Tomm Willians

I consider myself primarily a road cyclist and prefer endurance/distance riding when I can. Due to the traffic conditions where I live, I have to drive a bit to safely do my rides.

The wife and I recently acquired a pair of hardtail mountain bikes to augment our riding as that discipline is very popular in our immediate area. I’m fairly certain that it’s not my imagination, but I feel that the MTB riding is showing a slight benefit to my overall climbing ability. It’s actually too soon to tell but something is happening for certain.

I don’t know if it’s just the benefit of riding a bit more or the change of bikes/routes is providing its own advantages across the spectrum?

wolfchild

Mountain biking and other forms of off-road riding provide a great full body workout. Riding on narrow twisty singletrack with roots and rocks and other obstacles will develop bike handling skills and provide a workout which road riding can never do. There are definitely benefits to mountain biking and also it's ton of fun.

rosefarts

I mountain bike and gravel ride mostly. I also spend one day a week rock climbing, used to be more like 5 days a week climbing but those were younger years.

While not complimentary, I like that I have a good mix of cardio/endurance, power, handling skills, and upper body exercises.

There is no such thing as a fast XC rider who doesn’t ride on the road a fair amount. However, plenty of pro roadies never touch a MTB. Draw whatever conclusions you want from that.

rsbob 

mountain biking is highly complimentary for cross training Besides improving your bike handling skills, if you do single-track the hard fast climbs will help with your road bike climbing and as mentioned above build core strength. Weight training for your core and legs works well too.

Rolla

Climbing steep, rutted, and loose trails will work you in ways that no road can. Fighting for traction and avoiding/absorbing obstacles while spinning a 30 x 50 can only enhance your overall cycling fitness and skills.

caloso

Yes. Riding a mtb will make you fitter and a much better bike handler.

Attilio

Yes this is true. I rode gravel bikes on the road and then MTB for a bit. Got into road biking this year and found I am one of the best climbers.

As a century rider myself I got a whoop due to overtraining issues. This year I did a 35 mile fire road (not even hardcore MTB) on my mountain bike ride helping set up for a charity ride. My "strain" as detected for the whoop was higher on that ride than on a 105 mile century on mostly flat terrain. Trail riding, even mild trail, has far higher resistance, not to mention mountain bikes are heavier, slower and due to tires also offer more resistance. Plus all the bracing and ready position you need to assume is a different and much more intense cardiovascular workout. What's the adage, in mountain biking in the same time you go half the distance for twice the workout?

It's like most of the special forces and police snipers I know also bow-hunt and shoot archery for fun. Helps with feeling out your weapon because so much in the shooting sports is not your aim, but hold/grip and just conditioning your upper body to be able to hold positions stronger and more steadily for longer periods of time without getting weak or shaking. The cross training effect is real vs always doing the same thing.

seypat

Any form of cross training will benefit your overall health.

rumrunn6

good thread! fwiw - I didn't start crashing until I got on a mountain bike. ride safe!

caloso

Same. I love it, but I have to laugh when some MTBers say that they won't ride on the road because cars are too dangerous. But I've never had to worry about smashing my knee on a granite boulder or wrapping my bike around a pine tree while riding my road bike.

Troul 

i'm almost certain it'll benefit to a point.

My cross discipline to road riding is competitive personal isolated over eating. CPIOE has yet to show a benefit, but I wont give up just yet!

rsbob 

You might want to try several of the hot dog eating contests until you puke. The benefit is the binge/purge.

Troul 

only if it involves cheap malt liquor

rumrunn6

used to really like the cart hot dogs in NYC with mustard & those red, saucy onions. 2 would do me fine now, but in my youth, I maxed out with (6) one day

alcjphil

Years ago, when training mattered to me, I did a lot of cross country skiing in the winter along with a fair bit of swimming. Both really improved my aerobic capacity, the skiing because it was a full body workout and the swimming because it trained me to breath properly, to take full breaths for when my face was underwater. I can remember on an early season, fairly intense bike ride where I was feeling really good, a friend pulled up beside me and she asked "how's your neck?" I said "what do you mean?" She said "I was wondering if it was sore from looking back to see where the rest of us are"
Another of our group was into short track speed skating. He would kill us every spring until we managed to get back to the level he maintained in the winter

rsbob 

Yup I was a die hard X-CO skier as well as well as dowhill/Alpine. Great for keeping fitness and a nice break from the bike.

SpeedyBlueBiker

Running is a good aerobic activity that builds your VO2 system and helps burn a lot of calories. It's a lot less time consuming than cycling too.

PeteHski

I can definitely relate to this. I went through a 10 year phase of only riding MTB (mainly technical forest singletrack and the odd bike park) and thought I was reasonably fit. Then I got back into road riding and was surprised to find how much faster it made me around my local MTB trails. I knocked several minutes/hour off my best MTB lap times within a year of regular fast road riding. So obviously the road riding was making a big difference to my endurance power.