Table of contents:
How to Reduce Fatigue When Riding an ATV
17 November 2022
A day-long ATV ride can tire you out to a point of barely being able to keep your eyes open on the trail. This can be incredibly dangerous to anyone out riding for long hours, so it’s extremely important to learn how to reduce fatigue when riding an ATV. This will allow you to extend the rides that you take and have you getting home feeling refreshed, rather than completely wiped out.
Both mental and physical fatigue play a role in making a rider so tired they may not be able to continue forward. Planning for both of these factors is key to finding out what helps reduce fatigue when riding an ATV. You may think you can tough it out, but taking the precautions will help you to ensure that you don’t need to fight away the exhaustion and can continue to perform at your optimum level. All good ATV riders do it, so you don’t need to be any different.
Reduce physical and mental fatigue
Riding an ATV demands a lot more of the body than it can appear to from an outsider’s perspective. The angle you sit in, combined with keeping your body static over rough terrain can be highly demanding and quickly tire you out. Even if you’ve been riding for years of your life, you may know better than anyone that it’s simply exhausting.
To help reduce physical fatigue, there are some things you can do before riding and some that you can actually do in the middle of a ride.
During the ride try out some of these methods:
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Take a break to eat a snack: Sometimes fatigue can be a result of simply not eating enough. Reduce your fatigue quickly by bringing plenty of snacks on your ATV and eating them throughout the day.
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Stop and stretch: When the body is locked into the same position for a long period of time, supporting muscles can cramp up and will perform poorly. If you can, get off the ATV and stretch to help and rejuvenate the body and allow for the fatigue to be balanced out by supporting muscles helping the rest of your body.
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Bring a lot of hydration: While riding, you’ll lose a ton of water through sweat. Low hydration levels will show up as high levels of fatigue, so it’s important to stay hydrated while riding.
Before the ride you should:
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Get a full night’s rest: A tired body doesn’t perform as well as one with eight hours of sleep the night before.
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Wear the proper clothing: Clothes that are uncomfortable will make the rider work harder and potentially overheat, increasing fatigue.
- Take it slow: Train for the longer rides before assuming your body can perform at high levels of output. Start small and work your way up to longer rides rather than tackling a giant first thing.
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