Every Day VS. Every Other Day

[Bikes-N-Drums]

Back in the days when I used to work out, the general rule given by everyone was to 'never work the same muscle group two days in a row'. Cycling every day certainly works the same muscles and would be contrary to the theory, yet many people seem to cycle every single day without issue. The question is: is it safe? [Insert "Zell's" voice from Marathon Man if you'd like].
When I started cycling again in the mid-90's, I worked it every day and by the end of summer my muscles hurt so bad I couldn't make it up a hill, had no stamina, etc. Since then, I've kept it to every other day and haven't had a problem so far. Of course, I want to ride every day though. What does it take to achieve cycling every day without doing painful muscular damage?

[roadbuzz]

The "every other day" rule still applies. If you ride every day, separate work-out ride days by easy, recovery ride days.

[mrfix]

I ride every day, I commute to work, ride in the evening and do long distance at least one of the weekend days, it all totals to around 10,000 miles a year, I try to keep my weekly milage over 375. When the weather is bad I ride in the basement on a trainer. What I do to keep my muscles fresh is ride hard on hills one day, spin on the easy side the next, ride at high cadence on flat road next, spin easy then hard next, then hills again. I cycle through this routine during the week and do at least a century on one of the weekend days. I also eat correctly and drink as moch water as I can all the time without drowning. I'm 47 and I've been doing this for years with good health and no muscle problems. One more thing, during the week I ride with loaded panniers and bring my total bike weight to around 55 pounds. Keep at it and soon it will be more natural then walking.

[velocipedio]

I ride six days out of seven. However, I do vary the intensity -- a recovery ride after a day of hill climbs. I'll also sometimes do an afternoon recovery ride after a morning strength workout [hill. sprints, etc.]. Greg Lemond says this is an effective strategy and I find he's right.

[Inkwolf]

I used to do every other day, but I actually had more joint and muscle pain that way than I do now, when I ride almost every day. It helps to alternate riding times and styles, though--like, one day ride a shorter route, the next day longer....one day ride as fast as possible, the next day just cruise and coast, etc.

[nathank]

i agree with most of the views given here...

it all has to do with intensity and recovery. If you do the same commuting ride every day then you're not stressing your body b/c it's trained and adapted to do that...

but when you go out and do a really hard ride you break down the muscle tissue by stressing the muscles and you exhaust your overall energy and nutrient store. thus, you need recovery time for the body to rebuild and adapt and get stronger.

This is how the body gets stronger: it adapts to stress and damage by rebuilding itself stronger --- as an analogy- the body is like a house: when a storm comes and destroys part of the roof you say 'gee, instead of rebuilding it like it was, i think i'll invest a little more and make it stonger to handle that same stress next time'. then another storm comes and you rebuild the weak windows and caulking and the shutters that blow off. Then a bunch of storms come and since you already upgraded the stuff, almost no damage is sustained. Then one day a hurricane (super hard workout) comes and takes out the whole roof, so you start to collect materials to re-build it double-strength. but then while the work is still in progress a storm comes and floods the whole house and then you have to cut corners to repair just to make the house liveable and it takes months to get it back in order... if you had waited to recover and rebuild, then the house would have been capable of handling almost any storm. on the other hand if the weather is always mild (no exercise or training, so no stress) then nothing is every damaged to repair so you spend your money on something else like a big-screen TV and the walls and roof gradually detoriate over time and develop cracks and start to rot while at the same time your pile of building materials next to the garage starts to turn into a junk pile b/c you never use the shingles or wood and your tools all rust - like a lethargic person whose body slowly deteriates and becomes overweight as fat is stored and then never used.

so for optimal training and gains, the answer is: yes, the 2-day (or 3-day) rule for recovery is much the same as in weight lifting.

on the other side, light easy spinning (low-intensity) cycling has been shown to also help in muscle recovery by getting the blood flowing, activating the muscles and helping muscles recover

but you can still ride every day, you just have to go easy on your recovery days - and easy is relative. if you ride 30 or miles almost every day, then a rest day would be the same or less mileage at a slower pace and/or with smaller gears.

i commute to work by bike and don't own a car so i'm on the bike almost every day. After really hard training rides i go easy on the bike.

overtraining is what you have to watch out for - when you train so much and so hard that your body is not able to recover and you break down the muscles and then break them down again before they recover and end up weaker than when you started. Overtraining is even more dangerous for the joints when you quickly increase your volumen and intensity of training b/c it takes much longer for these tissues to grow and adapt then muscles. thus, you don't want to go from 1 day and 20miles per week to 5 days 400miles per week - you're begging for overtraining and joint problems...

training contains 3 parts: 1) the hard workout to stress and break the body down to force it to rebuild and 2) proper nutrition to provide the materials to rebuild and 3) the recovery time to actually regenerate and rebuild -- you must combine all for effective training

[Richard Cranium]

Maybe --never work the same muscle group "really hard" two days in a row'.

[LittleBigMan]

Originally posted by Bikes-N-Drums
The question is: is it safe? [Insert "Zell's" voice from Marathon Man if you'd like].
"Yes, it's safe, it's very very safe. You wouldn't believe how safe it is..." :D (I need a smiley that has a hole in the front tooth.)

I agree that whether it's an easy-spin day (or for me, a walking day) or a complete rest day, alternating with hard workout days
improves fitness far more effectively than overdoing it. As you know from experience, overdoing it can lead to total exhaustion!

But you're not alone. I went through the same thing. Now that I take rest (or slow) days, I feel a lot stronger.

Some people's limits are different from others, based on what they've built up to. The important thing is knowing your own limits as you gradually improve fitness.