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Cycling: Good Cardio? |
I know biking up hills are beneficial but I live in a seaside city called Brighton in England and I only tend to bike along flat land (sometimes hills) but I'm always pushing the pedals with my feet so that's still good cardio exercise right? Also what other exercises are good cardio and for how long and at what pace should they be done to ensure and improve health/fitness/weight etc. Thanks in advance!! Biking along the flat is still a very good workout but you maybe finding it to easy because you are good at it. As others have said it is good to add variety and picking an exercise you detest the most will give the best results. This is because it pushes your body more as you are not use to it. It is impossible to say that one form of exercise is better than another. You could make your bike riding more effective by putting the bike into a harder gear which would increase the resistance. Also try cycling standing up for a time and then sit back down it acts just the same as interval training and changes the way the muscles are used. This change will challenge your body much more and make it harder which in turn will improve results. So to answer your question yes it is good cardio but remember the body gets use to exercise and the benefits won't be as noticeable. Other good cardio exercises are anything that uses pushes your heart and lungs. So most sports come under this, swimming, dancing, classes, running, circuits. As for level of training to see results you need to use a scale of perceived effort 1 being nothing and 10 being you are about to pass out and throw up. You will want to work at about a 7, so it should be uncomfortable, sweaty and out of breath but not painful and certainly not easy. This is the equivalent of 70% (approx.) of maximum heart rate. ((220 - your age) x 0.7). This should mean that you will see changes quite regularly. I hope this helps and good luck with your training. Source(s): Personal trainer and author of http://www.beebleblog.com right how about good old fashioned skipping or walking all three are so good for you these can be done for as long as you wish It really depends on how long you ride your bicycle. It is a good cardio workout. Also you can use a good treadmill and set it for a slight incline and walk or run about 30 minutes. I really built up my time after three months on a treadmill. I felt great. Anything that raises your heart rate and raises a sweat is cardio exercise. Cycling is good exercise...maybe you find it easy because you are quite fit and are used to cycling. You tend to be fit for what you do, so a good way to get fitter is to shock your system by trying something new...like rowing/running/swimming/dancin... list is endless. I usually cycle to the gym because it's better for the environment and its good exercise for me...but I don't find it hard work because it's quite flat and only about 5 miles round trip. It's a good warm up though. As for duration...get warmed up...push yourself for as long as you can (no slacking off though) and then push for another 5 or 10 minutes once you start to feel tired, before cooling down and calling it a day. The time you can do will improve with fitness. The key is...variety, intensity and perseverence. All exercise is good exercise. I hope this helps. PS do not be tempted to overeat to compensate for the extra exercise...I did when I trained for a half marathon and losing the 8lbs has been so much harder than gaining them (or training for the half marathon)....I'm back to my normal weight now, and boy was that a challenge!!! Cycling is great cardio,so is walking,skipping,swimming is great as it uses every muscle in your body.I happen to love the elliptical machines,but even just using a hula hoop is good too and fun.Pilates and yoga are great for toning and mixing with your cardio. Its pretty good cardio, in general you want to do 30-40 minutes of vigorous,sweaty exercise 4-5 days a week. Jogging is perhaps slightly better, but harder on the spine, knees and hips as it is higher impact. |
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