| How to Make a Mountain Bike Course Posted: 14 Oct 2018 01:00 AM PDT Mountain biking is a fun and rewarding sport, but it requires having a decent course to ride. Finding a course that is both challenging and exciting can be difficult, as the best courses tend to be sorely overcrowded or poorly maintained. If you're serious about mountain biking and have the right amount of ambition, you can create a personal mountain bike course that is tailored to your personal skill level and desires. EditPlanning the Location of the Course - Get permission to build your mountain bike course. Make sure the land you want to build on is not privately owned or protected, such as a state park. The best area to build on is land that you personally own. If you do not personally own the land, contact the landowner and present a written proposal that details where and how you would like to build the course.[1]
- For a short course, you will need anywhere from of terrain.
- For a medium-length course, make sure you have at least of land.
- For a longer course, you will need or more of terrain.
- Try to form a partnership with the landowner or property manager so that all involved parties will benefit.
- Walk the general path where you want to make your mountain bike course. Scout out the land and make sure that it is neither too steep nor too flat. If you come across unexpected obstacles that are not easy to clear, such as large tree stumps or roots, plan to make your route go around the obstacles. The best mountain bike courses work with and blend into the natural features of the terrain.[2]
- If you can't walk down the slope of the land without running or having to catch yourself, the land is likely too steep to build a sustainable course on.
- If the terrain is not sloped at all, it may not be challenging enough for more experienced riders.[3]
- Use pin flags to mark the beginning and end points. Once you've determined that the terrain is acceptable and there are no large obstacles in the way, go back and place a pin flag at the starting point and the end point of the course. Make sure to stay within the property lines.
- If you want your course to form a loop, the beginning and end points will be the same. Instead of flagging the same spot twice, mark the border on the outside edge of your course on all 4 sides.[4]
- Pin flags are preferable, but you can use spray paint or any other marker that's easy to see.
- Go over the course and mark the main features. Place a flag or marker in any specific areas that you want to include in your course, such as natural drops, turns, or landmarks. These are called control points, and they influence where the trail will go.
- Positive control points are places you want the course to go, such rock outcroppings, jumps, or other natural obstacles you want to include.
- Negative control points are places you want the course to avoid, such as extremely steep slopes, certain water crossings, or other safety hazards.[5]
- Draw the control points on a topographical map. Include the spots where you marked the beginning and end of your course. Use the control points to draw the basic route you want to course the take, connecting the points as you go.
- You can find a topographical map of your region at most local convenience stores, or you can print one here: http://www.mytopo.com/maps/
- When you start planning the route of the course, consider the landscape and its natural features. Use these to your advantage to include slopes, turns, and jumps, as desired.
- Use a pencil so you can erase the marks if necessary.
- This is the initial planning for the trail route.[6]
- Walk back over the path you drew and mark the general trail alignment. As you walk, use a pin flag to mark the route of the course. Place a pin marker on each side of the marked trail to keep the width consistent. Ensure that your trail hits all of the positive control points and avoids the negative ones.
- The average width of single-use mountain bike path , while a multi-use course is .[7]
- If your course is multi-use, include several passing areas where bikers can go around each other if necessary. In these areas, widen the course to comfortably include 2 bikers riding side-by-side. Roughly wide is a good rule of thumb.[8]
EditClearing the Course's Tread - Wear good-quality work gloves to protect your hands. You will be doing a lot of digging, so wear work gloves to protect your hands from blisters and other injuries. They will also help you maintain a firm grip while you work.
- Clear shrubbery, rocks, branches, and other debris out of the path. Walk back over the area you just marked with pin flags and remove all sharp, pointed, or loose stones in the path. Use a rake to clear away small rocks, branches, or foliage.
- Either throw the collected debris outside of the boundary markers, or load it into a wheelbarrow to dump away from the path later on.
- Clearing debris ahead of time will make it easier to break up the ground later.
- Use a rake or mattock to loosen the ground and dig the tread. Once you've cleared away any obstacles in the path, use a mattock to break up the ground between the pin flags in the path you marked. Rake away the top layer of grass until all you're left with is the soil underneath. Do this for the entire length of your course.
