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How To Improve Your Fitness Without Training More

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Achieving better fitness with a limited schedule can be difficult. To get stronger within your time constraints, you must be exacting in your methods of both training and recovery. This is the best way to make the most of your time and effort.

How To Improve Your Fitness Without Training More

Riding Hard

There is no sense in riding easy if you have only a few days per week to ride to improve your fitness. Three very hard days on the bike should get you passable fitness to get you through your local group rides. More than three very hard days on the bike could burn you out if you do not get a week of recovery every four weeks or so. A very hard day means blindingly hard, so hard that you probably want to quit, have tunnel vision or maybe even release your bowels in your chamois. If you have never tested this dark, dark place, now is the time to try it.

Specific IntervalsHow To Improve Your Fitness Without Training More

Set out with a plan of specific intervals for your extra hard days. This way you cannot cheat or have the power fall off by the end of the ride, or if you do cheat, you will know it was blatant. High intensity interval training has proven to be quite effective in increasing fitness with short workouts. Remember the last paragraph; you must be prepared to really slay it on the bike to make the most of these workouts. Start with small sessions once or twice a week and build up.

Sleep

Without sleep, all of your hard training, all of the hours you suffered on the bike are for nought. Sleep is when you make your real gains. It is when your body compensates for the training stress you put it through and adapts to the load. It is always incredibly important, but if you are burning the candle at both ends with work, family and other obligations on top of training, quality (and large quantities) of sleep will keep you afloat in all aspects of life and let you make fitness gains.

Nutrition

Again, with the focused approach that is necessary when you are short on hours, your nutrition needs to be completely dialed too. You will not be doing huge volume, so you do not need large quantities of food, but you need to make sure you are getting the highest quality food. Good nutrition will fuel your workouts to the best of your ability along with fueling proper recovery.

When you are pulled in many directions, it is easy to fall into a routine of quick and dirty food. If you want those fitness gains bad enough, you will need to figure out a way to get the best nutrition possible. It will make every pedal stroke that much better and mean that much more in the long run.

Drink lots of water (with electrolytes, not purified water, whether it is distilled or reverse osmosis) to keep your blood viscous and flowing. It will deliver nutrients to your muscles more freely and keep your heart’s work to a minimum.

Cross TrainingHow To Improve Your Fitness Without Training More

With limited time, sometimes a full training ride is difficult to squeeze in. On those days, cross training may be a quick way to maintain fitness that you are trying to hold onto or increase. If you can keep it cycling specific, whether it is in the weight room, skating or nordic skiing, that is great. If you have other activities that fit into your schedule, like running, that is fine too, although it will not have as much of a positive impact on your cycling musculature.

Recover Hard

Recovery should be happening whenever you are not training, although that is probably a stretch when you have a busy life. When you are recovering, do it full on. Get your feet up, keep hydrated, eat well and keep the external stress down. An additional recovery tactic is compression gear. You can wear it when you are at work under your normal work clothes.

Do it Full-on

If your time is limited and you want to make fitness gains, everything you do has to be full-on: your riding, your sleep, your nutrition and your recovery. Make it a routine that works and you will make the most of your time.

Will Cycling Make Your Legs Bigger?

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Will Cycling Make Your Legs Bigger?

Will Cycling Make Your Legs Bigger?

Despite this photo, it is unlikely that cycling will make your legs larger unless you really focus on it. For the women cyclists in the crowd that do not want to bulk up, don’t worry. Cyclists legs are directly correlated with the type of cycling each cyclist does. You are able to receive nice toned legs or you can build some monster quads.

You will not receive the monster quads that you see in this photo unless you start doing some serious weight training though!

How To Build Leg Muscle for Cycling

Cyclists thighs can be strengthened on and off the bike with a few simple exercises.

