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June 5, 2009
Cycle for health and fitness
Benefits include weight loss, increased energy and a lot of fun.
RICK MILLIKAN
Cycling can be more than an activity; it can be a way of life. If you cycle to lose weight, the context will soon change. Yes, your body's metabolism will speed up and you will likely lose pounds. But you are shedding pounds within the context of pleasure and independence," wrote James C. McCullagh in The Complete Bicycle Fitness Book.
Bicycles could resolve a national problem of epidemic proportions. Only tobacco addiction is considered a larger medical problem than obesity in North America. Why is cycling so often ignored in weight management? Eating habits are typically blamed for being overweight. Thus diets are imposed. Yet, as long-term solutions, food regimens regularly fail. More active lifestyles could effectively achieve weight loss, but how can a sustained physical effort be sold in a "couch potato" culture?
Pedaling off into a well-honed, toned existence makes perfect sense. No other exercise can be so efficiently integrated into our lives. In spite of good intentions, sweaty scheduled workouts falter in the whirlwinds of modern life. Planning lags, commitment sags and there's never enough time. Cycling offers a highly motivating and effective activity.
Any workout immediately burns calories to effect weight loss. The Centre for Science in the Public Interest researched a wide range of exercises and calories burned by an average 158-pound adult. Of course, people exercising harder burn more calories. In general, jogging 11 minutes per mile benefits aerobics and strength and burns 655 calories per hour. Swimming 220 yards for 5.5 minutes works on your flexibility and strength and burns 600 calories per hour, while cycling a mile within six minutes has aerobic and strength benefits and burns 415 calories an hour. Finally, if you just want to walk, strolling for a mile over 25 minutes will improve muscle tone and burn off 255 calories.
Cycling has several advantages over comparable popular activities. Walking, praiseworthy in many respects, requires the longest time commitment for weight reduction. Joggers burn off more calories per hour, but run the risk of damaging joints and bones, especially on hard tracks. Jogging can also become drudgery, problematic or weather dependent. Water buoyancy allows swimmers a safe, effective exercise program, yet access to regular swim sessions may be inconvenient, sporadic or impossible. Riding a bike has few drawbacks and many perks. Conveniently integrating cycling into busy lifestyles, daily pedals readily diminish body weight, as well as increase a general stamina, help joints and bones and strengthen musculature.
Bike exercise reduces body bulk in several ways. One pound is lost for every 3,500 calories used. Pedaling daily for 75 minutes can burn enough calories to lose about a pound per week. Rather than episodic bouts of intense exercise, it's regular cycling routines that increase basal metabolic rates. Riding from 30-60 minutes stimulates both the adrenal and thyroid glands to produce adrenaline and thyroxin, increasing metabolisms up to 25 per cent for 15 hours after the initial exercise. Thus, at rest, the body continues a weight-loss process. Moreover, as cycling strengthens and develops muscle mass, weight loss is continually induced by thermogenesis.
Cycling efficiently tones as well as trims. A coffee acquaintance maintains that, "Bikes make good butts!" As we cycle, bodies replace excess flab with sleek muscle. This new muscular stamina withstands stress and better maintains high energy levels. As a result, the need to eat for energy is also reduced.
The robust bicycle life can replace sedentary patterns and stimulate proper diets. Recording progress in a ride logbook further encourages weight-loss activity, as well as motivates improved nutrition. Though eating habits may seem fixed, active cyclists will naturally crave healthier diets. The body becomes more in tune with appropriate nutrition.
Why consider exercise a chore to reduce weight? Avid, aerobic cycling offers a joyful activity complete with endorphins. These brain chemicals make you feel good, block pain and even eliminate feelings of hunger. Many athletes develop positive addictions to such natural highs.
The recipe for sweet success: one keen rider, one apt bicycle, stir the pedals and savor the delicious road to a "lean and fit" existence! Geared up, you'll be cycling off on fresh air escapades, effectively commuting, accomplishing errands, enhancing social visits and enjoying routine recreation. As a friendly sport, you'll find bike buddies motivating further zesty rides and, along the way, you may even learn to appreciate those challenging hills and headwinds that burn off extra calories.
Rick Millikan is a writer living in Delta.
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