For Health Purposes: When is cycling too little or too much?
 

In this context, I'm only asking about cycling in terms of health benefit or impact.

For your average person, how much cycling is required to improve health/maintain good health? How much time on the bike, at what intensity, etc?

Conversely, at what point does cycling start to negatively affect health. How much is too much on the bike? What intensity levels?

I know this is impossible to answer definitively, but I'd like to hear from experience and hoping find some studies done on this topic in the hopes of finding a "sweet spot" on cycling and good health.

Anyone have any good info to share on this?

Yes, difficult to answer. I'll give just a few thoughts of my own.

Any exercise gets to be too much when ...

- you can't properly recover.

- you are doing too much of cycling and ignoring other exercises such as proper and focused weight training.

Many articles out there on the types of cycling, the mix, and on and on. Good stuff. For many of us the above is helpful.

When I first went to get a bike in recent times the guy at the shop was walking all messed up. His knees were bowed in and i believe he made some suggestion that it was from riding too much for a long time. Biking may be better on the knees than running but I had my knee swell up once after a long ride and I've heard similar stories here. Like anything it depends on your current health condition and other factors. 33 miles messed up my knee early on in my riding career but plenty of people do more than that on a regular basis.

I bike for 10 min each way in the morning as part of my commute, otherwise I only have time to do a 2 to 4 hour ride on weekends. It's not much at all, but I've seen big improvements in the way I feel and in my overall fitness. Too much, I guess it would be physically anything you can't recover from, or psychologically that makes you not want to do it anymore.

This would qualify as "too much"

Besides pain due to joint and connective tissue damage, some simple blood and urine tests can determine signs of muscle and organ damage from excessive exercise. This happened to me briefly in my 20s when I was over-training without adequate nutrition and rest. But you'd need professional medical attention to tell the differences between ordinary training related pain and discomfort, and potentially harmful over-exertion.

I'm not sure I'd agree about the cyclist in that TV program being obsessive or that his pursuit is harmful. For all anyone knows, it may be helping his mental and emotional health in ways that nothing else could.

Exactly . I need exercise everyday either cycling , weight training or running . I will get restless very quickly if I just sit and do nothing physically .

I need exercise every day precisely because I Don't get restless ... I can sit and do nothing physical far too easily.

Well ... not nothing. I have mastered the art of the food-to-mouth curl and the beverage lift.

You know , you need to bring your heart rate up above normal and keep it there for at least ima say one hour for it to do you any good , I think that's a rule for cardiac excersices,anything below that you don't get much benefit, now too much cycling well that's different,,,,, how about when your loved one starts saying things like ,,, you spend more time with that bike than you do with me!!!!! or it's either me or the bike make up your mind!!!! !or when you can't get up the next day,,, I think then you have to start rethinking everything,,,,,,,,

I was looking at a chart comparing years of life expectancy gained vs. hours of moderate exercise per day, and the increase in life expectancy leveled off at around 90 minutes per day. I didn't see a point where excess exercise would actually reverse the curve and decrease life expectancy. Most of my bicycling is probably what they called moderate (they didn't define it, really, like with heart rate), but my running is more vigorous.

You can exercise every day. There are people who work 5 days a week at a physically active job, get in a bit of exercise after work, and then cycle or do some other sports on the weekend. Rowan is one of those people.

I don't have the physically active job, but since mid-Feb, I have had 3 days where I haven't exercised.

The key is to mix it up ... don't do the same thing every day. So one day, I might only walk for 30 min ... and another day I might cycle for 100 km or more.

But it is good to be active every day. "They" say that 30 min/day is a minimum ... and more is better. "They" also say that we should be getting up and doing something active once an hour.

That said, it is also good to pay attention to what your body is telling you. For example, an elevated resting heart rate over a number of days in a row might be a sign to ease back a bit. Aches and pains that just don't go away might be another sign.

Impossible to answer how much is too much, because every person is a little different, some people can handle more and some less.

I spend an average of 345 days per year riding my bike. I take 10 days off during my summer vacation and another 10 days off during my christmass vacation... Most of my miles are commuting and errands with few recreational rides on the weekends. Average yearly mileage is about 8500 kilometers, that's a lot less riding then what I used to do few years back. I also work at physical labour job and do strength and conditioning workouts with weights few times per week. So I am a pretty active individual.

