Download Jason’s training program.
Links to resources mentioned in this recording:
Stuart McGill’s Big Three
Stuart McGill Explains Spine Instability & Core Stability
12 Minutes of Foundation Training with Dr. Eric Goodman
HAPBEAR pull up assistance bands
Resistance Bands
Follow and connect with Coach Jason on Instagram for more tips.
Below is an AI-generated transcript of the BC Bike Race Coaches Corner Call. The copy is unedited. Please excuse any errors.
Moniera:
On the call today, we have Jason Bond, and this is part of our Coach’s Corner program that we’ve been doing, and of course we’ve had Adam and we’ve had Karsten, but that timing never worked for Jason, because of course this is his busiest time of year, so we are very appreciative, Jason, that you were able to squeeze us in on a wonky time, And thank you to all of you for being flexible and joining us at this somewhat unusual time.
I’m going to pass it over to Jason in a minute, and he’s going to tell us about how he’s component of the coaches corner program. We’ll run and then we’ll definitely leave some time for a Q and a at the end. And of course, if we run out of time, we do want to keep this to 45 to 50 minutes.
You can always email me and of course I work with my email in the chat again, so that anybody who’s new doesn’t have it can reach me. And remind me that before we hang up, we need to do a prize draw for a pair of pedals. I screwed that up last week and did not do the prize draw at the end of the call.
So please remind me to do that because I can’t remember everything. You gave it to the guy without the legs. Jason, over to you then.
Jason:
All right. Moniera, thank you so much. My name is Jason Bond, and I own and operate a business called Bond Training. We’re based in North Vancouver, and our specialty is working with cyclists, particularly in the gym and using the gym as a cross training platform to help riders move towards their riding goals. Strength training came about for me because I was pursuing downhill mountain biking at the time. And I was very ambitious about what I wanted to do, but I. couldn’t seem to move the needle when it came to results. And we live in a part of the world where I have the opportunity to ride year round.
But just through my own stumbling and trying to figure things out and paying attention to what other successful riders were doing in the downhill spectrum got introduced to strength training at a very rudimentary level. This was many years ago, a couple of decades ago from downhill with my own riding, I segued into other aspects of two wheeled sport that includes road racing and marathon XC events, enduro riding.
And so over the years I’ve been involved in various parts of. Cycling competitively. But what was interesting to me was some of my best riding happened when it was when I was pursuing multi day stage races and marathon XC events. And I attribute my longevity to what I’m doing or what I’ve done for myself in the gym.
But. Because I’ve been competitive it’s allowed me to, I’ve just been very attentive to how I spend my time and how it affects the, my outcome on the bike, my time in the gym compliments my riding. I’m a rider first and foremost. And so the gym has become important as a cross training tool. It’s not, I’m not in the gym to be a fitness competitor or a CrossFit competitor. I’m in there as a cyclist. And so with my clientele, that’s one of the values I add or that the programming ads is it’s adding longevity and performance to their own riding rules. I just wanted to touch on a couple of the benefits of strength training and how it applies to riding.
And then I also want to talk about how to spend your time in the gym and some of the parameters with regards to resources and that sort of thing. Any questions at this point? Okay. We will follow this up with a PDF of introductory program that you can follow. It’ll give you some guidelines and it doesn’t require a lot of equipment.
With regards to strength training for just in general, we know it adds to your quality of life. It helps with aesthetics as far as adding strength, you’re less apt to fall, you have better balance. From there with regards to riding, it helps Increase your efficiency on the bike. It helps minimize injuries through just being more athletic when you’re riding, but it also gives you a bigger window for learning new skills.
And then, when it comes to a competitive performance, it helps improve efficiency on the bike, both with regards to VO2 max, but also with regards to, maintaining your posture and your control when you’re riding and then from there, just looking at my notes, it increases your tendon strength and helps prevent protect your your joints and minimizes the chance of injury when you wipe out.
I’m getting a little bit off track here. It’s much easier when I get a bit of feedback as I have these conversations. Again, I’m just going to ask if there’s any questions right now.
Moniera:
Okay. Feel free to just unmute yourself if you have a question or if you want to raise your hand, I can catch that as well. And Jason, if we don’t, if we don’t have any questions. Let’s start with, if you knew to, and this is purely about me, because I’m doing this for the first time and definitely feeling a little bit like I’m in over my head.
Tell me how strength training can help me as, not necessarily a new mountain biker, but a new competitor how that will contribute to the, my success of the race.
