cycling for fitness

GPS

It seems like only a few years ago that GPS was being touted as a big thing for cars, but now the technology is so refined that it can be placed into a good cycling watch and used to help you find your way around.

This is ideal for people who are cycling on a new route and are wary of getting lost, or for those who are aiming for high efficiency and don’t want to have to carry an entire map around with them for a long distance ride. Your watch will be able to tell you where to go and is a feature that many people find desirable, not to mention tracking where you have gone and how quickly you went.

Texts and Calls

Newer cycling watches, such as those offered by Apple and Garmin, not only help you keep time and track your performance, but can also be used in a similar manner to cellular phones as well. This allows you to keep track of text messages and even take calls while you are on the bike, without having to stop or worry about the safety concerns that come along with riding one-handed.

Performance Tracking

The main reason that many people buy a cycling watch is so that they can track their own performance during a ride. Many good watches will come with features like a heart rate monitor, calorie counter and stopwatch to make sure that you can keep track of all of the important things in the ride, in addition to being able to set yourself targets that you can check on as you go.

Furthermore, cycling watches are much more compact than many other devices that offer a similar set of features, so you don’t have to worry about being bogged down with additional weight or made to feel less comfortable during your ride.

So Do I Need a Cycling Watch?

If you are using cycling for fitness, or to get yourself into the sort of shape that will allow you to compete at events, a cycling watch can be of enormous benefit simply due to the array of features a good watch has to offer. Being able to track everything from your heart rate through to the exact times that you start and finish a section of your ride allows you to determine where you are making gains and what areas you need to continue working on.

Additionally, if you link your cycling watch to a program like Strava then it is by far the best training log that you can keep.

However, if the bike is just being used for the commute or the odd weekend cycling trip, a cycling watch would likely be a poor investment, as all you might need it for in those cases is to tell the time.

Cycling has become one of the most popular sports amongst people who are looking to improve their fitness levels, and with good reason. It is a low impact activity that still allows the rider to burn fat and massively improve their cardio, with fewer risks of injury or fatigue when done properly.

Furthermore, the sport is accessible to anybody from the weekend warrior through to event cyclists, making it ideal for those who want to get fit. Here we take a look at a few important tips for people who want to use cycling for fitness.

Mix It Up

It may seem like riding at high intensity at all times is the best option if you want to improve your fitness quickly, but it is also a fast track to injuries and fatigue that could leave you off the bike for days, or even weeks.

The key to using cycling for fitness is to recognize that your body needs time to recover, especially soon after you have pushed it to its limits. Mix intense cycling with more relaxing recovery rides to ensure your body has the chance to get back to top condition while still remaining active.

Once your muscles are back in tip-top shape, you can push them again and you will soon find that everything from your power to your overall cardio starts to benefit. Couple those rides with some endurance rides, hill climbs and other workouts and the variance will keep your muscles guessing and allow you to stay strong regardless of the course you’re on.

Getting The Right Bike

If you don’t have the right bike for your body type then you are going to find that you tire much more easily and that you leave yourself at risk of experiencing muscle pains. This is because your body has to compensate for poor positioning by adding extra pressure onto whatever area is struggling.

As such, it is recommended that you have the right bike for your body type and workouts. A road bike is going to be useless on dirt trails, whereas mountain bikes are less efficient on smooth surfaces.

The right fit is vital too, so speak to a professional if you are unsure about where your saddle and handlebars need to be. Better positioning allows for superior technique, which also allows you to ride faster for longer.

Get The Gears Right

It can be surprising just how inefficient riding in the wrong gear can make you. Set it too low and you will find there is little resistance to your pedaling, so you end up riding at a far higher cadence than you should to achieve the same results you would in a higher gear.

Set it too high and you end up doing so much work that you put undue pressure on your knees, which can lead to the end of the workout before it ever really got going.

The key is to figure out what gear allows you to maintain a regular cadence at all points of the ride and stick to that one. You’ll need to lower it for hills and up it for flats, but as long as you remain consistent with your cadence you will find you’re more able to use cycling for fitness.

Enjoy Yourself

Even a little bit of cycling is better than no cycling at all, so if you aren’t able to get out for as long as you would like to that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do anything. After all, practically any physical activity is going to help your fitness, but with cycling you get a choice of intensities to work at so that there is always a cycling workout for your fitness level.