- Welcome back you beautiful people.
I'm out here with Oli Beckingsale,
three times Olympic XC racer, a coach,
and we've got five tips on how to lose weight
and get fit through those winter months,
because it's the time to hibernate,
but we're going to slash that, get off that couch,
get out there, and get fit,
and we got you to help.
- Yep, so today we going to look at
the best ways to get fit this winter,
so we can come out back in the spring, smash those goals,
PBs, Strava sections, race podiums, that's the key today.
There's old roadie saying, "Winter miles, summer smiles."
- Oh, I like that.
- And that's what it's about.
Okay so, if we're sitting around in the winter,
very easy just to sit there, make another cup of tea,
sit on the sofa.
- Sounds good.
- we've got a couple of things today that can help
motivate us to get out and about, get fitter,
and like I say, smash the spring.
- Ready! Let's get muddy.
- Good.
(upbeat music)
(gears roaring)
- All right, so the key first thing is
we're not going to start jumping into riding yet.
- Okay.
- Okay, or any kind of specific stuff,
the most important thing for the winter is your motivation.
- Which gets killed a lot, 'cause it's freezing outside.
- Freezing, probably less motivated to go out,
- Yeah.
- Alright the most important thing for motivation,
the thing that's going to help,
is to set yourself a goal, alright?
So a lot of people when they think goal they
start thinking of a race, okay?
- Yeah.
- That's how my brain would work,
but it's not necessary the best way to do it.
It could be, for some of you guys,
but the best thing,
maybe thinking of something a bit more personal, all right?
Come up with a goal that might be out there
that you ride everyday, all right?
So, a little cheesy acronym we can look at,
S.M.A.R.T, alright? - [Host] Oh, that's clever
- So when you're thinking about your goal,
think smart, alright?
- So, Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable,
Relevant,
and Time Based.
- [Host] Okay..
- [Oli] Okay. Easy five.
So for you, you could be thinking,
"Okay, I need to get my fitness up now, how about a 20K loop
that you normally ride."
- I know the perfect one for this.
- So it's something you might ride regularly,
you can ride it with your mates,
it might be a straw of a section that you do, okay.
- And you want to go,
well actually, that's word for word for you.
It's specific, 'cause you ride everyday
and you know what's good or what's bad
or how it's going to improve.
Measurable, obviously, we've got the time for it.
And this is where your gadgets
and bits and bobs can help, okay.
It's relevant, it's your route,
if you go on it and you're faster,
your mates are going to know, bit of a competition going on.
Okay?
- Yep.
- And the main thing, it's relevant, it your route, okay?
It's got to be time based too,
so there is no point in picking a goal that's way out there.
You know, classic one, new year, new me,
I'm going to go and ride my mountain bike for 10 hours,
it ain't going to work.
- Yeah, it's not going to work, no.
- So, for me, I can ride about 5 hours a week, okay?
Three rides, five hours is normally about right?
- That sounds about achievable.
- That achievable?
If I suddenly say that I'm going to jump from five to eight,
I'm going to probably fail, motivation drops,
and then we've gone backwards again.
So try and pick something that you can achieve,
it's got to be motivating, but it doesn't need to be
so out there that after a month you sack it off.
- I like it.
Achievable, that's probably one of the main ones there.
- So the big thing, if you can keep that motivation,
set a goal, keep motivated,
that's the first point to losing weight and getting fit.
(upbeat music)
- Okay so, we're motivated, you've got your goal.
- Got it.
- The key is now is to be consistent with your training.
- Ooh, now that could be quite hard.
- So try and think of the sessions you can do regularly,
that fits around- it's got to fit around your life,
work, family.
- [Host] Ooh, that's a big one.
- [Oli] Okay, and then, so let's try and think.
Whatever commute that you can do,
you want to be able to do it every day.
- Yeah.
- That's one thing you can try and do,
but if we can do it consistently,
so try and think of a weekly goal.
I think that's a good way of doing it,
and that helps set a consistency.
Instead of just having sessions,
heading all there and everywhere,
on three rides a week.
And it doesn't necessarily matter
what those rides actually are,
as long as I'm getting something done.
Okay, so I might wake up and go,
well, I normally do a commute on Tuesday, of an hour.
That, and bike rides with my mates at night on a Wednesday,
and then something on a Saturday, for example.
