What Is The Best Way To Get In Shape For Motocross?

It’s evident that because motocross is such a hard-wearing sport, that you’ll need to be in good shape. While riding a motocross bike, your arms, core, shoulders, legs, and back will all be considered “primary” muscle groups that’ll support you while riding a dirt bike. From knowing this, what is the best way to get in shape for motocross?

The best way to get in shape for motocross is to focus on three vital factors. These are your back, core, and endurance. When selecting or creating a workout plan designed towards motocross, you’ll want to work these body areas out with full-body movement exercises.  

Now you understand the core fundamentals about the best types of workouts for improving your motocross capabilities, let’s dive further into the topic. If you’re someone looking to enhance their fitness to help aid their motocross skills, I suggest you become knowledgeable on the information below. Here we detail what makes a good motocross workout and various plans you can implement today. 

What is a good motocross workout? 

Many beginners, amateurs, and professional motocross riders choose to get into better shape for motocross. They gain mass amounts of benefits from doing this as they can ride for longer, recover quicker, and are less prone to becoming injured. From this, it’s clear to understand why so many people include this within their motocross lifestyle. 

When you’re considering working out or getting in better shape for motocross, you’ll want to consider the below factors:  

1. Back muscles 

When working out for motocross, the exercises and rep-range you’ll do will be much different than you may think. I assume you’ve seen bodybuilders work out and the total mass they accumulate while going to the gym. However, this isn’t what’s going to happen to you. 

Although strength in your arms, chest, core, and legs are essential, your back plays a significant role in keeping you balanced. When performing motocross, it’s necessary to have a strong posterior chain. This will then support your body with other muscle groups to ensure you’re balanced and sturdy on the bike. 

2. Core muscles 

Including your back muscles, you’ll want to increase your stability by building strong core muscles. Your core is another balancer and can be more vital than your back muscles when maintaining balance on a motocross bike. Needless to say, when getting in shape, your core muscles need to be targeted to improve your motocross skills. You’ll increase your balance, control, and various other aspects of the sport from doing this. 

3. Endurance 

When training or undergoing motocross races, you’ll be on your bike for 30+ minutes going hard. Because of this, you need to train endurance rather than strength or muscle mass. To summarize how you do this, endurance training consists of low weight and high repetitions. By training this way, you’re increasing the amount of time your muscles can be stressed before becoming fatigued.

4. Focus on total body movements 

When working out for motocross, you’ll also need to consider full-body movements. Riding a motocross bike requires your entire body to function together and perform tasks. Because of this, it’s crucial to train full-body movements with the above in mind. 

Now that you understand the core fundamentals you need to remember when undergoing a motocross workout, let’s go over some training plans. 

Workout #1 

Below are two workout routines that you can do that’ll benefit your motocross riding. When choosing how many times you perform these workouts per week, consider an actual riding session and sufficient resting time. 

To perform this exercise, you’ll want to place your feet shoulder-width apart and step onto the aerobic stepper while pushing the dumbbells into the air. When you’re on the stepper, return to your original position by stepping backward and repeat. 

Begin hanging from the bar with your arms straight and pull yourself up to the level where your chin is just above the bar. Hold for one second, return to the hanging position, and repeat. 

When doing this exercise, you’ll want to begin by giving yourself a solid base of support. For most, this is a stance just a little bit wider than shoulder-width. When you’re in this position, you’ll want to bend your knees at a 45-degree angle, lean slightly forward (while keeping your back straight) with your head upright. 

When you’ve achieved this optimal position, you’ll want to pick up your barbell and bring it towards your chest, hold for a second, and then rest the bar near your knees. 

Once you have your ball, place it near your shins and get into a pushup position. When here, you’ll then want to proceed to draw the stability ball towards your core, like a crunch action. 

Set your legs around shoulder-width apart while pointing your buttocks out. Keep your back straight and bend your knees at around a 90-degree angle. When here, you’ll want to grab the barbell and push upwards from your heels. To complete the repetition, lower down into your starting position. 

Workout #2 

When working out, it’s important to diversify yourself to ensure you’re hitting all essential muscle groups. Because of this, I recommend you swap between the first workout schedule and the second one below. 

Exercise 1 – The first exercise will involve a cable machine, and this is called asquat-to-row. To perform this, find a wide-grip bar that you can attach to a lower pulley cable machine. Once you have this, you’ll want to face the machine and get into a squat position with the bar. When here, push upwards from your heels while driving the bar towards your chest. 

Exercise 2 – For this next exercise, you’ll want to grab a barbell, and it’s called abench press pushup. Performing a bench press this way targets endurance rather than strength, making it more ideal for motocross. To undergo this exercise, you’ll want to place a barbell on the floor, get into a pushup position while gripping the bar, bring your chest towards the barbell, and push yourself back up. 

Exercise 3 – Another full-body exercise is thedumbbell lunge to overhead press. For this exercise, you’ll need two relatively lightweight dumbbells. You’d then want to bring them towards your shoulder in a curl motion. Then you’ll want to step forward into a lunge position in one movement while forcing the dumbbells in the air. Repeat this exercise on both legs. 

Exercise 4 – Just like the above workout, you’ll need a stability ball for this next exercise. TheSwiss ball leg curl is another great own-body exercise. To perform this, lay on your back and rest your feet on the ball. After, bring the ball towards your buttocks in one motion before pushing it away back to its original position. 

All of the above exercises are designed explicitly for muscle groups that are used in motocross. Remember, when training for motocross, you’ll want to exercise for endurance, not for strength. This means you’ll want to lower the weight and perform around 12 to 14 repetitions. When undergoing these exercises, be sure to allow for actual motocross training and rest.  

Dietary tips 

Many people don’t feel the need to diet as they believe it isn’t essential. However, dieting is considered more important than the training itself. Many studies prove that the best type of diet is15% protein, 20% fat, and 65% carbohydrates. Including following a diet that consists of these nutrients, you should also consider the below dietary tips:

Consider supplements – Many athletes struggle to gain enough vitamins with their daily calorie amounts. Because of this, they supplement essential vitamins to ensure they don’t become sick, tired, or to recover quicker. 

Are pushups good for motocross? 

When it comes to riding a motocross bike, your upper body is important. This part of the body grips onto the handlebars, and with the help of the core, keeps you balanced. When performing a pushup, you’re strengthening your chest, triceps, and shoulders. 

So, we can comfortably say yes, pushups are suitable for motocross riders because they strengthen the upper body. 

How do I train my legs for motocross? 

When it comes to training your legs for motocross, you have an array of exercises to choose from. However, instead of training just legs, you should opt for full-body exercises that primarily focus on legs. For example, the below:

• Deadlifts 
• Swiss leg curl 
• Power cleans 

If you want to know how to perform these exercises, I recommend you look into our workout section above. There we go into detail about what equipment is needed for the exercises, and how to perform it correctly. 

Is running good for motocross? 

Running is very good when it comes to motocross as it generally makes our cardio much better throughout our body. By increasing your cardio through running, you’re able to retrieve the following benefits: 

Mood – Including the above, while running for motocross, you’ll actually put yourself in a better mood. It goes without saying, the clearer your mind is while training or on a race track, the better you’ll perform. 

Conclusion 

After reading the above, you should have a general idea of the best ways to get in shape for motocross. While exercising, there is an abundance of different exercises you can perform that’ll benefit your motocross skills. However, the mentioned are well-known to increase the overall ability of a motocross rider, and they’re more than worth considering in your workout program. 

Now you know what workouts you should be doing, is this something you will implement into your motocross lifestyle?