- If the ground is already covered in dirt or soil, you'll still need to break up the top layer of ground so you can go back and pack it down.
- Clear away more ground for turns. Turning radii should be roughly wide.[9]
EditCompleting and Maintaining the Course - Compact the loosened tread with a rake or shovel. Go back over the ground you just loosened up and use a flathead shovel or a rake to pack it down. If the dirt is sandy or loose and it's difficult to pack down, use a garden hose or bucket of water to dampen the ground before you pack it. Make sure the ground is packed well so you can ride your bike on it without spinning out or causing major ruts.
- Packing the ground is one of the more labor-intensive, tedious aspects of building a mountain bike course, but it's also one of the most important. If the dirt is too loose when you ride the course on your mountain bike, your front wheel will slip.
- Hike or ride your bike carefully over the trail several times to compact the soil more easily.
- If your course is wide enough, driving a vehicle over the tread can pack it down quickly and efficiently.
- Include obstacles in your course to increase difficulty. Use the excess ground you removed earlier to build dirt jumps along the course, or add in some wooden ramps. Use the built-in features of the terrain before adding artificial obstacles. Natural obstacles are generally best, and there are usually plenty of trees, large rocks, and bushes that you can wind around for more of a challenge.
- To build a dirt jump, use the ground you collected while digging the tread. Pile the dirt to the desired height, and use a hose to dampen the top layer of the dirt. Use a flathead shovel or rake to pack the dirt down as tightly as possible so your front wheel doesn't spin out on loose dirt.
- Keep jumps between off the ground, as any higher could be dangerous.
- Some other examples of common obstacles are boulders and logs that you can place in the path of your course.[10]
- Maintain the course you built by checking it several times a year. Check for any fallen branches, and clear away layers of fallen leaves or weeds. If the ground has started to erode, take your shovel and pack it down again.
- Adding compacted soil or gravel to the course will keep it from eroding as quickly and lessen maintenance required to keep up the course.[11]
- Don't ride your course while the ground is wet. This will keep the ground from eroding as quickly.
- Be creative, and don't be afraid to tweak your course as you ride it.
- Ask other bikers to ride your course and get their opinion on areas you can improve.
- Always wear a helmet when mountain biking.
- If other people will be using your trail, place signs to warn riders about upcoming hazards (e.g. ramps, drop offs, or bomb holes).
EditThings You'll Need - Shovel, preferably a flathead
- Rake or mattock
- Topographical map
- Pencil
- Work gloves
- Wheelbarrow, optional
EditRelated wikiHows EditSources and Citations
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| How to Act Like a Villain Posted: 13 Oct 2018 05:00 PM PDT It's fun to play the role of a villain because they are emotionally complex and require a certain amount of nuance to avoid becoming caricatures.[1] However, it takes a little extra work to play a successful villain since it can be difficult to be a character that's unlikeable. By developing the mindset of a villain and working on your body language, you can be a villain that audiences will remember! EditGetting into a Villainous Mindset - Determine the sort of villain you'll be playing. Look at the character and see what type of villain they are. Are they a psychopath like Hannibal Lecter or a cold mastermind that's always one step ahead of the hero like John Doe? The personality of the villain you have will help you develop characteristics specific to the role.[2]
- Some examples of villain archetypes are good guys turned bad like Two-Face, masterminds who have everything planned like John Doe, or people who get pleasure from inflicting pain like Jigsaw.
- Do medical research if your villain has a certain pathology so you have a better understanding of how your character would act.
- Explore your villain's backstory to understand their anger. Don't be full of rage during your performance without knowing where the anger is coming from. Find the part of their backstory that's the source of their anger and justify their rage from that moment. From there, you can show the full extent of how far your villain will go to get what they want.[3]
- Consider using revenge or previous trauma in their life as a motive for the reason they're angry or act the way they do. Syndrome from The Incredibles becomes a villain because Mr. Incredible tells him he can't be a hero. Always think of their backstory as the heart of every decision they make.
