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Foundational Movements for Motocross: Horizontal Push

Welcome back to the Moto Strong Blog, where I share my training tips to improve your riding skills and fitness! Today's topic is part three of the Foundational Movements for Motocross series and today's blog is all about the horizontal push.


The Why

The horizontal push is incredibly important during riding because of the high forces subjected to the rider's upper body when encountering large jumps, landings, and hard G-outs. I feel as though the main component here is the eccentric strength of a rider's chest and triceps muscles due to the need to keep a neutral position on the bike when hitting a jump face, landing, creek bed, braking bumps, etc. With poor upper body strength, a rider subjects themselves to the possibility to slam the chest into the handlebars, lose grip with the handlebars, and even go over the bars during a hard hit. While it's important to have strength concentrically (to push your upper body away from the handlebars), the eccentric component takes the cake as the most important during these hard hits.

Everybody that rides knows the feeling of that "on $h!t" moment when you hit something so hard you expect to use that bar pad for its intended purpose. With a stronger horizontal press in the gym, riders can limit the amount of times they may experience these moments while riding and racing. While the safety factor is a huge impetus to increase horizontal pressing, more horizontal press work in the gym will allow the muscles to work at a decreased percentage of 1RM while riding, thus decreasing fatigue during long motos or races.


The Way

Now that we understand the reason to work on the horizontal press in the gym, how do we do it in a safe and effective way? For beginners, the push-up exercise cannot be beat. Young kids, individuals with poor upper body strength, those coming back from injury, and even top professionals can benefit mightily from practicing the push-up. It is safe for the shoulder joint when done effectively and increases horizontal pressing strength and endurance in a highly effective manner. Start with multiple sets of 5-10 repetitions to build basic strength and search for some hypertrophy before adding resistance via bands or plates on the back. Once the push-up has been practiced effectively for a bit of time, move to the bench press.

To make the bench press most effective for motocross and off-road riding, begin in the muscular endurance section of the 1RM continuum and move toward strength, just as you would following a traditional periodization model. To effectively make the bench press an eccentric-focused exercise, weight releasers on a barbell should be used. While weight releasers are the most effective method, they can be expensive and not for everybody. Focusing on long-tempo eccentric portions of each repetition can also effectively increase strength in the horizontal plane while reducing complexity of the exercise.

Quick Notes

It is up to the trainer to determine where to begin an athlete, whether on the ground with push-ups or on the bench with a dumbbell or barbell. Use best judgement and scientific papers when unsure of where to start an athlete. My suggestion is that it's never a bad idea to start slow and practice the basics!

While I did not include the horizontal pulling motion as a foundational movement for motocross, its importance should not be overlooked! Horizontal pulling strength is most definitely as important as the horizontal pull, not only for balance of upper body strength, but for riding technique and safety as well. Row your butt off!


Thanks for tuning in again to the Moto Strong Blog, and keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post where I'll dive into cardiovascular training!


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