Make Time For Training With Greg Hammond - The Dirty Part

Without a doubt, the most common excuse for not working out is lack of time. With the pressures of work, school or family, it can be hard to fit in a training session, but by skipping this conditioning you're missing out on some huge benefits on the bike. With this in mind, we asked Concept2's Greg Hammond, a full-blooded moto junkie with a background in Health Sciences, to shed some light on the subject of time-efficient MX training.

"Be realistic about the time you have to train and what you want to get out of it. Are you training to try to make it onto a factory team, or are you feeling the need to start training because the elastic on your chest protector no longer reaches all the way around? Let's be honest: Riding-not training-is our passion, and if we have any free time, we are out on the bike (family and work willing). However, you'd be surprised how little time it takes to make your riding more enjoyable with only a little working out, even if you work full-time and have a family; just 30 or 45 minutes of cardio a few times a week will make a huge difference in your conditioning. All you need to do is set some realistic goals, decide what you want out of your training program and then make time to actually commit to it!"

"Find a workout that is efficient and gets results. Seeing as time is a factor, you'll need an exercise that uses as many muscle groups as possible at one time to simulate riding's effects on the body. Running and cycling are great forms of training, but running can be troublesome for anyone with bad knees and both can be weather dependent and risky depending on where you live. Also, these workouts offer only limited benefits for upper body strength and endurance. Swimming is awesome because it works all muscles at the same time, but the drawback is convenience; it can be hard to get to a pool. A training tool that is fairly new to motocross and off-road racing is indoor rowing. You have probably seen indoor rowers in health clubs for years, but they have definitely gained in popularity recently. It works the whole body at once and can be used for both over-distance cardio training or to build up muscular strength and speed. The downside is that it's not the most exciting piece of equipment (unless you try to beat Travis Pastrana's 500-meter time of 1:28.6!)."

"Make it interesting. Once you've found your workout of choice, you need to give yourself a little motivation to keep it fun. What I suggest that riders do is to record races from TV and row (or spin) for a full length of a moto from gate drop to checkered flag! It is possible to actually train your body to think it is racing a couple of times a week even though you're still in your living room, basement or back deck. Keep in mind that when your whole body is working together at or near race pace it cannot tell the difference between racing and training. If you do this and throw in some basic body weight exercises like push-ups, pull-ups and air squats, you can get big results in a relatively short time."

For more about indoor training visit www.concept2.com.