It’s medically proven that cycling, next to swimming and jogging, is one of the best ways to stay in shape without requiring a huge amount of money for practicing conditions. All you need is a bike and the road is open for you, in every direction. Hence, more and more people tend to turn to cycling fitness, mainly because it offers 3 great advantages: it builds up muscles and keeps their tonus up, it burns calories as fast as swimming or running (depending on the speed you ride your bike at of course) and it’s a great way to relax your mind and get some fresh air.
Besides this 3 in 1 deal, cycling also offers two great advantages. First off, with modern stationary exercise bikes, you don’t even have to go out of the house to ride a bike. This makes it possible to train regardless of the weather outside or of your mood to go out or not. And secondly, cycling fitness doesn’t even require any kind of athletic skills. Think about it, even with swimming, you need to have some skills and a great deal of stamina to successfully exercise, but with cycling fitness these skills are virtually non existent. If the bike is stationary, you can set it up to a level where you are comfortable and you can basically go on for as long as you want, as stamina will not be drained if you’re not pushing your limits.
A good way to obtain a great body with the help of cycling fitness is figure out a stepwise training program. You can start off at the easiest riding setting and just get accommodated to the bike for the first few days, slowly pedaling for around 40 minutes. After a few days, slightly increase the gear to make it harder to pedal but still keep a comfortable effort level. Do this again and again until you’ll notice you reached the hardest possible gear setting and didn’t even felt it. If you use a stepwise training program, your body will become accommodated to the effort you put in each step and when you get to the last point, you’re ready to start off practicing hard. This means you’ll need to push yourself harder, ride faster and in shorter but more intense bursts of energy.
The above-mentioned program can be achieved on both a road or a stationary bicycle both having advantages and disadvantages. While training like that on a road bike, you’ll get fresh air that will oxygenate your body giving you more stamina and a faster accommodation to effort. One disadvantage however, is that the program requires you to train constantly (read “each day” or “every 2 days”) and in the case of a road bike the weather outside could stop you from doing so, ruining your entire program. It’s not that important if you miss or skip a day or two, but when this day or two become a week…you’ll have to start over again.
The stationary bike on the other hand, does not have this drawback. You’ll be able to keep to your program at all times and modern stationary exercise bikes offer different cycling fitness programs that are much more settable and configurable than the ones on a road bike. The fresh air and oxygenation you get from riding outdoors might not be as high in the comfort of your home but this disadvantage can be easily avoided if you practice on a terrace, balcony or wherever your home permits it. In the case of the stationary bike, you won’t have to focus on keeping balance, road distractions or other things that might grab your attention, such as on a road bike. This may prove an advantage, since you’ll be able to focus more on your training. However most people tend to get bored when riding for 30-40 minutes on a bike in the same setup of their room and this is a huge setback. A road bike offers more diversity as well as more distractions, however the time will literally fly in comparison to the stationary bike training. This too can be avoided if you get some sort of entertaining in the room you practice in, such as a TV, a radio or a CD player.
We can’t conclude which type of cycling fitness is better, road or home-based one. Each of us has his or her own preferences and may skip the disadvantages of one with more ease than the other type. To some, cycling is one of the few moments when they can get outside the house or office and practicing at home sounds useless. Others however, prefer training while they watch their favorite TV program and love the fact that weather conditions never hinder their training, as opposed to road cycling fitness. Whichever of these types of people you are, cycling will give you a boost in fitness and make you feel better about yourself at all times.
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