Cycling for fitness and fun

Have you got access to a working bicycle? Or do you have plans to get hold of one? If the answer is “yes” then you open up the door to a great activity and wonderful form of exercise. Cycling offers an excellent way of improving your cardiovascular fitness and your stamina.

With a bicycle you set your own route, your own schedule and your own work rate. It may seem obvious but cycling lets you cover more distance and see more than walking or running. That can be a strong motivator in itself, helping you to maintain your enthusiasm for cycling and the beneficial exercise that comes with it.

How many calories are burned during this activity?

The amount of energy burned over and above your normal activity levels will depend on how energetically you are cycling, whether the route is flat or hilly and on your own body weight.

For example, a 12 stone adult cycling for 30 minutes will burn off around:

• 130 calories pedalling at a leisurely pace
• 272 calories when off road on a mountain bike
• and as much as 320 calories if working vigorously on a flat road

The same person would have burned around 45 calories by surfing the internet for half an hour; although they wouldn’t feel the strain the next day from muscles which they didn’t know they owned...

You can get the same level of calorie burning from using stationary bicycles in the gym or at home. But you may find that the 30 minutes seems to pass more slowly than it does on the open road, a disused railway line or a forest track.

If you are hoping to buy a bicycle for exercise then you will be faced with a thousand different makes and models. Unless you plan to spend all your time on the roads you should probably consider a mountain bike as a first step. This will have lots of gears and initially you may think you’ll never need them. But you may be grateful for them later when faced with a long uphill stretch.

You will also need lights for your bike, a helmet and some high visibility clothing. You can get great ideas and suggestions for equipment and cycle routes by following this link to the Sustrans web site. Sustrans is a leading charity supporting the case for developing sustainable transport.