But something might change, something might pop up work,
wife needs to go out and do something.
Things have to change pretty rapidly,
and this is where you kind of-
What I'd look at is having a menu of stuff.
- Ooh yeah.
- So you've got have a menu of rides you can do in a week,
and you've got all your stuff ready, so you can suddenly go,
I can't do my Wednesday night ride,
but I can certainly get my cross bike, gravel bike,
and do a Thursday commute.
The key is trying to hit those three things a week.
- What happens if the weather is bad,
can I go to the gym and do a spin class?
- Yeah, same thing.
Add in indoor sessions as well.
So that's where your indoor Turbos come in.
And they're obviously more entertaining,
there's a far more interactive way to doing that now
than there was with the smart trainers.
A gym session,
like even if it's a conditioning session to gym,
for some guys, a run.
- Yeah, cool.
- You know, if they're away with work,
I know some guys, some clients of mine,
they can run and just throw a set of trainers in
and get something done.
But going on a bike ride but you're just trying to keep,
and you don't want to have those weeks where it's just,
"Well, what have you done this week?"
- Yeah.
- Not, not a lot.
As soon as you have those really, kind of negative weeks,
things start to drop down.
So stay consistent, mix sessions up,
try and get your mates involved as well.
So if you can always get,
for example, I do a Wednesday night ride.
We go out for an hour - [Host] That's good, yeah.
- [Oli] It's in the diary
- [Host] Yeah.
- [Oli] If I'm going to go out on my own on a Wednesday night,
that's the one that gets dumped.
So we want to try and have something consistent,
gets your mates involved in a group, get it done.
Consistency is the key.
- Yeah.
(upbeat music)
- Simply your best way to get fit,
lose weight in the winter is a long ride.
- I do like a good long ride.
- [Oli] So out and about,
and the best way is trying to mix it up,
have a good route that's planned, or trail-centered ride.
Simply put, those long rides.
The key is keeping at a pace
where we can have a good chat.
- [Host] Yeah.
- If we can still have a conversation,
you're working aerobically,
which means you're burning a lot of fat as a fuel source.
You're going to be promoting your endurance
and these are the key to getting fit.
Easier said than done in the winter, though.
- It is, yeah. I've got an acronym for you.
- Go on, then.
- T.I.T.S
(stutters)
- It's not bad, it's Time In The Saddle.
- [Oli] Nice one. - [Host] T.I.T.S
- I like it, time in the saddle,
that's what we're talking about.
Steady pace, what we want to do is think about it,
trying to link up with some mates.
Again, we got to look at that motivation.
If you've got a week, look ahead, the weather forecast.
Right, that Sunday, big riding.
Head off somewhere good, a new route, somewhere new to ride,
new trail center, good calf,
- Oh, I do like a good calf
- And think about getting, you know,
a few hours in the saddle, trying to maybe even link up
so instead of just riding consistently at one pace,
you might ride the first hour with a lot of climbing,
the second hour, you might go,
"Okay, we're going to session some downhills."
But it's just trying to get that big long, long riding.
- [Host] Like it.
- [Oli] That's the key for it.
Another good one,
I've got one training client
who does the first Friday every month.
- Yep.
- They all take it off, and they all go for big ride.
- Well, that's cool, that.
- Just trying to think of these ways which we can-
Again, it goes right back to motivation, consistency,
but if you can get those long rides in,
even if it's one a month, every other week, come the spring,
they'll be the ones that will get you through a big day out.
- Yes.
Well, we've got an hour to go, but I know a great calf.
- Great calf, it's all about the calf, right?
- It is all about the calf.
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
- Right, so the next thing we're going to look at is
a really good little addition
you can add into all your normal rides.
So you got like a one or two hour mountain bike ride,
And just to try and give it a bit of extra load,
we're going to add some H.I.P.S.
So you've already had your T.I.T.S, your Time In The Saddle,
and now we've got your H.I.P.S.
Your High Intensity Peak Sprints.
And that is going to help build those hips.
- Or lose the hips.
- So we've got-
Where you can add them in is those little,
like, slow corners.
- Yep.
- You come in slow, instead of just kind of riding out,
five, six hard pedal rows.
And if you add those into all your little
sprints and surges,
every little corner during your ride,
you end up with 20 or 30 little efforts
that you probably wouldn't have done.
