Is it normal to not be able to bunny hop after riding for a couple hours?
 

What's good, y'all? I've been riding BMX for basically a week now, but I've only had 4 days of sessions. Day 1 I was able to bunny hop although not very high. By day 4 I had tire rides on curbs down which has helped tremendously with bike control (shoutout to Spencer Foreman for that tip on YouTube). I also got drifts and double pegs down, which are just fun as ****. My double pegs are pretty limited since I can't hop very high. I'm currently struggling to get fakies and mannies down, but I've been reading some tips on here for both so I plan on working on that next time I ride.

The main point of this post is that when I start riding, I can do some decent bunny hops. I like to hop over speed bumps, parking lines, or small stair sets. After a couple hours I can pretty much only lift my front end enough to get over curbs, and my back wheel just kinda rolls up the curb. I'm not super strong or muscular so after a good session I'm super sore the next day as if I was weight lifting. Obviously yanking a 28 pound bike into the air is gonna be a workout, but I was wondering if my experience was normal for y'all when you first started riding. Should I just keep up with my riding and let my muscles progress, or should I start lifting and doing strength training to compensate for this?

This is totally normal. Definitely isn't about strength, but rather technique and commitment. I found that really have to focus on compressing before springing up later in the day when I'm more tired. As you get more practice this will start to hurt less and your technique will get more refined and your hops will get much better.

I cant do it too when i did a long or particulary stressful ride. Nothing to worry about in my opinion.

Don't skip "leg day" at the gym lol. But basically it has to do with core strength and endurance. You may not notice it in BMX, but in regular cycling there is something called "Hitting the wall" where you suddenly can't get your legs moving etc but you keep going until you hit your second wind. Same idea is happening to you, as your body run out of fuel your core and your legs start getting weak and shaky. Except getting your second wind in freestyle bmx is a lot harder.