I-Like-To-Bike

Really? Who on this list wudda thunk it?

No pictures? How about some of your Adonis-like body compared with your skinny legged, pot bellied cousins.
That should be even better than preening in front of a mirror.

Reynolds 

Why so sour?
I'm very far from Adonis-like, but I can say at 63 thanks to cycling I'm in better shape than most of my sedentary friends.
Is that bad?

I-Like-To-Bike

Of course not; gloating and telling people for years about having better health than others who may not as be as fortunate or attribute it solely to bicycling and being smarter than those who don't is more than a bit over the top, IMO.

BTW I'm 67 and fortunately in very good health and am alert enough to know that good prostate and colon health as well as good lab tests are not likely attributable to bicycle riding for most of the last 61 years. As a result, I do not boast about being oh-so-smart or oh-so-healthy because I choose to ride a bike.

mihlbach

noglider 

OK, so you came into this thread just to tell him that what said is not important. Got it.

ThermionicScott 

One thing I've noticed around here: certain regulars like to crap in just about every thread, and it's no use telling them to go get a job to occupy more of their time, because they're retired!

mcours2006

This kind of thing I would expect to find in the Road Cycling forum. Not here.

DVC45

I don't think the OP is boasting. There's nothing wrong about celebrating ones good health.
If he is waving this sort of thing in front of his cousins and belittling them, then that's wrong. I don't think he did.

Keep it up Irwin7638. You're doing well. Cheers to good health and happy riding.

Leebo

I'm 51, every time I get my blood pressure checked it is right around 110/70. You can't buy good health.

kickstart

I got back into cycling to loose weight and get more exercise after an 8 year break because being over active had caught up with me and I had gotten lazy. I'm probably in better shape now than average for someone my age, but that's about as far as I will go with that, and I don't plan to try to improve on that. I will still give in to a few vices as long as I don't start having avoidable health issues because of them, to die in perfect health kinda seems like a waste if it takes sacrifice to do so.

noglider 

When someone asked Eubie Blake how he managed to live to 100 years old, he said if he had known he would live so long, he would have taken better care of himself.

irwin7638

To make one point clear, mentioning my cousins was an attempt to dramatize the fact that our decisions have as much or more impact on our health as genetics.

Marc

Squeeze

+1

I'm still a few years away from being eligible to post in the 50+ forum but I'm glad to read any and all stories of guys older than me (and younger too) who are in better shape from cycling than they might be otherwise.

Thanks for posting your story, @irwin7638.

genec

No, but admittedly regular exercise is something that seems so foreign to much of the American public... perhaps a bit of gloating might just goad someone into getting off the couch.

mcours2006

Perhaps. But I think in the end genetics trumps everything else. However, exercise and lifestyle changes affect the quality of the life you live, necessarily the quantity. That's why I do it.

mcours2006

I doubt it. Sitting on the couch is easy. It takes no effort. Generally speaking people like to take the path of least resistance.

Was it Thomas Edison who said that successful people have a habit of doing things that others don't want to do? Obesity is an epidemic in America because most of them don't want to give up their supersize meals.

Flame away.

wolfchild

The cost of global obesity is $2 trillion dollars per year !!...That's pretty bad.

FBinNY 

Bicycling isn't some magic unique activity but it does have certain attributes that separate it from many (most?) other forms of exercise.

The key to any exercise program and health is actually doing it. Bicycling, pretty uniquely is something that people actually do for multiple hours per day, for weeks, months, and years. There are other factors such as being low impact. But it's really about staying with it and cyclists do, while folks engages in other physical activities don't.

genec

One of the really positive factors of cycling for me was that I used it for transportation... regular commuting to work... thus I was achieving two things at once... the need to exercise and the need to get somewhere. I only found this "less than desirable" when the "route to get there" was overwhelmingly dominated by heavy fast moving MV traffic.

Previous work commutes were often on back streets, smaller towns, country roads, through residential streets and through light industrial areas... all with relatively low/slow traffic flow... when I started commuting in 45/55mph multilane traffic, especially at night, the situation became "less than desirable." The potential risk started to exceed the reward. That was the disadvantage of cycling.

downwinded

I had my doctors appointment today. Here is my story and the ones that don't think cycling plays a MAJOR role in good health and a good blood work report can take it with a grain of salt if they would like. It's just the truth.
My numbers have always been kinda ok. Some of them used to run on the edges of the acceptable levels and occasionally a couple would be slightly outside that "normal" range. The exceptions being cholesterol and testosterone. Cholesterol high and testosterone low.
Started taking a statin about 8 years ago. It kept my cholesterol just in the acceptable range. Took testosterone injections for a few years and again, it was in the "normal" range but still toward the low side of the scale. Year before last, at the doctors suggestion, I stopped the testosterone treatment. At my yearly exam I had been riding for approx 14 months. My testosterone level was almost exactly in the middle of the range. The cholesterol level was way down. I probably should have stopped taking it then. Went in today and all of my numbers were well within the range that they want to see. Cholesterol was way, way down and the doc said to stop taking it.
I have done nothing different except I ride my bike to work and a few extra miles here and there. I drink and eat what I want. Wife has always been good about not having a lot of fried foods and I really don't crave sweets. Maybe that helps some. If I have a problem where diet is concerned it would have to be the amount I eat.
I enjoyed the OP's story. I wish I had started commuting by bike 10 years ago. I'm 56 and have been commuting by bike for 2 years, 3 months.

noglider 

Agreed. If you did Tai Chi or played tennis for an hour or two every day, that would be good, but not many people do either.

Genetics do not determine most of our fates. There is a slim fraction of the population that is screwed no matter how well they treat themselves. There is another slim fraction that will be fine even through lots of self abuse. The rest of us have a lot of control, and we are in the vast majority. Genetics is a poor excuse for all of us.

cobrabyte

I drink and enjoy rich food. I can only hope my biking balances that out a bit lol

Motolegs

It sure feels like it is though!

Seriously though this has been a great thread to read through. Caught flak from sendentary co workers when starting cycling- the typical "Hey Lance" crap... (which one guy actually thought of as something he'd come up with judging by his hilarity) but it has turned out to be a great positive in life.

Not only the physical benefits I might add.

scroca

Can you explain what value this lends to the thread?

scroca

Can you explain what value this lends to the thread?