Four Aspects of a Motocross Program:
1) Mental 2) MX Techniques 3) Athletics 4) Sports Nutrition
Encompassed in a Scientific Approach of Professional Coaching
Athletics
Discipline #3
The culture of motocross has opened up to include physical fitness trainers; and this is evident by the popularity of trainers on the amateur and professional levels of motocross! Thanks in part to Ricky Carmichael and his incredible transformation to elite level fitnesswith his trainer Aldon Baker. As we all know motocross is a physically demanding sport and the advantage of being fit is easy to realize in your race results.
The training that we do at MX COACH is definitively motocross and/or Supercross specific. Since there are no books about specific motocross training like there are for many other sports like soccer, football etc. we had to create our own.
Our alliance with John Salemme’s Elite Athletics World and our background in cycle racing, the study of athletics, physiology and motocross gives us a powerful motocross specific athletic training program that was developed while training a motocross world champion and a national Supercross champion. We employ many methods to accomplish the overall goals. Such as Periodization, Core Stability Training, Agility Training and Plyometrics to name a few. However, we also believe in a progressive program tailored to each individual racer. Therefore, as a new client you will most likely not be doing the same program and methods that my professional racers do that have been with me for years. It might seem exciting to do this and dazzle you with all this high tech advanced moves, but to start with the fundamentals and build up over time is always better especially when you are challenged in juggling all the aspects of your racing program.
The real secret of a motocross training program is rider specific evaluating then planning and simple consistency. Only consistency will foster results in fitness in even the most detailed and planned out programs. This is where MX COACH shines, as you will be coached to reach your goals not just prescribed a training program. The challenge of motocross is that it is a multi faceted sport a racer must deal with daily. The 24 hours of a day gets used up in a hurry between changing your air filter, driving to the track, working on technique, doing motos, preparing the proper food, physically training and having a social life That doesn’t leave much time for sleep and the rest.
How do you train and still have enough energy to ride? How do you ride and still have enough energy to train? The common mistake is training like a body builder. Body building and weight loss are multi-billion dollar industries annually. Therefore there is so much information and marketing that it becomes the mainstream way to train. The want of the majority of people is to loose weight and/ or get big muscles. Therefore most trainers are educated in what the demand is for and that is not athletics and certainly not motocross athletics.
If you are a motocrosser you are an athlete. Your needs are different even though you may need to loose weight and/or build strength; but how you will do this is through athletic training not bicep curls and fad diets. Enter MX COACH where we have created powerful and effective Motocross and Supercross specific training methods that we coach and educate you through.
It is no secret that Ricky Carmichael’s trainer comes from bicycle racing, as do many of the top pro’s trainers. Bicycle racing is a very old sport compared to motocross and with that comes high levels of research and development, refinement and professionalism. So little separates the elite cyclists that every aspect has been analyzed and developed to the ninth degree. The bicycles are weighed in grams, they use wind tunnels for testing and every pedal stroke is computer analyzed and so is their physical training and nutrition program. Our background in bicycle racing gives us the opportunity to glance this high state of development from cycling and incorporate into our sport specific motocross and Supercross training programs.
Periodization made popular by the Russians during the Olympicshas been used and developed for decades as a scientific way to prepare, build, peak and maintain athletic fitness. Periodization breaks a 52-week year into periods where we work on the foundation of fitness first such as endurance and strength. The duration of that period, the volume and the intensity are all based on the athlete’s level of experience, age and current fitness level. Then each skill is added on top of the foundation skills to build the entire gambit of athletic skills needed. Such as force, speed, muscular endurance, anaerobic endurance and power in that order one building upon the next.
The goal is that when the athlete reaches the competition phase all the skills synergistically provide a peak in performance. Then while in the competitive phase the program shifts to maintain performance through the long Supercross and motocross seasons. One of the benefits of periodization is you work on one skill at a time, which brings great focus and enthusiasm to your training. You also know what the whole year looks like in advance and plan it mentally and physically. Generally athletes get more excited as they move through each period as it becomes more intense and fun; and they can actually see the benefits stack upon each other. Of course the plan is made in pencil because opportunities and challenges will present themselves along the way. However, having a plan for 52 weeks is powerful in itself.
Motocross Billy is excited to train as he is now turning intermediate and wants to be prepared for the tough competition. Billy is a tough young man with plenty of determination. So he starts training! He reads a training program that was published in his favorite moto magazine and goes to work emulating his hero’s training regimen. He is running, biking, lifting, jumping rope, riding and he is giving it his all in every work out! He makes it two maybe three weeks. He has trained with such intensity every day that he is exhausted mentally and physically. He cannot go on, he feels disappointed and wonders if he has what it takes physically to make it as a pro.
This story is a typical one where excitement and knowledge do not meet and Billy is left wondering if he has the genetics to be at the fitness level of his hero. The uneducated racer is one that trains hard every day!
At MX COACH we have a slogan – “No mid-line Training”. What happens when you train as hard as you can every time, ultimately you end-up training in the mid-line i.e. not easy and not hard. This is where plateaus in fitness come from. The good news is when you are educated you will train with low intensity, but with a long duration. For instance an endurance building bike ride. Then you will train with high intensity, but with a short duration for things like anaerobic threshold training. This allows for your body to fully recover after working and taxing one system and then switching to another system to continue your training while the previously trained system rests.
The other popular missing components are adequate rest and proper nutrition. If you are consistently following an overall training program for motocross you will be tired at the end of the day and if you do not allow for proper rest this tiredness will accumulate to exhaustion. This is called over training and why athletes may get sick or injured. Studies have shown that young people in their teens up to their early twenties need 9.2 hours of sleep per night. So if you are a parent reading this and wondering what’s wrong with your child and find yourself saying things like “Get out of bed you are wasting the day away” or “Why are you so lazy wake up!” then think again. Obviously that age group is the majority of motocross racers. Then add on to that the rigors of riding and physical training and we are easily at the 10-12 hour mark for sleep needed daily.
That’s half the day! Test it out your self. We do at MX COACH and we have discovered that adequate sleep is a major missing from most programs. An athlete tears his or her body down during a training session and only sleep and proper nutrients will repair it stronger than it was. This is what is called fitness.
By training hard with a well thought out program and then miss valuable hours of sleep and nutrition, simply do not allow the body to recover and gain fitness. Athletes who do not have enough sleep are not as mentally alert and this can causes errors in judgment and avoidable crashes at the track. Athletes in this state are also more susceptible to catching a cold or a virus due to their perpetually run down state. Two major causes for being side lined during the racing season - injury and sickness.
At MX COACH we oversee the whole program and monitor it since every racer reacts differently and has different goals and strengths. A training program without sleep, rest and nutrition is not an athletic training program.
Contact MX COACH today and discover what a custom motocross specific athletic training program can do for your racing success!