physical fitness in motorbiking

It might seem like the most obvious thing in the world, but to be a sportsman it helps if you’re fit. For footballers, athletes… most sports in fact, it’s so obvious as to sound funny. But there are some sports where you might be forgiven for thinking that physical fitness is secondary to other qualities.

Take golf for example. Not every pro golfer is a beacon of health. Plenty show off something of a mid-trunk bulge whilst swinging their clubs. It’s not unusual to see that.

When it comes to motorsport, you might also think that it’s not the most important part of the sport: the mental and technical aspects are more important, you might think.

And while it’s certainly true that motorbike riders – whether MotoGP or Motocross – will win or lose races based on technique and mental toughness, their physical condition is also of vital importance. Marc Marquez is known to be one of the fittest MotoGP riders both physically and mentally. As a result Marquez is predicted to come first in this year’s competition.

a healthy body for a healthy mind

For one thing, a person’s physical condition impacts much more than just their ability to walk up a flight of stairs or run around in the garden after their kids.

A healthy body is certainly needed for a healthy mind. Exercise clears the head, it focuses the mind, it gets rid of the brain fog and it boosts confidence. All of those things are necessary for a top racer both on a bike and in a car.

Passing a rival takes mental toughness. It takes a clear head to see what’s going on around you, especially at such speed. To then overcome the inhibitions in your mind telling you to slow down, to be careful, to avoid the risk is perhaps the most important part of overcoming your rival right in front of you.

You might think that these are secondary benefits of proper physical conditioning, but they are all very much linked.

demands of the sport

Racing on motorbikes is unlike racing in cars, though. For one thing, you might be able to see how racing in a car means the weight issues are perhaps more minor than on a motorbike, where the rider’s weight is incredibly important, but there are other physical demands of the sport.

Pushing and pulling the bike, especially going around corners, demonstrate a mastery of the machine that you can only achieve with strong arms, strong legs and a strong core. Ensuring that your body is up to scratch for making that as easy as possible is a critical necessity at the very top, and plenty of time spent in the gym in order to get it right is of clear importance.

Going around corners means having one leg against the ground, pulling the bike in the right direction, whilst using the other to keep everything from collapsing. It also means going side to side for the rest of the body, too – that means supporting everything with your core muscles in the abdomen. A soft body won’t be cut out for it.

Clearly this is, after all, a demanding sport – it is not simply a test of one bike’s engine over the other, or indeed of the mental strength to be able to race at ridiculous speeds. It is a test of everything.

chain reactions

But there is obviously an element of danger. In fact, it wouldn’t be bike racing without it – the sport wouldn’t have the appeal, nor would it be such a test of its participants’ strengths and weaknesses, both physical and mental.

The terrain you’re racing on is all-important, too, and reaction times are crucial: from avoiding crashes to keeping the bike upright. In Motocross, reaction speeds are perhaps more important than in MotoGP: you’re racing in dirt, in woodlands or in less than hospitable territory. In MotoGP, it’s asphalt track. But that brings with it its own difficulties, such as mastering the corners and squeezing every last ounce of juice out of the momentum you’ve built up until the corner you’re taking, or being aware of the other riders around you who present obstacles to avoid as well as opponents to overtake. To help your physical fitness, many bikes are customised build up the most speed.

Physical health is, then, much more important than most people give it credit for when it comes to motorbike racing. Life as a racer is hard enough that you want to ensure every advantage possible when it comes to performance, and that means a clear head, the ability to master the bike, and faster reaction times. Being the fittest you can be certainly doesn’t hinder you as a racer – but it probably helps even more than most people would think.

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