What An Extreme Motocross Athlete Can Teach You About Fitness (And A Free Extreme Fitness Routine).

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

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Ben Greenfield (0:27)

Watching . Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield, and there are a few sports out there on the face of the planet that beat you up just as much as that Ironman triathlete long thing that I do. You know, one of those might be the UFC fighting that you recently learned about in a recent episode on Ben Greenfield Fitness.

Another one that might tend to fly under the radar, if you don't know that much about it, is motocross. Motocross is actually one of the most brutal sports on the face of the planet in terms of how much it beats you up and how fit you have to be in order to actually compete in this sport. So I decided that I wanted to hook you guys up with one of the top motocrossers on the face of the planet.

The guy has been in lots of races. He's also been in lots of crashes. His name is Wil Hahn, and Wil has a pretty big history of wins, medals and success in motocross competition. And he's right here on the call with us today. So Wil, thanks for coming on, man.

Wil Hahn (1:48)

I appreciate you guys having me.

Ben Greenfield (1:50)

So for people who don't really know, like what motocross is, or basically what you have to do during an event, during one of your races or during one of your competitions, can you kind of talk about like, when you show up to race, what is it that your body has to do? How long do you got to be on that bike and what kind of things you have to do when you're on it?

Wil Hahn (2:13)

Hi, there's so many scenarios that get into it. So once we get to the race, we always properly warm up and get the spin bike going and all that. And once we hit the track, we have in supercross, we have three practice sessions that are about 10 minutes long, which don't seem that long.

And then we have a six lap heat race and a 15 lap main event. But even though it's only 12 to 15 minutes, it's at your max heart rate, which my average normally is anywhere from 195 to 203 in that 15 minutes.

Ben Greenfield (2:47)

Just to put this in context for people, for 195 to 203 for max heart rate, how old are you?

Wil Hahn (2:53)

I'm 23

Ben Greenfield (2:54)

Okay, gotcha. So you've still got a pretty high max heart rate, but still to be able to be at max heart rate during an event, that's pretty significant.

Go ahead.

Wil Hahn (3:06)

And then also outdoors, we switch over to, which I would say is a little bit more manly. Even though Supercross is your max heart rate, it is shorter, so the approach is different. But outdoors, we have two practice sessions, and then we have two motos, which are 36 minutes long to 38 minutes long. And again, we're pretty high heart rate that whole time. I think my average would be from 185 to 195 still.

And then again, that's for 40 minutes, and then we do that twice.

Ben Greenfield (3:46)

So when you're out there and you're doing that, my first question for you is from a nutrition standpoint, hydration standpoint, supplementation standpoint, that kind of thing, you're really not able to actually take in anything while you're racing, correct?

Wil Hahn (4:07)

No, no. I mean, there's been people that I've seen with camel backs and stuff like that, but I feel like that's tough because I feel like those tend to heat up as well on your back and all that. So for the most part, you just try to do as much as you can. Obviously, the week of, the night before, your eating right, the night before, your hydrating right, you don't have to electrolyte since to feel it today because not only in the long run, there's normally anywhere from 90 to 105 degrees. So it's different, man, but you definitely learn more and more as you grow and score, and what's right, what's wrong, because everyone's a little bit different. I'm sure that one Ironman guy to the other might have a totally different program, but they're both, they're equally competitive. So that's the matter of what it takes. I feel like it's just learning what works for you and your body and what food is that before, seems to get you through the day the best. And I'm learning more and more every time.