed!!
Bit of sarcasm mate aimed at Mr Sauce!
Keep up the great content please!!
Rings are awesome for developing hand strength. Been thinking about getting some of those for my garage and some battle ropes.
You're correct in saying muscle-ups are great for grip strength but for the general riders out there I wouldn't suggest using your time to learn them, the risk is not worth it. And for the pros, I wouldn't risk them doing any and potentially injuring themselves and ruining their careers.
1. Keep your shirt on - noone wants to see you naked!
2. Perform basic stuff like deadlifts and or barbell rowing. especially deadlifts, after a while you can will notice increase in lower arm strength. i started with hands slipping at 90kg, now I am at 150kg. Greatly improved my fatigue problem on the mountainbike that comes as standard with being undersized for my weight. Just strap in with bigger weights if your hands open up otherwise, strength will improve over time.
I never get why all those "youtube trainers" always recommend complicated stacks of certain exercises and make a cardio training out of it. Just lift, as heavily as you can perform without losing form. If you do not feel pain for the next two consecutive days - lift harder. If yes - just repeat the process until strength is not your problem.
Making stuff complicated and also making a science out of it might be prudent for people earning their money with MTB, not for the weekend warrior. The body adapts to resistance, there is not much science to it. Find someone who shows you how the basic lifts (squat, benchpress, deadlift, barbell rowing) are done properly and then hit the repeat button until you are satisfied with the results. Warning - this might be addictive.
The brief dynamic loading on grip strength during a clean or similar will still tax the grip muscles without the greater taxing of the CNS. These athletes will still need to do training on another 4-5 days of the week (plus a riding day). So flogging the body with deadlifts will eat into their recovery.
Your comment of "just lift as heavily as you can" shows a lack of understanding of longer-term exercise planning, overall athletic objectives and training individualisation.
But if you REALLY want to increase grip do plate pinches.
See your comment above re Oly lifting challenging grip, then apply the same to DLs (done for reps - per the whole point of this video) then consider my point re CNS.
Feel free to waste you time on half baked crossfit exercises though.
35kgs are enough to tire the forearm significantly when you hit repetition 40/50 or so.
The science may not be as complicated as you might think but simply squatting, bechpressing, deadlifting and rowing alone is not the best way to spend your time training for MTB... and in the way you are suggesting, it wouldn't be the best way to train for anything other than hurting yourself.
Strength and Conditioning. That's what we do. And have done for many years with thousands of athletes, not only MTB. You can't just simplify training to 4 core lifts.
For people starting in strength I recommend reading "starting Strength", ignore the youtubers and find someone to show you the basic lifts so you can perform them properly. The rest is just nonsense or fitness hipster crap.
@Danimaniac: 50 repetitions with 35kg rowing - we have a masochist at our hands! I ususally do 3 sets of 20 with 70kg. Enough to make my lower arms and my back fall apart. What you do is beyond pain.
When you’ve studied sports science for over 20 years, you notice a couple of things ;-)
In Hot Iron you usually do Deadlifts and Rows in "one song"
So you'd start with doubletime deadlifts (slow) (4-
So you get some kind of a pause between the rowing reps... but it will add up.
When I started doing these workouts I couldn't go all the way with only 20kg (plus 2kg aerobic bar)
Doing some of the workouts listed above (hi rep, low weight, moderate weight, higher rep, etc.) doesn't meet my fitness goals, personally as it isn't fun to me (I don't like overly repetitive chain workouts) and is prioritizing reps over load, which is more of an aerobic exercise, which I try to get from riding/other outdoor activities.
If you enjoy doing what you're doing, that's great, and you should absolutely keep doing it. If you are making an effort to get fit, and you are able to sustain it over time, keep doing it! Not one way is particularly better than others.
If you have trouble with grip on rows you have weak grip, thats just facts, train it. Its normal to have some grip struggles on a deadlift, on a row thats showing a weakness. Especially with 35kg.
Please have a look in other sport ? Climbing ? One exemple, Ross Enamait, boxing trainer, made a humble book about it.
youtu.be/CPyq_Y6mSWQ
It pains me when people band Fit4Racing as "just CrossFit" because they see a rep range or workout style that look like CrossFit. Strength and Conditioning. That's what this is. But specifically for riders.
Go join a CrossFit gym and see the difference for yourself. You might be lucky and find one that doesn't hurt you or priorities competitive exercising over real life on-bike benefits.
CrossFit Open workout 16.5
Possibly the most pain I’ve ever been in. Ever.