How to Use the MTB Performance Wheel

James Wilson: Hi everybody, this is James Wilson with mtbstrengthcoach.com. Today, I wanted to talk to you about your MTB performance wheel. I’ll be the first to met, I didn’t bent the concept to the performance wheel, many other coaches have used this idea they tried and talked to athletes and other sports about how they should look at training and how everything integrates and interrelates with each other, but to my knowledge, nobody has really brought this concepts mount biking and considering that we know about the most athletes how spoke tension can affect the strength integrity of a wheel, I think this example is little more appropriate for us anyway. So, let’s say for example, we’re just -- you know that you’ve got real, it’s got a knock that wacky, taking to the shop and maybe you know how to do yourself. The last thing that we’re going to do with that wheels pop it up in the stand and just start randomly tightening spokes and see what happens. If you got to check and see where the lose spoke, see you always want to start with the lose spoke and see how tightening down is going to affect the rest of the spoke tension. So, you finally lose the spoke, you do that turn or so on and check and see where is the lose spoke is and just continuing that process until you achieve a round true wheel with equal spoke tension that’s what’s we’re looking for, for your wheel. That approach is the same spproach that you should take when looking at your training program, and then fortunately that’s not what happens. A lot of times when the rider start to get into a training program, they just randomly start kicking things, they’ll pick on a cardio program from one place and street program from another and do like some stretches that they’ve learned gym class and like take some supplements at their riding buddies whereby and just, you know mix it all together and hope on the other end they come out as fitter, faster and better rider. Unfortunately that’s not always the case and in fact that’s one of the main reasons that I think a lot of riders are frustrated, they’ve got training maybe they doesn’t have lots of offer and because that’s the approach that they’re trying to pass, and it didn’t work for them. Taking the example of the wheel, a performance wheel, again, you’re looking that see, you know uniform spoke tension, you know nice strong a round true wheel. So, taking what we know, we would have, you know the approach we would take with a regular wheel off of our bikes while training, you know what should you do, you need to find the loosest spoke on your MTB performance and wheel and attack it first. So, in no particular order, these are the nine areas of spokes on that, that I’ve identified that are going to help you perform better on your bike. And no particular order, their strength, power, mobility, cardio endurance, nutrition and food supplements, your bike setup, your technical skills, your mind set and focus, and your recovery things that help you recover from your training. So, those nine things are what are going to affect your performance on the bike and whether you’re aware with them or not, it doesn’t matter. Those are the things that we’re going affect actually. Now, off with that list, it’s a probably a couple of things that you recognize, you know most riders definitely work on cardio endurance, maybe some strength, and in bike setup; a huge amounts pretty much, the entire mount bike industry is setup to convince you, the bike setup is the most important thing for you what you’ve got on your bike and how it’s setup and stuff like that. But other things like mobility, mindset, you know things like that, those are probably have not really enter your mind in our focal points that you’re training and so you know not being aware of those areas, it can hold you back. And so, again, what you want to do when you decide, alright, what do I need to do to accomplish? What do I want to accomplish as a rider? You know check that performance once you spoke that’s what’s going to help you improve the focus. Let me give you the example about how this works. Let’s say that you decided that you need better endurance, strength endurance, you know, you feel good at the beginning of the ride, but you know towards the end of the race or try to ride wherever the case maybe, you know whatever you do like power down, you just not seeing the habit and so, okay, you need to increase your endurance. Obviously, the thing that you need to start working on is your cardio spoke, alright and maybe your bike setup; look to drop some mid of your bike well, needy when I think there maybe more of the store than that. Now let’s say that you come to me and after checking we’ll be looking to see you like okay. A cardio you could definitely probably use them work, I mean your bike is pretty good, we don’t really need to worry about that, but maybe your mobility is that you’re beginning to touch your toes and so by far that should lose the spoke on your performance wheel. And you know, you tepid; oh! Man, come on, let’s just crank a few more cranks on that cardio spoke and see what happens, it’s not going to workout well for you, I guarantee it, you know you need to address your weakest area, you know the only way to strengthen the chain is to strengthen it’s weakest link. And so, you would find that weak link, you find that lose spoke; in this case, we’re saying mobility is that lose spoke that should glaring neatness and so, you start to work on mobility, you know really start, you know working on your stretching on a daily basis, doing your dynamic mobility moves and stuff like that. And after that three to four weeks, you know you really start to notice a difference in your old rumble gully levels and now you can touch your toes, and then on the bike, use for more fluid, you fill like, you know you can move free or and you just don’t see the fatigue is quickly -- well, what happened is, is two fold, when you get that mobility that allows you to get and it’s a better more efficient positions on your bike, and then also it’s going to lower your muscle tension levels, and both of those things are going to help you make better more efficient use of the energy in cardio capacity that you already have. And so that even like touching your cardio spoke so to speak, by tightening that weakest link, has a positive affect on everything else in your performance wheel. So, now let’s say, okay, I’ve got my mobility levels up. Now what’s the next thing and you’re going in and check again and this time find you the certain technical skills, you know are your weakest link, you just going to have very good technical skills and again that, that your traditional approach you know, it’s just okay, by be endurances and just get out and hammer the cardio, hammer the cardio. Well, you know again, you know you trust my approach and you start working on your technical skills, and again, after a few weeks you find on the trail, you know you’re able to corner more efficiently. You understand how to hold your body better when you maneuvering all rough, of course, the stuff. And again, you have better endurance, you know and what’s happened again is you, you’ve allowed your body to make more efficient use of what you already have and so, you know after doing that a few times and tightening where the lose spokes, you need to -- now eventually, okay you get to the point, okay and you know what? Cardio is my lose spoke. Now I need to start working on my cardio a little bit more intensely because you’ve gone back and you tightening the other spokes and you laid up foundation, you’re going to get far more add your cardio training and you’re not going to be as likely to incur an injury as you would, if you had an address similar as other underlying things. So, again, you know the fastest way to get the results that you’re looking for isn’t always a straight line and so sometimes working on other aspects like mobility and technical skills that you don’t understand how is this going to help my cardio, how is this going to directly relate to my cardio. It will, if you understand how everything is not all then you relate it. And improving your weakest link is going to improve the integrity and strength of your entire performance wheel and help you on the trill. So, again, you know that the basic take home concept is, you need to be aware of these nine factors, and then you know again, just because you’re not aware that doesn’t mean that they don’t affect you. So, you need to be aware of these nine factors and you need to continually keep an eye on them and grace yourself on what’s your strongest point, what’s your weakest point. And if you’re spending most of your time, working on strong points, you know we’ve already got a three, four, five thousand dollar bike that’s about is light as you can get it, and you spend all of your time, you know read magazines and worry about how you can shave another few brands of your bike while you came, and then touch your toes wrong approach is the wrong way to go about it. So, again, this understands that all scenes interrelate and you can then work on your weakest link, tighten that loosest spoke and you’ll see everything else improve as the fastest way to get better on your mount bike. Again, you know and just kind of a little concept where you think about the MTB performance wheel and you know how it should affect the way that you approach your training. So, again, this been James Wilson with mtbstrenghtcoach.com. I hope you guys enjoyed this one. I’ll talk to you next time.