How To Stay Stable Biking Through Technical Terrain
Have you ever wondered how good riders stay stable biking through technical terrain? No matter the speed...
Let’s dive into why.
Newer riders tend to look similar as they jolt down the trail - uncontrolled, bouncing, and just trying not to crash! Expert riders on the other hand stay in control. Their bike is all over the place, but their body stays solid - stable in the direction they want to go.
The difference between beginner and expert riders is simple - stability.
How Do You Increase Stability?
Think back to before you learned to ride. How difficult was balancing on a bike? After lots of riding and lots of practice, you were able to finally balance without training wheels…
This is because the practice helped strengthen your fast twitch muscles (increasing your muscle fibers).
In similar fashion, most earlier stage riders haven’t strengthened their muscle fibers enough to provide stability as they ride through rough terrain. Even experienced intermediate riders and pro-riders use only a portion of their total muscle fibers.
The human body will always take the path of least resistance in order to conserve as much energy as possible. Because of this, intentionally training our muscle fibers is the only way to increase muscle stamina.
How Do You Strengthen Muscle Fibers?
Strong fast twitch muscle fibers are built by holding your body in positions you know will strain your muscles. For instance, think of a yogi (a person who loves yoga) holding a difficult position. Yoga masters have such incredible body control because they’ve strengthened their muscle fibers through consistently holding a variety of static positions. It’s less about building muscle mass and more about fatiguing your muscles to force your muscle fibers to strengthen.
Can Stronger Muscle Fibers Increase My Stability & Trail Performance?
Yes! This is why we have created the Balance Trainer... for you. The balance trainer allows you to hold a static position for an extended period of time. Holding this static position (stationary balancing on your back wheel) allows your fast twitch muscle fibers to strengthen. Just like a yogi gains immense body control with their static yoga positions, a mountain biker with their static balance position on the trainer can gain incredible bike control, stability, muscle strength, agility and stamina for the trail. With this growth, technical terrain becomes significantly more manageable, cornering becomes doable at higher speeds, and drops/jumps become achievable.
Check out the balance trainer and elevate your ride.