Jason:
Thanks. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate the question. So with regards to getting into the gym a few of us are able to train full time. We have a lot of other requirements and responsibilities. The. It’s a matter of managing your resources. If you look at your total time available to train in a week let’s say you have 10 hours available each week to train in preparation for BC bike race, just as an example I would dedicate.
Two hours a week to strength training to compliment what you’re doing on the bike just as a starting point and it with those two hours you would begin with basic body movements. If you have access to a gym where there’s strength equipment available you, I would choose multi joint training.
Exercises over single joint, so push ups and squats deadlifts when your form is good, pull ups, pushing and pressing, those sort of movements and you can do a lot of that with with just body weight as an introduction and from there, you want to pay attention to your To the intensity to your reps and your sets and how much you’re resting between each exercise.
For you, Moniera, in this case one of my questions would be, what is your previous experience in the gym? So if the gym’s a brand new environment for you you’re and you’ve been cleared to get in the gym from a doctor, you’re not dealing with any previous injuries then, I would start with exercises like push ups and lunges and squats chin ups or dips.
Those sort of exercises where you’re moving through a full range of motion. You are not dealing with any joint pain as you do the exercise. If there is joint discomfort or you’re not we’re working on muscles. So you don’t want to be. creating discomfort at the joint, and sometimes as a new person in the gym environment, that’s hard to distinguish.
But that’s something to pay attention to. And you want to start off with small bites so that, the next day you can get back on your bike and do some, do your training sessions. You don’t want the gym sessions to be so intense or so involved that it takes away from the quality of what you’re doing on the bike.
Every time you walk out of the door at the end of a gym session, you want to feel stronger. You don’t want to feel beat up. So that helps temper the intensity and the volume of what you’re doing, and that’s relative to what your previous experience is in the gym, but it’s also relative to, are you naturally a strong individual?
You might be moving more weight or doing more volume in the gym than somebody that, is, has been sedentary or has been an endurance athlete, but just hasn’t spent much time in the gym. Does that make sense? That’s super helpful. And I think that also answers one of, one of the questions in the chat from Alan asking how often is recommended.
So I think you said start with twice a week. I think like for you for us as endurance athletes, for us in BC bike race is it’s a commitment. It’s not something you’re going to do off the couch. And so you need to spend a lot of time on the bike. I think you can. Just from my own experience and from what I see with my clientele and just the science twice a week, if it’s a good quality session is more than enough.
And you want to do that where there’s at least a day, ideally 2 days between your time in the gym. To plan it that way, if you’re short on time, I’d much rather a 20 minute or a. 30 minute session than no session at all. But again. the focus is becoming a better cyclist. It’s not it’s not to become a better gym athlete.
And what I mean by that is you don’t the gym will compliment your riding. It’s a great form of cross training. But it, we don’t need it to be the focus of your training sessions. And sorry, what I mean by that, again, is coming back to when you walk out of the gym I want you to feel stronger. I want you to feel healthier from the session, not beat up from it. If that makes sense, no, that makes total sense.
Moniera:
And then I see another question in the chat saying, what are your recommended program for us as cyclists? I, is there a tool that you will be sharing with us a basic plan and then tell us how you can adapt that based on where you are in your training journey.
Jason:
Yeah, absolutely. Right now, this time of year our, we’re trying to ramp up a lot of our time on the bike in endurance miles. And so the nice thing about that is there isn’t a lot of intensity this time of year. It’s more about volume. And with the gym program, now’s a great time to ramp up the intensity.
The program that I’ll be handing out to you will be mostly body weight involved or body weight exercises as a starting point, and then they’re very easy to add more resistance by grabbing some dumbbells as you do a lunge, for example, or holding a dumbbell, in a goblet position where it’s in front of you for when you’re doing a squat bands are also a great piece to add to the exercises.
But the idea is that if you have the luxury of doing two workouts or two training sessions in a day. If you have the choice, I would choose to do the bike session and then do the gym session later in the day. If it’s a session where you’re training at home and you have the luxury of both being on the trainer and doing the strength training at home, I would choose to do the bike training first and then add the gym session.
The gym work. I want you to focus on multi joint movements. Lunges and squats. I’ve mentioned that already. But it’s also because those movements tend to be more athletic. They tend to be more practical to what we’re doing as riders. So you can imagine how that works. Push up relates very much to being up out of the saddle and pushing your bars as you push the wheel to affect the traction control when you’re on your bike.
And the same thing with the legs. So whether you’re sitting in the saddle and you’re pedaling, there’s a part of that movement that is very much related to a lunge or a squat. Um, with pushing and pulling those movements in the gym relate very closely to what you’re doing on the bike.
