Motocross Racing: Getting Started : How to Get Fit for Motocross

Hi, I'm Rick Wilder from Portland Oregon and the motocross, the former team green rider in the 1980's. And I'm here to talk to you a little bit about staying in shape, getting fit for motocross racing. Part of what we do everyday when we motocross is, we take on a very demanding sport. As a matter of fact, back in the 90's and early 2000's, there were two studies done, that rated motocross racing at the highest level to be the most physically demanding sport in America today, even over soccer, believe it or not. So what we do as motocross racers to make sure that we are at the peak of our potential, is we want to work out. Back in the 80's when I trained, we did a lot of running, a lot of weight lifting, just bulk weight lifting. Today, the riders are doing much more than that. They're being very flexible, they're very strong, they're working their quads especially, because you do a lot of leg work when you're riding motocross racing. And also in your upper body, you want to have pretty good size chest and shoulders to be able to throw that bike around. It's 200 pounds, and it's fast, and you got to make reactions very quick. So what you want to be able to do is, have that body feeling good, being able to endure the race, whether it's 10 minutes long, or 30 minutes long. You want to be physically fit, you want to be mentally fit, and you want to be able to ride your motorcycle safely but quickly as long as you can. Your diet is pretty important to you, so you got to figure out what kind of training schedule you're going to be on. Or you're going to try to bulk up, which you're going to use a lot of proteins for, or you're going to try to cut down some heavy part of your body, and make yourself stronger and leaner, more flexible. What changes kind of mixture you're going to have, it be more fruits and vegetables, things like that. So figure out what kind of body you want to have, figure out what kind of body you have, and then go down and figure out what kind of a diet you want to set yourself up for. There's nutritionist available for you, there's physical therapist available for you, so you can put those all together and give yourself the optimum opportunity to do well at motocross.