How Weekend Warriors can Build MTB Strength and Fitness Like a Pro
Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast
Singletracks.com
4.7 • 574 Ratings
🗓️ 3 October 2023
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Plenge is a professional mountain bike coach and founder of The Strength Factory. He's trained pro riders and also hundreds of amateurs over the years both in person and online.
- Why did you choose to focus on strength and fitness training for mountain bikers specifically?
- According to your website your most popular workout program is Bodyweight Strength. Is there a limit to the effectiveness of these simple exercises?
- What are some ways to improve riding fitness that don't take time away from "just for fun" rides?
- What's different about how pro athletes train versus amateurs? Are some riders born faster than others?
- What's different about MTB strength training in your 40s versus your 20s?
- Why do riders tend to experience more pain as we age?
- Does becoming a better climber make you a faster descender? (enduro, personal experience)
- Is there a certain body type that works best for certain types of riding?
- What's the #1 misconception mountain bikers have about strength and fitness training?
Connect with Ben and learn more at thestrengthfactory.uk.
--Keep up with the latest in mountain biking at Singletracks.com and on Instagram @singletracks
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, welcome to the single tracks podcast. My name is Jeff and today my guest is Ben Plina. |
| 0:07.1 | Ben is a professional mountain bike coach and founder of the Strength Factory. He's trained pro |
| 0:12.9 | riders and also hundreds of amateurs over the years, both in person and online. Thanks for |
| 0:18.7 | joining us, Ben. Hey, Jeff. Yeah, thanks to having me, yeah, from my side of the |
| 0:22.7 | pond. Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit about your background. How did you get into strength and |
| 0:27.9 | fitness coaching? So the strength and, yeah, fitness and personal training and all of that, |
| 0:33.7 | that really started like going back to the army. i spent my 20s in the army i spent |
| 0:41.6 | eight years you know so i'm a veteran i guess is how you guys would put it over there yeah got out |
| 0:46.7 | in 2010 having had a really good time you know exciting time it was you know iraq and |
| 0:52.2 | afghanistan all that sort of thing was going on. |
| 0:54.8 | But obviously, you know, in the Army, there's lots opportunities for fitness and things like that. |
| 1:01.0 | And it's something I'd always been interested in. And although I wasn't like a PTI, like a physical training instructor, you know, I really got into the gym and like helping my, you know, |
| 1:11.2 | help, you know, learning how to prepare myself for tough courses and things like that. |
| 1:17.0 | And that's really where it came from. |
| 1:18.9 | When it came time to, you know, I was coming out to my 30th birthday and I was ready for something different. |
| 1:24.5 | The army's quite good these days at helping you to prepare for civilian |
| 1:28.0 | life. And so they paid for my personal training course. Oh, wow. Yeah, that was the first step then. |
| 1:34.6 | So that love of fitness was just grew through my 20s. And then I thought, right, I'm going to go for |
| 1:41.1 | that. I'm going to do this. And then ended up doing, |
| 1:49.5 | you know, kind of the normal personal trainery kind of role like I lived in London, |
| 1:55.1 | worked at a big commercial gym. And it's like, oh, yeah, I want to lose weight for my wedding. Or I'm going on holiday. I want to look better in my pants. And, you know, all that sort of standard |
| 2:00.6 | personal training, if you like which |
... |
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