?'s transitioning from my previous training methods/volume

[Chris Cantrell]

I have been cycling, rowing and doing small amounts of weight lifting as training for motocross racing for just over two years now.

My aerobic endurance has grown from next to nothing to easily being able to work in my zone 2-4 heart rates for two hours non stop.

My strength has also increased, but not as drastically. As a child I did gymnastics for several years, though I never competed I was able to get to a point just before quiting that I was doing giants on high bar and rings and I was a okay on floor. Even though relative to now, and even relative to other kids at the time I was very strong, compared to my gym mates I was one of the weaker boys.

I am seriously about to get back to GB work outs to hopefully bring my body control and strength back to the levels I need them at.

However, while I await some equipment I decided to spend this evening just doing handstands to see how it would be. While I have very little balance, I don't HAVE to use the wall. But it did not take long at all for my hands and wrist to feel the pain. Not injury type pain but "damn I havent done this in 20 years" type pain.

So now I know I will not be able to jump right in to doing two hour GB work outs. Leading me to believe that in order to keep my training volume at the 10 hours per week I have been cycling around, I am going to have to work the GB into my more cardio cycling and rowing workouts.

Is there info out there about how to do this? Or is it as simple as doing what GB work I can stand, and then taking up whatever time is left unused with other methods such as cycling?

For instance, if I can do 10 minutes worth of handstands but need a total daily volume of 1.5 hours, can I do my handstands, then go ride for 1.20 and call it a day? Or is there a better method?

One other thing, I am training for two hour off road motorcycle races, so I feel like I need to continue to train endurance on some level. Please let me know what you think of this simple plan.

one day consisting of a 4 hour endurance zone bicycle ride, one day of motocross riding at race intensity (2 hours), one day of intervals on my concept 2 indoor rower (1.5hrs), and three days of gymnastic bodies training (1-2hrs ea).

[Joshua Naterman]

You should start your GB work with a workload that you 100% know for certain will be ok. That will be a low workload. From there you just slowly build your volume every few weeks. After a few months you will probably be ready for a little step up in intensity, and you'll just keep going from there. Take it slow, use SSC programming to keep yourself from doing too much too soon, and you will build tons of strength and you won't have to stress about it.