FITNESS

You don’t need to be a powerful athlete when starting off with trials.

But what’s very important from day 1  — especially if you want to keep progressing for a long time — is to learn the coordination for correct movement patterns and have at least a decent amount of strength in them.

Good news: You can build both at the same time.

We see a lot of video content from other sports and hobbies — especially fitness sports like Cross-Fit or bodybuilding. You can work out like them if you want, but it’s not the most effective way to train for trials.

To put it short: In case you don’t need to rehab from an injury or fix imbalances, skip isolation movements.
(Yes, I said it — no bicep curls!)

Instead, focus on the right compound exercises and movement flows that actually transfer to riding.

UPPER BODY

Perfect exercises for the beginning are basic push-ups, rowing, and inverted rowing to build your first upper body strength in the horizontal plane.

CORE

Planks are a great place to start. They build endurance, but more importantly, they teach your body what a strong straight line really is — and how to keep tension through it.

LEGS

Start with different squat variations and hip thrusts. These help you learn how to drive forward, develop power out of a strong hip hinge, and build movement patterns that transfer directly to the bike.

We cover this topic in depth on Day 9 of THE FOUNDATION - Also including how to most effectively fit those workout into your week (So you actually do them).