Do less , get fat.

I like the CDC Site for health recommendations.

IMO 20 to thirty minutes , 4 times a week at least for a minimum work out. The intensity usually takes care of itself if your attitude is to enjoy the ride.

I heard an MD who also was a famous runner and writer say 30 minutes a day for health. Anything more than that is for other than health reasons.

I've been reading this lately which is what got me wondering:

A Case Against Cardio (from a former mileage king) | Mark's Daily Apple

And then this:

Debunking Chronic Cardio: How Running Keeps you Lean, Fit, and Young ? Strength Running

For the average person who does no physical activity at all, any amount of cycling is beneficial. Just start riding. Even around the block is better than not going around the block. You can always go farther as you get used to it.

Any person moving from the "couch potato to somewhat active" state will go through a period of sore muscles and joints as their body adjusts. Once a person gets through this point and are active I think very, very few people actually overtrain. Overtraining is certainly not something you're just going to accidentally do without realizing it. I've had some injuries resulting from overtraining and the sheer volume required to get to that point left me with little doubt in my mind what I was risking. I made a conscious decision to skirt the edge of what my body would handle and I went over it a few times.

I'll hear people say, "too much exercise isn't good for you either" and "I don't want start working out and wind up looking like a body builder," but they either have no clue what it takes to get to that point, or are just using it as an excuse to remain sedentary.

Some studies have shown erectile disfunction in men and lessening of sexual sensitivity in both men and women with competitive cyclists who spend lots of hours on the bike training. I think if it comes close to this, it is too much

For a freak out: Bicyclist's vulva: observational study

What health metric are you using?

As you say, it is impossible to answer definitively, but having been riding bikes for decades for everything from commuting to touring to racing, I'll give it a shot.

About a decade ago I had a commute of 29 miles each way. I found it too time-consuming to do that every day, but I did it three days a week on average, plus a decent (3 or 4 hour) ride at weekends, which added up to around 16 hours per week on the bike. I wasn't training systematically at the time, so most of that riding was moderate intensity. I was, and felt, pretty fit. At no point did I think it was too much.

On my longest tour I rode for two months, six days a week, averaging about 30 hours a week on the bike. Most of this was low intensity, with harder efforts climbing hills on a loaded tourer. I have literally never felt healthier than when I finished that tour, so clearly 30 hours per week on the bike is not "too much" for me.

Training for racing is more complicated. At certain times of the year the volume gets lower and the intensity higher. That makes one fast, but imo it doesn't necessarily make one healthier. When I was at my fastest I didn't always feel as well as when doing lots of high-volume, low intensity stuff. I was more often fatigued and more prone to catching random respiratory infections. The most extreme example was when I used Carmichael's time crunched training program to get race-fit quickly after injury. It made me fast, alright, but I could barely finish the program without burning myself out, and I certainly didn't feel great by the end of it.

So my experience is that the answer to your question varies with the level of intensity. If I'm riding well within myself and not hammering along all the time, I can ride many many hours and cover big distances and feel fantastic. If I'm trying to get to peak fitness - or at least peak fastness - then I have to be careful about the balance between volume and intensity if I want to stay strong and enjoy the feeling of invincibility that I get from the extensive, mostly low-intensity stuff.

Me too, but they don't give an optimum amount. I did get this though, but how much over 300 minutes per week? My earlier post indicated a likely upper limit to the benefits of increased exercise.

"More time equals more health benefits
If you go beyond 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity activity, or 150 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity activity, you'll gain even more health benefits."

They can not give something they don't have. There may not be an optimum amount of exercise. Or optimum may not be consistence ether between people.... or through the years... or even through the seasons. I seek advice from my doctor... for individual personalized attention (and I bet you do too).

I get my annual check-ups, and the other check-ups. If I have a problem or concern.... I see my doctor.

I kill the moderate-intensity and vigorous-intensity during cycling season. But work hard to maintain minimum levels during the off season when I mostly rely on strength training.

I love cycling and enjoy feeling fit and being active. My greatest risk to good health is my diet.

Really good stuff. This is the type of feedback I was hoping to hear in this thread. Thanks.