Meet STAMINAPRO Ambassador, Dee Tidwell. Dee has been a figure in the fitness business for more than 30 years. We had the chance to catch up with Dee, who generously shared his expertise and love in the mountain biking, motocross, and golf communities to list a few.
"I think it's cool to be 55 and still be racing, and my son's doing it with me so that's even better. It's all fun to me. I get to help people not only be better cyclists but be better athletes because that's my whole goal. I want to help people be better movers in general, no matter the sport."
So, let’s get started. Tell us a bit more about how you got into mountain biking.
Well, one, I’ve always been a cyclist. Two, I grew up as a Boy Scout, so I hiked a lot — I’ve always loved terrain. Three, I’ve had a need for speed since I was a kid. I grew up jumping my 10-speed bike, always wanting to race BMX, always wanting to ride Moto. All those things combined, and not being able to afford a motocross bike in college, led me to mountain biking.
You switched majors from Communications to Exercise Physiology which began your path to athletic conditioning. What sparked that change?
Let's face it, communication is one of those things that you pick when you really don't know what you want to do in life. I was frustrated of being in college for two years, essentially doing the same classes that I did in high school for the prior 4.
I was training hard, I was working out, I was riding a lot, and I was fascinated by the change that was taking place in my body. Then I found out that the University I was at, Cal State Chico, had and probably still has one of the best Exercise Physiology departments around. It seemed right up my alley and so I just went for it!
Had you been riding mountain bikes before then?
Ohh, come on man, I'm OG. Mountain bikes didn't exist when I went to college. They came out while I was in college, which is kind of funny. So, I started riding when they first came out, like in 1989 or so. It was all road bikes until mountain bikes came out and that’s when I started riding mountain bikes.
What inspired you to create Train to Ride and Enduro MTB Training, and how have these programs evolved over the years?
About 10 years ago while acting as the Yeti Cycles trainer, a new mountain biking race format was being birthed called “Enduro” which is repetitive, timed, downhill race segments connected by either lift assist or rideable transitions. I raced downhill for years and retired in 2001, and so I wanted to compete in this new format. Searching online for “Enduro mountain bike training programs” I found none, so I decided to supplement my income by venturing into the online training domain and began creating enduro training plans for general mountain biking performance enhancement and enduro race training.
I became actively involved in racing and sponsorship for the Big Mountain Enduro and Revolution Enduro series (I still am today) and raced these series as well.
With no expectations I started racing in the 40+ masters division and began to win and ended up winning 40+ and 50+ masters enduro titles in both aforementioned race series. Since then, I’ve added my monthly training option which gives a load of training every month for only $39 and is fresh, seasonally based and has helped so many riders around the world!
How has your personal experience as a racer influenced your approach to coaching and training?
In the end, I’ve always been a leader — most of the time unbeknownst to me — in my business and exercise field. I suppose my “no quit” attitude and true desire to serve my clients with the latest and best exercise related information push me to be the best in my business and to put in my best effort whenever I race.
What advice would you give someone who wants to get into mountain bikes but doesn’t know where to start?
Rent a mountain bike, go on a trail that is considered either green, if you're at a ski resort, or easy and see if you like it. If you like it, then purchase a used bike on Craigslist or marketplace and just do it.
For us who like the race — it's been in us for a long time. If I could race cars or something else, I would be doing that, but I can't. I have a need for speed and that's how I dealt with it.
Just don't get in over your head. With e-bikes people can get in over their head because they can go a long distance but as you know, when you climb up something, sometimes it's harder coming down. So the only thing that I caution is to make sure you go where your skills allow you to be safe.
What's the best thing you’ve learned as you’ve progressed in your training, career, and competition?
I've always tried to seek the best to study under. People like Paul Chek, Dr. Guy Voyer, and all of these super smart people have inspired the way I’ve built my business and the way I handle and deal with my clients and program creation. I’m always looking to be one step ahead of the fitness curve.
I enjoy that because I do things that not very many people have; ELDOA, for example, which is joint and spine decompression exercises. It's now starting to kind of creep out into the public knowledge, but it's still considered an elite practice because the best in the world are the ones that are seeking it out. That drive to always want to be the best in the field is the same thing that drives me for mountain biking.
I think it's cool to be 55 and still be racing, and my son's doing it with me so that's even better. It's all fun to me. I get to help people not only be better cyclists but be better athletes because that's my whole goal. I want to help people be better movers in general, no matter the sport.
I don’t feel old, I don’t act old — well maybe sometimes, but I’m not going to quit. Even if I’m 75 or 80, I don’t see myself slowing down.
Back in July, you suffered an injury which put you out for the season. Can you share more about what happened and your recovery journey?
Well, first, kudos to you guys who sent me a nice little care package. I thought that was super pro and very thoughtful, so thanks again for that because that definitely helped and made me feel pretty good.
So fortunately, it was my C7 vertebrate, and it was on the vertebral body, so it wasn't on any of the transverse processes or the spinous processes, which if it is, can be bad and can change how you can do life. Since it was on the body, it's like having a crack in a tree trunk versus a tree limb. It meant that nothing worse was going to happen because it's really hard to crack that in the first place and it would have taken more trauma to crack it more.
I used my STAMINAPRO patches, and other things like CBD, and the Marc Pro device. Because of what happened to my spine, all the muscles and connective tissue tightened up to protect it — to do the normal thing. I just worked within the limitations that my body gave me while not doing anything that would put a lot of stress on that C7. I changed my diet to make sure that I wasn't causing inflammation and made sure I was hydrated.
At this point, I’m at 98%. My hands were the things that hurt the most, so I still have hand issues from that crash, but that takes time. I’m thankful that it was my vertebral body and not something else.
Do you have any other hobbies or passions?
My family. I'm a Christian, so God is one of my passions. As well as camping, backpacking, hiking. I love road tripping. My daughter is in college and my son's a senior, so next year we'll be traveling more, which is going to be fun!
How did you discover STAMINAPRO and why have you continued to use it in your routine as a recovery tool?
It was through one of my clients, Mike Synek. He gave me some patches, I tried them, and they worked. And I like things that work! Especially things that are recovery related and that help keep you going, especially for my age demographic.
They helped me through my injury recovery, and I like to provide them for my client base; as mountain bikers we run into things and fall off of things and what not, so we need tools to help ourselves recover quickly and get back on the horse.
Catch up with Dee!
On social @train2ride
For cycling it’s traintoride.com
For golf, it’s coloradogolffitnessclub.com
For ELDOA, it’s denvereldoa.com
