Cycling Has A Body Image Problem…

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Is training like a professional a good Target for most cyclists um I would say in the majority of cases at least initially no I think it’s something that people a mistake that people quite often make whenever they either are just starting or whenever they decide to kind

Of Step It Up from the level that they’re currently at is that they they look too hard at like the top end specifics of what the pros are doing cuz there’s so much information now about what everyone’s doing and kind of uh and I think generally cyclists are just so

Keen to latch onto those things and try to apply them to their own training but I just see so many examples of people who are focusing on those if you think little things like the cherry on the top of the cake when they’re not actually really they haven’t got the base sorted

Yet you know they’re they’re focusing too much on those Niche Little Things things and neglecting gaping holes and uh just the very very obvious things that need to be need to be dealt with so I am 100% one of those people I am the worst kind of athlete back in my day so

I was working fulltime and I specifically like to the words I used to tell people I want to train like a pro and see what happens so like I didn’t have a childhood I used to play sports and was active as a kid have a childhood

Well no I I guess I did have a childhood is is is probably a better way of putting it I wasn’t a a standout athlete as as a child like some people are which is what then Grooms them into you know I imagine Jobo was probably a really good

Athlete when he was in school I wasn’t one of those people so I wasn’t like naturally groomed into sport so when I came at it uh in my mid 20s it was like right so I’m going to see what I’m capable of I’m going to see how fast I

Can be at this this at whatever at the time that’s commendable obviously you know uh I just I well I think I just approached it what I did was exactly what this is saying I was like right so how do the pros do it let me try and do

That whilst also having a job and a life so I got a coach who was actually amazing and without him God knows what have happened because he was constantly telling me to back off with stuff uh and telling me off where it was like that

Was meant to be an easy session why were you at threshold I like it was fun um so I was I was training upwards of 20 hours a week as well as having a full-time job so I was training in the morning in the evening on the

Weekends just all of the time and it was just not very healthy do you find people still doing these kind of things in this day and age all the time all the time it’s it’s just it’s a commendable thing to set you know High Target to yourself

And be be keen and you know all those things are good but it’s just a case of I think only starting from where you’re at and not not trying to jump forward you know three steps just just focusing on what you’re doing making improvements to that and then you know changing the

Ethos I think that um a lot of the time whenever I take people on they’re quite often surprised at how the training is easier than what they would have expected or a big proportion of the training is a lower intensity from what they expect y I think that um people

Have this idea that you need to smash every session and if you don’t finish every single session you know knackered then you haven’t done it properly and um I think there’s also a even when you are basing your training on what the pros are doing like the pros tell you about

That really hard session that they did with loads of savage intervals and or you know they’re going and reconning Mountain stages or like Cobble sections or whatever like they tell you the fancy stuff but they they don’t tell you about what they do 80% of the time which is

Actually not all that different from what you’re doing so it’s all about getting the right proportions of the right intensities MH and quite often people are surprised by how little of the hard stuff that involves yeah it’s easy to fall into the Trap of trying to recreate their Watts

Rather than trying to recreate their intensity is it what their body is really doing and um yeah and just and neglecting the basics like sleep above anything get your cycle right if you’re combining it with a job and a family it’s all about those things that are

Just rigid you can’t move those things you might be able to you know slightly change your working hours or whatever but at the same time you need to earn money and you’re not a pro yet you need if you have a family in those commitments they aren’t just going to

Disappear and it’s it’s all about keeping all of those plates spinning but at the same time trying to train with the most Effectiveness and you know I think a lot of the time when I start with somebody I quite often just tell them I’m going to try to help

You make the best use of the time that you have tell me how much time you can commit to this I’m not going to tell you how much time to commit to it you tell me how much time you’ve got and we’re just going to try and reasonably and

Sensibly make the best use of that and to me that’s the most sensible thing you can do what’s your opinions on like the effects of cycling marketing and how that trickles down into uh normal people’s lives like uh the marketing around nutrition and bike weight and

Aerodynamics and all of that stuff I I kind of feel I spent a lot of time telling people that these things are not worth it or that you know um to not look at these these things and I don’t want people thinking that I don’t believe in

The benefits of those things I think I’m not saying those things have no benefit at all you know you’re talking about nutritional products yes absolutely they will be better but it’s just a case of how much difference do they make you know you know if I was when I was doing

A professional bike race I wanted to make sure I was on the best bike I was eating the best stuff I was as well prepared as I possibly could be because mentally as much from from my mind I needed to believe that I’d have the best preparation possible there was just like

A comfort in knowing that okay everything everything’s in place here for me to perform at an elite level absolutely but I think we are talking to those people who are not at that point they they might be doing they might just be out with their Cycling Club where

They’re doing a gravel event or whatever and it’s it’s are these and these people are the ones that about got the money and it’s quite often those people that are just having all these fancy things but like leaving massive gaps as well yeah iess I guess one of the ales is just