And so in getting stronger in those movements, it helps you execute that on the bike more efficiently. So when it comes time to unweight your front wheel to get it up on top of Say a ledge or a log. When you’re a stronger rider, you can do that and spend less energy doing it, if that makes sense.
So therefore, especially for us as endurance athletes with that efficiency you can just execute those moves more often and more more precisely. So there isn’t, especially at the end of a long day you’ll see riders that are weaker or just tired or stretched and they they’re, they execute those movements and it looks a bit more sloppy which is just a matter of not being as precise with the movements as they get tired.
Moniera:
I think we can move on to a question from Lisa here. And Lisa, I might ask you to, if you’re able to unmute yourself and just clarify your question here, because you were asking about practice, increasing load bearing on mainly maintenance. Can you just clarify?
Lisa:
Yeah, my question has to do with if you’re already doing resistance training do you continue to increase or do you just, keep it at a heavy load and just use that as your training rather than continually trying to increase The load. Does that make sense?
Jason:
Yeah, no, that makes sense. I think this time of year, like if I came, so this is a great question related to training history as well, right? So if you’re coming into this conversation and you have quite a bit of experience and are currently training, my emphasis would be over the next couple of months cropping the reps getting into heavier weight, but using fewer reps.
So just Naturally, for most people, when they think the gym for endurance athletes, they think high reps, low weight. I believe strongly in the opposite most times. For us as cyclists, we’re getting more than enough endurance work on the bike. What we need is that ability to execute something or get up out of the saddle and put down peak wattage, or like I said, lift the bike up onto a ledge, do that repeatedly, but it’s closer to a peak strength movement, if that makes sense.
And so what I would consider this time of year, at least, is taking your exercises and focusing on moving more weight. But perhaps. For fewer reps.
Lisa:
Okay. Perfect. That that, that answers my question. 100%. Thank you for that because I have been plateaued, at a relatively heavy weight, but I’ve been doing more reps because it’s become a little bit easier as I keep training, which is awesome. Yeah so so that was that you answered it perfectly. So I’m going to increase the weight and reduce the number 6 to 8 or something along that line.
Jason:
Yeah, so with my clientele the program we do here is 6 months and it runs from November till April and we, right now, we’re doing, 10 to 15 reps. We’re referring to it as an anatomical adaptation phase. They’ve come off a season of great riding. Some have kept up some gym work over the summer. Some have done zero. So we give them about four weeks of just this phase where it’s it’s mid, middle of the road for reps. It almost would be considered a hypertrophy program.
So hypertrophy refers to. Increasing the cross section of muscle you’re putting on muscle. But for my clientele, it’s more about just getting the exercises dialed, getting the body used to handling volume and just increasing tendon strength, the muscle strength. And then once we roll into January, February, we take those exercises and we drop exactly as I’ve described.
We drop the reps. We go, we’ll use 10 reps at the beginning of the month. Let’s say we’re doing four rounds or four sets. We’ll do a decreasing amount of sets sorry, decreasing amount of reps in each set. So we consider the first and second set as a warmup. So we’ll do 10 reps, eight reps, and I. I want to leave one of the terms we refer to as reps in reserve.
So every time you pick up a weight and do the exercise, if I’m asking for 10 reps, especially for those warm up sets, I want at least five reps in reserve. I want them to just focus on the movement and getting warmed up. So that by the time they get to the third and fourth set, we’ve dropped down to five or even three reps.
But very heavy weight, and still leaving one to two reps in reserve. The thing I, the reason why I mention all of this Lisa is form is paramount at this point. When you’re moving a lot of weight around, you want to be very confident with the movement. And if you have any question around the movement, or you’re not sure about it you, You need to not go down this path, if that makes sense.
So that’s where machines can be helpful. If you have access to a gym that has machines. Yes. The beauty of machines is that they can help the participant keep good form. But in our environment, the gym where I’m training my clientele, they’re doing these heavyweights. Under my supervision, but, they’re doing a squat with a barbell or they’re doing deadlifts or those sort of exercises, but they’ve also because of that 4 to 6 weeks of anatomical adaptation and just feedback and a number of steps to get to January, February, they’re executing, the skill of lifting at a very high level.
And so they’re very confident with the movement that they’re doing. I hope that adds to your question.
Lisa:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. It’s great. Thank you so much for your time and your knowledge. Yeah, you got me on a subject I love to talk about. So thank you.
