Cycling Information

A Good Fit Is Essential For Enjoyable Bike Riding

No Comments

Have you spotted how many more people are bike riding nowadays?

It’s a quickly growing transportation mode with more people commuting by bike to work ( one friend of mine figures he saving $5 a day in gas alone ), taking long distance bike tours or just getting some fitness exercise by tooling around the neighborhood.

But whether purchasing a new bike or just ensuring you are using that old ten speed efficiently, one thing everyone must do if you are going to make cycling a regular part of your life is to be certain the bike is fitted to you. This also is still true if you are participating in a spinning class.

Folks can develop all sorts of issues from a wrongly fitted bike. We’re chatting major leg issues, back issues, shoulder issues, arm and joint issues.

Let’s start with the seat, or the saddle, as cyclists call it. As anybody new to cycling will avow, getting used to a bike saddle could be a agonizing experience.

The big mistake most recreational or casual riders make is purchasing the widest and softest seat they can find. The truth is, a seat that’s too soft actually ends up hurting more. Your sit bones just sink down and do not support you the way they’re intended to and the soft part of your rear end carries all of the weight.

Saddles need to me positioned horizontally… The right distance from the handlebars so you are not stretching or all scrunched up…. And vertically, so you are not sliding backwards or forward. There are special saddles for men that are anatomically engineered to relieve pressure on, ah, very delicate parts. There are also saddles in a similar way designed for women.

The right frame size is also critical. You ought to be able to approximately straddle the bike with a centimeter or 2 of clearance with the center tube. Seated on the saddle, your leg should be only slightly bent at the knee with the peddle in the full down position.

This is another area where in wrong fit could cause issues. The bias is for folks to have the seat too low, with their knees coming up much too high in the upward pedal position, or too high, with the knees locked straight on the down stroke. Besides not being efficient and not giving good control, this may cause knee and back issues.

Then, there’s the handlebars. They also must be changed vertically and horizontally so you will not be over stretched or put too much weight on you arms and hands.

Finally, glance at the pedals. Make sure your legs and knees are in a straight vertical line with your pedal. Otherwise, you can develop serious knee issues. A good bike shop can adjust the pedals to bring everything in line.

Most local bike shops can do a very able fitting for you for $50 or so. It’s money spent well.

You will also wish to have a bike computer to keep track of your rides.

One last thing : Get a good helmet.

I am still amazed at how many bike riders I see who don’t wear helmets. If you have ever seen what happens when someone falls from a bike, even at low speeds and hits their head on the pavement or a tree, you can realize that folk who ride without a helmet are either foolish or careless.

Ride safe. Ride snug. Have fun.

Continue Reading

Cycling Information

For Cycling Efficiency Take A Spinning Class

No Comments

As colder weather conditions moves many a bicyclist off the roads and trails inside till spring, the once a year dilemma of what to do to keep fit in the winter is again on many of our minds.

Theres the treadmill. The elliptical. A bike on rollers in the basement.

Dull.

Heres an idea for you : Try spinning.

While you can do it at home, in front of a TV with a DVD playing, Im here to advise you to instead become a regular at a spinning class or group cycling session at a country club, YMCA or community center near you. If you want to get in tip top cycling condition, try spinning for fitness, maybe the best and most efficient way to boost nearly all of your cycling moves.

The everyday spinning class of forty five mins is a sweat-dripping program certain to get you in peak cardio vascular condition and to enhance your cycling speed by raising your pedaling cadence, fortifying your hill climbing muscles and giving you a better cycling style.

A spinning class is not for wimps and chickens. If youve never taken one before, do not be confounded if it takes you a few classes to be in a position to finish, or stand and surge, or keep your cadence as high as the instructor wants. In forty five miles, youll cover equivalent to 16-18 miles if you were riding outside. In one hour class, the equivalent distance is 23-25 miles.

The reason why I advocate a spinning class instead of DIY indoor cycling at home is that in an arranged class, group dynamics are a major motivating factor. Along, you just wont push yourself as hard as you will be pushed under the leadership of a trained instructor. The company of other bike riders in the class will also help keep you motivated and inspired as you and your workout buddies push those cranks.

One common question many beginning spinners ask is how often they should participate in a spinning class. This is dependent on your fitness level but , sometimes a couple of times a week will maintain your fitness and taking 3 or even more spinning classes per week will bring fitness improvement.

As with any radical exercise form, you check with your physician before taking part in a spinning class.

You do not need any special gear, excepting padded cycling shorts. Most exercise bikes you’ll discover in a spinning class have straps on one side of the pedal for those who wear tennis shoes and standard Shimano clipless pedals on the other for those that wear cycling shoes. Wearing cycling shoes and clipping in on the spinning bike makes your pedal stroke much more effective, as each revolution will have you pushing and pulling.

One other convenient piece of gear to be used in a spinning class is a heart rate monitor. This permits you to figure out how well you are doing, what coaching zone you are in and whether you should back off or increase effort to gain maximum workout benefits.

Spinning is a great way to get and stay fit. If you try it over a winter, youll me more than ready when the outdoor cycling season resumes in the spring and you’ll be a much faster and stronger rider.

