The Riding For A Lifetime Podcast James Wilson - MTB Strength Training Systems

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

Over the last 5-10 years my cardio training program has changed a lot. 
My old plan was to ride 5+ days a week and hit some hard intervals after my workouts. But now I can’t ride as much as I used to and my body can’t take the wear and tear of hard interval training for very long. 
With this new reality I’ve found myself using different training methods that I did in the past to not only keep me fit for trail riding but also to improve my health and longevity. I’ve posted some podcasts and blog posts about these different training methods but I’ve never gone over them all together and explained how I combine them all into a comprehensive program.
In this episode of The Riding For A Lifetime Podcast I explain why I use the training methods I do and how you can use them as a part of your training plan.
You can find a great breathing resource to help you learn more by clicking here.
You can learn more about Anti Glycolytic Training by checking out this post/ podcast.
Until next time…
Ride Strong,
James Wilson

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

Low Back Pain is one of the most common things that riders suffer from both on and off the bike. It can ruin the good time that mountain biking is supposed to provide for us and in extreme cases can even make riders quit riding.
Even more frustrating is that there doesn’t seem to be a consistent, predictable pattern with low back pain and it is often a mystery as to the specific underlying cause. But if you ignore it then it tends to get worse until you have to deal with it.
I have experience with Low Back Pain both as a trainer who has helped riders overcome it but also as someone who has suffered from it. A long time ago I tweaked my back trying to deadlift too much weight and if I don’t stay on top of it my back gets stiff and sore, plus I have to be conscious of it while training.
This journey to find solutions for myself and the riders I’ve worked with has led me to discover some things that I feel can help a lot of riders out there. A lot of these things aren’t your typical “stretch your hip flexors” advice you usually hear and they fill in some gaps that I think a lot of riders are missing in their attempts to fix their Low Back pain.
First, before we get to the specific advice,  make sure that there isn’t something medically wrong with your back. Have a doctor check it out and see if there is something specific going on like a pinched nerve or a bulging disc. 
But if there isn’t something specific wrong with your lower back and it just hurts at any time then there may be a few things you can do to help improve the situation.
Here are 8 things that I’ve found can help improve your Low Back Pain:
Be aware of your breathing.
Improve your Hip Flexor strength with Isometric Exercises.
Improve Hip mobility.
Improve Spinal mobility.
Have a Warm Up and a Pre-Ride Routine.
Stand up for High Tension efforts.
Use Flat Pedals.
Use a Strength Training Program that creates a well balanced body.
Be Aware Of Your Breathing.
How you breathe affects a lot of things in your body, including your lower back. Several studies have found a link between bad breathing habits and low back pain, IMO most likely due to the inability of the core to properly stabilize under load (poor core stability has also been linked to low back pain).
This means that you could be doing everything else right and still have low back pain. It’s a low hanging fruit that can make a big difference so you may as well make it a part of your overall strategy.
Good breathing will help to stabilize the midsection and reinforce good posture. You want to be aware of and practice good breathing habits on the bike, in the gym and during your everyday life.
You can check out this post to learn more about optimal breathing habits and how to assess and optimize your breathing habits.
Strengthen the Hip Flexors with Isometric Exercises. 
The recommendation to strengthen the hip flexors might come as a surprise to some riders. We’ve been told for years that the problem was tight hip flexors and that we should avoid exercising them directly and focusing instead on stretching them.
I’ve found that this doesn’t consistently fix the problem and that there isn’t a direct correlation to a muscle being “tight” and it also being strong. A weak muscle creates its own set of problems that need to be addressed and in some cases, addressing the strength issue helps with the mobility/ ROM issues.
I’ve also found that using Isometric Exercises to strengthen the Hip Flexors offers a way to safely strengthen them, which can be an issue with movement based exercises. The 4 best Isometric Exercises that I’ve found for this purpose are the Single Leg Hip Flexor and Glute Bridge, Squat and Lunge.
Start with wherever you're at and work up to holding the weakest point of the movement that you can get into with good posture and breathing for 60-90 seconds. Do them 1-3 times a week, focusing on improving your ROM and breathing each week along with the time you are

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 t

In this episode of the Riding For A Lifetime Podcast I share with you my morning routine that helps me set my day on a good trajectory. 
Maximizing your health and longevity becomes a big priority as you get older. You can get away with abusing your body in your 20’s and still being able to get after it but if you want to be able to perform well on a consistent basis into your 40’s and beyond you have to start making good daily habits a part of your routine.
Over the last several years I’ve developed a morning routine that I feel has helped me slow down the performance decline and maximize my results from training. Remember that training actually breaks your body down and how well you support the recovery process plays a big role in how hard you can train and what results you see from your training.
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.‌ ‌
Click Here To Stream This Episode or Download The MP3 File
The three things that I do every morning are…
Hydrate with water and electrolytes, particularly sodium.
Breathwork drills like Box Breathing or Super Ventilation + Breath Holds (a.k.a. Wim Hof style breathing).
Cold water exposure.
First, hydration with sodium. After waking up I drink 16 ounces of water with a supplement called LMNT (I pronounce it Lemon T but it is supposed to be pronounced Element), which contains 1 gram of sodium along with 200 mg of potassium and 60 mg of magnesium. 
Yes, I know that the FDA says that we should be limiting sodium intake but there are a lot of holes in their recommendations. Robb Wolf is a founder of LMNT and he has done a lot of great work on illuminating the difference between what we’re told by the FDA and what the research on sodium intake actually says.
While a fat, pre-diabetic person who doesn’t exercise and eats a lot of fast food probably doesn’t need extra sodium, if you are reasonably fit, workout on a regular basis and try to eat whole foods then odds are pretty high that you could stand to use more sodium in your diet.
Several studies have shown that there is a sweet spot for sodium intake between 4-6 grams a day that result in optimal health outcomes. Restricting sodium intake to less than this has been linked to higher incidents of high blood pressure and cardiovascular death (ironically the things we’re told that low sodium diets are supposed to protect us against).
By starting your day off with a gram of sodium you are hydrating your body in a healthy way since water without sodium can throw off fluid balance. Sodium helps to regulate fluid outside your cells and potassium helps to regulate fluid inside your cells so your body needs these minerals to maintain optimal fluid balance. 
If you don’t get enough of these minerals from your diet then your body will leach them from your bones - along with calcium, which can weaken the bones and is something you want to avoid as an older athlete. 
I usually take another 1-2 LMNTs throughout the day, especially if I’m doing something that causes me to sweat a lot, like going for a bike ride. If you have low energy, brain fog, muscle cramps or even recurring headaches it may be a result of low sodium intake, in which case increasing your sodium intake can have a massive impact on your health and performance.
The second thing I do is spend 10-15 minutes doing some kind of breathwork. I’ve talked a lot about how better breathing can impact your health, performance and even your mood and so starting the day with some focused breathing drills can make a big difference in how your day unfolds.
My two favorite breathing drills are Box Breathing or Wim Hof style breathing. 
Box Breathing has you assign a time to the four parts of your breath - the inhale, hold at the top of the inhale,