ok_commuter

How do you improve your cycling fitness when stuck in the house?

My favorite most hated activity at the moment:



Good for the leg muscles and works the upper body and core. Can watch Willy Wonka with the kids and get my work in at the same time.

What do you do?

Drag

Spin on the trainer.

substructure

fap

ok_commuter

not isometric EDIT unless you switch off regularly

Bnjmn

Tacx i-magic

JoelS

Trainer. Though today I changed the chain on my bike and cleaned the cassette.

Velodad

Rollers....with mag unit if needed.

BarracksSi

Resistance bands, P90X, and/or Tabatas. I don't have a lot of space, and the noise from my trainer has worried my downstairs neighbor (he's a younger dude, and while he doesn't complain much, the whirring sound really concerned him.. lol).

Velodad

Also I'm going to get back into short track speed skating this fall and winter. As a kid I skated competitively in the winter and raced bikes in the summer. We never did any base miles for cycling. Heck, I didn't even know what base miles were until I got my daughter into cycling about five years ago. When I talked to my Dad about it, he said that we (my brothers and I) didn't need to do it because of the skating. He would get us on the bike about 2-3 weeks before crit season started and we were very competitive in the racing scene.

I hate doing base miles.....skating is tons of fun.

VA_Esquire

actually laughed out loud.


If you are stuck inside, jump on the rollers/trainer or work on upper body strength by lifting weights...low weight, high repitition.

Machka 

Oh let's see ...

Haul firewood to keep the fire going because it is cold in here.

Bail the bathtub because we don't have it hooked up to a drainage system yet.

And if it stops raining I might go hike up the hill beside the house ... good for the calves.

ridethecliche

Core work.

Hip flexor strengthening.

Not indoor activities...

Machka 

Hauling firewood is an indoor activity ... that's where the fire is. I select wood from the stack on the covered porch, and bring it inside to the fire. And repeat.

hendrick81

Drink alot of beer...

ok_commuter

Thanks, but that's what I'm trying to stop doing.

KiuBWhy

Triangle, X, O, Square. Once in a while R2 or L2.

Randochap

Haul my bikes up and down three floors.

nstrav10

hahah i actually sat here and laughed to myself... i guess that's what 2:30 in the morning does to you

Machka 

And also baking.

Before you scoff and tell me that baking isn't a workout ... come here and do it.

First you've got to get the fire just right (hauling wood).

Then you mix the batter ... limited power available, so you do all this mixing by hand until all the ingredients are well mixed.

Then you put the batter into the cake pan and put it into the heavy, cast-iron dutch oven. You rearrange the logs on the fire using a heavy steel poker and then slide the dutch oven into the fireplace at just the right place. Every 10 minutes or so, you lift and turn the dutch oven. And about an hour later you lift it right out of the fireplace and check the cake.

While you're waiting you bail the bath and do other active housework.

At the end of it all, you'll have sore shoulders and a nice-looking chocolate cake.

AngryScientist 

I, for one, would like to applaud the fact that you have access to BF, without a draining bathtub, bravo!

Grumpy McTrumpy

1. rollers
2. bike
3. video with a lot of musical numbers at different tempos
4. try to pedal in time with the music (this can get interesting at fast tempos, especially when you have to pedal at double-time like 4 minutes at 135rpm etc)


you can also crank up the resistance and do some half-time pedaling, like 60 rpms in top gear etc.

BobLoblaw

I don't understand stuck inside if you aren't at work. Is it because you have the kids? A tornado? Snowed in?

Pray elaborate.

BL

Machka 

There's great internet access up here in the hills (wireless, of course) ... and the computer is powered by a generator humming away outside. We'd like to use our solar panels, but it is winter here and winter is the rainy season. It's been overcast for days and is pouring buckets out there now.

Unless it dries up this afternoon, I will be stuck inside again today.

stevegor

Machka,

You know in my part of Central Victoria it's been raining too, I usually go out and ride in the rain, pays to have a wet weather bike even in Oz.

Machka 

I'm in a very remote part of the Yarra area ... have you seen the roads around here? This is the road out of Rowan's and my place on a beautiful dry day. Today is not a beautiful dry day ... that road is undriveable and unrideable now. Even walking it would be challenging. It's about 3 km of that before I reach pavement.


https://www.flickr.com/photos/1430288...7619719051119/

I do have a mtn bike for slightly less mucky days, and was hoping to ride it this week.