Moniera:
Thanks for that, Lisa. Moving on you, I see one from Ben asking how long should we wait after strength workout before doing a training ride, say an hour in zone two or intervals in zone five.
Jason:
Yeah. Great question. And I love the spending a lot of time in zone two and this time of year peppering up with some zone five. I would ideally it’s. Like we talked about having the luxury of those two sessions on the same day ideally in the morning, it could be a Zone 2 or a Zone 5 session focus and then the strength in the afternoon.
I think when it’s a Zone 2, you can have a pretty small window. Between the zone 2 session and the gym session, I would, if you’re doing a gym session on one day, or let’s say in the evening, and then the next morning you have a session, I would follow it up with a zone 2, if you have the opportunity, and then let’s say you have one zone 5 session a week, this time of year, I would try to space the zone 5 session, so that higher intensity session, and the two gym sessions, So you can put those things out so that you know there you’ve got a seven day week.
You’ve got, as an example, let’s say a gym session on Monday, another gym session on Wednesday, and then the zone five on Friday. So try to put one day between each of those entire intensity sessions. And then you could have zone two, Follow the next day. If you don’t have that luxury, then it’s just a matter of being strategic about what you’re trying to improve. Again, as cyclist, I think I would put the zone 5 in a place where you’re freshest and then follow up the gym work when maybe you’re dealing with a bit of fatigue. If that makes sense, but there’s a couple ways to go about that, too.
Moniera:
Perfect. Thank you. Jessie is asking what brand of bands do you recommend?
Jason:
Living in North Van, we have access to Fitnesstown and they have their own branded bands. Recently, I bought some off of Amazon. Actually, I need to look that up right now. And I think they were, um. I’ll answer that question here in just one sec, Jesse. I’m just looking up to see what brand they were.
I think they were Habba Bear or something like that. But yeah I, I like the longer bands that are marketed towards helping you with your chin ups. But we also use the bands that you throw around your ankles or knees for squats too because that helps. That’s a great accessory for working on some of the shoulder stability, but also some of the hip stability exercises.
I’m just looking up the band night, bands I ordered recently on Amazon. Any other questions right now? Or did you have a question to follow up with that?
Jessie:
No, I don’t have a follow up. I just I’ve tried a bunch of different types of bands and I just I never know Some are so much better than other ones. And so from, I just wanted to know from your perspective, which ones were good. I’d also be interested in knowing which ones, the smaller ones that go around your thighs or ankles, which brand you like of those ones as well.
Jason:
Yeah. So from Amazon recently, I ordered a brand called hat bear, and we can, I can send you a link to it. So it’s H A P B E A R. They’re fine. I’ve only had them in the gym with me, like in a commercial setting for the last couple of weeks and they were decent. I miss the ones from, I don’t know what part of the world you’re in, but we have a franchise here on the West Pacific Northwest called Fitness Town.
And they have their own branded bands that were fine as well. And in fact they had lasted for years. So once you get the right band, they’ll last for a long time. And then for the stuff. For the smaller bands. Again, I’m just looking that up one second here, but I In a commercial setting, the fabric bands are nice because they just tend to last a little bit longer.
But the reality is I use the rubber bands in the gym environment. Give me a second. I’ll try to find the brand of that. Any other questions with that, Jessie?
Jessie:
No. Thank you for looking those up. My gym doesn’t, they seem to disappear every time I go. And so I find one that I like, and then the next day it’s gone. So I want to get my own to bring to the gym. Yeah, absolutely. I’d check in with the gym, but I know from my end, like they they don’t last for long. They get abused or once they’re nicked there for, at my end. I don’t want my clients taking a risk with a band breaking on them, so I’ll throw it out before before they actually rip.
Perfect. Yeah. I’ll and when I provide this PDF I’ll also send links to the bands that I’m using currently, so you guys can find them. Or you can go online and order them for yourself. Yeah. Yeah.
Moniera:
Can we move on to, I have a question here from Eric who asks, can you speak to building core torso strength? I am particularly interested in building back strength. That has been a weak point for me, despite working on core torso strength for a number of years.
Jason:
So first off, like just making sure there aren’t injuries involved. If you’re injury-free there’s a gentleman named Dr. Stuart McGill. He has his three basic exercises, and they’re a good starting point. He likes, he highly recommends a bird dog. What are the other two? I think it’s Superman. Can you just look that up for me? Stuart McGill’s Big Three. From there, there’s another great video. There’s a group called The Foundation Training.
