Upper body help...

Rushmore

Ok, so my bike fitness is pretty good nower days and I'm getting faster and faster.. What I find now is my upper body strength is flailing.. Especially on the fast berms when I get pushed right into the bike.. After a few hours my arms really ache and sometime just lose all strength to keep me in the attack position..

Can anyone recommend any workouts or exercises I could do to help increas upper body strength on the bike?

Bear in mind I don't have access to a gym... But do have a couple of weights somewhere in the shed! LoL

.blitz

Calisthenics - working out without weights - is imo the best way. Push-ups, pull-ups etc you can make them as easy or as hard as you wish.

Plenty of info on the net e.g. http://www.drillsandskills.com/article/18 also look out for a book called Convict Conditioning

Also find hand grippers pretty useful you can use them anywhere. Improved hand and finger strength means you can have an iron grip on the bars without it being a death grip.

composite

If you are looking for all over general upper body strengthening go with compound movements (exercises that use lots of muscle groups at once).

With weights - Chest Press, Shoulder Press, Dead lift maybe bent over row.
Without weights - Push up, Pull up.

I used to find it was my triceps and fore arms that got tired when dealing with rough trails for long periods.
Although triceps will get worked during any of the "pushing type" exercises mentioned above I also do tricep over heads and tricep kick backs on my "push" day. I alternate so one week its over heads and the next its kick backs.

On "pull" days I do hammers instead of curls as these also engage the fore arm.

Stevo_666

Use those weights - really easy just to get them out and use them in the house, say when you're watching the box or something. Sounds like chest and triceps are what you need to major on here to strengthen the right bits, so:
- for chest lie flat, stretch arms out and raise weights up till they touch
- for triceps, stand up with arms bent so weight is just above your shoulder then push it up till arm is fully extended.

The 'no weights' exercises you can do are things like press ups, sit ups and push ups (just put your hands on the arms of an armchair and push yourself up).

DCR00

agree with all the above

don't ignore forearm and wrist strengthening, and improving core will help as well

i have used these circuits in the past. They dont require any equipment and are pretty punishing.

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/get-rip ... sode-4.htm

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/get-rip ... sode-1.htm

Rushmore

Awesome, cheers guys... I'll give em a go. :-)