- Being angry just for the sake of it will make your villain less believable and more generic.
- Don't expose their full rage immediately. Showing restraint until a climactic moment will make your villain more terrifying and memorable.
- Empathize with the choices your villain makes. Think about the reason your villain is choosing their actions. Is it to protect their family, seek honor, get rich, or are they just evil? No matter their decisions, look in their point of view to see what drives them to the choices they make.[4]
- Remember that the villain is the hero of their own story. Your villain must believe that what they are doing is the best thing for themselves.
- Don't practice this mindset all the time while getting into the role so you don't affect your relationships.
- Find their redeeming quality. Even the best and most evil villains have flaws and humanizing aspects of their life. Find what your villain cares about the most as you get into the mindset to give them more emotional depth than being a purely evil presence.[5]
- Think if your villain has a family to protect or if they're trying to save the world in their own destructive way. Make the audience empathize with their choices.
- Showing a diverse range of emotion in your villain will make someone watching understand your actions better. They may even root for you!
- Have a devious sense of humor. Develop a dark sense of humor like the Joker, especially if you're playing a villain with a more comedic role. Find something funny that may be horrifying to others. Humor will help make your villain more relatable and likable to an audience.[6]
EditFinding Inspiration - Watch other actors portray villainous roles. Find films or TV shows with similar villainous roles as the one you are going to perform. Watch the actors' facial expressions, listen to the way they speak, and notice any small movements they make with their body. Observing how other actors portray a villain will help shape your performance.[7]
- Study real-life criminals and villains to ground your character in reality. Look up crimes that your villain has committed and see if there are any real-life connections. Watch videos of the suspects or the people guilty of the crimes to see how they act. Read true crime books to get an idea of the characters and apply them to the villain you're portraying.[8]
- Many modern characters are based on actual people and real criminal charges.
- Journal as your character to roleplay. Write for at least 10 to 15 minutes per day in a notebook or journal that you only use for your character. Start by introducing your character in the first person, then talk about your backstory, feelings, and answer any questions you may have about your character.[9]
- Only write as your character and avoid writing as yourself.
- Dig deep into your character, like what they are afraid of or what their relationships are. This will help you find more motivation for your character and you'll understand them on a deeper level so you can portray them better.
EditPerfecting Your Performance - Find a voice that fits your role. Once you've determined your villain's personality, look for a voice that matches. An evil mastermind may speak with a slower, deeper voice to emanate a sense of power while a serial killer may speak like a normal person to blend in with society. Take your character's history and backstory into consideration as you try out different voices.[10]
- If you want to be a classic movie villain like Hans Gruber from Die Hard or Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs, speak with a British accent.[11]
- Sometimes, a higher-pitched voice can sound more menacing than a deeper one. Practice your range and make sure you can use a full range of emotion in the voice you choose.
- Try an evil laugh if it fits your character. Don't overdo an evil laugh unless you're playing a generic sort of villain.[12]
- Stand with good posture and confident body language. Villains must ooze confidence since they are committing heinous crimes most of the time. Straighten your back and stand tall. Tilt your chin up to look down on others and always maintain eye contact. When you move, make slow and deliberate movements, otherwise you'll seem anxious.[13]
- Avoid touching your face or neck since this could indicate your villain is weak or afraid.
- Tailor individual traits to the villain you're portraying and make sure they make sense based on your villain's history.
- Steeple your fingers while you speak. Hold your hands out in front of you and touch the tip of each of fingers to the same finger on the opposite hand. Steepling or tenting your fingers while you talk will automatically make you seem more sinister, especially while speaking.[14]
- Steepled fingers are a traditional way to convey evil, so it may come across as overdone or generic if you do it too much.
- Practice a menacing grin. If you're playing a classic sort of villain, a grin and laugh is a must. Practice smiling in the mirror and determine if your character will work better showing teeth or keeping their mouth closed when they smirk.[15]
- A villain's smile shows that they're happy with the evil they're doing and can send a chill up someone's spines
- Look at how Norman Bates smiles in Psycho or how Jack Torrance grins in The Shining for great examples of evil grins.
