Spring has sprung and it’s time to start planning activities you can enjoy out of doors. If you’ve put on a few pounds during the Winter months, consider adding bicycle riding to your list of pleasant experiences to enjoy now that the weather is so beautiful.
There are many benefits to bicycle riding. The muscles in your legs are the biggest group of muscles in the body, so by bicycling, you burn a lot of calories. You can burn close to 500 calories just by riding for an hour at about twelve to fourteen miles per hour. Another benefit is that bicycling doesn’t jar your feet, bones, and joints like running, jogging, or even brisk walking can do. Even low impact aerobics can have problems that you don’t face with bicycling.
Here are some tips to different ways you can incorporate bicycle riding into your life:
1. If it’s feasible, ride your bicycle to and from work or school. You’ll not only improve your health and lose fat, but also help the environment and save money on gasoline.
2. If you can’t ride your bicycle back and forth to school or work, fit in an hour each day to your schedule to have a nice ride. If you can squeeze this in the morning, it will pump up your metabolism for the whole day!
3. Do you have errands to run each week, or friends that live close by? Go by bicycle instead of your car. Put a basket on your bicycle and go do a little shopping – not your shopping for the whole week, but little things you need from time to time throughout the week.
4. A fun thing to do is go bike riding with your whole family for a couple of hours, maybe on the weekend. Pick a nice park as your goal and pack a healthy lunch to eat once you arrive at your destination. After you eat and rest a while to let your food digest, have a nice leisurely ride back home. This will improve the health of your whole family, and would be a great time to spend some quality “family” time together.
All the Farmer’s Markets should be popping up now also. Take a bicycle ride over to the nearest Farmer’s Market and stock up on fresh, healthy vegetables. If you combine this form of exercise with healthy eating, you should be able to shed a pound of fat each week, and keep it off.
Whatever your fitness goals are, remember to talk to your healthcare practitioner before you embark on anything new.
—–
442
