BEN STEIN, MS, EP-C
Ben Stein — Coach.
Exercise Physiologist.
Athlete.
I don’t just study endurance performance. I test it, coach it, and live it.
For more than a decade, my work has brought together exercise physiology, biomechanics, bike fitting, performance testing, coaching, and my own experience as an endurance athlete.
THE BEGINNING
It Started With the Bike.
Long before exercise physiology became my profession, movement had already changed my life.
At 16, I was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident. Recovery took months. I didn’t have a formal rehabilitation program, but one piece of advice from my doctor stuck with me: ride a bike.
I didn’t take that advice very seriously at the time. Years later, cycling would become one of the central threads running through my education, career, and life.
After high school I moved from Idaho to Vail, Colorado, planning to stay for one winter. I stayed six years. The mountains pulled me toward mountain biking, and mountain biking eventually pulled me toward racing. I wanted to get faster, so I started studying exercise science.
What began as an attempt to become a better mountain biker turned into something much bigger: I fell in love with the science.
SCIENCE + BIOMECHANICS
Graduate School Changed the Direction.
I earned my undergraduate degree in Human Performance and Sport from Metropolitan State University of Denver and later returned to Idaho for graduate school at Boise State University.
At Boise State, I became deeply interested in biomechanics. My graduate research examined cycling kinematics and muscle activation during simulated uphill pedaling. Working around sophisticated 3D motion-capture technology changed the way I looked at cycling position and movement.
That experience became the foundation of my bike-fitting philosophy: start with the cyclist. Understand how the person moves, how their anatomy interacts with the bike, and how objective measurements can help explain that relationship.
OTB began in 2012 with a straightforward goal: provide the most advanced, detailed bike-fitting experience I could.
EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY BEYOND SPORT
The Person Is Always More Important Than the Metric.
After graduate school, I helped build and run an exercise program in cancer rehabilitation at St. Luke’s Cancer Institute. What began as a small role grew into years of working with hundreds of patient contacts each month.
That experience reinforced something that still shapes the way I work with athletes today: exercise can be powerful, but it has to be appropriate for the individual in front of you.
Today, I also work as an Exercise Physiologist at Idaho Sports Medicine Institute, performing physiological and muscular performance testing including VO₂max, blood lactate testing, and Biodex isokinetic assessment.
Testing keeps me connected to the part of exercise science I enjoy most—measuring how the human body responds, then figuring out what those measurements actually mean.
STILL AN ATHLETE
I Still Race Because I Love It.
Over the years I have raced mountain bikes, road bikes, XTERRA triathlons, long-distance events, 24-hour races, 100-mile mountain bike races, Boise 70.3, and the Smoke n Fire 400.
I don’t believe a coach or exercise physiologist has to be the fastest athlete in the room. But there is value in continuing to put yourself in situations where pacing, nutrition, equipment, fatigue, preparation, uncertainty, and execution become very real.
Hard endurance events keep me connected to the athlete experience. They also continue to remind me what the human body is capable of.
HOW I WORK
Science Should Help Us Understand the Athlete.
01
Test, Don’t Guess
Objective data matters. VO₂max, lactate response, power, heart rate, biomechanics, and strength can reveal things that a single performance number cannot.
02
The Athlete Is More Than Data
Measurements inform decisions. They do not replace conversation, experience, context, or the individual athlete.
03
Understand the Why
Whether I am changing a bike position or explaining a lactate curve, I want the athlete to understand what we are doing and why it matters.
★★★★★
“Coach Ben is a wealth of knowledge and experience! I truly appreciate working with him!”
— Levi Weert
Google Review
EDUCATION + PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Built Across the Lab, the Clinic, and the Trail.
- MS, Exercise Science — Boise State University
- BS, Human Performance and Sport — Metropolitan State University of Denver
- ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist (EP-C)
- Certified Retül Bike Fit Technician
- USA Cycling Coach
- XTERRA Certified Coach
- Founder, On the Bike LLC
- Owner, MTBCoach
- Exercise Physiologist, Idaho Sports Medicine Institute
DISCOVER WHAT YOU’RE CAPABLE OF.
Science Matters. Experience Matters. The Athlete Comes First.
OTB is where I use biomechanics and physiology to help athletes understand themselves better. Bike fitting helps us understand the athlete on the bike. Performance testing helps us understand the athlete under load.
Looking for coaching? Endurance coaching and training plans now live at MTBCoach—also owned and operated by Ben Stein.