Exercises for singlespeeding.

paulswilliams2

Sorry if this a repeated topic, but searched for ss, fitness etc and came up with nothing.

I have been singlespeeding, generally around Cannock for about 8 months It's great, but I do find that might upper body lets me down. At the end of my ride, my legs are fine but my arms are in agony.

My only exercise is 3 decent bike rides on the SS a week, and long distance hill walking. All leg work. I have tried the 0 - 100 push up regime a couple of times getting up to be about 50 pushups a night. However, I struggled to integrate this with my bike riding due to lack of recovery time - my arms / shoulders were always hurting.

Any suggestions?

Anonymous

Get some gears?

paulswilliams2

hehe, thought that might be a suggestion...

JGS

Get swimming and do it properly (get lessons!). I've found a massive difference since I've rekindled my passion for swimming. Also when you're doing anything on the bike try to keep a loose grip, I found that with SS I was wrestling the bike about which meant I was expending energy with tensed upper body muscles. Have you tried an easier ratio so you're not having to do this?

williambowland

Have you seen Rocky... er... I dunno... IV is it? The one with the Russian bloke.

You need to adopt a regime similar to Rocky in that movie. Sawing up socking great logs in a blizzard, pulling some fat moustache face on a sledge through the snow, chopping down trees - that kind of thing. Now that... that will turn you into a real man, Williams.

Have a look...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8xHjC27YvM

BTW, avoid taking training techniques from the big fella in the leotard - the UCI will 'ave ya.



W

evo3ben

Buiding upper body strength for mountain biking is more important than people think. Ideally you dont want to build bulk but strengthen and tone. Natural exercise like press ups is a good way to do this without having to go to the gym plus some kind of protein supplement to help the muscles grow and repair.
I now use a system called 'Perfect Push-ups' using swivel push up bars http://www.phd-fitness.co.uk/store/p/38 ... IVERY.html
This allows your wrists to rotate naturally causing less stress to the joints. Follow the work out routen they give you and your upper body will strengthen in no time, it did for me. Total work out takes no longer that 15 minutes so is ideal to do after each ride as the body will already be warmed up 8)

paulswilliams2

williambowland - Not sure whether than Cannock Foresty Commision will be happy with the sawing stuff.. I'll never take any training techniques from any guy in a leotard - once bitten, twice shy!

JGS & evo3ben cheers for advice. Particularly like the idea of working out after bike ride as I will still have same amount of rest days even though I have exercises more!!!