Recently I’ve been working with a motorcross rider, and it’s been an extremely interesting experience. To date I’ve completed over 10,000 x 1-1 personal training sessions and I’ve worked with a wide variety of people: doctors, dentists, teachers, policemen/women, opticians, an ice hockey player, basketballer, rugby player, boxer, etc – but up until recently I had never worked with a motocross athlete! 

It’s been a great experience and I’ve loved every second of it! I’ve learned lots about what it takes to become a top motocross rider, and really appreciate the level of fitness required to compete at a high level. 

There are lots of aspects to becoming a better motocross rider, such as practicing on the tracks, investing in the right gear such as the ones you can find at 24mx, and also the physical aspect (improving fitness) which is what we’re going to focus on in this post…

I thought it would be good to put together a post to help riders get the most from their sport through specific styles of training…

#1 Weights 

You need to have strong shoulders, core and leg muscles. There are lots of ways to strengthen these muscles but one of the best ways is with resistance training.

For example exercises like deadlifts, squats, pull ups, bent over rows, push ups, ab roll outs, and the bench press can really help to build strength in both the upper body and lower body.

I recommend doing higher reps to build muscular endurance e.g. 15-30 reps per exercise, and performing circuits. Here’s an example circuit that I do with my motocross client…

• deadlifts x 15-20 reps
• wide pull up x 15-20 reps
• push ups x 15-20 reps
• sit ups x 20-30 reps
• ball slams x 20-30 reps
• DB clean and press x 15-20 reps

Once the 6 exercises have been completed I give him 60s rest and then he goes again! We do 3 full circuits in the workout, which takes around 45 mins to complete.  

#2 Cardio 

Not only do you have to have good strength/muscular endurance but you have to be fit too. With my motocross client I’ve been getting him to do a mixture of cardio, mainly involving HIIT workouts (High Intensity Interval Training) – this is to build up both anaerobic and aerobic fitness. I will get him to use machines like the rower, ski machine and also do plenty of hill sprints. Here are a few examples of effective cardio workouts for motocross riders…

Rowing machine – row as fast as possible for 30s, then rest for 30s – repeat this for 5-10 mins. 

Ski machine – aim to burn 75 calories within 5 mins 

Running – run 30-50m up a hill as fast as you can, take 60s rest, and then repeat for 5-10 sets 

#3 Mobility & Flexibility 

This is another key aspect which is often neglected. You’ll often find that riders experience aches and pains, especially in areas like the thighs, forearms and shoulders.

There are lots of things you can do to improve symptoms and speed up recovery. For example you could get a sports massage once every 2-4 weeks. I also recommend doing foam rolling – check out this post I wrote to learn more.

Finally I recommend working on mobility and flexibility, here are some videos I’ve put together to help you improve mobility and flexibility…

Thanks for reading,

Nick 🙂