Kitkhat

When done properly, cycling is an effective and enjoyable form of aerobic exercise. Cycling can reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity and diabetes according to a report by Kelley GA. Effects of Aerobic exercise in normotensive adults, 1995. It can reduce your ‘real age’, lowering it more than a decade lower than your chronological age. The indirect health benefits include reducing serious injuries caused by falls in older people, osteoporosis, and hip fractures. Statistics show that cyclists, even those who only travel short distances can reduce the risk of death by 22 per cent. Optimum results are achieved when cyclists are breathing heavily, but are not out of breath. Exercise has been shown to increase HDL (“good” cholesterol) and reduce the amount of triglycerides in the blood. Again, this means improved cardiovascular health. This leads to a reduced chance of heart blockage and reduces the risk of stroke. There are some reports that link exercise to a lowered risk of developing some cancer, like colon cancer. Cycling burns the calories in a chocolate bar or a couple of alcoholic drinks in one hour, 300 calories. Translated into modern lifestyle terms, a fifteen-minute bike ride, five times a week, burns off 11 pounds of fat a year and meets the requirements for reducing heath risks. There is a trick to exercising. Running a nine-minute-mile burns 11 calories a minute. Walking at 18 minutes per mile burns five. Faster exercise burns more calories. Exercise continues to burn fat after the workout ends. Once the sweating stops the body’s metabolisms remains high. You can you increase the post-exercise burn? A few scientific studies suggest that exercising for 20 minutes at 35 to 55% of aerobic capacity, as in riding briskly, elevated metabolism for 20 minutes after stopping. That means that a 20 minute, brisk bike ride burns fat for 40 minutes. Cycling has been proven to reduce stress and depression and relieve symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. The Department of Transport reports that ‘even a small amount of cycling can lead to significant gains in fitness’. The study reveals that aerobic fitness was boosted by 11 per cent after six weeks of cycling ‘short distances’ four times a week and cycling four miles a day the aerobic benefit increased to 17 per cent. The Fetner PH. ABC of sports medicine report, Benefits of exercise in health and disease, 1994 concludes that cycling is ‘one of the few physical activities which can be undertaken by the majority of the population as part of a daily routine’. The choice of bike is a personal thing. Most people never cycle more than five miles, so choosing an expensive bike designed to challenge the most adventurous dare devils. Instead, choose a bike that will manage the local terrain, comfortably. Most people who use elliptical trainers depend on them to give them a full body workout, Granted they do have the ability to work both the upper and lower body if used properly, One thing they do not do is build strength and bone mass that many people need to maintain good fitness, Elliptical trainers are excellent in protecting joints while giving a great aerobic workout. If you are a free weight lifter or a martial arts enthusiast you have probably developed a regular routine of stretching and warming up that protects your joints and muscle during your workout session. As you get older you start to lose some of you flexibility and your warm ups and stretching take longer and in some cases can be painful. Some of us have begun to use treadmills and steppers to help in the overall body warm ups. Even more recently we have begun to use the elliptical trainers in our gym as part of our pre-workout warm-ups. Elliptical trainers are great for warming up the upper body before using heavy free weights. They are also great on days when the weather is cold and you need to do extra warm-ups, The goal is to get warm without wasting energy in aerobic exercise, Normally an elliptical trainer will give a good warm-up in less than 10 minutes, You will still need to do your stretching exercises especially if you are doing heavy benching and squats. In an effort to reduce injuries our Tai Kwon Do instructors recently added two Nautilus elliptical trainers to our dojang. They gave a demo of how the elliptical trainer routines helped give a no impact warm-up. Our black belt class soon was using the elliptical trainers before every class. Now if you want to warm up prior to class you should get there at least an hour early to have access to one of the elliptical trainers. Initially it appears that using the elliptical trainers is helping reduce injuries, Again you still have to complete your forms.