And if you go on their YouTube, you will see a 12 minute video that was posted 10 years ago. And they have a great routine. It almost looks like yoga. But it is addressed specifically to back back health and back strength and the beauty of that is it’s it does not use any weights and the video is very easy to follow and then from there this is a highly skilled exercise that can cause damage when not done well, so it’s really important to understand what you’re doing with this exercise.
But a straight leg deadlift or Roman deadlift is a great one for strengthening in the back when it’s done well. If it’s not done well, it will cause issues very quickly. But from there, upper back wide grip pull ups are helpful. I use the supermans a lot. I also really what we call a hyper back extension.
You can lie on the edge of a bench or on a physio ball and you lift up your lower body versus lifting your upper body. And that’s a really good one. For back strength that we use quite a bit but ultimately the best one that we use consistently and it’s certainly not the primary movement.
The primary mover in the exercise is the hamstring with a deadlift, but the deadlift is a big one for back strength. So a quick follow up. So when you’re talking about the lower body lifting up a bench, are you prone or supine? You’re lying face down on the bench. It depends on the height of the bench, right?
So sometimes we’ll use a plyometric box just because it’s, it’s three feet, four feet off the ground. And so you lay on the box. You want to make sure it’s whatever you’re lying on is anchored and that you can hold on to it with your hands, but you’re lying face down on it with your, from above your waist and your torso supported.
Okay. And so your legs are hanging off the end of the box and then we do call it a hyper extension, but a cue that is really important is that you are extending your low, lower body in line with the rest of your torso, you’re not trying to lift your legs above your torso. So one of the cues I’ll often use with that one is think about kicking your heels straight out behind you. So you go from a relaxed position. It can be, depending on how tight you are, it can actually feel like a stretch when your legs are hanging like that. And then you’re kicking your heels so that the, your entire lower body is an extension of your upper body.
Eric:
Okay. Yeah, I’ve been doing RDLs and stuff like that, but that sounds like a good one to add. Thank you.
Jason:
Yeah, and I can’t recommend the foundation video enough. It’s a bit of a dark horse when you watch it. It doesn’t look like there’s much going on, but. When you do it a couple times, you’ll realize quickly. It’s a hard 12 minutes.One guy’s talking and the other two are doing the work as the the main guy is walking them through it. But it’s a 12 minute long video. Again, I’ll make sure there’s a link out there. His name’s Dr. Eric Goodman.
Moniera:
Next question comes from Katrina and she wants to know, should we be thinking about heavy lifting, heavy weights, fewer reps, or lighter weights and more reps? And how do we avoid creating too much fatigue that will impact our effectiveness on the bike?
Jason:
Yeah, great question. If you’re brand new to being in the gym, I would go with a 10 to 15 reps. And in fact, the program that I’ve provided, there’s a build. You basically the purpose or the With strength training, you want your body to adapt. And I am a big believer in this idea of using strength training as considering it like medicine. So you want the minimum effective dosage. If that makes sense, and what will work for me will be a different dosage than, say, for yourself, Manera. Somebody with that’s naturally strong or somebody that has a older training age, meaning they’ve spent a lot of time in the gym, what they’re going to be doing and their ability to recover from that session will be different than somebody that has, only a little bit of experience.
So the first month in the gym just focus on doing the exercise as well, focus on building up reps. Just to make it easy, start with eight reps the next week, go up to 10, 12, top out at 15. But again, you want to leave a couple of reps in reserve. So if you’re doing eight reps with a pushup you want to, you Do a variation of the push up that when you walk away, you’re like, I could do two or three more of those pretty easily.
But if you’re doing a version of a push up and you’re like, I could do this all day, then that’s perhaps a little too, that is definitely too easy. It’s good to build up your confidence with it, but as you go deeper and spend more time in the gym, you want to get into that that space where you’re like, that’s a really good challenge.
My form is dialed and I know if I had to, I could do one or two more reps back to, lighter weight, more volume, more reps. Now’s the time you might do a little bit of that, but I. I genuinely feel you’ll get as a cyclist, you’ll get more out of moving towards the lower reps, higher weight, especially as you get closer to the riding season.
So that’s the variable that would change is right now start a little bit lighter and work up to being able to do 15 good quality reps. And then as. After about a month to six weeks change the focus that you’re dropping the reps and moving more.
Moniera:
And Katrina’s next question is, what’s the guideline for determining how heavy you’re lifting when you’re getting to that, those fewer reps?
Jason:
That’s a great question. So form. First and foremost, you’re, you have to be. Executing the exercise with very good form and then it sometimes like it’s a for so if form is starting to degrade while you’re doing the exercise like you’re just getting tired or it’s too much load, then it then you need to back off the weight at the end of each round.