- Don't use your villainous persona outside of the role. Depending on your character, it could negatively affect your current relationships.
EditSources and Citations EditQuick Summary
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| How to Build Back Muscle Posted: 13 Oct 2018 09:00 AM PDT In order to build back muscle, focus on exercising the large muscle groups in your back. You can perform several useful exercises either by using free weights at home or by using lifting machines at your local gym. Plan to vary the back exercises that you perform, so that you can strengthen your upper back, lower back, and mid-back regions through different methods using weights and machines. Or, if you prefer to exercise without this type of equipment, you can build back muscle using your own bodyweight. EditWorking Your Back with Free Weights - Do arm rows to build both sides of your back separately. Kneel on a padded gym bench. Place your left foot on the ground and your right knee on top of the bench. Place your left hand in front of you for support. Grab a dumbbell with your right hand and pull the dumbbell up to your armpit. When the dumbbell is fully lifted, it should be parallel to your chest. Do this in 1 smooth, slow motion, and hold the weight in place for about 3 seconds.[1]
- Hold the weight in place for 3 seconds, and then slowly lower your arm and shoulder to lower the weight. Control your arm as you release your hold position. A controlled lowering gives you the greatest benefit for this exercise.
- Perform 10-12 reps in each set of arm rows. When you're first starting out, you may only be able to do 1 set of 10-12 reps. As you feel more comfortable performing rows, add on a second set. You may need to decrease the number of reps to 6-8 to be able to complete both sets. As your back becomes stronger, you can increase the number of sets you do. Aim to perform 3 sets of 10-12 reps each.[2]
- Once you've done a full set of arm rows with 1 arm, switch sides to exercise the other half of your back.
- Try a barbell bent over row to bulk up your lower back. Stand in front of a barbell and keep your feet shoulder-width apart and bent over so your back is parallel to the floor. Grab onto the bar with a shoulder-width grip. Your hands should be about apart. Then, flex your back muscles and lift the bar up to your lower chest in 1 smooth motion. Hold the bar for 2-3 seconds, and then lower the bar back down slowly. Use your back muscles to control the bar's descent.
- Repeat for 3 sets of 10-12 reps. This will help your lats to bulk up quickly and will allow you to see fast results. If you need to work up to this goal, start with only 1 set of 12 reps.
- Throughout the bent over row, make sure that your knees and legs flexed slightly to support your lower back.
EditUsing Weight Machines to Develop Muscle - Perform lat pulldowns to strengthen your upper back and shoulders. This exercise is great for bulking up your traps, and also your rhomboids and the middle trapezius. Raise your hands and grasp the pull down bar. Make sure that your back is straight and your chest is pushed out to maximize the benefit of the pulldown exercise.[3]
- Make sure that you bring the bar in front of your head. If you try bringing it down behind your head, you may injure your shoulders.
- Draw the pulldown bar down to your chest. Flex your back muscles to engage them and try to pull with your back and not with your biceps. Ensure that you're using your back muscles by keeping your back straight and pushing out your chest and squeezing your shoulder blades back to retract them. Tighten your abs as you pull down the bar. Then, slowly raise your hands to return to the starting position. Don't let the weight fall suddenly, or you may damage your shoulders.[4]
- Perform 1-2 sets of 6-8 reps until you're comfortable doing more. As your back builds up, increase the reps to 10-12. If the weight and amount of reps are correct, you should struggle to complete the last 1-2 reps in each set.
- Work your upper and lower back and shoulders with seated cable rows. Sit at a low pulley machine and rest your feet on the platform in front of you. Bend over to reach the pulley, with your hands about apart to engage the central muscles of your upper and lower back. Then, flex your arms and bring your elbows up to your chest. As you tighten your back muscles and flex your biceps to pull the pulley into your chest, also push outward with your legs.[5]
- To finish, slowly extend your arms to return to your start position.
- When doing cable rows, set the machine at a weight that allows you to do about 12 reps for 3 sets. Doing 12 reps will allow you to build up back muscle without exhausting yourself or potentially straining your muscles.
