Exercises to make me a monster climber?!
11-30-19, 02:43 AM
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I’m 50 and got my first bike in decades last month. I wanna really enjoy XC mountain biking and that means hills and climbing. I have already started getting my body in better shape. I already lost 25 pounds, wanna lose another 20-30. I can only ride twice a week because of work and daylight but the rest of the week I am power walking (will probably step that up to jogging), weight lifting and treadmill interval training. Are there things that I can do that will directly translate to better climbing? I have started to add 15 minutes of treadmill walking at pace with extreme inclines to the end of workouts. That seems to directly work the thigh and calf muscles. I have some friends (half my age) that mountain bike and I wanna feel confident I can keep up on a intermediate ride. Don’t want them to have to wait for the old man to get up the hill.
Thanks for this! I actually have started to seek out hills and climb them, smaller ones for now. When I see a grade coming up, I actually have started to shift up, and stand and power up the grade and keeping my momentum rather than shift down and stay seated. My attitude is more to attack the climbs rather than granny gear them. Have not done this on longer climbs yet, but today I am going to some trails with some climbing involved...lets see how I do...I am 15 pounds lighter and in better shape than the last time I did this trail, so lets see how it goes.
Climb stairs. Real ones. Flights and flights of them.
However, if you're also doing other things, like cycling, you might want to limit the stairs to 25-30 flights a day 4-5 days a week.
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11-30-19, 03:52 PM
#53
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11-30-19, 04:27 PM
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so now a follow up...does that mean that when swapping gears you need to reinstall the tire? my tires are uni-directional, do you use bi-directionals on the rear? and how much of a difference does a uni-directional matter once the tread wears away? or is that more about tire construction that tread? hmm, time for some research.
11-30-19, 04:49 PM
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so now a follow up...does that mean that when swapping gears you need to reinstall the tire? my tires are uni-directional, do you use bi-directionals on the rear? and how much of a difference does a uni-directional matter once the tread wears away? or is that more about tire construction that tread? hmm, time for some research.
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/tires.html
12-09-19, 08:55 AM
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I’m 50 ...weight lifting and treadmill interval training. Are there things that I can do that will directly translate to better climbing? I have started to add 15 minutes of treadmill walking at pace with extreme inclines to the end of workouts. That seems to directly work the thigh and calf muscles. ....
The gradual side effect of your losing weight (fat) and building muscle under heavy weights will also be an increase in your T levels, which decline with age. Better testosterone in turn will help you improve power and fitness. Dunno about your diet, but get plenty of protein, cholesterol, and one brazil nut a day for T
