JuSt GeT oN mOrE BuLlS”... Why Fitness Is a Necessity for the Modern-Day Rodeo Athlete

One of the comments I’ve heard throughout my entire career is, “You don’t need to work out, you just need to get on more.” It comes up all the time whenever we start talking about strength and conditioning for rodeo athletes, especially roughstock and dismount athletes. I’ve heard different versions of it from athletes, coaches, old-school cowboys and plenty of people on social media over the years.

The funny thing is, I don’t completely disagree with them.

If you want to become a better bull rider, you need to get on bulls. There’s no way around that. You can spend five days a week in the gym and become the strongest, most conditioned guy in the locker room, but none of that automatically means you can ride. There is no exercise I can give you that teaches you how to feel what a bull is doing underneath you. A squat isn’t going to teach timing, and a conditioning workout isn’t going to teach you how to react when a bull makes a move you weren’t expecting. Those things come from actually practicing your event, getting on bulls, spending time on a spur board and putting in the years it takes to develop your craft.

I think where this conversation gets sideways is when people assume that because the gym can’t teach those skills, there’s no reason to train.

I’ve never claimed that lifting weights makes somebody a better bull rider. That would be like saying lifting weights makes somebody a better quarterback. Obviously, the quarterback still has to throw the football. He has to learn the offense, read defenses and spend thousands of hours practicing his position. The weight room is there to help physically prepare him to do those things. I’ve always viewed training for rodeo the same way.

The question I care about as a strength coach is whether we can build a body that gives an athlete a better opportunity to practice their craft, handle the demands of the sport and continue doing both of those things for a long time.

Take two bull riders who are roughly the same age and skill level. They’re both getting on practice bulls, using the spur board and putting time into becoming better riders. The difference is that one of them is also consistently working on his strength, mobility, conditioning, nutrition and recovery. I’m not saying that athlete is automatically going to outride the other guy next weekend. Rodeo doesn’t work that way. There are way too many variables involved, and skill is still going to matter more than anything.

What I’m interested in is what those two athletes look like after a few years.

If one guy has spent that time developing his body alongside his skill, there’s a pretty good chance he has increased his capacity to handle the work. Maybe he can get more quality practice in before fatigue starts changing the way he moves. Maybe he recovers faster between practice sessions and rodeos. Maybe he holds his bodyweight better during a long summer. Maybe the little aches and pains that show up throughout a season don’t turn into something that costs him six weeks. None of those things are as exciting as talking about getting on bulls, but they all affect how many opportunities an athlete gets to continue working on his craft.

That’s one of the biggest things I’ve noticed coaching rodeo athletes. Sometimes the athlete has the desire to practice more, but physically he isn’t prepared to get much out of it. He might be so limited in certain positions that he’s fighting against his own body. He might not have enough strength to maintain those positions once he starts getting tired. Maybe he gets three or four really good reps and then the quality starts dropping because he’s smoked. At that point, telling him to simply do more isn’t necessarily fixing the problem.

This is where strength and conditioning starts to make sense to me. We aren’t trying to replace the skill work. We’re trying to give the athlete a better physical foundation to perform the skill work.

There’s also the reality of what an actual rodeo season looks like. Preparing for one bull in a controlled environment is one thing. Trying to compete for months while driving thousands of miles, sleeping wherever you can, eating on the road, dealing with injuries and getting on night after night is something completely different. It’s not enough to be capable of riding when everything feels good. If you’re trying to make a career out of this, you have to find a way to keep performing when you’re tired, sore and halfway through a long season.

I think this matters even more with where rodeo is going. The level of talent is incredible right now. Young athletes are getting better earlier, there’s more money available and more guys are starting to take every part of their preparation seriously. Once you get to the highest levels, everybody is talented. Everybody has spent years working on their event. The margins between athletes can get pretty damn small.

At that point, being available matters.

Can you stay healthy enough to compete? Can you recover and be ready to go again? Can you maintain your strength and bodyweight throughout the season? Can you handle the travel and still perform? Can you keep getting quality practice without your body constantly breaking down?

That’s why I’ve always pushed back on the idea that rodeo athletes don’t need strength and conditioning. I’m not trying to convince anyone that a bigger squat is going to make them ride better tomorrow. I’m trying to help athletes build a body that can support what they’re asking it to do.

There are obviously injuries in rodeo that no amount of training is going to prevent. You can do everything right and still get stepped on, hung up, kicked or land wrong. That’s the reality of choosing a sport where the other athlete weighs close to 2,000 pounds. I would never tell somebody that getting stronger makes them injury-proof, because it doesn’t.

What we can control is how physically prepared we are before those situations happen and how much unnecessary wear and tear we accumulate along the way. If better strength, movement, conditioning and recovery help an athlete stay healthier and get a few more quality practices in during the year, that matters. If it helps him miss fewer rodeos, that matters. If it allows him to still feel like an athlete in August instead of just trying to survive until the end of the season, that matters too.

That’s really the whole argument.

I want bull riders getting on bulls. I want them spending time on the spur board. I want them learning from good bull riding coaches and putting as much time as they can into understanding their event. If you made me choose between practicing your sport and going to the gym, I’m going to tell you to practice your sport.

I just don’t think you should have to choose between the two.

Your skill work and your physical preparation should support each other. The better prepared your body is, the more opportunities you have to practice, compete and continue developing those skills. Do that over several years and those extra opportunities start adding up.

So when somebody tells me, “Just get on more bulls,” my answer is pretty simple.

Yeah. You probably should.

Just make sure you’re building a body that allows you to keep doing it.

If you’re ready to take the next step in your Champion Living Athlete Pathway, let’s get you on a call with one of our coaches and figure out whether Individualized Coaching is the right fit for where you’re trying to go.

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Your Coach,

Doug Champion