Photo by Gene Hamilton
By now you've probably watched thousands of hours of YouTube videos, read a few books, found a bunch of tips in magazines and got tons of free advice from your friends on how to improve your mountain bike skills. If your experiences were anything like mime, all of those things left you either confused or made no difference what so ever. The good news is there are two guaranteed ways to help you improve:
1. Starting using James Wilson's MTB Strength Program
2. Take one of Gene Hamilton's BetterRide Camps.
James Wilson's MTB Strength Training
I know what your thinking... "I hate going to the gym!"... "Why would I go to the gym when I can just go for a ride?"... "Gym's are full of zombies!"... "Lifting weights are heavy"... "That's boring!"... "Lifting is for meatheads"... "I'm plenty strong, I can ride for 5 hours straight!" Trust me, at one point in time I've said every one of these things and given a choice between going for a ride or going to the gym, I would have picked riding every time.
The cool thing about James' programs is that it's more like movement training instead of weight training. His program is really about learning how to move you body and how to get into the proper positions for executing core skills like cornering, manuals (wheelies) and getting into the attack (or neutral) position. These three skills are the foundation that every good rider has mastered and most of you reading this have not.
James' program is something you can actually do outside of the gym with about $120 worth of equipment (2 kettle bells, a foam roller, a yoga mat and a chair). On his site he offers 2 programs: The Ultimate MTB Workout Program and the 12 Week DB Combos Program. Each program is downloaded as a zip file which contains queue sheets, forms and instructions for how to use the program along with a link to videos of each movement. The Ultimate MTB Workout also includes a half hour phone consultation with James and is a complete program that covers nutrition, recovery and training strategies. For most enthusiasts who don't race the 12 Week DB Combos would be ideal but if you're a racer (or someone looking for a full solution) then you might want to go with the Ultimate MTB Workout.
The biggest shortcoming with workouts downloaded off the internet is you are still just reading (or watching videos) on how to do the movement. It really relies how how good you are at mimicking the movements and following instructions, typically internet workouts lack the personal feedback you need to correct your mistakes (similar to the YouTube skills videos). But James has come up with a good solution for this which he calls the Inner Circle, it a website where you can post questions that James will personally respond to. The best part is you can take a quick video of yourself doing an exercise, post it and he will give you a break down of what your doing wrong and how to fix it. He closes the missing feedback loop that you would typically get from a personal trainer.
The Inner Circle also contains bonus workouts, exclusive blog posts and a monthly Q&A tele-conference with James. The 12 Week DB Combo workout comes with a 90 days of access to the Inner Circle while the Ultimate Workout comes with 6 months of access. You can also just subscribe to the Inner Circle for $17 a month.
The real gem of the Inner Circle site is a workout called the Fundamental Movement Skills program found under the Strength Training tab at the top of the page. This program focuses on 4 essential movements and uses a set of progressions for each so you can master them. This one program has changed the way I move and has made the biggest impact on my riding and skills. It teaches you how to move your hips and master movements that every mountain bike needs to be able to do. Once you've completed this program you will start to see improvements on the bike… but like I said above this is just the first step.
Gene Hamilton's BetterRide Camp
After you've learned how to move your body, you need to complete the equation and learn how to apply those movement's properly on the bike. This is where the BetterRide Skills camp comes into play. Gene has developed a camp to teach you the core skills that every rider should have. He dispels all the myths and help shows you how to unlearn all the bad skills you've picked up from your friends, magazines and YouTube.
The camp is broken up into three days of core skills where each lesson is taught in a parking lot in the morning with a series of drills which are then applied on the trail in the afternoon. To be honest with you I thought I was going to dread sitting around in a parking lot doing drills... wrong. Gene has a charismatic teaching style which captures your attention and makes doing drills in a parking lot a ton of fun. He designed his drills in such a way that after a few tries you start to see improvement and once on the trail you can really see how the drills will make you a better rider. Keep in mind you will probably not master any of the skills at camp but Gene gives each student a set of drills to take home to become a Ninja.
Personally the improvement I saw on the trail from the first day to the third day was pretty impressive. The biggest improvement for me was learning the proper way to corner and where to look on the trail. As an added bonus, Gene also demonstrated how to properly do a bump jump which he usually reserves for his Core 2 Skills Camp. This is one move I've always wanted to see properly demonstrated. I had already seen videos and read books on most of the skills Gene taught us but having someone right in front of you executing the skill, explaining the mechanics and coaching you through drills on how to master it was invaluable. I don't think there was one person who didn't leave the camp completely stoke and ready to go home and start working on their drills.
Conclusion
These two programs are the best investment you can make to improve your riding. At first glance the price tag (about $800) for both programs combined seems pretty steep but considering most bikes I see at the trail head retail between $2000-$5000, it's actually pretty cheap. Also consider this... how much does it cost to get air lifted from the trail head and patched up in an emergency room? My guess it's probably more than $800. The strength training will help you become more injury resistant and the skills camp should help you develop to the point your not coming home beat up and bloody from crashing all the time. But the key to using both programs successfully is dedicating the time to the workouts and drills. Oh... and make sure you read through the testimonials on both James' and Gene's sites, you should recognize a few names on there.