Rich people that can just buy a 15 grand bike and go and race crits on and if they crash it they don’t it doesn’t matter if I was going to get a coach I would without a doubt work with you and James because I am at the point where I know

Having a 10,000 bike or a 2,000 bike isn’t really going to make a difference to me because the only thing that actually holds me back now is riding MH uh actually doing it and what sessions do and making it fit with my life and all of that kind of stuff um but then

You know if if someone can afford the best nutrition in the world and the best bike in the world and the best wet suit in the world if they’re a triathlete and the best trainers you know sure fine whatever but don’t think that that is going to replace the training that you

Should be doing there’s this thing about cyclist as well which like I never had you know which was just this the the look thing that oh like I I I remember uh doing my first race in the south of England so we’re talking 2008 and I’d been Racing for you know I’d

Already been at University in Newcastle race in the north I remember going down and doing it called the Su 5 day which is this amazing event done you know this well it wasn’t justtin story but in the south of England and um I remember showing up with a group of riders from

Ireland and we all just had like my shirt my jersey didn’t match my shorts my bike you know that canondale I was telling you about but you know nothing fancy did not look the part at all should have all these fancy teams matching kit nice socks new white shoes

All that you know Carbon wheels whenever Carbon wheels were very rare I remember thinking right okay this is going to be these guys look these guys look good okay so I’m gonna I’m G to be on for a hard day here and I won the bike race congratulations you know not matching my

Shorts didn’t match M Jersey you know it’s just because all those things that all this look all the it was just this uh environment of kind of how you look being more important than what what’s actually under underneath the Bonnet that leads us really nicely into talking about the pro look um which

I think a lot of people get into their head and it is more than you know it’s having the right bike it’s being the right weight it’s having a bike that weighs under a certain amount of kilos um and kind of trying to emulate the pro cyclist look like for example do you

Shave your legs still no I and I used to shave my legs before my first bike race I never shaved my legs through the winter even when I was racing full-time yeah and I would shave my legs if I was doing a bike race but I quite like

Having I like I feel masculine I I feel like a grown man when I’ve got hairy legs you know and even when I ride a bike I don’t care people sometimes point it right and I don’t care so that cuz it’s it’s almost like uh well it’s it’s

You wouldn’t be taken seriously in a lower level crit race if you didn’t have your leg shaven it’ be like oh he’s not shaved as legs probably going to be a sketch Fest there’s actually more more evidence nowadays that it does actually provide an aerod aerodynamic Adventure

So breaks up the air yeah I mean there’s a reason we do it and um I was saying about the equipment like if I if I was taking that race seriously I’d be shaving my legs yeah because I wouldn’t I wouldn’t want any extra drag that wasn’t necessary the case is just like

If you go out out in a Sunday with your Mates is do you need to do it at that point you know obviously stuff like shaved legs and what socks you have and all of that is kind of it’s trivial you can do it or not do it but I guess when

It comes to diet and body weight and those kind of things do you think that that Pro Image um that people try to emulate can that have damaging effects on on people definitely the body image part so you know I think when a lot of people young cyclists or even you know Club

Cyclist whatever they have a certain body image that they’re striving for which to them is the the body image that belongs to a a successful professional cyclist and um and also you know I don’t look I wouldn’t say that I look as good and like as I used to because my physique is

Not what it used to be and it just doesn’t look as good you know and if I’m okay with that you know I think Mo both of both of us would be fine with that but I think the the danger is that people strive for this particular body

Image and they have an idea of what a professional cyclist looks like and quite often they will base that on the guys that win the tur of France so you know in order to win the tur of France you need to be able to climb up mountains you know multiple

Mountains on over multiple days better than the people around you and that requires being very very lean if you think about you know vinger Gort poget chart these are very very skinny guys but um so I was working with the cycling team this year and we had a a Meetup at

The beginning of the year and I showed them a picture of the podium from the world in Yorkshire in 2019 and that was the obviously we had the world’s in the UK this year as well but at that point it was the biggest bike race that had

Been in the UK for the last 20 years at that point and the three guys that ended up on the podium were Matt pson who’s a big guy uh Stefan Kung another big guy and Mato trentin they are all grown men they’re they have muscular body types like

They’re not skinny cyclists when you picture a skinny cyclist and they had just finished top three in the world over British roads mhm and I think whenever people have an idea in terms of Aesthetics but then I think also in terms of performance what makes a a cyclist physique I think sometimes our

Perceptions are wrong um you know those guys aren’t going to win the tur of France but then neither’s anybody who’s listening to this you know but you might want to prove yourself through the UK racing scene and then move on to racing up mountains but you’re not going to get

The opportunity to race up mountains if you’ve not performed well in this scene in order to do that you you need to be strong you need to be fit you need to be able to actually ride a bike properly as well MH yeah I think I think the the

