Ryan Dungey...How'bout those Fox Boots?
Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 4:26PM How Motocross Gave Ryan Dungey the Body Issue Body
Motocross riders hear it all the time — it’s not an athletic sport if it has a motor. It’s a mainstream conception that has spurred thousands if not millions of petty arguments in high school cafeterias all over the world. Motocross riders have fought the losing battle of trying to communicate how difficult their sport is for decades. Now, with the sport’s mainstream poster boy and reigning AMA Pro Motocross champ Ryan Dungey nakedly upping the moto factor of ESPN’s iconic Body Issue, the world can get a little bit of a clearer perspective at just how athletically demanding motocross truly can be.
"If you think about riding a dirt bike ... you have your core and your lats trying to control the side-to-side and up-and-down movement of the rear. Meanwhile, your legs are working to push the bike to the ground and to grip the bike tight and squeeze."
Ryan Dungey/ESPN.com
Ryan Dungey’s athletic program is fit for the craziest of the crazy athletes. He can ride a bicycle at a pace and duration that would rival riders in the Tour De France, and he can run laps around just about any athlete in the world in the gym. He trains with the guy that practically brews championships in his garage, Aldon Baker. That’s all before he gets on the bike, and the real training begins.
"I definitely think the physicality of the sport is overlooked and underappreciated. Anybody who gets on a dirt bike would be quick to find out that it's a very hard workout. Nobody can see our faces underneath [our helmets]; our faces are beet red."
Ryan Dungey/ESPN.com
"On our heaviest day out, I would say we're consuming anywhere from 6,000 to 7,500 calories. In one moto race, we're burning 750 to 800 calories. So in one race day, we're burning about 1,500 calories just racing."
Ryan Dungey/ESPN.com
In a 35-minute moto, pro riders usually set average heart rates in the 180bpm range, which is in the ball park of 90 percent max heart rate for most people. But of course in motocross, actual heart rates can and do tremendously deviate from the average, since it’s a sport with constant movement and unpredictable nature. When a rider is battling with others on track, he is not focusing on staying calm and keeping his heart rate in mellow territory, which means it is probably up near 200. With heart rate levels that high for 30-plus minutes, it is incredibly difficult to stay mentally and physically strong for the duration of the moto. That’s an anaerobic cardio level where form can dip and mistakes can happen. In motocross, mistakes can often mean catastrophe.
"We spend probably on average 120 to 150 miles a week on the bicycle — a road bike. We do a little bit of cardio every day before we go riding."
Ryan Dungey/ESPN.com
That’s where motocross athletes really diverge from most others; the inherent danger factor of the sport is very different from most. Motocross riders crash, and crashing sucks. The faster the crash, the more it usually sucks. In professional motocross, where the level of competition demands that riders push the envelope for the entirety of the race, a lot can and does happen. Unfortunately, in motocross the crashing days are never completely gone. Even Dungey, a rider repeatedly touted for his incredible consistency on the track, crashes. We saw it just a few weeks ago at Thunder Valley, where Dungey fractured the C6 vertebrae in his neck and still finished the race. He finished because his body is sculpted to handle that kind of impact. When Dungey trains, he’s not just training for the race; he’s training for the crash, too.
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