Mountain biking is not only an absolute blast for novices and pros alike. It is a gritty, dirty, challenging sport.

Speeding down a narrow course full of ditches, bumps, and other obstacles that can send you head over handlebars can be dangerous. That’s why resistance training is crucial to performance, safety, and injury prevention.

We don’t always have time to make it to the trail, but progress shouldn’t slow because we’re busy. For most of us, it’s a lot easier to get to the gym than it is to load up the bike and drive out to a trail mid-week.

That’s where mountain bike strength training comes in.

Strength training is an essential part of any athlete’s training program.

Ready to take your mountain biking to the next level? Check out the free six-week training plan for beginners at the end of this article.

Strength Training Exercises for Moutain Bikers

Muscular strength can benefit any athlete in any sport. This includes mountain biking, hiking, surfing, and other outdoor sports.

Strength training not only increases your overall strength, but it can also improve muscular endurance, bone density, stability, and power. All of which are essential to peddling long trails, steering through sharp turns, and climbing steep ascents.

Not to mention, strength training improves tendon, bone, and joint strength. All things we need to do what we love for the long haul.

Choosing the Right Strength Training Exercises for Moutain Bikers

Mountain biking may seem like a far cry from the weight room, but the two have much more in common than meets the eye.

Strength training exercises require the development of explosive power. That power can, in turn, help a biker improve speed and climbing ability.

But how much should you exercise to reap the benefits of strength training? How often?

What about recovery?

What are the best exercises for mountain bikers?

These are natural questions when attempting to balance strength training with your sport.

Here are some things to keep in mind.

What You Need for Mountain Biking

Like other outdoor sports, mountain biking comes with specific physical challenges. Therefore, a mountain bike exercise program should improve those sport-specific requirements.

Lower Body Strength

There’s no denying that mountain biking is a leg-dominant sport. It doesn’t take long for the leg burn to make you question your decision to get on a bike in the first place.

Any strength training should focus on building a strong foundation, AKA the legs. Your exercises should mimic the single-leg strength needed to peddle a bike. You need to prepare your legs for your leg-dominant sport to get results.

It’s also essential for mountain bikers to develop lower body power. Compound barbell movements like the squat and deadlift can help develop the explosive power you need to make it up steep inclines.

Upper Body Strength

Many first-time mountain bikers find their upper body sore after their first ride. That’s because you engage your upper body the entire time.

Strengthening the entire upper body is vital for mountain bikers, even if the legs are the primary movers in the sport.

Core Strength and Stability

Core strength and stability are essential for mountain bikers. It isn’t your handlebars that allow you to pivot around sharp turns. It’s your ability to maintain a leaning position. Even the most subtle lean uses core stability.

Mountain bikers should use exercises that strengthen the core. Core exercises should include isometric holds to mirror the core stability needed to handle downhill corners and uphill climbs.

If you don’t have the muscular stability to resist the pull of gravity, you may fly right off the track.

How to Combine Mountain Biking and Strength Training

Make sure you start slow with strength training. The goal is to improve sport performance, not to set deadlift PRs every week.  Consider incorporating strength training for a minimum of two days per week at first.

As your body undergoes muscular, nervous system, and neurological adaptations in response to the strength training, you can incorporate more training sessions. For now, focus on developing good form and increasing weight in small increments each week.

The Best Mountain Bike Strength Training Exercises

• Walking Lunges
• Deadlift
• Pull-Up
• Dumbbell Press
• Parallel Bar Dips
• Low Planks

Walking Lunges

The walking lunge is one of the best exercises for mountain bikers. Walking lunges use single-leg strength, much like peddling a bike.

Walking lunges are also an excellent way to increase lower-body muscular endurance. You can use your body weight, carry dumbbells, or carry a barbell across your upper back.

How to Do Walking Lunges

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Keep your back straight and your eyes forward.
• Take a long step forward with your right foot, leaving your left foot behind you.
• Bend your left knee down to the ground, keeping both feet facing forward.
• Stand up, bringing your left foot forward to your right foot so your feet are next to each other.
• Take a long step forward with your left foot. Bend your right knee down to the ground.
• Stand up and repeat.

