Bike
MTB
How do you warm up before a mountain bike outing?
Whether it's before a cross-country race or a bike park descent, the mountain bike warm-up is not to be neglected. These are the movements you need to give yourself the Loïc Bruni look.
Why warm up?
As with all sports, a warm-up before a mountain bike outing is advisable to prevent injury and start the first few kilometres in the best possible conditions. A properly performed warm-up will help prevent tears, particularly in the quadriceps, which are put under a lot of strain during sustained mountain bike efforts. Cross-country races come to mind in particular, where the pace at the start is particularly fast and immediately mobilises the entire lower muscle chain. Warming up will help prepare your muscles and joints for the intense effort you'll be asking of them. It's also not uncommon to suffer cramp if you haven't warmed up before the event. Finally, a warm-up is even more necessary when it comes to performance. In a competition, your pedalling efficiency and your speed at the start of the race will depend very much on the exercises you have done in the hour before the start.
When should you warm up?
When you're getting ready for a cross-country start in a competition or to set off on a bike park run lasting a few minutes, these sustained efforts lasting between two and 40 minutes require a warm-up that includes intense effort. Ideally, you should warm up 15 to 20 minutes before the start of a competition or interval session.
What to do on the bike
Un matériel optimisé
© Bartek Wolinski/Red Bull Content Pool
If you have the opportunity to ride before the event, do so for a period of 5 to 10 minutes at an easy pace. Then pick up the pace for 5 minutes and adopt a much more sustained rhythm which will be equivalent to the one you will use during your race. The idea is to be out of breath after this session and to have broken a sweat. Finally, finish your warm-up with a slower pace over a five-minute recovery period. You can complete this warm-up with 10-second accelerations (to be performed once or twice). These short sprints are done at high pedalling cadences.
What kind of warm-up is needed off the bike?
While activating the legs on the bike is the basic exercise to be carried out before a cross-country race or downhill (an exercise which can also be done on a home trainer, as we see on the DH World Cup stages), you shouldn't neglect exercises off the bike either, which will complete the warm-up by allowing you to work on other parts of the body.
- Neck warm-up: Repeat 10 movements back and forth, holding for three seconds each time. Same thing on the side, repeating 10 movements.
- Shoulder warm-up: Rotate your shoulders forwards for 10 repetitions. Same principle, changing the movement with backward rotations.
- Warming up the pelvis: Repeat about ten rotations of the pelvis to one side and then the other.
- Knee warm-up: Place your hands on your knees without straining your leg muscles. Do 10 rotations in one direction and 10 in the other.
- Ankle warm-up: Stand on the ball of your foot and turn your ankle so that you make a circle with the back of your foot. Do 10 movements in one direction and 10 in the other for each foot.
Our other tips for an effective warm-up
Generally speaking, remember to organise your time properly so that you can do a complete warm-up. Before a race, you need to anticipate as much as possible by finding a place to do it (a small hill is perfect for increasing the intensity and doing a few sprints) and have enough time to finish your warm-up before going to the start line. Also, adapt to the ambient temperature. If it's very hot, remember to drink plenty of fluids before your ride or race and to do a lighter-than-usual warm-up.
Optimisation jusqu’à la boisson
© Dan Griffiths/Red Bull Content Pool
On the other hand, low temperatures mean that you will need to warm up for longer to activate your muscles sufficiently (avoid getting cold during this phase and don't hesitate to cover up before, during and after the warm-up). If you set off in the early hours of the morning, the warm-up should be more thorough than for a ride or run later in the day (when the body will have had time to wake up). Finally, on very short rides or mountain bike descents lasting just a few minutes, the warm-up should obviously be more thorough, so that you arrive at the start in optimum condition. In this case, keep the warm-up as close as possible to the start time of the outing or race so that you're ready to throw everything you've got at the bike.
