@Rich_Strauss and I hung for a while tonight to talk shop, and one thing we discussed was fitness in off road motorcycling, and how many folks come into the sport/hobby without realizing what a physical challenge (struggle?) it is, and put themselves in dangerous situations. We also pondered why no one ever talks about how important sleep, diet, and exercise are to riding motos off road, and particularly when taking on something like a BDR.
Imagine my surprise when I got home tonight and Adam Riemann had just posted a video on this very topic, with a bunch of footage of him shredding on his mountain bike. He covers aging, getting and staying fit, and of course, how small bikes are a much better tool on which to learn and develop skill.
This led me to think, as a potentially fun thing to do this coming winter, how many of us would be down for a “fitness accountability & humility krew” (FAHK) thing where we encourage/help/shit talk each other into gathering up some winter fitness? Rich is good at running these kinds of things, given his decades as a coach/trainer… maybe he can help because he doesn’t have enough going on.
Yes! At 56 I need all the help and motivation I can get. I watched that video last night before seeing this post and was impressed with how spot-on Adam is when it comes to conveying what is important to getting the most out of the moto/ADV riding experience.
yeah, fantastic video, should almost be stickied somewhere as reference. It’s 100% spot on.
Edit. To answer the question about fitness, yes. I’ve had similar conversations with friends and mtb. Can’t just hit the gym, needs to be specific to the activity you want to do. Would be helpful for me.
The discussion that @mulebarn and I had, among other topics:
People get sold on and interested in the ADV bike thing typically later in life: in my experience, anywhere from the early 30’s to early 50’s and beyond.
For the average American, this also tracks with when they are at their least fit, strong, resistant to injury, least mobile, and at their heaviest.
With these poor cards they then sit at the table to play a high stakes game of riding a big ass heavy bike, with all the gear, but with very little dirt riding skills, instincts, and reflexes.
Their general unhealthiness shows up the first time they have to pick up the bike. And then it gets worse and worse across the day, dramatically increasing the risk of injury and $$$ damage to bike and body.
After a lifetime of high level endurance performance, the most valuable fitness framework I’ve found is from Outlive by Dr Peter Attia, in which he describes creating your own Octogenarian Decathlon.
That is, in the last decade of your life, what are the activities you want to still be able to do. For example:
Pick up a 30lb toddler (or whatever they weigh, I’ve never had one…) off the ground.
Sit on the ground to play with a grandchild and get back up
Walk up a flight of stair carrying 20lb of groceries in each hand
Be able to put a 20-30lb carry-on in the overhead compartment of an airplane.
Walk / hike comfortable for 3 miles
You get the idea.
Each of these are objective metrics: lift #x pounds, walk #y distance, etc. If you want to be able to do these things when you’re 80yo, and assuming a natural physical decline of x% per year, you can work the numbers backwards to assess what metrics you should be putting up in your 30s, 40s, 50s, etc.
The TL:DR is that your Future Self wants your Present Self to get as strong and aerobically fit as possible. However, the Average American makes poor choices, every day, that builds a physical prison for themselves brick by brick. Their Future Self will one day be locked in the prison of their body that their Present Self built, brick by brick, by not making daily good choices.
Last year I realized that my former athletes and I are in a similar place: making the transition from high level endurance performance towards training for longevity and healthspan, with the goal to remain as active as possible in the last decades of our lives. I created a Discord group for us all to network and share accountability towards a Sober October Challenge.
I created a ton of content for that group and it would be easy for me to repurpose that over here.
All of this. And especially true for folks like me who have some chronic crap to deal with. It’s not about longevity; it’s about quality of health (healthspan, as Rich called it).
A funny test: if you can’t stand on on foot, take off your shoe and sock, then put them both back on and tie the laces, you’re not at zero yet. @BrotherPicnic and I call this the old man test.
Well as a relatively young guy, I will even say the day to day and focusing on carving out time to work on stuff makes focusing on fitness difficult. I try to be active 2-3 times throughout the week, then am usually hiking/biking/motorcycling on the weekends. Happy to connect with folks in the Superior/Westminster/Thornton areas though as I am regularly at the Westminster rec center lifting weights and would be open to local cycling for cardio!
