No one loves doing cardio. This is the most tedious part of a fitness routine and many people skip it altogether. The reason why they do is because, in most cases, our idea of cardio is spending 30 minutes on a treadmill staring at a wall. An alternative way that you could incorporate cardio into your fitness routine would be to get a bike. Bikes are practical in so many ways and have the benefit of being great calorie burners. However, they have tons of other fitness benefits you should know about.
Here are a few reasons why everyone should add cycling to their fitness routine. We’ll also give you a few tips on how you can do so safely and efficiently.
It’s a Great Mode of Transportation
The biggest benefit of cycling for fitness is that you’ll have the chance of doing so while getting stuff done at the same time. You won’t have to worry about doing two hours of cardio per week if you use it to go to work every morning or run errands. You’ll also find yourself wanting to go on joy rides from time to time. This will allow you to either burn calories or maintain a healthy weight more easily.
It’s Fun
Cycling is also a fun way to burn calories. Some people really get into it and decide to go on long excursions. It’s difficult to be an avid cyclist and out of shape, and if it becomes your passion, you won’t have to worry about gaining or losing weight again.
Cycling is also a great way to get the whole family involved. If you want your children to grow up to be active, get them a bike early on. It will become part of their lives and you won’t have to beg them to go and get some fresh air. This is a great habit to instill in a child and one they’ll possibly maintain for the rest of their lives.
It’s Great for Recovery
A lot of people are under the impression that recovery means that you should do absolutely nothing during your off days. But that’s not true. Being lethargic means that there is less blood circulation and fewer nutrients being sent to the areas that need it.
Instead, you have to go for active recovery. This is when you work the areas that need recovery with moderate to light intensity. One study found that people who practiced active recovery were able to recuperate at a much faster rate, and there are few exercises that are better for active recovery than cycling.
The beauty of cycling is that you can go at your own pace. If you worked your legs the day before, you can go on an easy ride on a sunny afternoon to get the blood pumping. This will reduce the amount of soreness and allow you to work these areas faster, which will result in faster gains as well.
How to Add Cycling to Your Routine
There are two ways that you can do this. One would be to adopt your bicycle as a first or secondary mode of transportation and the other would be to use it as a fitness tool.
If you’re going to be using the bike as a mode of transportation, we would also suggest that you get a transit pass. This will allow you to either bring your bike with you or park it near a subway station. This way, you’ll get maximum mobility. Another benefit of this is that if you go too far and suddenly feel like you can’t go anymore, you’ll always have a way to get back home.
If you’re going to be using the bike for fitness specifically, there are also many ways that you can approach this. You can go for endurance, or you could also use the bike to do some high intensity interval training. This is when you go for short sprints followed by a cool down period. This can be a great way to burn energy before and also after your sessions. That’s because this form of training has been shown to boost metabolism and calories burned way after the session is over.
The thing with using HIIT with a bike, especially on open roads, is that it can be dangerous. This is why you will need to learn how to avoid a cycling accident. If you want to know how to avoid cycling accident and a few other safety tips, we suggest you check out Velosurance. They have a great article that explains what the most common causes for accidents are and how to avoid them. They give tips on how to avoid getting doored for instance, which is one of the most common and yet overlooked types of bicycle accidents.
As you can see, there are tons of reasons why adding cycling to your routine is a great idea. Make sure that you consider it and try to make it part of your everyday life.
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