Originally Posted by
work4bike
Mother Nature has us by the balls. It's just a fact of life that we start losing muscle mass in our 30's.
https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/...0muscle%20loss.
Cycling uphill (or against a headwind) in your largest gear is resistance/strength training; however, the problem is that you're only exercising one group of muscles. Furthermore, strength training isn't suppose to be done for a sustained period of time, because it's an anaerobic activity. So if you use your bike for strength training, you're developing imbalance in muscle strength, which has very negative results over time.
In my opinion, strength training is crucial for the aging body and no other exercise can give us that stimulation to keep our musculoskeletal system healthy.
This Doctor agrees....
https://youtu.be/X3Q1SBT2S8s
An hour of watching a video about something is maybe more time than most of us are willing to give to any one subject. So watch it 10' a day.
Amen to the doctor! I've done a lot of research on these topics when I could have saved a lot of time and just listened to this lecture a few times. "Compression of morbidity" has been my goal. When I heard that phrase a few years ago, I realized that was a 3 word expression of what I've been working on ever since I started riding again at 50. Why did I start riding again? Because I stumbled one day on my way to the mailbox. I used to frigging climb in Yosemite. My self-image is not of a person who stumbles. So I bought a cheap used bike and hit the gym, which I hadn't done since I was in the Army in my early 20s. I'd let career come between me and my health. Every day at 5:00 became ME time. 27 years later, I'm still at it, not dead yet.