The Riders Circle

By James Rountree | August 31, 2025

Motocross demands more than raw strength—it’s a test of aerobic endurance, muscular stamina, and core stability over multiple motos throughout the day. The right cardio training can improve consistency in lap times, speed up recovery, and reduce fatigue while riding, meaning better focus and better decisions. But which option is best: running, cycling, rowing, or SkiErg?

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🏃 Running: High Impact, High Adaptation

Running is excellent for motocross riders, as long as you manage your mileage per week. A hard 5 km run produces a similar amount of lactate as a 20 minute moto (Simoes et. al., 2016; Waldman et. al., 2018), which shows that the energy system demand is similar between disciplines. Running is high-impact, putting a lot of stress through the ankles, knees, and hips. This stress is a good thing if managed correctly, as it will strengthen your knees, ankles, and hips over time. However, compared to most other types of cardio, there is a higher risk of injury if training load increases too quickly. Managing this load can be challenging for motocross riders who already face heavy joint loading on the bike, but doing so can have massive long term pay-offs in terms of motocross fitness and being able to train wherever, whenever. 

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🚴 Cycling: The Endurance Base

Cycling builds a strong aerobic foundation with minimal joint stress, making it ideal for frequent, high-volume training. Cycling is great for sustained Zone 2 conditioning and leg endurance. Its downside? Limited upper-body and core activation compared to motocross demands. For a more-specific type of cycling, mountain biking is ideal for MX conditioning. Mountain biking incorporates lower body endurance, with more upper body and core activation than cycling, not to mention the skill and coordination crossover. 

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🚣 Rowing: Full-Body Conditioning

Rowing activates up to 86% of muscle mass in a single stroke (Steinacker, 1993), training both aerobic energy system and full-body muscular endurance. It’s particularly effective for ‘pulling’ strength, grip, and core stability, which directly translates to controlling the bike under fatigue. The low-impact nature makes it safe for long-term use. The main limitation to rowing is that it is less accessible if travelling a lot, since you need a rowing machine to do it.

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❄️ SkiErg: Upper-Body Power & Core Endurance

The SkiErg, often overlooked, provides intense upper-body and trunk-driven cardio. In my personal opinion, the ski erg is the best off-bike conditioning for motocross racers. We must remember that there are muscle-specific adaptations depending on which type of training you do. For instance, a world class runner would have a similar VO2max to a world class cross-country skier, but if you got them to perform each other’s sports, they would no longer be at the top of their field. Why is this? It’s because they haven’t specialised in each other’s sports. The muscles required to be optimised for endurance are different between the two sports, despite their overall ‘endurance capacity’ being similar. These differences come down to muscle strength and the amount of mitochondria in the working muscles, which will directly impact endurance. 

When we think of motocross, there is constant bracing from the lats, core, and shoulders, meaning they MUST be trained similarly. Do running and cycling do this? No. Rowing does, but I believe the movement pattern of ski erg more closely resembles MX racing. In terms of endurance, motocross racers want to be a mix of a cross-country skier and a marathon runner.  

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✅ The Best Blend for Riders

For motocross, no single type of cardio is “the best.” The most effective approach combines:

• Cycling for aerobic base, leg endurance, and achieving high training volume with little risk of over-use injuries.
  
• Rowing and SkiErg for full-body conditioning.
  
• Running to build strong ankles, knees, hips, and overall endurance. Training load must be managed well.

Motocross racing requires you to be the ultimate hybrid athlete. You need legs that don’t fade, a core that stays strong, arms that don’t become spaghetti, and endurance that supports you throughout an entire moto.

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Don’t Know Where To Start?

We’re here to help! Email james@theriderscircle.co.nz for training enquires.

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