So let’s say we’re doing four sets or rounds in that second and third set, as you’ve moved from warmup and you’re starting to build up the weight that you’re going to move, the goal weight you want to ask yourself every time you set that weight down, could I have done, how many more reps could I do?
And when you set that weight down, you’re like, that was it. That was, if I did one more rep, I was going to drop the weight or I was going to lose my form. It’s. It’s too heavy, in my opinion. If you put the weight down and you’re like, yeah, I could confidently do two to three more reps. That’s the sweet spot.
But if you put that weight down, you’re like, I could do five more, no problems. I could do that exercise all day. Then you need to ramp up the weight. Answer your question, Katrina. Is that good for you? Or did you have a follow up?
Katrina:
That was super helpful. In terms of progressing the weight, say, we’re at that heavy weight. Yeah. Is there, is it 10 percent per week or how would you think about that?
Jason:
That’s a great question. If we were only strength training, then, I would pay more attention to that. I think what’s important is taking into account everything else going on. I love data. I love measuring. I think one of the exciting things about the gym is to, Is seeing a weight that you know, a couple weeks ago made you nervous and now it’s your warm up weight. That’s really neat. But what’s more important to me is how it relates to your riding and acquiring that strength and seeing it show up on the bike.
I think with regards to the progression, it is. When you walk into the gym, part of it is just, from exercise to exercise, how are you feeling? I’ve talked about reps and reserve. I’ve also, another one is just a rate of perceived exertion. On a scale of 0 to 10, if lying on a couch is a, let’s say a 3, 10 is extremely hard, it’s everything you’ve got.
Overall, you want these sessions to be a 7 or 8. You want them to be lower at the beginning and as you get deeper into the season February, March, you want, and again, this is relative to everything else you’re doing, you want them to be an 8 or a 9. But again, you want to be able to walk out of the gym.
It’s not a successful workout to me if my clients have to crawl out because they’re just so spent. It doesn’t set them up for their next. Training ride. They need a much longer period to to get back on the bike and have a quality session on the bike. If you can just do that minimum effective dosage to your question, you do need to ramp up, how much how much you’re doing I wouldn’t go by percentages.
I would go by feel and then just record, what you’re doing for that max weight. On the 3rd and 4th set and just make sure that the trend is up. You will definitely hit plate plateaus. You’ll definitely have the occasional session where it feels like you’re going backwards, but all in all, you want to see the trend moving up.
And that’s with regards to how much you’re moving. So there’s a couple variables you can look at, but I think for us as cyclists, the big one is just physically using the gym to physically get stronger in terms of what that max weight is for the exercise. So like a bench press, I think a bench press moving, just as an example, moving a bench a heavier weight for two or three reps, I think is going to help you on the bike more significantly than being able to do the same weight, but really bump up the volume of reps, right? So if you went and did a bench press today, and you can move a hundred pounds.
I’d be much more excited to know you could do 150 pounds in 6 weeks from now 10 times than that 100 pounds 20 times. Both are moving your fitness, both are moving your strength. One’s more strength endurance, which for us as endurance athletes seems like what we should be using the gym to pursue, but I tend to disagree.
I think the strength the increase in power and strength is more important. You’re getting more than enough endurance work on the bike.
Katrina:
Yeah. Thank you. Last question, like in terms of just feeling the goal is to not feel muscle burn during these lifting sessions. Is that correct? Or, is that going to add to our muscle fatigue for writing or it can if you’re, especially
Jason:
Yeah. If you’ve come off a heavy lifting session, it can. And that’s why I recommend like a zone two, where if there’s a bit of muscle fatigue you’re still able to achieve your goal.
With what you’re trying to do in that zone 2 session, whereas if it’s a zone 5 session, and you’re already dealing with muscle fatigue, it’s going to take away from that zone 5 session which is why I also, earlier on, I recommended doing the zone 5 session if you have a, before doing a strength session, if that makes sense or placing a priority on the zone 5 session in a state when you’re a bit more rested.
Moniera:
And speaking of all the endurance things, there’s a question from Aaron here about how many hours of Zone 2 3 would you recommend per week? And for how many weeks at this point in the training process?
Jason:
That’s more a question for one of the other coaches, but it is I do training programs as well. I think this time of year you cannot do too much Zone 2. The beauty of Zone 2 is if you’re doing it in the right heart rate zones, it’s much, much easier to recover from, and it’s just at the end of the day especially for a BC bike race, but it’s surprising for what broad range of cycling events that having a big aerobic injury engine is so helpful.
