Mud Racing

Probably the single biggest sporting event that people seek my help with recently is obstacle course racing, or as I like to call it, mud racing. I seem to have developed a reputation as a ‘performance enhancer’, but not the type you’ve been hearing about in the news over the weekend.

So, with regards to mud racing, what are the ‘big guns’, the things that seem to have the biggest impact on peoples performance?

1 – Running
Fairly obvious, I know. But people seem to not get two specific points. The first is that if an OCR is 10km and you lack the ability to run 10km easily, you’re going to get into trouble. The second is, as it is in fact an OCR you will never run 10km. Rather you will run a number of 200-500 metre intervals, and this has to be reflected in your training.

2 – Movement proficiency
You need to be able to move well. You need to be able to climb like a monkey, crawl like a tiger and jump like a…. jumpy thing. You need a method of assessing and practicing movement competency.

3 – Strength
I’m not talking ‘indomitable spirit’ though that clearly helps. I’m talking about brute grip strength, pulling strength and carrying strength. If you can’t hang on a bar in the gym with your own bodyweight, how do you expect to complete a set of monkey bars? If you can’t do a single chin/pull up, how are you going to get over a wall without help? Lot’s of races now involve the fireman’s carry as an ‘obstacle’, that takes as much strength as technique.

4 – Power
The ability to explode athletically to clear firepits, mud holes and to gain extra leverage when clearing walls. Burpees just ain’t going to cut that in the long term.

5 – Work Capacity
One of the new ‘big buzzwords’ in the fitness community. Let’s keep it simple. The ability to do lots of work, or move a load repeatedly. That load can be something external to you (your ‘partner’ on a fireman’s carry) or it can be the load of your own bodyweight.

6 – Compound Effect
We need to know that, if you are competitive, that in training for an event that you can easily own any single event. Because when you are racing it is the ‘compound effect’ that makes it tough. Obstacle after obstacle, slipping in mud and knocking against other participants. You need to own each and every element, because it is the sum total of all the distance, obstacles and mud that make it difficult.

Mudders tend to not like the gym, they tend to be outdoors type of folks. But what if I told you that 45 minutes twice a week in the gym could massively improve your performance? Working with the barbell on sumo deadlifts, push press and cleans goes a long way to cutting down your time and improving your ability to jump walls.

Even an outdoor based programme with kettlebell ballistics and carries (coupled with some bodyweight drills using railings and goalposts) will make you ‘more’. Crawling patterns are also important and have the bonus of allowing you to roll around in the dirt (which is what you really like to do, isn’t it!).

Bars, ‘bells and bodyweight training can add a lot to your performance.

“Be fit, be strong, be happy.”