Physical race fitness

[evilRasp]

I'm seriously contemplating getting into some racing, and I know I need to lose a few kilos. I'm not obese, just need to cut down on my calorie intake while working on various muscle groups.

Does anyone know of a good training routine to help work on the things I need? I've looked around online a bit, and not found anything that says much more than "don't be a fatty fatty two-by-four".

[Rainbow7]

Well, smoking ice is one way to lose weight quickly. Of course, you end up losing everything else, too.

But seriously, there's a guy named Jason Ferruggia, who writes the muscle building section for Men's Health magazine. I've used some of his training programs, and they worked for me. His focus is more on building muscle, but he has done a lot of work with professional athletes who need to be strong but not carry any excess fat. Maybe some of his stuff could help you?
Try Googling him and see what you find.

I would also suggest that you look into HIIT training, as I have seen this be a very effective weight loss method for many people.

[Bill Gaheer]

Control your diet and do little workout - you will cut down on your weight. Not all routine works for everyone, need to know bit more for me to send you few good routines.

But importantly control your diet and you will loose weight quickly.

Cheers,
Bill

[BikerBoy]

So you know you need to reduce your calorie count. Actually, no you don't.
What you need to do is make sure you burn more than you take in. Just dropping calories will aslo drop your muscle
mass, density and strength. So keep on eating a healthy balance of foods but work harder to burn the excess fat off.

Drink a heap of water. That is important.!!!

For excersise I prefer resistance training to buid core strength and tone muscle groups without gaining solid mass, fast paced walking and martial arts. There's plenty of reasonably cheap gear available online (have a look at the Tower200 as an example). Anything that raises your heart rate and gets you sweating is going to help.

[Rainbow7]

What you need to do is make sure you burn more than you take in.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. - Calorie output must be greater than calorie input.

[evilRasp]

So you know you need to reduce your calorie count. Actually, no you don't.

You're totally right I'm already doing an hour or so at least 3 times a week, with a 10 minute run to and from the gym each way. I've done the math, I'm simply taking in enough to maintain my weight as it is, even though I'm getting fitter and stronger.

In my particular case, yeah, it's cut the intake a little more because I'm just eating too well.

Drink a heap of water. That is important.!!!

I drink a lot of water, and I make sure I get a solid night's sleep too. That can help. Always eat breakfast, and other tricks like walking to the further lunch spot rather than the nearby one.

For excersise I prefer resistance training to buid core strength and tone muscle groups without gaining solid mass, fast paced walking and martial arts.

Motorcycle specific programs along these lines are what I'm looking for. The hardest part of it is being a desk jockey in a mentally intense job, it's finding the discipline before or after work to put in a proper exercise routine which itself can be mentally taxing.

Thankfully there's a 24 hour gym a short run from here which allows me to go when I'm mentally ready. The run itself takes the drudge out of the actual cardio warm ups.

I used to be an accredited ice hockey coach (3 games a week, 4 training sessions a week, and coaching at least 3 times a week, I have a MVP trophy with 'Is A Machine' as my middle name), from that I know where my personal biomechanical weaknesses tend to lie. I've taken a bit of guess as to what other physical strengths I need based on my own track experience and some other training, and certainly healthy weight loss is cheaper than carbon fibre fuel tanks.

Thanks for all the advice so far. I'm going to do some more research and see what I can dig up. I find it hard to believe there hasn't been a sports specialist that has published a program for the likes of MotoGP or SBK riders.

[Throwdown!]

Check out Tiff O'Neill on Fifth Gear when he went through a Formula 1 driver's fitness test - it buggered him and was quite surpising - included testing his orientation while exhausted and dizzy, for some race condition reason or other.

[BikerBoy]

I find it hard to believe there hasn't been a sports specialist that has published a program for the likes of MotoGP or SBK riders.

Evil, I think you've made a pretty good point. I'm writing a letter to AMCN mag to ask that they reserach it and do an article on it.

[Champs]

Hey Evil,

Have a look at "Body Trim". So simple and easy. No meals to buy, no ongoing programs to pay for, just good information.

High protien (meats and eggs) minimal carbs (read almost zero) unlimited veg (most veges). You don't get hungry because of the protien and you don't crave the carbs after a couple of days. AND you get a free day each week where you can eat whatever you want because it helps the overall process.

The only exercise is a 20-30 minute walk, or equivalent during the day. In fact more exercise than that is detrimental to the process. The high protien makes your body ketonic and therefore fat burning and you don't have readily available carbs to burn in preference, so bye bye fat reserves. The protien also helps maintain and build muscle mass and energy levels.

On it personally for about 10 weeks and down 9kg so far. Energy levels are also up massively,

"Body Sculpt" is a follow on format that builds more on muscle and fitness if you wanted to go to that after dropping the weight. It adds in extra calories to allow for more exercise in the form of good fats from nuts, oils etc - not in the form of carbs.

My 2 cents worth that I can say works a friggin treat.......

[jamdonut]

All the above, I train with my mate who competes, when we are putting on size we train heavier and cut down aerobics, eat more, now 119.5 kilos, 6'1.

To cut down we do a hell of a lot more cardio, aiming at breaking the heart rate, Jogging, windsprints, eat les carbs, more protein, train lighter. I have lost 5 kilos in 1 day cutting down, usually my normal weight is between 106-110 kilos, So all the above posts help.

[Dale]

Last year I lost 40kg using Tony Ferguson. (took me six months)

We were tied down to 200 grams protein a day and as many veges as you want ( only 2 pieces fruit a day .. or 1 banana)

Water .. is the big one !!. I had to drink 2 litres a day .. but found I lost more weight drinking 3 litres. As the ol' saying goes .. The more you drink .. the more you shrink !.

Tony ferguson say NOT to exercise .. this is a crock of poo ..
Once I started walking every day, the weight just fell off.
I think they tell you this so you have to keep buying their shakes, however I found the Aldi ones half the price.

Basically .. Keep carbs to an absolute minimum, drink plenty of H2O and walk for an hour a day ...

Just my 2 bobs worth ..
Dale

[evilRasp]

There's a lot of arsehattery around fitness programs and losing weight.

It's very simple. Burn more than you take in. There's no magic perpetual motion gene inside selected human beings that means they gain weight with less food.

My interest mostly revolves around race specific fitness, being fit to survive 20 minutes flat strap in a saddle using every muscle in my body all while being able to keep my presence of mind.

In any case, it only takes a few days for the stomach to start shrinking (naturally consuming less food), and only 3 weeks to develop a new habit. Use your discipline for 3 weeks to do some healthy exercise of any description (it could be a walk to the corner store for milk each day), and you'll find you'll feel like you're missing something if you don't.

Now, to get my habit back, after a week off from each of food poisoning, sickness and Christmas :)

[cleallo]

you need to find what works for u somthing you will stick to its all about changing the way u live not some fad diet or iron man exercise plain.dont jump in head first .dont starve your self eat less more often 5 to 6 small meals a day lots of water . with exercise start out slow and build it up if u over do it and make your self sick it will put u off next time .swiming cycling and waights

[aussiemonster]

There have been a few articles on motorcyle racer fitness over the years. AMCN have done a couple, I know some of the british bike mags like FastBikes and Performance bikes have done articles. So try googling motorcycle fitness or something like that.

If you look at the comments from racers their off season traning tends to have a lot of bicycling and dirt bike riding in it. Endurance seems to be as much of a requirement as strength. Endurance is needed so that you can stay focused and alert through the whole race and not have brain fade towards the end.