Biking in Gym

[jllmom]

Thanks for the book rec! I'll have to check that one out!

[aicabsolut]

Btw I'm biking like 13.5 miles in 1 hour at around 90 RPM, is that a beginner amount of miles? What is a long bike ride indoors?

Is that on a regular stationary bike? (Pretty hard to be as efficient on those as on a spinner).. If so, I'd say that's doing a pretty good job. Not too beginnerish at all. Before I started spinning, I rode one of those after taking a few weeks off (just walking) b/c of an injury. I felt like I was working so hard, but my HR was only in the low 140s if that, and I was at about 11mph. I'd consider myself cardiovascularly pretty fit but not at all in biking shape at that point.

A "long" ride on a spinner depends on what kind of workout you're doing. It seems to take me forever to warmup, so the first 30-45 min is torture. But after that, I can spend 2 hrs easy. Higher intensity intervals tire me out faster than endurance or steady state taining of course. An hour isn't a long time on an indoor bike but it's sufficient for general fitness I think, especially if you warm up faster than me.

[jllmom]

Yeah it's a regular bike. The gym I'm at only has one true spinner available and 3 other types of bikes: Lifecycle, another set up like a Lifecycle and another more like a spinner/true bike w/petal under you not in front.

But you can take a spinning class, and that's my goal this January.

[Veronica]

Cycling will not make your legs stronger unless you have some sort of physical limitation. Studies have shown that people who do not ride at all, are actually stronger on average, in terms of outright leg strength, than elite riders (aka TdF, etc). Forces in the endurance type of cycling the vast majority of people do, are very low - no higher than climbing stairs for instance.

Huh?

[Cassandra_Cain]

Huh?

Huh? and a picture? What part of my statement is unclear?

Strength is defined as the ability to apply maximal force. Endurance cyclists are no stronger (not able to apply any higher maximal force), as a group, than your average untrained person. Forces in cycling are low. Where endurance cyclists are markedly superior is in their cardiovascular abilities, lactate threshold, vo2 max, and anaerobic work capacity. It is that, not strength, which gets you to the front of the peloton and up the mountains fast.

[Trek420]

Those your legs, V? Oh, no, that's a Specialized, never mind.

The other way we can tell it's not you is....that's not your CA Triple Crown Jersey. In other words there are a lot of things that go into a deffinition of strength, it's more than just numbers.

In the gym it's spin class or the eliptical trainer, Precor I think is the brand I like. If spin class is full I head there.

The movement feels fluid and more natural to my gimpy body, more like climbing unseated. I'm a sit and spin kinda gal on climbs or more often get off and walk But I'd like to have the strength to "dance in the pedals" or accelerate.... like if I need to catch up with a car full of young folks who used a megaphone to yell at me while riding my Bradley tank-like commuter like V did one fine day.

If both are busy? Rowing machine, or go outside and walk. I don't like stationary bikes at all. they feel rigid and artificial.

I want to get in the habit of the yoga class. I have a Cycleops fluid trainer at home in front of the TV but no yoga instructor, or PTA (ahem).

I like to think of strength as that sorta hard to define new agey whole body thang including all those numbers and things, flexibility and movement, mind body stuff, body awareness but also the hard to define does-not-show-up-on-the-HRM-program ability to "dig deep in your suitcase of courage"

If I don't have that last bit, none of those numbers mean much.

[KnottedYet]

I like to think of strength as that sorta hard to define new agey whole body thang including all those numbers and things, flexibility and movement, mind body stuff, body awareness but also the hard to define does-not-show-up-on-the-HRM-program ability to "dig deep in your suitcase of courage"

Don't forget the ability to fling full-grown adults across a room, Ms. 2nd Degree Black Belt!

(when a 5'1 50 year old chickie is tossing around folks a foot taller than her, I think that counts as strength!)

[Trek420]

nah. You don't have to be strong to do Aikido. It's timing and balance and energy and all that new age'y stuff.

[aicabsolut]

Huh?

I wish **my** legs were that strong and cut. Fantastic shout-out to my bike as well (ok, the fancy S-works version of my bike but still... ain't it pretty?)