How Strength Training Helped Jenn Break Through Her Bottleneck

“I wish I started sooner. Strength training pays you back tenfold.” – Jenn

Jenn was having the kind of season most riders dream about. She was riding faster, tackling gnarlier terrain, and hitting bigger jumps and drops. Every week her confidence on the bike grew.

But she also felt something holding her back.

Despite all the progress in her skills, she started to realize that her strength wasn’t keeping up. She wasn’t spending any time in the gym, and it showed in key moments: steep hike-a-bike sections drained her, her back got sore after long descents, and she worried that a crash could mean a season-ending injury.

That mismatch — skills outpacing strength — created what I call a physiological bottleneck.

What’s a Bottleneck?

A bottleneck is the weak link in your performance chain — the system that’s limiting everything else.

For mountain bikers, bottlenecks can show up in different areas:

• Strength: without a strong foundation, you can’t push harder into corners, accelerate up climbs, or handle big compressions.

• Aerobic system: if your engine isn’t built up, recovery and repeatability suffer.

• Mobility/tissue: if you can’t move well or your body can’t handle the forces of riding, you’ll always be capped.

• Skill/coordination: sometimes the limiter isn’t fitness at all, but technique.

  
  

And here’s the key: as you train, your bottlenecks change. Fix one limiter, and another system becomes the new weak link. That’s how progress spirals upward over time.

For Jenn, her bottleneck was strength. Her skills were already high, but without building her physical foundation, she was stuck at a ceiling.

How Jenn Broke Through

Jenn joined my MTB-specific strength training program on the recommendation of her Skills Coach.

In just six months she:

✅ Gained 5kg of muscle

✅ Made steep hike-a-bikes easy instead of exhausting

✅ Climbed faster with less fatigue

✅ Finished long descents without back pain

✅ Walked away from a boulder crash with nothing but a bruise — an impact that could have broken her femur the year before

The crash was the ultimate test. Last season, it could have been devastating. But with a stronger, more resilient body, Jenn was back on the bike within days.

Strength didn’t just improve her performance. It gave her safety, confidence, and progression.

Why This Matters for Every Rider

Jenn’s story is extreme, but the lesson applies to every rider: if you only rely on saddle time, you’ll eventually hit a bottleneck.

• For some, like John, it’s climbing strength and power.

• For others, like Jake, it’s recovery and resilience after long days on the bike.

• For Jenn, it was strength to match her skills.

When you train off the bike, you remove the bottleneck and unlock the next level. Then the process repeats. That’s how you spiral upward as a rider.

The Bottom Line

If you want to:

✅ Ride harder without fatigue

✅ Progress without fear of injury

✅ Build confidence in your body

✅ Stay consistent no matter the season

…then it’s time to look beyond just riding.

Strength training is not a distraction from your riding — it’s the lever that unlocks it.

As Jenn says, “I wish I had started sooner. Strength training pays you back tenfold.”

Ready to Find and Fix Your Bottleneck?

👉 Curious where your limiter is? Take the free MTB Fitness Assessment to see what’s holding you back.

👉 Already know you’re ready? Book a launch call today and join either the Performance Program or the Online Breakfast Club — both proven coaching pathways for riders who want to ride stronger, safer, and with more confidence.