Deadlift

Deadlifts are great for mountain bikers because they develop posterior chain strength, including the hamstrings, glutes, and lower back.

How to Do the Deadlift

To perform the deadlift, place the barbell on the ground with equal plates on each side.

• Place your toes under the bar about hip-width apart.
• Grip the bar outside your knees using an overhand or over/under grip.
• Bend down so your butt is close to the ground, your back is straight, your chin is up, and your eyes are forward. Imagine there is pressure accumulating beneath your heels.
• Stand up, keeping your spine and head neutral. Imagine driving your heels through the ground as your hips hinge forward.
• Don’t pull with your hands. Your hands are hooks that allow your lower body to move the bar upward.
• Pause at the top of the movement, keeping your body flexed into position. Lower the weight by hinging at the hips. Keep the bar close to your hips throughout the exercise.

Pull-Up

The pull-up is a good start if you’re new to upper-body training. Mountain bikers must have strong backs to keep their bodies in position as they traverse rough terrain. Pull-ups work the lats, traps, rhomboids, biceps, deltoids, and forearms and can also improve grip strength.

How to Do a Pull-Up

The pull-up looks simple enough. But there are a few techniques that will help you to get the most out of the exercise.

• Stand facing the bar. Raise your arms above your head. If you are tall enough, grab the bar. If not, use something to step on to reach the bar. Use a pronated grip by wrapping your fingers around the bar with your palms facing away. Wrap your thumb around your fingers. Allow yourself to hang from the bar. You need to bend your legs if your feet touch the ground.
• Keep your eyes on the bar. This will help keep your head and spine neutral.
• Pull upward until your chin is above the bar. When pulling, imagine you are pulling the bar down to your chest.
• Keep your core tight. This will help prevent swinging like a pendulum as you raise and lower yourself.
• Lower yourself in a controlled manner to the full extension of your arms.
• Repeat.

Dumbbell Press

Mountain biking puts a surprising strain on your shoulder muscles (deltoids). It takes a lot to stabilize the handlebars as you hurdle down a hill at breakneck speeds.

The dumbbell press can strengthen the deltoids to help you handle those corners.

You can perform dumbbell presses either seated or standing.

How to Do the Dumbbell Press

• Ensure your back is straight, your chin is up, and your eyes are forward.
• Start with a dumbbell in each hand, out to each side, with your wrists stacked above your elbows.
• Explode upward, leaving a slight bend in the elbows at the top of the range of motion.
• Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position and repeat.

Parallel Bar Dips

It’s no secret that mountain bikers have strong lower bodies. But where they often struggle is upper body strength and endurance. Sure, it is not as essential to the success of a mountain biker as leg strength. But mountain biking is still a full-body activity.

One way to work out several muscle groups of the upper body simultaneously is to do parallel bar dips.

At most gyms you can, you can find the parallel bars attached to an assisted pull-up machine. Since this is a bodyweight exercise, you can use higher volume (more sets and reps than a heavy lift). Or, you can add resistance by using a weight vest or belt.

How to Do Parallel Bar Dips

• Grip the bars so that the heel of your palm is flat, bearing most of your weight.
• Bend your knees so that your feet are behind you.
• Lean forward. Lower your body so that you feel the pull across your chest.
• Maintaining the slight forward lean, push yourself back to the top of the range of motion. Drive the force through the heel of your palm as you push yourself up.
• Keep your neck and spine aligned by keeping your eyes straight ahead. This will prevent the natural tendency to look down as you lower your body.

Low Plank

Planks are an excellent way to improve core strength and stability.

How to Do the Low Planks

• To perform the low plank, start in a push-up position. Then, lower yourself to your elbows. Your elbows should be stacked below your shoulders.
• Your spine should remain neutral, and your eyes focused on the ground.
• Keep your core tight as you hold the position. Do not let your hips dip toward the ground.

Four More Exercises for Mountain Bikers

Here are four more exercise options to choose from for your strength training routine.

