GET FIT FOR RIDING

Struggling to hold on? Pull-ups are a great way to improve bar grip and back strength

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Riding mountain bikes puts a high demand on your grip and forearm strength, where fatigue can quickly lead to a lack of bike control and crippling arm-pump. Riding with a lighter, more relaxed grip on the bar can certainly help mitigate this, but there’s really no substitute for boosting your grip strength.

And that’s where pull-ups come in. Not only will they help increase your ability to hold on, they will dramatically improve your riding in other ways too.

Pull-ups are the best exercise for strengthening the latissimus dorsi, or lats as they are commonly know. These huge muscles on your back runfrom your armpit to the base of your spine and are primarily responsible for torso rotation and shoulder stability.

Learning to engage your lats effectively through training, the pullup will enable you to hold a more solid position on the bike for longer, which in turn will take some of the demands away from the smaller muscles in your arms and shoulders.