Friday 2 April 2010

Cycling



Cycling has many health benefits, it minimizes the risk of coronary heart disease, improves your fitness, reduced the risk of osteoperosis, and lowers blood pressure..
It is an aerobic exercise which gives your heart, blood vessels and lungs a workout, thereby reducing the risk of heart problems.
A few miles of cycling per day will provide you with trimmer, toned muscles. This is because your upper thigh muscles, backside and calf muscles all get to workout.
Themore often you cycle the greater your stamina will become, enabling you to carry out your day to day tasks easily.

Many over weight people struggle to get into exercise as they feel the strain n their joints such as their knees, especially when running, but cycling is low impact, with minimal strain on joints.

Cycling is also a great for stress relief, minimising stress levels, making depression less likely in the individual.
Along with all of these benefits, cycling reduces blood pressure, improves your overall fitness and is a great workout!
Even better...Its environmentally friendly!!!

If you dont own a bike and can't get outdoors on one, dont panic...go to a spin class near you!

Cycling carries many health benefits and is also a fun recreational activity.
Available at most gyms and leisure centres, Spin classes are great! They are a high-intensity, low impact class. Every participant works to their own level to reach their own goals, You can very your speed, resistance time etc. A typical class is lead by an instructor on a stationary bike at the front, who motivates you the whole way through the class leading you through sprints, hill climbs, and mixed terrain to awesome music!
I am a spin instructor and absolutely love it! I put in every effort to motivate my participants. The group exercise element of it really helps you to work harder, in a typical 45 minute class participants burn around 400-600 calories.
Also available in addition to Spin Classes are RPM classes.
Same idea as Spin, but is pre-choreographed by the Les Mills Team in Aukland. Wicked moves to awesome music!

There are a variety of Spin bikes, my favourite are Keiser M3 bikes, which have a gear changer and an LCD screen telling you your speed, heart rate, distance, watts, calories burnt (approx) andwhat gear you are using. David Lloyd Leisure Centres use the Keiser M3 bikes, in their spin/Keiser classes, visit to find a class near you.

As always...any questions? Leave a comment or email me at barrettsfitness@googlemail.com.

3 comments:

Peggy said...

Your blog is so great and inspirational! Thank you!

Unknown said...

but it hurts my knees! what shall i do? x

Fitness freak said...

Kirsty, I will check your set up of the bikes at the gym.
If your saddle is too high or too low then you will feel pain in your knees and possibly your lower back.