So something like this, when we come in,
we're trying to gain a little speed,
but it's got a little rise.
Keep in a harder gear,
(imitates thumping)
a big bit of power, raises heart rate, muscles,
calorie burn, and it's just going to give a little addition
to our little rides.
- Okay. - H.I.P.S
And a good thing is,
because you're working out a little bit harder
on those cold winter days,
it just will keep things a little bit warmer.
Starts to use your upper body a bit, as well.
I know mountain biking, it's not like a road ride
where we're just sitting down all day.
We're still working the bike, but with those higher sprints,
really gets your core and your upper body
working a bit harder, as well.
So it's a cool little addition just to add in.
Just make a real conscious effort that every slow corner,
little five hard.
We're going to smash those out.
- I like that, power's my thing.
- For you, all about the power, right?
- All about the hips.
(laughs)
(upbeat music)
- Man, I'm a sucker. Big long ride, big slab of cake.
I feel guilty, just eating this but,
(whispers) not really.
I'm not.
- After long rides like we've just done,
there's nothing wrong with a bit of cake.
That's a good start point.
Again, it goes back to that thing at the start
when we first looked at it, motivation.
So if we've had a nice long ride and that's the reward,
happy days.
- [Host] I'm going to be motivated to go for another ride.
- Joking aside, it is a tough time, the winter,
to try and lose weight and eat healthy.
It's easier said than done.
We start a new year, new years resolutions,
a lot of people focus on diet, and it's a tough time.
Still, we're looking for comfort food,
we're looking to come back and eat a load,
and sit on the sofa.
- Yeah.
- So, most important thing with diet,
without getting too complicated,
is just think of a healthy, balanced diet most of the time.
So, when we say healthy, balanced diet,
as much fruit and vegetables as we can,
some low slow burn carbs, so brown rice, brown bread, oats.
- Oats, porridge in the morning.
- Thing like that, just to set us up for the day.
Some lean protein, chicken, fish, eggs are good as well,
and it's just trying to get a nice balance of healthy food
most of the time.
When I say most of the time,
it's hard to keep it consistently,
so it's good to maybe have a bit of a plan.
What we said before about consistently going out,
maybe, for five hours on your bike a week.
We could say, "Well, okay, I'm going to have a
really healthy diet five days."
So Monday through Friday,
- Good diet.
- Monday through Friday, you can be focused,
healthy, and good.
On the weekend, bit more relaxed, and have a bit more-
- It is Saturday.
- It is Saturday, we're all good, we're all right.
But that's a way of doing it so it's not so heavy.
If you try to do it seven days a week all the time,
the risk is, you get grumpy, you have enough,
and then you're not consistent with it.
So be more realistic with your diet.
Another good thing when we're thinking about diet,
it's about fueling you, right?
So, it's making sure you never start a ride hungry.
So if you're at your spin class that you mentioned earlier,
you might've had lunch at 1:00,
spin class kicks off at 6:00.
- [Host] You've got to eat something.
- [Oli] You've got to eat something,
and it's a mistake a lot of people write.
They don't eat anything before because they think,
"Well, I'm trying not to overeat 'cause it's Christmas."
They finish the spin class at 7:00,
and then they eat the lot.
- They binge eat everything.
- So we actually go, "Right, I want to fuel before I do it."
Two hours before your evening ride or your later day,
you want to have a little snack.
So you might have almost two sandwiches,
maybe 12:00 and 4:00,
before you then train at 6:00. - Planning it.
- Plan ahead a little bit.
It's just trying to stop that kind of binge-eating
with crisps and snacks and stuff,
which will happen if you leave it too late.
- It does.
- That's the key, if you think about healthier diet,
fruit, veg, lean protein,
trying to do it consistently, so pick your days,
and then fueling for your ride.
And then a bit of cake if you do the ride.
- And a bit of cake right now.
- Right now.
- Nice, that is good.
So there you go, five tips on how to lose weight
and gain fitness on your mountain bike,
and we did get muddy.
- This is definitely a wetter ride.
- We did get muddy.
(laughs)
Thank you very much for watching,
thank you very much Oli for giving us your tips and tricks
on how to lose weight and get fit on a mountain bike,
'cause, hell, we all want to get fit and go further.
Thanks very much for watching this video.
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and continue to binge watch GMBN,
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I'll see you later.
- Cheers, guys. - Cheer, Oli.