So the more zone two you can do, the better. I think the question specifically to what time it really depends on what your resources are. If you are training full time, then it should be. 80%. And I think, you could still use it at this time of year. You could still use that as a formula.
If you have 10 hours, then, it’d be safe to say close to eight hours should probably be that zone to in, in my opinion. But again, I would refer to and we have Adam and I would refer to, I’m sure Karsten spoken to his recommendations for zone 2. I also. Yeah, that’s the other great thing about zone 2 is it’s very easy, especially this time of year to set up a trainer and multitask while you’re doing your zone 2. It, that was always a time I caught up on my YouTube videos and my Netflix series as I could do quality zone 2 because I kept one eye on my heart rate and on my cadence and my wattage but I could still take in a movie while I’m doing that zone 2.
Moniera:
On the subject of zone two, we do have a BC bike race Zwift club. And we have some great zone two rides on there. My favorite one is the Sunday morning when I think it’s at the ungodly hour of 8 a. m. here on the west coast. But it’s a really nice fun 90 minute ride and I think it dips into zone three for a few short segments, but it’s mostly zone two.
Yeah, and it tends to be a more social workout too, so it’s a great time to rally with friends. And it’s just, yeah, you’re just not out there in the abyss on your own. I do find those worthwhile. It’s good for that. Craig, I see your question next. What would you recommend we do in terms of flexibility, mobility, stretching? Historically, I’ve been really poor at this or looking to improve. What was the very last part of that? The flexibility, mobility, and stretching.
Jason:
Yeah I’m a big believer in the gym should be it can be very effective in creating mobility and flexibility. As an example, that straight leg deadlift if you’re maintaining really good form and going to your end range, it will actually create or and improve your mobility.
A good squat will help improve your mobility, depending on what’s tight and what needs work. I would tend to, I I would tend to do your stretching, like your static stretching at the end of a session, whether it’s a ride or a A strength session with strength sessions. I really like doing a dynamic warm up more as a chance to just get the muscles and joints moving, but also to do an inventory of just how you’re feeling from the work you’re doing, or if you had a, a wipe out on the bike, just how that area is feeling.
And so you’re, you’re. have all the information you need going into your workout, your gym workouts. There are the big ones for me with regards to stretching are more about just how do I say this? If you have injuries that require stretching, then. Then that is the focus when it comes to stretching.
For us as cyclists, the big one’s posture. Posture relates to efficiency when you’re on the bike, but also off the bike. So if you have really tight hip flexors, which is pretty common for us as riders and just with our lives in front of desks and sitting in cars and that sort of thing. That the couch stretch is a great one to do.
But what I find is with a good strength program where you’re focused on healthy range of motion and the joints are moving well, it will actually contribute to your mobility and your flexibility. So I don’t actually emphasize a lot on that area because I feel it’s benefited with a good strength program.
Moniera:
Thank you for that. The next question comes in from Jane and she’s asking about plyometrics and how you apply that in an indoor setting, working in some jumps. into your workout?
Jason:
It’s a great question. I would I always pepper my workouts with some plyometric work. I’d never make plyometrics the focus of the session.
I’d rather the sprint and speed work actually be done on the bike. But if you’re doing plyometrics, Single joint is start small and then work to doing bigger plyometrics. So plyometrics is an expression, it’s an opportunity to express power. But the side benefits of plyometrics, like strength training, is it does help build up tendon strength if it’s done well.
The idea too is it. When done properly, it can add to, this elasticity that we, it’s less relevant for us as riders. It’s more relevant for runners, but it helps with this kinetic elasticity that’s involved with running. But for us as bikers, there are times where we need to execute something again, let’s say a bunny hop or absorbing, a bit of a drop off or suddenly our wheel gets caught in a hole and it feels like somebody grabbed the brakes without us being ready.
That’s a great example where a plyometric, but more importantly, strength will help us stay upright and stay on the bike. I would say. As a starting point, we do a lot of skipping type exercises. We do a lot of CMJs. So where you’re in a deep squat and trying to jump as high as you can.
I really like the idea of breaking forces. For a court athlete, the idea is that the better you are putting on your breaks. And changing direction, the faster your body is able to go is the theory and for us as cyclists, those are the times where we’re jamming on the brakes as we come into a corner or we’re riding off a drop off and able to absorb the force and keep controls for, change of direction or the next obstacle.
