Or, How To Not Give Yourself a Hernia Picking Up Your Bike
This morning was day one for riding in my jurisdiction. While temperatures are still pretty cool, there is no ice or snow on the roads to create safety issues. However, ice and snow aren’t the only problems we are likely to encounter on our first outing of the year.
How’s your level of fitness?
Today I stopped at an intersection and a rider on a heavy adventure bike had stopped in front of me. The road was dry, but the intersection was still covered with sand and gravel from the winter. The rider put down his right foot, which immediately slid out on the gravel, and he dropped his bike on its side. The rider was overweight, but worse, he was in terrible shape. His BMW 1250 GS weighs about 590 pounds and it was obvious that from his lack of technique and level of fitness he wasn’t going to get the bike off the ground.
I got out of my car and gave him a hand, showing him a technique to lift his bike that would hopefully ensure that he didn’t herniate himself in the process. The problem was that it’s likely that is what he did. He complained of lower abdominal pain. I suggested he go to his doctor because he may well have herniated himself. He said little, likely embarrassed, thanked me, got on his bike, with obvious difficulty, and then rode off.
It seems that at the beginning of every riding season, I encounter people who have not taken the time to exercise and in so doing protect themselves from the challenges they’ll face riding, especially if they ride an Adventure bike off-road on challenging terrain.
Key Exercises
It should be obvious that we need to ensure that our core muscles, legs, back and shoulders are in decent shape when we start riding. I realize that not all of us want, or like to exercise. But it’s in our best interests to have enough strength to manage the bike and the ride.
Legs
Lunges will strengthen your quadriceps and hamstrings, so taking the time to work on these will help, a lot. Squats holding a weight in front and close to the body will help build your glutes and hamstrings, the strength you’ll need when moving, lifting, or loading your bike.
Core
Leg raises and side planks will help build your core muscles, along with an exercise known as ‘dead bug’. Sit-ups and crunches can round out your core exercises, but you’ll be able to have much more confidence and control if you maintain your core strength.
Shoulders
Push-ups, shoulder presses, and incline presses are all great exercises for the shoulders. One-arm rows will help your back strength along with rowing and lat pulldowns.
There is a wide range of exercises that you can use that don’t require specialized equipment or a minimum of equipment. Spring is here and we’ve all probably put on some winter weight, so now’s the time to either get back to the gym, ride a stationary bike, or use a stair climber. Failing that, just use a couple of flights of stairs and complete ten flights of stairs per set. All exercises should be done with a weight that is comfortable for you to manage for 8 repetitions and 3 sets.
Enjoy the riding season, stay in shape and enjoy the ride.
FortNine has a decent video on Youtube entitled “Motorcycle Fitness” with a link, below.
https://youtu.be/6otRbkotkdg?si=I4_wvPzG5BKKR0Uc
Disclaimer:
Ciao…
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