Why Your Body Hurts After Mountain Biking (And How To Ride More Without Feeling Broken)
- Alex Ackerley
- Jun 12
- 5 min read
If your back hurts, your hands go numb, your legs feel heavy, or you’re constantly sore after rides, you’re not alone. Most mountain bikers assume they need more fitness. In reality, many riders are missing something even more important: durability. Here’s how to build a body that can handle more riding without feeling broken.
Every year I see the same thing happen.
In May and June, everyone is fired up. The weather is good, the trails are running fast, and the riding calendar starts filling up.
People are riding more, planning trips, signing up for events, and squeezing in as many laps as possible.
Then August rolls around.
The enthusiasm is still there, but the body isn’t.
The back starts getting cranky.
The hands go numb halfway down a descent.
The knees ache after big rides.
The neck gets stiff.
The shoulders feel beaten up.
And suddenly riders start missing rides, cutting days short, or wondering why they don’t feel as good on the bike as they did earlier in the season.
Most people assume it’s a fitness problem.
Often, it isn’t.
Durability - The Fitness Quality Nobody Talks About
When riders think about improving performance, they usually focus on three things:
Fitness
Strength
Technique
All important.
But there’s another quality that might matter even more.
Durability is your body’s ability to tolerate the demands of riding again and again without breaking down.
It’s what allows you to ride Wednesday after work, hit a big ride on Saturday, spend Sunday in the bike park, and still feel ready to ride again next week.
You don’t need to be the fastest rider in your group.
You need to be the rider who is still riding when everyone else is nursing aches, pains, and injuries.
Riding More Isn’t Always The Solution
This is where many riders get stuck.
They start feeling tired or sore on the bike and assume the answer is simple:
“I just need to ride more.”
Sometimes that works.
Often it makes the problem worse.
If your body is already struggling to tolerate the demands of riding, adding more riding simply gives it more of what it can’t currently handle.
The issue isn’t a lack of exposure.
The issue is a lack of capacity.
What Durability Actually Looks Like
Durability isn’t glamorous.
It’s not a new bike.
It’s not a fancy training zone.
It’s not a breakthrough workout.
It’s being able to recover from your rides quickly enough that you can keep saying yes to the next one.
It’s having the strength to stay in good positions on the bike late into a ride.
It’s having enough mobility to move freely.
It’s having tissues that can tolerate thousands of impacts, vibrations, corners, and technical sections.
It’s having the endurance to support good technique when fatigue starts to creep in.
Most importantly, it’s being resilient enough that a big weekend doesn’t ruin the rest of your week.
Why Strength Training Matters More Than Most Riders Realize
Many riders think strength training is about building bigger muscles or lifting heavier weights.
For mountain bikers, that’s only a small part of the story.
The real goal is building a body that can tolerate more riding.
Strong legs help you maintain control when fatigue sets in.
A strong trunk helps you stay stable and efficient.
Strong shoulders and upper back muscles help support your position on the bike.
When those systems are stronger, riding places less stress on your body.
Ironically, the fitter and stronger you become, the more relaxed you can be on the bike.
You waste less energy fighting the trail and spend more time flowing with it.
3 Ways To Build More Durability This Summer
Most riders don’t need another interval session.
They need a body that can handle the riding they’re already doing.
Here are three simple ways to build more durability this season.
1. Keep Strength Training In Your Week
As riding season ramps up, strength training is often the first thing riders abandon.
That’s understandable. Time is limited.
But completely dropping strength work is one of the fastest ways to start feeling beaten up later in the summer.
The good news?
You don’t need three hard gym sessions per week.
One or two short sessions can be enough to maintain strength and keep your body resilient.
If you’re choosing where to focus, prioritize:
Single-leg strength
Hip strength
Trunk strength
Upper back strength
These are the systems that help you maintain good positions on the bike when fatigue starts to creep in.
Exercise: Rear Foot elevated split squat
Why I like it:
Builds climbing legs without huge fatigue
Improves hip and knee stability
Trains muscular endurance
Easy to recover from
Prescription:3 sets of 5-8 reps per side
2. Add A 10-Minute Recovery Session After Your Ride
Most riders finish a ride, throw the bike in the truck, and head home.
A few minutes of recovery work can go a long way toward helping you feel better tomorrow.
Focus on restoring the positions that riding tends to take away.
Try this simple circuit:
Floor Scorpion x 5 deep breaths per side
Couch Stretch x 45 seconds per side
Around the world x 6 reps per side
Takes less than 5 minutes.
You’ll feel better getting out of bed the next morning.
3. Build Strength That Protects Your Hands
One of the biggest misconceptions in mountain biking is that hand fatigue is a grip problem.
Most of the time it’s a support problem.
As your legs, trunk and upper back fatigue, you start hanging off the handlebars.
The hands end up doing work they weren’t designed to do.
Instead of squeezing a grip trainer while watching TV, build the structures that support your riding position.
Exercise: Suitcase Carry
Why I like it:
Improves trunk stiffness
Builds grip endurance
Strengthens shoulders and upper back and Core
Mimics the demands of staying stable on rough terrain
Prescription:3 sets of 30-60 metres per side
Bonus: The Easiest Durability Win Of All
Eat more.
Seriously.
Most mountain bikers underfuel.
The rider who finishes a big ride and immediately starts replacing fluids, carbohydrates and protein will almost always recover better than the rider who waits until dinner.
A simple post-ride snack containing:
20-30g protein
50-100g carbohydrate
can dramatically improve how you feel the next day.
We’ll save the deep dive on fueling for another article.
The Riders Who Have The Most Fun All Summer
The riders who have the best summers aren’t always the fittest.
They’re the riders who stay healthy.
They’re the riders who recover quickly.
They’re the riders who can stack great days together without paying for it afterwards.
They’re the riders who are still excited to ride in September because they didn’t spend July and August trying to survive.
Fitness matters.
Technique matters.
Strength matters.
But if you want to make the most of your riding season, don’t overlook durability.
Because the goal isn’t just to ride hard today.
The goal is to still be riding strong when everyone else is falling apart.
Ready to build a body that can handle more riding?
Whether you’re struggling with recurring aches and pains, recovering from injury, or simply want to ride more without feeling wrecked, my coaching programs are designed to help mountain bikers stay strong, resilient and ready for whatever the season throws at them.
Happy Riding,
Alex
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