I really like low level, stepping off a box and just absorbing the landing with plyometrics. It’s so important that there’s no joint pain and you’ve just, you want to start off small and just add a little bit with regards to either the intensity of like bigger jumps, higher jumps or the volume.
But they’re in my programs, but they’re not the focus of our programs. And I will bring in a bit more of the plyometric stuff as we get closer to the season. So just helping take that strength that we’ve acquired and turning that into power moving things quickly. Again, you’ve got me on subjects that I really enjoy talking about.
Moniera:
I think we have time for one more. And this one’s coming from Craig Courtney, who currently has I’m just going to read this question. It says I’m a pretty consistent gym guy. Going, he says four to five times a week, three days, split, push day, pull day, then legs. But he’s thinking about going towards a full body three day a week with lower reps so you can spend more time on the bike. What are your thoughts about that idea?
Jason:
I think, especially with that training experience behind you, I think that will serve you really well. And Three days is more than enough in the gym, assuming you’re not doing any conditioning. Sometimes when people go to the gym, there’s still a big cardio component. So you can imagine from CrossFit, like an AMRAP style, that’s a big conditioning component, but maybe they also jump on the rower or do sled work.
It’s all great stuff. But I think, Again, the goal is to become a better rider right now, and so I think two to three times in the week, moving to that the multi joint movements, I think will serve you really well. I hope that helps.
Moniera:
I really love what you’re talking about, how we apply the strength training with the focus of becoming a better rider. Cause everybody has different strength training goals, but I think for most of us in the school, our strength training is very specific. For this goal of not dying next July. That’s my mantra. Don’t die next July.
Jason:
No, you want to show up and enjoy it at the very least. And we all have different goals for what that looks like on the, on during that week. Like I said, at the beginning, I’m a cyclist. First, the gym was just a fantastic cross training tool. Yeah. really moved the needle for me in my writing. And I think the other thing that’s really exciting in this day and age is there’s so much knowledge available now with regards to how strength training both helps us in regards to performance, but also longevity.
There’s a lot in pop culture right, right at this moment about the benefits of strength training and allowing us to keep riding, into our sixties and seventies. And I think that’s another part of the strength training piece that I’ve continues to keep me in the gym is I want to be able to ride with my grandchildren.
And part of my. Responsibility is that I keep some strength training in there for those rides.
Moniera:
I’m training for BC bike race, but I’m also training to be 85, I want to be able to carry my groceries at 85. So that’s definitely something that I think about. Carmel, do you have our little magic spinny thing so we can do a prize draw?
I feel like we’ve run out of time and I hope none of you feel rushed with your questions, please feel free to email me info at bcbikerace.com and I can make sure that Jason gets to your questions. Jason, before we go to the prize draw, tell us where our races can find you on Instagram and your website, please.
Yeah, so I’m at Bond Training and my website is bondtraining.ca. Please feel free to send me an email or message me through instagram. We will have a free plan provided through B. C. Bike race. And then we have options for more detailed programming. And from there.
Yeah, I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you. I appreciate your patience. I felt like I the questions are so helpful for me, just with regards to focusing on what information I can share. So I really appreciate Moniera and you guys as an audience for throwing some great questions my way.
And I’m really excited to see and hear about your progress in the weeks and months ahead. Yeah, that, that should be part of the fun part is the process of getting from here to there.
Moniera:
I certainly hope so. Carmel, over to you to do the magic draw prize for those petals now.
Carmel:
And we have Oh my goodness, you’re kidding me! Lisa!
Lisa: Oh no! I don’t think I can win twice.
Carmel:
We had a women’s call, and Lisa won the prize on the women’s call as well, so she’s They’re gonna think it’s rigged.
Moniera:
Thank you. And before we wrap this up, I see Amy asking about the woman’s call. Amy We had a call a couple of weeks ago because we’re trying to get our women’s participation up to 25 percent in 2025. You can see the recording of that call on the same link that Carmel shared. And again if there’s, this applies to all of you to bring friends, but most importantly to the women, because This is Carmel and my mission for 2025 is to bump our women participation up to 25%.
Jason, thank you very much. That was really great. Please continue to work with us on the Coaches Corner program where Jason will be able to answer your questions and, Adam has been talking about the whole get ready to get ready thing with now thick into sort of the holiday season we get to, you get to choose how you go through the next couple of weeks, but we’ll definitely hit the ground running in January, and, um, we have six months to get ready for this way.
It’s going to be amazing. Thanks everyone for your time. Thank you again, Jason. Thank you for your questions and participation. Bye.