As usual, sorry for my english, it’s not my first language. I’m a road bike cyclist but recently started MTB… Lot of fun!
As I have trained a lot I have not had problems with strength/endurance but I have had difficulties with skills…especially balance in the technical sections.
I haven’t been able to learn track stand or slow cornering, I struggle with switchbacks, etc. I end up walking frequently.
I will continue to practice on the bike but I have read that using a balance board can help me improve faster.
Has anyone had an experience or opinion to share? Any other ideas/suggestions?
You can also practice standing on 1 foot. If you are a master at that try putting something soft under your foot like a spongy pillow. You can use one one of those balance boards. Standing on one of those with one foot, without holding on to something, is a skill I could never master.
They’re a fun toy. I found the regular balance to be fairly easy after 15 or 20 minutes of practice, but when you move to advanced moves, it can get very difficult and really test you. I especially like the move with the feet facing perpendicular to the roller. It is a direct correlating position with trackstands.
If you happen to have one (I saw them at IKEA of all places once), you will probably see some balance and coordination improvements. If anything, it can make a lazy TV afternoon more productive.
It’s not going to be specifically for the bike but balance and single leg work is very good for general life.
I’ve got a wobble ball that I’ll stand on during the day as a break from the desk. Both single leg, both legs and squats, sometimes closed eyes, just to keep wobbly and take a break from sitting all day.
Yes and no. There are all sorts of skills, neuromuscular connections and strength you can train off the bike that will benefit cycling but also general day to day fitness/life.
Look at race drivers, motorcyclists and MTB athletes, they all do strength, hand-eye coordination and balance work off the bike/car whatever.
Oh, I’m not saying it is not useful. I just think if the main aim is to get better a slow bike skills, the time is better spend practicing slow bike skills, and not something else.
Don’t get a balance board - you’ll master that too quickly. Get a Skill Board (skillboardusa.com) if they’re available in your location.
I bought one specifically because I saw a couple pro mountain bikers using them. I used it daily for a month which was easy because it’s a lot of fun. When I got back on the bike and tried a track stand I was shocked by how much better I was even though I hadn’t been practicing track stands at all. You can even mimic your bike stance on the Skill Board which takes the difficulty factor up quite a bit. I think a lot of training devices are over-hyped, but this is one I whole-heartedly endorse and one I continue to use quite a bit.
I use an indo board between sets when doing strength training. I have no idea if it helps directly on the bike, but I figure it doesn’t hurt and probably helps with general balance. I have been trying to juggle while on the balance board, progress is slow. I’ve seen a few pro MTB’s do the juggling thing on balance boards and while riding no hands on rollers, so I’m sure I’ll be much faster on the bike if I can ever master it.
Pic of indo board (not me, I don’t look anywhere near as cool as this dude while using it).
I was introduced to a Bosu ‘balance trainer’ during a physical therapy session back when I had health insurance that actually covered that sort of thing. I was in for post knee scope, and they were working on everything that could help with knee rehab, and there was a woman there that had horrific balance. Turns out she was a couple years younger than me. I started pushing the balance stuff hard, and found it actually fairly easy (for me) and even bought one after therapy ended. It can really kick your tail feathers, and you can inflate it to a higher pressure to make it feel less sluggish. Do some of the different yoga poses dealing with balance to see how easy/hard that thing is. They even had me doing wall squats with the thing, and wow, those were killer, for me. It’s a pretty sneaky hard PT toy that can bring surprising results. They are a bit pricey, but well worth it in my opinion.
EDIT: Oh, the Bosu is 360 degree movement. Its not just left/right, or forward/backward. It’s so easy to end up being bucked off the thing…
I ended up buying a bosu ball a couple years ago, after seeing a PT for some back and hip flexor pain/instability issues, and I knew I had some muscle imbalance issues (due to the great majority of mu exercise being linear on the bike). Turned out I was right, the imbalance issue was bigger than I realized.
Thanks for all the answers! I will start with the single leg excercises @firemunki suggested and complement it with a balance board on my strength sessions, between sets as @grwoolf.
That’s scary! I broke my tibia & fibula 13 years ago, so I don’t have enough range of motion or stability in my left ankle to use one of those. Of course, self-limiting for that lack of range and stability is how I got weak and out of balance in the first place (catch-22).
But that foam block will do the job, I bet, if you’ve worked up to it. With the Bosu ball, I thought I was doing it the hard way while standing on the rigid flat side (up). Then one day I turned it over, and all those little muscles in my foot having to bend and mold (and resist) the free form of the inflated rubber almost put me on my knees. I guess that’s another aspect of the balance work, is to do it barefoot.
I broke my tibia & fibula 13 years ago, so I don’t have enough range of motion or stability in my left ankle to use one of those. Of course, self-limiting for that lack of range and stability is how I got weak and out of balance in the first place (catch-22).