kurtis1984
Likes Dirt
Hi all, I've done so some searching in this forum but I couldn't find quite what I was looking for.
My question is as it says in the thread title: What is an optimal size and strength for mtb, in particular downhills?
I ask this as someone who is naturally quite skinny, lifted and ate my way up from 63 to 82 kg but didn't find much of a performance gain in my riding. I had ab outlines at both weight points, so probably pretty similar body fat percentage, and definitely got stronger, but not really faster. What I did notice was that my cardio vascular performance was average, legs ran out of gas pretty quickly, I would get annoying lower back pumps (not an injury, just a pump) from longer xc rides etc etc. It would seem that in fact being pretty svelte and lean (what I was when I started) would be the best option.
However, I do see lots of posts re: strength programs for mtb in this forum. And I also note articles like this:
http://danjohn.net/2013/04/strength-standards-sleepless-in-seattle/
which obviously advocate strength training for peak performance. So what it everyone's experience? Was there a performance gain for dh when they got stronger? How much was it? Was there a point when pursuit of strength lead to unathletic size? What point was that for people?
Cheers,
Kurt
My question is as it says in the thread title: What is an optimal size and strength for mtb, in particular downhills?
I ask this as someone who is naturally quite skinny, lifted and ate my way up from 63 to 82 kg but didn't find much of a performance gain in my riding. I had ab outlines at both weight points, so probably pretty similar body fat percentage, and definitely got stronger, but not really faster. What I did notice was that my cardio vascular performance was average, legs ran out of gas pretty quickly, I would get annoying lower back pumps (not an injury, just a pump) from longer xc rides etc etc. It would seem that in fact being pretty svelte and lean (what I was when I started) would be the best option.
However, I do see lots of posts re: strength programs for mtb in this forum. And I also note articles like this:
http://danjohn.net/2013/04/strength-standards-sleepless-in-seattle/
which obviously advocate strength training for peak performance. So what it everyone's experience? Was there a performance gain for dh when they got stronger? How much was it? Was there a point when pursuit of strength lead to unathletic size? What point was that for people?
Cheers,
Kurt