Perceptions are very very different you know if you think about Wiggins whenever he won the thr to front he slimmed down there was four years when people picture Bradley Wiggins they think of him when he was as lean as he was when he won the

T of France but that was only a period of about four years where he was targeting Grand turs whenever he was targeting you know Pursuits or he put on weight in order to win the O the world TT championships in 2014 and then to compete for the pursuit team in in the

Olympics in 2016 you know so he he was adapting his Physique in order to fit what he was targeting and for lots of people you know they think it’s all about being thin it’s it’s not it’s about being strong and lean is part of it but you know it’s about it’s about

The engine really even throughout my career my body type changed and then my my strength and weakness has changed as well so you know it it it’s but the leanest I got I remember I had that thing we’re talking about where that I wanted to be really really scin and I I

Remember having a one of the Len I already was and I remember having a winter vomiting bug and it was literally this the the lightest my adult self had ever been and I was on well I remember looking in the mirror and thinking wow I

I liked what I saw crazy you know I I had a sort of similar experience the the lightest I ever was was just before race that I was making a big deal for and I was so proud of myself that I was like a just just unbelievably skinny and there

Was a couple of pictures of me from Before the Race just in a pair of running shorts and I saw them like a week later and I was so upset at how ill I looked yeah that I was like I have to change this AB I’ve compared you

Know well both young men and young women looking at cycling magazines to generally young women looking at you know Girls magazines and the kind of that striving for that particular physique and and the damage we know about the damage that it does for you know lots of girls and

Then it can be similar in cycling and even you know exercise can be a form of bmia and uh it’s it’s it can it can get to the point where it’s very unhealthy so we we talked before the show about how people get their motivation and how

Sometimes it can be actually from quite a negative place do you uh as part of your coaching deal with uh or how do you deal with the the ne the negative effect or the negative mentality of going into into training yeah I think I think what we were talking about was where people’s

Motivation comes from and whether it’s kind of either like achieving in order to compensate for some sort of lack that they have or else trying to prove people wrong or you know doing something or or almost like fear of failure you know they’re they’re training because they’re

Afraid that if they don’t they won’t achieve and that’s you know you can’t win if if that’s your mindset there’s no winning because it you either get it and then it’s just relief or you don’t get it and then it’s you know self-criticism or whatever and

I think um for me from my own experience and then also with the the people I work with as well it’s it’s really just about trying to see what what they’re really motivated by what inspires them and also kind of why they’re doing it and and it’s it

It should be something that you just are interested in something there should be some fun in it if you look at the best Pros the real top ones they’re having a great time mhm you know they’re they’re enjoying themselves and the whereas a lot of other other people who are who

Are trying to strive for that it just looks like a chore you know and they don’t they’re not actually getting anything from it you know there’s an element of playfulness you you look at like pogar he’s got this playful character sagam was the classic example

Where he it was all just a Big Show and fun and I I I felt VI fell victim sometimes of just not having the fun anymore yeah you know and but I think you get the best out of yourself if you’re if you’re in enjoying yourself if

You still have that passion you’re still connected to that reason that you started so you’re effectively doing it because you want to do it not because you feel you have to do it yeah and and and I think as well but it’s a difficult mindset to

Switch you know it’s it’s not like oh you should just want to do this because you want to do it not because you feel like you’re afraid of you know not being it’s a very very difficult thing to to Really break you know um but I think a

Lot of it’s just about having conversations with people I think as well managing expectations because if people are always setting their sights on something which is maybe just unrealistic then that never ends well as well that that is 100% of all of my training yeah yeah until very recently it’s just like for

Example if you try and just recre recreate some whats that are unrealistic then you’re just gonna break down and and it will it will the training will actually break you rather than Build You Up and I think at all points you know it you should feel like you want to do it

Not every single day but you there should still be an element of you that enjoys the work and also you don’t need to be knackered all the time you know you you should have energy for other things in your life and uh and that’s that energy will just transfer

And is by keeping yourself mentally in the right place and you know not getting consumed by it and know so many people where it’s like it becomes the biggest thing they’re not they’re not even doing it anywhere near full-time they’re just got jobs and families and everything and

They just get so obsessive about it and it’s you know could be quite damaging and I think also counterproductive I I I think I think you’ve hit the nail on the head there if and I think a really good Benchmark for this stuff because there is there is nothing wrong with being

Really into something but I guess the thing to always be aware of is do you actually enjoy it because if you’re not enjoying it there’s just no point yeah I mean and that’s also it is a a marker of overtraining as well if you’re if you’re

Not got any interest in it if there’s no kind of part of you that’s interested in it and and if if you really are choosing to do something you should be choosing it because you want it and if that if that sort of passion starts to disappear then that’s usually a a

Sign that something’s wrong