Description

Chiropractor Dr. Mike Takes shares some tips for building upper body strength to improve your mountain biking skills.

Transcript

Upper Body Strength for Mountain Biking Host: All right, we’re here with our resident strength and conditioning expert, Doctor Mike Takes. He’s going to get me in shape for some mountain biking. Dr. Mike Takes: Absolutely. Host: So, I supposed Doctor Mike, we’re going to do a lot of squats, a lot of quad work for pushing the pedals? Dr. Mike Takes: No, not really. That’s the obvious exercise. We’re going to do something completely different. We’re going to do some upper body. Host: Upper body? Dr. Mike Takes: Absolutely. We might want to get some staying power on the bicycle, do some isometric exercises. We’re going to start off with some push ups. Host: Oh, boy! Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: All right. So, let’s get on the mat. Now, we’ve got the dumbbells position so they’re like handles bars. Host: Right. Dr. Mike Takes: Okay. Host: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: So, what I want to do is just grab on. Now, get yourself in the first position. Host: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Excellent! Now, I want you to hold. Host: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Now, I want you to hold this position for about ten seconds. Host: Okay. It’s been about 10 TV seconds. Dr. Mike Takes: It’s been about 10 seconds. Host: Yeah, yeah. Dr. Mike Takes: Now, let's go down halfway now just like the position. Hold it. Excellent! Now, what we’re trying to do is to get that isometric contraction. Host: Talk fast, talk to the right, talk fast. Dr. Mike Takes: Let's get to the last position which is killing isn’t it? Host: Oh, it’s not easy. Dr. Mike Takes: Okay. Now, we can see the dumbbells are nice and a little bit high off the amt so she can go a little bit closer. Host: Yeah, it’s more of a dip. Dr. Mike Takes: It’s -- you're’ going to erect to the floor. Host: Okay, Doctor, right. Dr. Mike Takes: Okay, let’s bring you a back up. Do you need some help? Host: Easier said than done. Okay, so I can see how this one’s help though because if you go the bike going down the mountain, you got all that 0116 happening, you won't be able to control the bike. Dr. Mike Takes: You won't be able to hold on and keep it steady exactly because you don’t want all these movement that’s when the tire are already before you. Host: Okay, excellent! Now, I know what you're; going to say next, core strength. Dr. Mike Takes: Actually, before we do core strength, we’re going to do hip flexors. Host: Hip flexors. Dr. Mike Takes: That’s right. A lot of people like want to do leg exercises, squats, leg press, etcetera -- Host: Right. Dr. Mike Takes: We want to do the hip flexors. It’s just important to get the knee back up as it is to push the knee down. Host: Right because when your feet are clipped into your clipless pedals, you are doing that pull up action which I imagine if you could make it stronger is going to help you with your over all bike speed strengths. Dr. Mike Takes: That’s right. You got to have one leg pulling up, one leg pushing down. Host: Okay. So how do we do this? Dr. Mike Takes: 0151 okay we’re going to do some double knee flexors okay. I want you to keep the hands out and what will I do is just jump and bring in the knees up to the arms and up the arms down to the knees. So, I'm going to try to demonstrate this. Okay, just like so. Host: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Excellent! So you want to try to do this in repetitions of about 10 or 12, about three times, three sets. Host: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Excellent! Excellent! Don’t cheat there. Host: Okay. I guess I'm letting pushing my arms down so it’s easy to reach the end. Dr. Mike Takes: That’s right. Host: Okay, anything else for today? Dr. Mike Takes: Yes. Let's try to do some core strength. Host: Core strength today, he always goes there. Dr. Mike Takes: Okay, we’re going to break. But I always bring in some added exercise and then we want to do some double leg kick out. So I'm going to have you sit on the end of the bench here. Host: All right. Dr. Mike Takes: All right. Lean back to both halfway. Grab the back of the bench. Host: Okay. Dr. Mike Takes: Right. Bring your knees up and what I want you to do is kick your legs straight out. Host: All right. Dr. Mike Takes: Perfect! And, bring the knees back in. Excellent! We’re going to work some -- Host: Oh, Doctor Mike, I'm sorry to interrupt you but it looks like we’re out of time. Dr. Mike Takes: Oh, that’s too bad for you.