- Balance and coordination are two key aspects
you have to have when you're out mountain biking.
It's gonna make it that bit easier
for you to tackle the trails,
plan what's coming up ahead and react.
In this video we're gonna go to the gym with Paul Ryman
and he's gonna take us through some exercises
that are gonna help you to become
a better balanced and coordinated rider,
ultimately just making you a better mountain bike handler.
(vibrant
music)
Okay, so as you can see from that clip,
being on the bike, there is so much coordination,
loads of stuff is going on.
We've got Paul Ryman and he's gonna take us
through some drills that are really gonna
work on those coordination, balance, stabilisation.
And this is exercise number one.
- As if standing on a wobble board isn't hard enough,
imagine someone asking you to hold a squat
and then throwing one kilogramme balls at you.
Now, you can use anything, little tennis balls,
or bean bags, et cetera.
Now this will really test your coordination and reaction.
Scott, how you getting on there?
- Good, mate.
This is really working it.
I've got a bit of sore legs going on
and now you're challenging me with the balls,
they're coming faster and faster.
But I tell you what,
I can see this is gonna help me on the trails.
- [Paul] He's done well.
Exercise number two, Scottie is going laterally
left to right on the wobble board.
He's holding onto the handlebars
and looking at the trail ahead.
As you can see, he's using his upper body
to hold the handlebars, but also mainly using
his legs for his explosive strength.
As you can see, he's sinking his hips down,
working his quads and glutes.
How you doing, Scott?
- Yeah.
- Good, he's out of breath, which is a great sign.
It's a really big cardiovascular exercise,
it's gonna improve his lung capacity,
but also work on those key muscle areas
to make you faster, stronger,
and more stable on the trail.
- [Scott] Woo!
- To improve your balance, coordination, and proprioception,
wobble boards, Bosu boards, balance boards,
are a great tool and should be your friend.
Scott is performing a really complex,
but very challenging exercise,
which he does in his training regularly.
You see, he's coming into a single leg squat
and then he's rotating and then standing,
coming back to that stationary position.
Have a little breather
and then he's gonna change onto the other leg.
So he's gonna hinge hip back towards me,
tilting chest towards the floor,
rotating from the core and the hips,
pointing hands towards the floor.
Pause and then changing back to the opposite side.
And then he's gonna come up slowly, hinging,
activating through his glutes, hamstrings, and his back.
Good work, Scott.
To keep those reactions razor sharp,
we have to train that core stability.
And Scott is really putting it to the next level right now.
So Scott is in press up position.
He's had his feet on the ball
and he's taking one foot off at a time.
You can see his arms are shaking
where he's holding his body weight up.
His whole core is really fired up,
where he's wanting to drop from one side to the other.
Okay Scott, you okay there?
- Yep.
- Hang in there, keep going.
Keep those hips up nice and tall.
Don't let the back drop down or dip,
you're gonna put a lot of pressure on there.
It's a really advanced exercise
and Scott is a serious pro when it comes to this.
The final exercise, Scott is kneeling on a Swiss ball
and holding onto the handlebars out in front of him.
Again, another really challenging exercise
for his balance and coordination.
All the exercises we've done today have been
40 seconds on and 20 seconds of recovery in between.
Now you could actually use this exercise
as kind of your active recovery.
So in between each one, jump on,
and then really take your training to the next level.
Doing good there, mate.
- Yeah, not too bad.
And this is a good time, I think, to end the video.
So I'm gonna suggest that you click right here
on this globe to subscribe to GMBN
'cause you'll never miss a video again.
- And to take all these skills back out
in the trails and do some track stands, click down here.
- And if you want to know whether practise makes perfect,
then click right down here.
And of course, don't forget to give this video
a thumb up like, yes!