Elite sport Y ou have to invest a lot of power to continuously climb up the performance ladder in professional sports. I would like to give you a glimpse of what’s behind the hard sprints and fast legs needed for BMX and MTB 4X.

 My stint varies depending on the training phase; during the competition period you’ll have to count in some recovery time between races.

 The construction phase is accompanied by very intense weight and endurance training. The BMX track training gets a little bit neglected. Nevertheless, I go at least twice a week on the BMX track to focus on start-gate training and sharpen my riding skills.

There are also three or four weight training sessions per week, including two leg training sessions, one or two upper body workouts and the core work. The duration of the sessions differs, warm up with a full leg workout can take three hours. The most important exercise is the squat. Sometimes I take my legs to the limit; afterwards I can hardly walk the stairs from the gym to the wardrobe.

Overall, I train six days a week with two sessions per day, the equivalent of 13 to 15 hours a week.

 The closer the first race date gets, the more I focus on my muscles I‘ve built up in the construction phase. The next step is to trim them to speed and explosiveness.

The training volume drops as recovery becomes increasingly important. I also spend more time on the bike.

To train the leg muscles to make them quick for sprints I do so called plyometric training sessions. The plyos are diverse and include jumping exercises such as hurdle jumping or jumping from standing to a certain height. The muscles must be able to reach 100% output in a super short time.

The entire training is specific to BMX sports. The endurance work for instance no longer done on the spinning bikes but on the BMX track by racing full laps. Additionally I go to test races to prepare mentally and to see where I stand with my training results.

 My goals for next year are the BMX World Championships in New Zealand and the MTB World Cup in South Africa. My entire training plan is geared towards ensuring I am in peak condition for these high profile events. My training has changed over the past years since turning pro. I train with greater awareness and torture myself voluntarily because I‘ve stood the podium, I‘ve tasted success and I can‘t get enough of it! David Graf: UCI BMX World Championships, Birmingham, UK