Cycling Vis-à-Vis Health & Fitness

There are 3 paths to Good Health (I think):-

o See a Doctor
o Watch Your Diet
o Exercise

The “See a Doctor” path to Good Health is usually very expensive and unless we have so much money to throw around, this is not a good way, unless very necessary.

When a person needs to to this, it is mostly due to the fact that the person does not have the physical capabilities to follow the other 2 paths.

Watching one’s diet is another way a lot of people try and maintain good health, as over weight; over-eating and eating the wrong type of food are found to be a major cause of most illness.

However it has been emphasized over and over again that good nutritional habit together with some form of cardiovascular exercise, is necessary and would greatly reduced chances being caught death with a major illness.

So what are some of the cardiovascular exercises that may strengthen your heart and ward off major illness related to a sedentary lifestyle?

1. Fast Walking


2. Jogging


3. Swimming


4. Rollerblading


5. Cycling

However cycling has certain advantages over other exercises:

1. Cycling exercises the heart better than walking or running.


2. Cycling (similar to swimming) is an exercise that goes without the pounding and the wearing out of the knees and leg joints.


3. One can ride a bicycle almost anywhere, at any time of the year, and at low cost. You need a swimming pool or a beach to swim.


4. Imagine you run 5 to 10 km. You will be so tired and unable to enjoy the scenery. You can cycle leisurely 20 to 50 km and enjoy the scenery around you and feel the breeze.


5. Little or no time has to be lost, as bike can be used to get to work, perform errands, or enjoy the outdoors.


6. Commuting by bike reduces pollution that causes asthma and bronchitis.

On the down side, cycling does involve some risk of injury but this has been greatly exaggerated by fear mongers. Cycling actually has similar risks to traveling by automobile.

One very interesting question is how much aerobic exercise should one get every day? Some medical authorities recommend as little as 20 minutes a day, three times a week, while others recommend four times that amount.

Why the great difference? Well, most authorities recognize the more exercise the better up to some undetermined point, but many are afraid that if they expect too much, people won't exercise at all.

Another reason for lowering the recommendation was due to the damage caused by jogging, a problem cycling does not share. The concern here is that those setting very low requirements are giving people the mistaken impression that they don't need any more exercise than their usual, basic sedentary life.

How much exercise do I recommend? I find that an hour of cycling 2 to 3 times a week keeps me feeling good.

But remember that lower amounts of exercise improve one's health and higher amounts improve one's fitness.

So it is up to you whether you just want to improve your health or improve your fitness. Fitness itself also has many level of fitness. So………

It is all UP TO YOU. Just that Cycling is the Best Exercise!

Chew GC