Training & Nutrition - Training Suggestions.

Hi Im a newbie and would like to know of any Strength or conditioning that I could use to get in shape for my new bike. For my Health.

Im 37 yr old, 5'6" 205 pounds so you know that Im getting old and overweight.

I have been doing 50 pushups a day, 50 squats with my body weight and stretching exercises. But I give out of breath fast. Any suggestions? :o

Push ups and squats are both good exercises. I would start with a general conditioning program between cycling either indoors on a trainer or outside if possible and include running. Cycling up hills or mountains will get you into shape quickly but be prepared for pain. I can't tell you how many times in last year I have stopped to barf or catch my breath.

There are a lot of good cycling training manuals on the market. I am using Chris Carmichael's "The Ultimate Ride." This will give you a number of different workouts for a balanced approach.

Good luck and don't stop.

Ride.
Try to increase your mileage weekly and do hills if you have any near you.

I'm 59 and have lost over 45 pounds since I "got serious" about riding in the summer of 2000. I lost almost 20 pounds last summer just by adding more hills to my almost daily rides.

Ok, Thanks for the replies.

I'm 37, 5'9", and weighed 240 last Christmas. I'm now 165 thanks to the power of the bike.

During my weight loss, I would ride 3-4 times a week (weather permitting). I started off only going five miles a ride. Over time I increased to 10, then 20. After three months i was doing longer rides which were only limited by time.

I did not worry at all about diet, I just kept eating what i usually did. The healthier I got from riding, the more I become concerned about the crap I was eating. The shift to a healthy diet has been on going and not a chore at all.

Hope this helps,

ehenz

ehenz, thanks for the info.

Where in alabama are you
I'm in north central alabama


Hi Im a newbie and would like to know of any Strength or conditioning that I could use to get in shape for my new bike. For my Health.

Im 37 yr old, 5'6" 205 pounds so you know that Im getting old and overweight.

I have been doing 50 pushups a day, 50 squats with my body weight and stretching exercises. But I give out of breath fast. Any suggestions? :o

Im in Chambers Co. (East Central Alabama) on the stateline of GA. 25-30 SE of Auburn Al.

Im 37 yr old, 5'6" 205 pounds so you know that Im getting old and overweight.



Hi! I am 64yo and getting young!

I ride my bike or trainer daily, generally the equivalent of about 12 miles. When I can get out for a real ride, I will go 20-30 miles, generally, but have done and can do 100 miles.

I do a lot of weight lifting, using the Body For Life regimen (upper body - biceps, triceps, shoulder, chest and back - alternating about every other day with lower body - hamstrings, quadriceps, calves and abdomen) and try to eat as suggested - whole grains, lean meat and lots of veggies.

It takes time and effort.

Be sure to ride your bike because you ENJOY it. Otherwise, it will get old real fast and you will quit. Just enjoy you bike, increase your mileage and hills, and try to eat correctly and so some weight lifting. As you grow older, this is EXTREMELY important to prevent overall muscle loss and osteoporosis.

Good luck and welcome!

Has anyone done much work on the big balance balls. I started about two years ago with a friend of mine who was rehabing a back injury and have kept up reall well with it. I don't know forsure how muck it has helped my biking but I know that I get far fewer nagging back injuries. I believe for overall health this and biking will help me keep going as I age. The type of things that I do, would be squats where you lower the weight considerabely but you do them standing on the ball, you would not believe the workout you'd get with so much less weight than you are used to using.

If you want to get fit enough to ride, then just start riding. You sound like you have plenty of muscle strength, but are not so good at aerobic fitness.
You can ride at a pace suitable for your fitness, generally that means that you are comfortable talking when riding. Make your first few rides short, about 20 mins, then extend the time as you like.
For base aerobic fitness you need to be doing long, slow miles. The long means you are on the bike for a reasonable time, at least 40 mins, up as far as you want. The slow means you are not sprinting or doing intervals, just riding along at an elevated aerobic level.
When you have a decent base, you can do more intense training, such as sprint, intervals or climbs.

Make sure the bike fits you and is set up for a newbie rider, not a young athletic racer. Dont ride in high gears, but spin your pedals easily.

A lot of advice is designed for young riders who want to compete, or for athletes converting to cycling. Make sure the advice you follow is for older, non athletic riders, who are new to cycling.
Most of all, enjoy your time on the bike. Its not an instrument of pain and torture.

Thanks for the info. You guys are really helpful.;)

Hi Im a newbie and would like to know of any Strength or conditioning that I could use to get in shape for my new bike. For my Health.

Im 37 yr old, 5'6" 205 pounds so you know that Im getting old and overweight.

I have been doing 50 pushups a day, 50 squats with my body weight and stretching exercises. But I give out of breath fast. Any suggestions? :o

Well, I am 52 and have been riding regularly now for over 15 years doing over 5000 miles in each year since then.

Bicycling is easy. Just go out and ride.

I started out by just riding round the neighborhood a few times. Then I was doing 10-15 miles. In my second summer, I was doing centuries (summers in MI are short).

I know a lady who could not walk across a parking lot without running out of breath. She would have her husband drop her off at the supermarket so she could go in and shop and pick her up again. Well she got a bike and started to ride on the local bike trail. At first she rode about 100 yards, stopped, drank some water, caught her breath, and rode another 100 yards. Soon she was riding modest distances comfortably. She found a group that rode in the mornings and joined them. In a years time, she got some of her buddies and organized "team tortose" with the goal of riding 100 miles albeit slowly and the four of them did it. Since then "team tortose" has been an annual informal event with increasing numbers.

The main thing is stick with it. Ride regularly, as many times as you can per week. Try to increase your mileage every week but by no more than 10% on the average. Try to increase the intensity of your rides for part of them. The main thing is enjoy yourself. If you turn the bike into an instrument of torture with a "no pain, no gain" approach, you will probably quit. Sure riding hard and nearly killing oneself can be fun but it is also fun to just tweedle along and look at the scenery.

Now some people get involved in performance riding, that is getting up to speeds close to racing. But the coll thing is even with relatively modest efforts, the average person can go out and do feats, like riding 100 miles in one ride, that the normal noncyclist finds nearly incomphrehensible.

Weight lifting is very good for a complimentary conditioning to cycling. But cycling is pretty much very high rep and low resistance and weight lifting does not really replicate that very well. You do most of that on the bike. But you can tone up your abs, upper body that the cycling does not help much.