Managing arm pump Part 3: ENDURANCE TRAINING

Jeremy and I have spent many hours running and cycling to sharpen our fitness for the Lucas Oil pro nationals.

I wish I had a dollar for every time someone in motocross asked me, “Why would you train for more than 30 minutes when you’re only racing for 30 minutes?”  Well…. Where to begin?? I have a large running background having run cross country throughout High School, it has been one of my go-to training options throughout my career, I’ve even completed 5 half marathons to date with a PR of 1:22:42.  I will use running as an example for the purposes of this article.  If you look at Collegiate and Professional 5km and 10km runners, you could draw similar comparisons to motocross in terms of race duration.  Top runners will cover these distances in a mind-blowing 13 minutes (5k) and 27 minutes (10K).  Here’s the kicker,  behind the scenes they are consistently logging some crazy volume, in some cases up to 100-miles a week or more.  All for races lasting less than 30 minutes!  This may seem crazy, but there are some methods and some science behind this style of training.    

Throughout my professional career, endurance training has had the single biggest impact on my confidence, longevity, fitness, and also played a major role in helping manage my arm pump.  I’ve been at both ends of the spectrum in this department.  When training with Ryno (Ryan Hughes) back in 2009-2010 we mainly focused on HIIT style workouts in the gym, and later in 2014-2015 my brother and I were doing 30 minute morning runs along with 2-hours on the bicycle, (often 6 days a week) with O’Show (Johnny O'mara).  On top of that, we were riding our motorcycles four days of the week! This has provided me with some great ”in-the-trenches” feedback on how to tackle this very crucial piece of the training puzzle.

Lot of hours were spent on mountain bikes with these two…

Before we dive into some of the physiology that is happening in your body for this article on endurance training, it’s worth noting that this is ultimately just one aspect of the training puzzle. Riding technique, nutrition, endurance, strength, and interval training are all similarly important pieces of a well rounded program.

Aerobic training for the win

From what science tells us so far the body consists of two basic energy systems: Aerobic and Anaerobic.  For this part of the “Managing Arm Pump” series, we will be talking about the Aerobic system.  When training for longer periods of time in this aerobic zone there are several valuable adaptations taking place including:

• Improved oxygen transport to the muscles

• Reduction in lactate 

• Improved rate of lactate removal

• Increased energy production

• More fat burning

• Managing cortisol levels

• Longer peak fitness

1)  Increases in heart stroke volume

This basically means that your heart is able to pump more blood with each beat.  More blood being available, means more oxygen and more nutrients to the muscles.

2) Increases in blood capillaries 

When we increase capillary density you benefit by having more oxygen being delivered to the muscles.  High-intensity training breaks down blood capillaries, slowing down will allow your body to grow new blood capillaries in the muscles.  In the book “Running to the top”, the author talks about how Kenyans have 2-3 times more capillaries in their muscles than American runners.  A big reason for this is because the Kenyans log many slow and easy miles to complement their hard, high-intensity track sessions.

3) Keep Cortisol levels in check

Cortisol is your body’s primary stress hormone that is produced by the adrenal glands and activated by the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) whenever you are in a stressful situation.  This is a very important and vastly misunderstood part of physiology that should be taken seriously if you really want to optimize your health and your fitness.  This is what happens when cortisol levels are high:

1. Increased levels of inflammation

2. Decrease in digestive and reproductive systems

3. Decrease in immune system function

4. Weight gain

5. Anxiety

6. Decrease in Testosterone levels

7. Problems sleeping...

We could have a whole article dedicated to hormones such as Cortisol but for now, the main takeaway is on the days you’re not doing interval style training, slow it down to avoid the unnecessary increase in Cortisol levels.

4) Increases in Mitochondrial density

Mitochondria are quite literally the batteries in our cells that produce energy from fat, protein, and carbohydrate metabolism.  The more mitochondria you can pack inside each cell the more powerful your muscles will be.  As we age we lose these precious mitochondria and aerobic exercise has been found to help mitigate this loss.

5) Burn fat

When exercising at lower intensities,  you will be using a higher percentage of fat as a fuel source compared with carbohydrates.  It’s worth noting that you are never burning 100% fat or 100% carbs, but the slower you go the more the scale tips towards fat burning.  This style of training will teach your body to break down fat and use it as a fuel source more effectively.  While it is true that high-intensity workouts will allow you to burn more calories during the workout and will rev up your metabolism post-workout.  The real problem is doing intensity day after day is hard on the body and not sustainable long term.

6)  Your peak fitness will last longer

Another plus is the larger low-intensity aerobic base you can build in the off-season, the longer you will be able to maintain your peak fitness during the season.  A definite win-win, especially if your season starts in January and goes until September.

John is a two time XC mountain bike national champion

Endurance training for the sport of motocross is often misunderstood and abused.  As you now know the benefits of slowing down to train the aerobic system are many,  the hardest part is actually slowing down.  We all have that urge to sprint up a hill or hammer at the front of a group bike ride to flex our fitness. If you can manage to avoid the “Grey Zone”. ( Grey Zone is the term for training too hard on easy days, and not hard enough during hard sessions like sprints, intervals, and lactate threshold efforts.)  By being patient and taking some time out of your schedule to properly train the aerobic system you will feel the difference and it will help with ARM PUMP!   It is our hope that with proper knowledge and understanding of the human body, we can help you become a better athlete. 

Alex Martin

References:

Holloszy, J. Biochemical adaptations in muscle. Journal of Biological Chemistry 242: 2278-2282, 167.

https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/what-is-cortisol

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/stroke-volume

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21812820/