Warm-Up Exercises
Before every Mountain Biking trip, it is imperative to prepare your mind and body. Warming-up exercises are a must before every ride, whether it's for a casual trip or an intense race, for they do not only prepare the body, but they also improve mental focus.
Physiologically speaking, warming-up makes the muscles more elastic, corollary preventing cramps and overstretching. Moreover, warming-up increases blood flow to the muscles and stimulates the energy systems of the body.
The warming-up routine can take around 30 minutes of your time prior to the Mountain Biking ride. In doing the warming-up routine, which involves two phases - general and specific, you can do it either on a stationary trainer or by biking down the road.
The general phase of the warm-up routine entails biking on a relaxed phase with minimal resistance. This will increase your muscle temperature, relax your legs, and direct the flow of blood to the working muscles. This phase, which should be completed between 15-20 minutes, should already involve deep breathing exercises and positive visualization techniques.
Between the general and specific phases, perform simple stretches involving the neck, shoulders, lower back, and the upper body. Do simple stretching exercises that should last between 5-10 minutes.
For the specific phase of the warm-up routine, spin for five minutes until your heart rate reaches below race effort. Do this twice with moderate resistance to avoid muscle fatigue. This phase of the exercise would help significantly in activating your energy systems and metabolic processes.
The length of the warm-up exercises actually depends on the preferences of the mountain biker and the type of the Mountain Biking event. For timed trial and downhill races, for example, participating mountain bikers have to do two minutes of intense exercises, followed by 10 minutes of low-intense ones. The key here is to try varying lengths of the warm-up exercises, as well as different exercise routines to find out what mountain bikers are comfortable with.
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