• Bulgarian Split Squat
• Bent-Over Row
• Dumbbell Bench Press
• High Plank

Bulgarian Split Squat

The Bulgarian split squat is arguably the best way to do single-leg isolation work.

How to Do Bulgarian Split Squat

• Find a bench, box, rock, or even a high curb.
• Place one foot on the elevated surface, with the sole of your foot facing upward.
• Place your other foot facing forward far enough away from the elevated surface to lower your body at a natural angle.
• Keep your back neutral and your body balanced on your front foot. Keep your chin up and your eyes lowered to a place on the ground 10-20 feet away.
• Lower your body, bending your knee until you reach a comfortable depth. Then, drive upward through your heel until you reach the top of the movement.
• Keep your core tight and pause at the top to maintain your stability.
• Repeat.

Bent-Over Row

Bent-over rows target the entire back, including the latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, and posterior delts. Maintaining the body position of the bent-over row also challenges the lower back and hamstrings.

How to Do the Bent-Over Row

• Place a barbell on the floor in front of you. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Grip the barbell using a neutral, supinated (underhand grip) or pronated (overhand grip).
• Bend over with a straight back like you are forming a table with your body. Keep your eyes on the ground in front of you.
• Pull the bar up to your rib cage, squeezing your back and holding it for a brief moment at the top.
• Lower the weight, allowing your arms to reach full extension. Repeat.

Dumbbell Bench Press

The dumbbell bench press is a fantastic way to work the pectoral muscles.

How to Do the Dumbbell Bench Press

• Lay flat on a bench, holding a dumbbell of equal weight in each hand, using a pronated grip.
• Press the dumbbells up, squeezing your chest at the top of the movement. Allow a slight bend to remain in your elbows.
• Lower the dumbbells, retracting your shoulder blades. Pause at the bottom, don’t bounce them off your chest. Repeat.

High Plank

The high plank gets less credit than its cousins, the low plank and the side plank. But high planks are great for training the core and upper body. It doesn’t take much time in this position to feel the effects.

How to do the High Plank

• Get into a push-up position.
• Keep your spine neutral and your eyes focused on the ground in front of you.
• Keep your core muscles tight, and don’t let your lower back dip. Your body should form a straight line from your head to your heels.
• Imagine the ground is pushing you through your palms to keep your body up.

Putting it All Together

I designed the below beginner mountain bike strength training sample training plan to ease you into strength training. That’s why it only includes two workouts of three exercises per week for six weeks. 

The rep range starts with 8-10 reps and then lowers to 6-8 reps over the training block. This reduction in reps is to allow you to increase the load over the 6-week period. From there, you can continue decreasing reps and increasing load for further strength development. Or, you may want to consider a block dedicated to muscular endurance with a rep range greater than 12. The possibilities are endless!

FAQ

I can’t do 8-10 Pull-Ups or Parallel Bar Dips…How many reps should I do?

Pull-ups and dips can differ from person to person. Even people who lift often may struggle to get high reps with these movements. Do as many reps as you feel comfortable with. For the best results, push yourself to add one rep each week throughout the program.

Also, try breaking up the reps into smaller sets of 1-2 reps with short rest periods in between until you reach the prescribed rep range.

How many sets should I do of the plank exercise? How long should each set be?

Do the prescribed number of sets for the plank exercise – 2 sets in weeks 1-3 and 3 sets in weeks 4-6. Using a stopwatch, hold the position as long as you can for each set. The time will go down with each set you do. Every week, add a few seconds to each set.

Should I do the reps for walking lunges on each leg?

Yes. Perform the number of reps on each leg. If this is too difficult, try the exercise with your body weight.

Whether you’re a seasoned mountain biker or new to the sport, starting a strength program can help take you to the next level. The best time to start is now.

If you liked our beginner’s guide to mountain bike strength training, you may also enjoy The Ultimate Guide to Strength Training for Hiking. Don’t see a strength training guide for your favorite adventure sport? Send us an email via the contact page in the footer of this post to let us know.