On the bike exercises:

  1. Low RPM “Grinding” – Get in the big gear and keep the cadence below 65rpm for 3 sets of 5 to 10 minute intervals.
  2. Stand Up Climbing – Find a hill that takes 5 to 10 minutes to summit and climb it out of the saddle 2 or 3 times.
  3. Single Leg Drills – Really focus on the upstroke as the hip flexor is likely your limitor. Do 3 sets of 1 minute per leg.

Off the bike exercise:

  1. Leg Press or Weighted Squat – If you do not have experience in weight lifting then do a leg press as it is much safer. Do 3 sets of 10 to build leg muscle.

How To Keep Toned Legs For Cycling

If you are looking for a more lean look then focus on endurance and sustained efforts. The average bikers legs are perfectly toned and it is a very sexy look. No real extra work required other than biking around as much as you are able to.

Male vs Female Cyclist Legs

Men have a unfair natural advantage over women and that is they produce more testosterone, in fact, male adults produce about 7 to 8 times as much testosterone as adult females.

It is no wonder that when you look at Victoria Pendleton (a serious female track sprinter) and compare her legs to someone like Chris Hoy (a serious male track sprinter) they look slender in comparison.

Cyclist Legs - Victoria PendletonCycling Legs - Chris Hoy

Muscle Burns More Calories Than Fat

Muscle burns nearly 3 times more calories than fat does, so you need to eat more calories (especially protein) if you are trying to bulk up. If you are trying to lose weight the benefit of building muscle is that it will work as a natural furnace burning off calories at an expedited rate.

Genetics

Genetics play a huge role in your body composition, some body types will be more suitable to building large amounts of muscle mass quickly while other body types will be more prone to keep on unwanted excess fat stores while another will stay lean and mean no matter how many weighted squats they do.

No matter what your goal is cycling is a great way to tone your body!

Exercise Techniques to Maximize your Cycling Performance

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Exercise Techniques to Maximize your Cycling PerformanceIt’s no secret that cycling is an incredibly potent method of exercise, and it’s actually considered one of the most effective forms of cardio on the planet. Training your body to perform to its fullest potential is something that most competitive cyclists strive for, and just a few extra seconds of energy can spell the difference between a confident win, and losing out as your heart rate struggles to keep up with your pace!

What the Professionals Say

If you ask any experienced cyclist about maintaining energy, they’ll say that it’s all about pacing yourself. The human body is capable of extraordinary things, and with particular exercise techniques, it’s entirely possible to improve the way that your heart, lungs and blood pressure work. In standard terms, these techniques are referred to as cardio, but what you might not know is that other forms of exercise can be even more effective.

Training your Body with Tension Exercises

If you haven’t come across ‘tension exercises’ before, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised to read about their potential. Your arms and legs play a huge role in your balance, and although your thighs will often undergo extreme pressure before tiring, there is a technique that can help to promote their endurance and keep you pedaling for much longer.

If you flex your biceps, you’ll notice that the muscle stands out far more prominently. The same could be said for your thighs. As we flex, our muscles are triggered in to action, and it’s this action that stimulates growth. It’s less about lifting heavy weights with your legs, and more about training them to cope with high amounts of pressure for extended periods of time (endurance). Here’s a great exercise that you can try from home:

  1. Sit down comfortably, and place your legs slightly apart, with your feet flat against the floor
  2. Keep your back straight, and use a cushion if needed
  3. Tense/ flex your thigh muscles, so that your heels lift off of the ground and your feet enter a ‘tip-toe’ stance
  4. Keep your thighs flexed, and hold for 15 seconds – or for as long as you can manage
  5. Relax your thigh muscles for 5 seconds, and then repeat 3 more times

If performed correctly, your legs will ache almost immediately after exercising, and undertaking this routine just once per day for a week can provide endurance results. The same could be said of your arm muscles, and promoting their endurance will assist with a greater level of control and strength when riding your bicycle.

Enhancing your Cardiovascular Health

It may not be possible to strap a dumbbell to your lungs and build their muscle mass, but it is entirely plausible to encourage them to function at an enhanced rate. If you cycle, then your lungs may already be benefitting, but there’s nothing to say that you couldn’t further train your lungs. The best way to do this is to force the capacity of your lungs to expand over time.

