Dryland Activity: Mountain Biking Overveiw

Here is a great article from Skinet.com writer and pro backcountry skier Jeremy Benson entitled Why Mountain Biking is Good for Skiers. It points out some of the obvious and, more importantly, less obvious reasons that mountain biking is a great dryland activity for skiing.



Why Mountain Biking is Good for Skiers
by Jeremy Benson

"For me, riding my bike is so much fun, it barely feels like training.

But it is. And here’s why: Endurance exercise like mountain biking is a workout not only for your legs, abs, and arms, but for your heart and lungs as well. Over time, repetition of hard efforts while riding will improve your cardiovascular function. A stronger heart will pump oxygenated blood more efficiently to your muscles, increasing muscular endurance and speeding muscle recovery. Training your heart, lungs, and legs for endurance will make those non-stop runs down the West Face at Squaw, High Rustler at Alta, or Goat at Stowe seem a lot easier.

Plus, mountain biking is great balance training, thanks to the added difficulty of obstacles like trees, rocks, roots, loose dirt, and jumps. While you’re riding your bike you probably don’t even notice that you’re part of an on-going balancing act, very similar to skiing. Instead of balancing yourself while sliding over snow on two planks, you’re balancing on a pair of two-inch-wide tires rolling through the forest, all while subtly improving your balance and coordination.

Mountain biking can also be a great mental workout. Similar to skiing, you’ve got to look ahead, spot your line, and react to what’s coming. Traveling at a high speed through the forest with twists, turns, and obstacles requires excellent eye-body coordination and quick reflexes. You’ll learn to look where you’re going, not where you are, a skill that is necessary for skiers too. And, mountain biking trains your eyes and brain to see the world at a high rate of speed. Repetition of fast moving visual stimuli eventually trains your mind to process these images more quickly. So go ride a trail near you. You’ll be glad you did. "

Overveiw: obviously biking is a good physical workout, but this article also points out that is a great balance exercise and will help us in picking our eyes up and being aware of our surroundings.