Training for Adventure Riding in the Winter

Many of us don't get to ride year-round. Winter turns into months of watching my adventure riding videos, scrolling through social media and thinking, "Yeah… I'm doing that." The truth is, most of us aren't.

When spring arrives, we dust off our gear, roll the bike out of the garage and head straight for the trails, believing our winter spent "studying" will pay off. Unfortunately, this is also when injuries spike, and every year I get emails from riders who can't attend training because they got hurt before their class started.

Most of those injuries happened while practicing. The good news? They're mostly preventable.

The Foundation Nobody Wants to Hear About

The single most important thing you can do to reduce injury risk is also the thing almost nobody wants to hear: eat better and go to the gym.

I don't mean you need to look great on the beach or build muscles to show off to your friends. You need to build and maintain the strength and mobility it takes to ride well and avoid injury. Focus on your core, and yes, I do mean ab work. Work your legs with natural movements like box jumps or lunges. Do grip exercises like bar hangs to keep your fingers strong for the clutch and brake levers. You don't need biceps and a six-pack. You don't even have to be lean, but you do need to be healthy, strong and flexible.

This is where real injury prevention happens. It also shortens recovery time dramatically if you do get hurt, because we're not in the bounce-back-overnight age bracket anymore. An injury can now sideline you for months, not days or weeks. Worse, bad habits can set in during the downtime and carry into the next season.

Don't Just Watch My Videos

Here's the thing about practicing riding skills you haven't formally learned: you may just be reinforcing poor habits. That can make new techniques harder to learn or, in the worst case, cause an injury that keeps you from formal training and from learning the correct way to do things, which often comes down to small details few people notice.

This is the main reason I run my training courses as early in the season as possible. If riders would show up, I'd start even earlier, while the weather is still cold and rainy and the trails are slick.

Train the Mind

Fear is a big part of the game when you're improving off-road. What matters is how you respond to it. Your goal this winter is to train yourself to stay relaxed under pressure, to build the bridge between uncontrolled fear and controlled fear. This is the number one issue that keeps riders from progressing, and arguably the number one factor in nearly all accidents that lead to injuries, street riding included. The second is the Dunning-Kruger effect, but I'll leave you to look that one up.

One way to train the mind is to watch my videos, take notes and lock in the key takeaways, so that when you train with me or go out to polish the skills you already know, your mind is a step ahead of your actions. Success really is in the details. And remember: good technique makes boring video, and bad technique makes entertaining video. If you think a video of yourself riding is exciting, you might be doing something wrong, unless you're Pol Tarrés.

When I offer advice on preparing for the riding season, few riders follow it, because it isn't glorious and often doesn't involve the motorcycle.

Challenge a Deep-Seated Fear

Heights, If They Scare You

Go to a ropes course or a rock climbing gym. What I'm looking for is your body screaming "you're going to die!" while your brain knows you're safe. Once you know you're safe, holding back means you're letting unreasonable fear take control.

Pushing through fear trains your body to stay relaxed while you're afraid. The goal isn't to overcome fear but to stay in control and as relaxed as you can while you feel it. That pays off hugely when you come into a corner too fast or things get sketchy on the trail: you'll have practiced facing the fear and staying loose.

Snowboarding or Skiing

Both force you to commit on a steep slope with no brakes. If you stiffen up, stop looking ahead or hesitate, you turn into a snowball. It's a fairly low-consequence way to practice relaxing through fear and trusting your body to move naturally, even when every instinct says otherwise. I'm asking you to push past your comfort zone: if you're comfortable on blue runs, go to the black diamond. If a black diamond doesn't scare you, try a double black or add tricks. Stay on the edge of your comfort zone, because this is all about training the mind.

A High-Performance Track School

Take an advanced track course or the Yamaha Champ School, a favorite of mine. These let you lean the bike past your comfort zone and analyze your body's reactions in real time, without the risks of doing it on public roads. Go in the off-season and you add cold or slick surfaces, which makes it even more valuable. The goal isn't to terrify yourself. It's to get comfortable being uncomfortable.

The Takeaway

Don't go out on loose gravel to toughen yourself up. That's a great way to get hurt. Seek controlled discomfort instead: activities that safely train your mind and body to stay loose and focused under stress. Whether it's a snowboard, a high-ropes course or a 200 hp track bike, every session builds the mental muscle you'll rely on when the ADV season starts again.

Progress comes in micro-steps. One day you'll look back and realize how far you've come, not because you pushed too hard and crashed, but because you built confidence layer by layer.

Stay safe, stay sharp, and roll into spring better than ever.