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Training Babble: Off-Road Insights for Mountain Bike and Gravel Cycling
Unlock your endurance potential. The Training Babble Podcast takes a deep dive into the strategy and science behind training for off-road cycling and gravel racing. Host Dave Schell brings over 20 years of coaching and racing experience, including as former Director of Education at TrainingPeaks.
Each episode features interviews with experts and insiders to inform your training on topics like physiology, nutrition, mental toughness, equipment selection, and race tactics. Expect an informative yet lighthearted conversation filled with practical tips to up your performance. Special guests from across the cycling world join to share their hard-earned wisdom.
Whether you're an amateur looking to reach new heights or a coach wanting to refine your craft, The Training Babble Podcast offers a master-class in endurance training. Challenging conventional methods, busting myths, and digging into the latest research, this show equips you with the knowledge to train smarter and unlock your full athletic potential.
Subscribe to the Training Babble Podcast and join our community of passionate off-road cyclists. With tips, stories, and advice from leading figures in gravel and mountain biking, we're here to support your journey to peak performance and beyond. Elevate your off-road cycling experience with us.
Training Babble: Off-Road Insights for Mountain Bike and Gravel Cycling
Addressing Knee and Lower Back Pain with Martin Kumm
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Summary
In this episode of the Training Babble Podcast, host Dave Schell and guest Martin Kumm discuss why cyclists get hurt and what to do about it. Martin, a sports chiropractor for Team EF Pro Cycling, breaks down the mechanics behind knee and back pain, explains why bike fit is only part of the equation, and introduces a framework for understanding how load, tissue capacity, and recovery all interact. They explore the creep principle, the kinetic chain, and why pain location is rarely the same as pain source. The conversation also covers the role of the nervous system in recovery, how life stress affects your ability to absorb training, and simple self-tests athletes can use at home to identify their own restrictions. Martin closes with a reframe that ties injury prevention and performance together as the same goal.
Takeaways
- Too much load plus not enough capacity equals injury. Every overuse injury traces back to that formula.
- There are two injury mechanisms: acute overload and chronic accumulation. Knowing which one you're dealing with changes how you recover from it.
- The creep principle means tissue under constant load gradually deforms and loses capacity, often before pain ever appears.
- Bike fit matters, but body capacity matters more. The best fit in the world won't protect tissue that hasn't adapted to the demands of that position.
- Pain location is rarely pain source. A knee problem often traces back to the hip. A back problem often traces back to a restriction further down the chain.
- Hip mobility, specifically flexion range, is the single biggest predictor of long-term pain-free riding.
- Anti-rotation core work is more valuable for cyclists than rotational exercises, because what you need on the bike is the ability to resist rotation, not create it.
- Eccentric loading is the one category of training most cyclists are missing entirely.
- Your nervous system can be exhausted by life, not just training. A stressful day at work counts against your recovery.
- Injury and performance are the same thing. The longer you stay healthy, the more consistent work you do, and the better you perform.
