slack off & buff up (formerly don't ride toooooo much)
February 20, 2010
In 1985, pro bicycle rider Joop Zoetemelk was a contestant in a European fitness competition that pitted pro athletes against one another in areas outside their specialties, of course. He was a pro for 18 years, completed a record 16 Tours de France, finished second five times and won it once.
The year of the contest, Zoetemelk had won the World Championship Road Race, and now here he was at the bar-dip station. Starting in the up position, he let himself down and couldn't push himself back up. Not one dip.
By bike racing standards, he was arguably the fittest bicycle racer alive, and that should tell you all you need to know about the kind of fitness a focused dedication to long miles gives you. All legs, and a cardiovascular system well trained for one thing.
Bicycle riding can be your main form of exercise, but it isn't all-around enough to justify more than about two-thirds of your exercise time.
It does almost nothing for your upper body. It's not load-bearing, so it doesn't fend off osteoporosis. The repetitive motion leads to muscle specialization, and that leads to diminishing returns (muscles become too efficient at things they do all the time, and so the better you are, the fewer the benefits) and it takes lots of time away from other exercises that lead to all-around fitness.
This is good news, and it's not anti-riding!
It means instead of grinding yourself down for fifty miles, or maybe a hard thirty-five, ride easier for ten or twenty, or five or ten. You'll enjoy the ride more (if you dread beating yourself up), and you'll ride for fun, not to ward off guilt for not riding.
With the hour-and-a-half or two and a half you save, you have time for a half-hour walk with your spouse or the dog or both, forty jumping jacks, twenty push-ups, and a half hour of chasing the Frisbee. Or reading, or pursuing something else that makes you well-rounded (perhaps a bad choice of words there) and happy.
When you cut short your ride and use a small fraction of the time saved to do a few push-ups or go for a walk, you'll have used more muscles and done your body way more good than riding an extra ten, twenty, or thirty miles. Mixing up your exercise makes it go faster, breaks the tedium, and is way better for you than just more riding, with its localized, efficient feet-twirling. Confuse your muscles by changing things around and you'll get more benefit. You don't want to be one of those guys who rides ten thousand miles a year and is still chunky for it.
Chunky, fine---but chunky plus 10,000 miles is a sign you're doing something wrong, and it's probably too much pedaling. It's easy, if you weigh more than you wish you did (and who doesn't?) to get into a trap where you think Holy cow poop---I'm doing all this riding and I still can't lose weight? If I cut back my miles, I'll positively balloon!
It don't work that way. Cut back your carbs and road miles, walk more, do other exercises that aren't nearly as time-consuming. Eighty percent of your body shape & size is determined by what you don't eat, anyway. Exercise just tones the underlying muscles show they show up a bit and makes it easier to do stuff. But if the only stuff you do is twirl your legs in circles, you may die someday because you can't hold onto a safety rope.
Still now: Bike riding can be and maybe should be the foundation of your whole heathy-thing you got going on. It's hard to get injured on the bike, it works your leg muscles so well, and those keep you strong and mobile and balanced throughout old age, even. It's easy on your joints, which is why it's the No. 1 exercise in rehab facilities all over the world.
But it works too few muscles in too repetitive ways to take up more than about 66.67 percent of your exercise time. Tomorrow (today if you're reading this on Saturday, and it'll be taken down on Sunday) I'm going to slog up the mountain here, anyway, because I'm used to it and it's fun. I'll walk the dog later and try to see if I can beat Joop Zoetemelk's dip record. Dips are hard. Don't be bummed if you can't do one, they're really hard. Do something else with that meat above your waist.
They're they antithesis of a long, smooth ride on a bicycle, and that's the point. They work different muscles, and they work them hard, and they don't take any time at all.
Four-count jumping burpie
1. Start from a standing position. Compress to a squat, with your hands on the floor by your feet.
2. Extend your legs rearward, supporting your body with straight arms.
3. Spring your legs back to the squat position.
4. Jump up as high as you can.
Each one takes about three or four seconds. Start with however many you can do, and add one a week until you can do fifteen or twenty. Do them more often than you like---at least 3 sets a week. It does you more good in a shorter time than anything else.
Six-count jumping burpie
Like the four-count, but insert a down-up (two-count) pushup between steps two and three.
OK, that's it. This is not a fitness site, but since these posts come and go 5x a week now, there's got to be some variety.
SMILE TRAIN UPDATE: We're still $7k short. We subsidize your donations heavily. Click here for details, and good job so far...
http://www.smiletrain.org/