Typical cardio exercises are recommended (running, swimming and cycling), but it’s been proven that deep-breathing techniques can further assist when it comes to expanding the volume of your lungs. So what sort of deep breathing techniques can you try at home? Well there’s always yoga, and this technique helps to expand your lungs, promote muscle growth, and improve your blood flow. There’s also Tai Chi which assists with physical balance, as well as general deep breathing exercises that involve holding your breath for just under a second, before exhaling.

The Benefits

Improved lung capacity results in a greater supply of oxygen. The more freely oxygen can flow around your body, the better your blood pressure will be – and this means an improved performance as far as physical activities go.

When practiced daily, each of these techniques can help to promote an increased rate of functionality, and in terms of cycling, which means an extra few minutes of performance – which can make or break a race result! Before a race, or even preceding a bit of local cycling – it’s always a good idea to prepare your body.

Performing a few simple stretches will help to elongate your muscles, and loosen them ready for the activities ahead. You can also try inhaling deeply 10 times, to encourage your lungs to stretch to their full capacity, and there’s nothing to say that you can’t continue this breathing while you cycle to keep your heart rate steady.


What Happens to You When You Stop Cycling

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Cycling is one of the best forms of exercise around for boosting your overall fitness and dropping those extra pounds that you have been finding so difficult to shed. It is excellent for your cardiovascular conditioning and the fact that it is a low impact sport means that you don’t need to worry about suffering injuries in the same way that you would with weight training or running.

As the amount of cycling you do increases, your body’s fitness levels improve with it. As such, if you choose to stop cycling regularly you are going to find that everything that you worked so hard to achieve is going to come under threat. Here we look at just a few of the things that will happen to your body if you choose to stop cycling regularly.

What Happens to You When You Stop Cycling

Your Mood Dips

Every time you exercise your brain is improving. In fact, exercise is considered to be a key way of keeping the brain healthy and active even into old age. Exercise also triggers the release of serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant and generally keeps your mood positive. That great feeling you have after a good workout? That’s the serotonin at play.

Your body becomes used to having this shot of happiness on a regular basis if you are exercising, so if you suddenly stop cycling regularly you are going to find that your mood starts dipping as a result, making you even less likely to start exercising again.

Your Metabolism Drops

Exercise causes your metabolism to speed up, which is one of the key reasons why you can burn so many calories when you are cycling. In fact, it is believed that your metabolism works at five times the speed when you’re on the bike than it normally does. This accounts for about 400 to 500 calories every hour.

If you stop cycling regularly, your metabolism is going to stagnate and you are no longer going to lose weight if your diet remains the same.

Blood Pressure Rises

Cycling is an aerobic exercise, which means that it encourages your body to release hormones that keep your blood vessels in check and ensures that your blood pressure stays at a healthy level. Cycling on a regular basis has been found to lower your blood pressure somewhere between 8 to 10 points every single month, which reduces the risk of heart issues and other ailments caused by high blood pressure.

If you stop cycling regularly you lose all of these advantages very quickly, and you will find that your blood pressure starts rising again. It will start after about a week and in just a few weeks you will find it is back to the level it was at before you started.

You Might Put On Weight

It should go without saying that when you stop cycling regularly you are going to put on weight if every other aspect of your life remains the same. There is a misconception that the gains you have made will last a long time even if you stop.

In fact, that simply isn’t the case. As mentioned previously, your metabolism stagnates when you stop exercising, which means your body’s ability to burn fat is reduced. This means that if you stick to the same diet you are going to start noticing that your body is getting a little softer in areas that used to be lean and trim. Even if you reduce you calorie intake, you are going to notice your tone softening and your waistline increasing. Over time, the effects will only increase, so be sure to keep getting out there and exercising to keep yourself in top shape.

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