.

Continue Reading

Cycling Information

A Spinning Class Is The Perfect Workout To Get Better At Cycling

No Comments

If you’ve ever wanted to boost your bicycling ability and your general fitness level, you probably already know that a spinning class is one of the finest ways to do your goal. There are few exercise programmes that are as intense as indoor cycling and while it’s right that you can ride a still bike at home or by yourself in a health spa, an organized spinning class is the most efficient way to raise your endurance and be well placed to do improve your cycling talents.

Being part of a spinning class insures that you’re going to be training at the correct power level, with intervals of speed, resistance that simulates hills and wind and high revolution spinning that involves hitting an intonation of over 125 rpm.

That’s because in spinning classes at health clubs are taught by authorized spinning instructors who endure severe training that makes sure they understand the human body, muscle development and fitness improvement programs.

In a spinning class, you’ll be well placed to learn how to do the basic essentials of the sorts of cycling that you want to be doing when you ride outside. You may learn the way to do different moves things you won’t know yet like running to a finishing line in a race, charging up a hill, pacing yourself for long climbs and monitoring your progress on a bike computer.

And you’ll transition between diverse levels of heart training. In a spinning class, you will find out all about pushing yourself to the maximum and what such a kind of exercise can do for you, how it develops different muscle sets, how those muscles work, and why they are vital to your cycling capability.

Not only that, but you’ll actually be in a position to learn them from a seasoned instructor, who is good at what they do and someone that will help you be good at cycling and spinning too.

When it comes to spinning classes, they are good for you in an alternative way, other than simply teaching you to try hard on an exercise bike. Everybody knows the hardest part about working out is actually doing it, going to the gymnasium or riding your bicycle, or doing whatever it is that you’ve decided to do. This is the hardest part about an exercise routine, really getting it done. Nonetheless if you join up to a spinning class, this suggests that you are scheduling yourself to do it you say that during these times you are going to be at spinning class, which suggests that you’ve got to go.

Regularly just getting it put down on the calendar is a great way to make sure that you do something. This is a great thing for you, and you will find that by scheduling yourself to be taking a spinning class, you will find you are even likelier to basically go ahead and work out instead of dragging it out. This is something that you might need to contemplate, because if you have a shortage of incentive for any cause, making an attempt to work out on your own just may not cut it. You would probably be better off taking a spinning class because this way you are certain to have prepared this time to work out.

Continue Reading

Cycling Information

Using A Heart Rate Monitor In A Spinning Class

No Comments

Different exercise brightnesses tax the body’s energy systems in alternative ways. A heart rate monitor is the best way to attain maximum fitness. In an inside bicycle spinning class, for instance, these areas will be each utilised in a workout to train the body to maximum fitness.

They are all based on the athlete’s maximum heartbeat rate.

The easiest way to figure out this is to take away your age from the number 220 The formula is Maximum heartbeat rate = 220-Your Age.

A contemporary study espoused by trainers from the U.S. Contends this this formula is more accurate : MHR = 206.9 – ( 0.67 x age )

Whichever formula you use, it’s important to then watch your pulse rate monitor during your spinning class or exercise program. Knowing that you can then train through numerous sections of exertion.

Exercising at 60 percent of maximum heartbeat rate mostly works the aerobic system in most people. Often this is called the energy-efficient or Recovery Zone. This is a great coaching sector for those that need to lose the pounds as the major source of fuel will be fat when you train at this rate.

A pulse rate training zone of 70-80% will develop the cardiovascular system in fitter people but the key source of fuel will be carbohydrate, or even more in particular, glycogen.

This is the heart rate training zone that endurance athletes often aim at. The body’s capability to transport oxygen to, and carbon-dioxide away from, the working muscles can be developed and improved with regular coaching in this exertion section.

A higher level is named The Anaerobic sector and hits eighty percent to 90%of the athlete’s maximum heart beat rate. At heart rates, the quantity of fat being burned as the main source of power is seriously reduced and glycogen stored in the muscle is primarily used. What happens here is because of the heavy effort, the body can no longer take away the lactic acid from the working muscles fast enough. This is sometimes known as your anaerobic threshold ( AT ). Regular coaching at this level helps you to obstruct the AT by having the ability to increase your capability to address the lactic acid for a longer period of time or by pushing the AT higher. This is what endurance athletes strive for.

The last training section is commonly known as the Red area and takes place when the heart beat rate reaches 90 to one hundred percent. It’s just possible for short periods and it train;s your body’s fast twitch muscles fibers, the type used to develop speed. This would be a zone you hit momentarily in interval coaching, either running or in a spinning class.

You’ll be able to find a heart beat rate monitor online at costs ranging from around $25 to a couple of hundred.

At most spinning classes, the athletes appear to mostly use heartrate monitor watches. Timex makes a unit for roughly $30 that is a particular favorite.

Ask any personal coach or athletic conditioner and they will tell you the right way for improving your fitness and seeing results is to train at the right power. And that is only ever possible with a heart rate monitor.

Continue Reading