64 years young here. Just dug a drainage trench 50' long, 18" deep with pickaxe and trenching shovel. Did it with no back strain, and my heart didn't explode. I credit almost 2,000 miles on the bikes so far this season with making me fit enough for jobs like that. I take your point about weight bearing, and notice it as I transition to more walking when it gets too cold to bike.

Climbing hills engages arms, shoulders, back, legs and butt, and all riding strengthens core muscles. As for aerobic fitness, cycling is as good as any activity, and more fun than most.

I am almost 82 and ride about 25 miles every other day on my Trike. If what you say is true how comes a few years back, the muscles on the side of my leg got so hard, sleeping on my side was like having my leg on a log or something.

I used to fall for the "Magic Hour" myth, that anything you ate in the hour after a big ride immediately went to restore muscle glycogen stores, so you could eat ANYTHING!!!
I didn't lose much weight, but I did get fitter.

I realized that I have to count calories, so I do. Plus I ride between 5 and 7 hours a week. I'd love to do more, but I have too many other demands on my time. I'm down to about 212 from a high of about 236 in February. The big test is coming up - the holidays, and the rainy season, and the short days.

I often like to point out my experience with long rides and calorie consumption to help illustrate how nutrition can be done pretty minimally while accomplishing a lot. In 2 recent 100 mile rides, I burned about 3700 calories on those (as measured by my power meter, so more accurate than a HR monitor). I ate about 1100 calories during the ride, and also had a really minimal breakfast of basically coffee and maybe 100 calories of something. They key is that I rode at an endurance pace, so the body is going to use more fat than carbs at that intensity, and also the body carries about 2000 calories of glycogen in the muscles. So eating something like 2k calories during a ride is definitely overkill for a lot of people, especially since if they aren't regularly training, and thus they'll have a lower caloric utilization than someone riding on the faster end of things.

Bone density loss in pro cyclists is well documented. Cyclists do not see the vertical impacts of running or jumping or even the steady burden of simply holding ourselves vertical against gravity. I have my bone loss pointed out every time I get an X-ray.

That said, when I do one specific bike workout regularly I can fell my body getting stronger and more resilient. Hilly fix gear rides. (Plus they are a huge incentive to keep my weight down.) When I'm riding the fix gear in hills I can feel the continuous chains of muscle from my glutes and abs to my hands.

For me, the secret to eating to stay a decent weight is to practice enjoying feeling a little hungry. Trim down serving sizes. 1 1/2 sandwiches instead of two. Thin sliced bread. I recognize that I have to keep downsizing the rest of my life, that the metabolism I had even when I was 50 is long gone.

Skinny guys with pot bellies? If I let myself go and ate that much, I'd be one. I can not pile on the muscle on my legs and arms. Doesn't matter how much I ride or lift. Small gains, yes. But if I put on 30 pounds of gut, you'd never notice those gains.

I have to recognize that my reality is that I should weigh less every year. That I can do all in my power and I am still going to loose muscle mass. That with less muscle, it is my responsibility to this body to not add to the load those muscles need to support.

Ben

Troll troll troll your boat!

True, I did a lot of biking in 95 degree + weather this year. I wouldn't call it fun, but it was tolerable over long distances. Only really sucks on the climbs when you can't generate enough air flow to match the heat from the effort.


I think I get the same effects as SS by riding habitually in a 53 x 11 gear combo. I shift down a bit for hills, but I know I'm probably taking them with a combo more typical of a SS. It definitely works my upper body, but nowhere near as much as the elliptical on high resistance.

BTW, I think the best way to thwart a troll is to have a reasonable conversation start in the troll thread.

Rowing is great cardio.

Walking is just constantly standing in a different place.

It's great exercise as long as you maintain speeds that offer resistance and include hills and hard sprints. Doing singletrack will also help with upper body.

Walking is just controlled falling.

I generally don't post in troll threads, but this had me falling out of my chair laughing. :lol:

Living well is the best revenge.

A lady once asked on our Facebook cycling group what kind of bike she should use to push herself harder and get more exercise. We basically told her that whatever bike she has will work if she just starts pushing it harder and trying to ride faster.

I vaguely remember seeing a physiological schedule for that. It came down to something like a granola bar in the first hour for the glycogen. Half a candy bar, something like that.

That's how I used to describe our old Basset Hound going down a flight of stairs. She fell down the stairs - one step at a time!

Reading that OP made me throw up a little in my mouth.

I don't mind a "polite" troll. It does get one thinking, and sometimes leads to good discussions.

I don't know if this thread rises to the level of "good", but people have been thinking, and the OP was polite.

I love me a set of over/under eating intervals.

Definitely NOT a double bacon cheeseburger with large onion rings and a milkshake, followed by a big slice of cake with ice cream, then? :innocent:

Or Indian buffet?

Portillo's, a Chicago eatery on the expansion, has shakes with a slice of cake blended in to them - ridiculous calorie count.

Oh, I could tear in to some Indian food right now and if I ever get a naan or roti recipe down, I will be a fat, fat man.

I've been riding fixed gear for the past 12 years and I am also a singlespeed mountain biker and they provide a better workout than a regular bicycle but still it's not even close to the workout stimulus that I get from lifting weights and doing kettlebell training. You just can't build an upper body strength, core strength and lower body strength with a bicycle, no matter how hard you ride, there are other much more effective ways of building strength than riding a bicycle.

If I ate at an Indian buffet, I would asplode just like a crabon frame.