Cycling for Cross Training
We all know that road and mountain biking offer some great cardiovascular benefits. In fact there are many people that even use cycling as a means of cross training. Take Thomas Graves for example, he is an Olympic hopeful training out of Two Wheels One Planet. He is training for the 2 man rowing boat with his brother. When he’s not in the water rowing, he’s often seen on his bicycle pedaling away the miles. He often will split his time on the saddle between road and mountain biking.
So what’s the benefit of cross training on wheels? To get a legitimate answer, I spoke with one of my friends Chris Galassi, Lead Instructor Force Training Division (FTD) Krav Maga Worldwide about this subject and he provided some insight and techniques on how to get the maximum combat output through the use of cycling. Here’s what he had to say.
Fighting requires short, but high intensity bursts of energy followed by quick recovery. Repeatedly. So the goal is to get heart rate spiked with hard push, recover, hard push, recover, etc. Could very well be a benefit over other exercises such as running and weight training due to repeated hard impact on joints. With cycling you can achieve short intense bursts by cranking on the pedals. High output cycling for 20 seconds followed by 10 seconds rest – repeat about 8-10 times. Turning it into a sprint each time! Your lungs will gasp for air! Your legs will beg for lactic acid to flush out. It’s a common exhaustive exercise for cardio bursts increase.
Chris Galassi training with Anderson Silva
Chris explained that he’ll often use that training technique mentioned above multiple times per week to help keep up with his conditioning. In addition, more and more athletes, whether MMA fighter or not, use cycling as a way to cross train due to the fact it helps with conditioning as well as taking the risk of injury away. Often times you’ll hear of athletes who got injured during practice/training and end up missing the fight or event they were training for. Cycling is low impact, great for conditioning and it’s pretty dang fun.