- Build upper-back muscle with full-range motion lat pulldowns. Stand in between 2 pulley machines and attach the pulleys on both sides to the highest setting. Grab the right pulley with your left hand, and grab the left pulley with your right hand. Then, lower the handles down in front of your chest until they're crossed in front of your sternum. Finally, release the weight by returning the handles to the overhead position in a slow, controlled manner.
- Slowly bring your arms back in to your chest. Bring your arms to your chest slowly, without letting the weight jerk your shoulders.
- Start out with 3 sets of 10-12 reps. If you've set the weight right, the last 2 or 3 reps of each set should burn.
- If this is too challenging at first, lower the weight and try to complete 1 full set of 10-12 reps.
EditBuilding Muscle with Bodyweight Exercises - Do pull-ups to strengthen your shoulders and upper back. Grab a pullup bar with your palms facing outward. Then, lift yourself up until your chin is above the bar. Lift yourself slowly to fully engage the muscles in your shoulder and back. Lower yourself down slowly to complete the pull-up. Use your shoulder and back muscles to lower yourself at the same speed you used to pull yourself up.[6]
- If you jerk and twist your back as you pull yourself up, you'll risk straining a muscle.
- Start with as many pull-ups as you can manage, and try to add 1-2 more each workout. For example, start with 10. Next time you do pull-ups, aim for 12.
- Perform low planks to strengthen your lats and build your core. Lie on your front, with your elbows bent and your weight resting on your forearms. Then, push your hips up until your back is parallel to the floor. Retract your shoulder blades to engage more of your back muscles. Hold the position for 15 seconds. Try doing 2 sets of 15 reps.[7]
- Once you're comfortable doing low planks, try adding high planks into your workout routine. The only difference is that, instead of resting on your elbows, you'll fully extend your arms and rest on your hands.
- Try the "superman" to strengthen your lower back and core. Lay flat on your stomach and straighten your arms out in front of you, palms down. Then, slowly and simultaneously raise your arms up until your hands are about off the ground and raise your legs so your feet are also raised off the floor. Squeeze your legs together and keep them straight. Hold the pose for 15-30 seconds, and perform 3 sets of 10 reps.[8]
- You can increase or decrease the difficulty of the superman pose as needed. Try raising one arm at a time, then build toward raising one arm and the opposite leg at the same time. Move to raising both arms but not your legs, then both legs but not your arms to prepare you for the complete pose.
- This exercise works your back extensor muscles, which run down your spine and impact your posture.
- Strengthen your mid-back and shoulders with reverse snow angels. Lie flat on your stomach for this exercise. Push your shoulders back and raise your arms until they're about off the ground. Hold your arms outstretched so they're parallel with your shoulders, and then slowly move them down until they're at your sides. Keep your elbows locked, and repeat the exercise 5 times while keeping your arms lifted off the floor. Try doing 3 sets of 5 reps.[9]
- Reverse snow angels will engage your mid-back lats, rhomboids, posterior deltoids, trapezius, and teres major.
- When working out your back muscles, it's important to choose the right weight for effective results. Using too much weight may injure your back, and too little weight will yield little in the way of results. When you're using an adequate weight, you should feel fatigued after 8-12 reps. If you can perform an exercise for 20 reps, then you need to adjust your weight to make it heavier.
- When doing pull-ups, you can also try this with your palms facing inward. Varying the type of grip that you use to perform your pull-ups will develop a larger number of muscles in your back than if you only used 1 grip style.
- If you need to change cable machine attachments for your pulldowns, unhook the carabiner on the pulley and attach the one you need.
- Most large gyms will have pulley machines already set up in the configuration for full-range motion lat pulldowns. If you're setting up pulley machines, look for a knob or bar near the pulley wheel that allows you to raise or lower the height of the pulley itself. Raise the pulleys as high as possible. If pulleys are too low, they won't work for a full-range pulldown.
- Have a rest day in between workouts to allow your back muscles to recover.
EditSources and Citations
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