BIKE RIDING AND WEIGHT TRAINING

Heavy and old, like its owner.

I’ve lifted weights for the past fifty years. I recently took up bike riding for health and fitness reasons and found it worked really well. Should you do it? Will it work for you? What should you expect? Read on!

Considerations

Any time you are thinking about making a change in your fitness routine, you need to consider whether the exercise is a good choice for your body, and your goals.

To determine whether an exercise is a good choice for you, you need to take a complete self-inventory of your body and health and consider your present physical condition. Is this exercise compatible with your body, at your age and fitness level? Your body may not tolerate the exercise. Your body may be limited in some way and may not be able to improve in the way that you would like it to.  

“Goals” refers to what you want to get out of this activity. Fitness? Muscle mass? Strength? Rehab? Something else?

My Self-Inventory & Goals

Rehab: I suffered a serious knee injury in high school that was not surgically repaired. I noticed my knee is getting shakier and weaker and more unstable. This had me very worried. I want to stave this off. Running at this point in time is not a good choice.

I had another issue that was not a worry but was very annoying: pain in the tendons around and my knee. When irritated, this pain was sharp and took time to get rid of.

Fitness: my lower body cardio fitness is lousy. If you invited me on a long hike involving climbing hills I would have to decline. I want to improve.

Health: my blood pressure has been creeping up and I’d love to stay off medication. I want to have a normal blood pressure reading.

Bodybuilding: as an old guy I am vulnerable to loss of thigh muscle mass. I want to maintain or slow down the inevitable. I also noticed that my ability to do a 20-rep set of leg presses stunk even with light weights. I want to get back to being able to do easy 20-rep sets with weights up to 250, and then regain the ability do 20-rep sets with heavier weights. When I was younger, I took all of this for granted and didn’t need special exercises like supplemental cardio. I just piled 50-pound plates on the old vertical leg press and did plenty of 20-rep sets.

This idea of increasing your body’s “work capacity” and having that carryover and help your weight training is often ignored. Some weight trainees (me included) resist doing “cardio” thinking it will detract from their weight training.  The late Louie Simmons was a big believer in doing special exercises that build up the body’s work capacity to improve the powerlifts and I ignored his valuable advice to my detriment.

Alternatives: what about walking? I can definitely use more walking in my life. But in this case, the bike riding was going to do more for my knee and build my thighs better than walking.

My Bike

Almost all of us have ridden a bike at one time or another. New and used stationary bikes are widely available at a variety of price points. They offer variable resistance, convenience and safety. Balance is not an issue. My neighbor was throwing away his low-tech exercise bike a few years ago and he allowed me to keep it. I have used it in conjunction with leg presses and squats, but I never got into it, even though I got a better pump from the bike than I did from the other two exercises. It was like I had a mental block. This idea of having a mental block, which is the experience of some form of internal resistance, is quite real. If you can’t bring yourself to do something after giving it a fair attempt, try to find a workaround.

I didn’t need a bike. Over 20 years ago my wife bought me a single speed “cruiser” bike that I almost never used. The wheels were rusty but otherwise it was in good shape. It weighs 38 pounds and doesn’t have hand brakes. For me, a heavy old bike is fine. In fact, it’s better for me given my goals.

My doctor was surprised when I told him that I was riding outdoors because of safety issues involving careless motorists. This is a real issue today and all of us must weigh the risks in our neighborhoods.

If you ask me why I thought I would stick to riding a bicycle when my use of the exercise bike was spotty I can’t answer it. I agree that it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Maybe it was the challenge when I discovered how poor my fitness was after I tested myself.

 Testing Phase

To reach my goals I decided I wanted to ride the bike for 20 mins straight at a good clip. When I started, I couldn’t do this. I was never out of breath, but my thighs were unable to maintain a fast speed and I wasn’t able to bike for 20 minutes straight the first few times out even at a slow pace. The fact that I couldn’t do this told me there was huge room for me to improve to a level where I am just mediocre. This gave me a goal that I seemed to lack with the exercise bike and motivated me to try to reach a specific goal.

 Results

 I reached all of the modest goals I set over the course of 6 weeks riding 5 days per week for 20 minutes.

 My knee feels stable and normal. It isn’t, but by strengthening my knee it feels sounder. I did notice a little tendon pain which I attributed to having the seat a little too low.

My cardio fitness is improved. I am able to zoom around as much as that heavy bike will allow and pedal continuously at a good clip for 20 mins straight. This is a big improvement for me. Bear in mind that I am pedaling on a flat road. So, If I wanted to take this up a notch, I would add some gentle hills and slowly build up.

My blood pressure was tested twice during two recent physical exams. Last year it was 148 – the highest ever. This year it was 126 and 132 over 82.  

I noticed a loss of a couple of pounds of bodyfat. Notice I said a couple of pounds. Nothing major. I expect this to level off. Why did I Iose weight? Because I added 20 minutes of exercise 5 fays a week to my daily routine. Everything else stayed the same. My diet didn’t change in any way. As a result, that “extra” exercise cut into the calories I consumed resulting in a small weight loss. 

I also experienced a muscle mass gain. Not a lot and I expect this to level off also unless I add some hills. For me, the bike builds muscle. Recall, I get a better pump from bike riding than I do from squats. Overall, my weight went down by a couple of pounds.

During this test I dropped leg presses and squats completely. When I got to the point where I was zipping around, I resumed doing leg presses and was shocked at how easy the 20-rep sets are. My strength levels dropped but this isn’t unusual for me if I stop doing a particular exercise in the weightroom. I’ll update you with how I’m doing in a month or so.

I went back to the gym. I have a membership but most of the time I work out at home where I have plenty of equipment for my upper body and not so much for legs. I tested myself on a variety of leg machines and my strength levels were decent. Not great. Decent as baseline levels with loads of room for improvement.

Takeaways

First, you may not need to ride a bike at all. You may be young and fit and able to ride a bike for 20 mins straight. If so, you might not experience any benefits from this level of physical activity. In my case, I was so poor during the testing phase that I saw there was a lot of room for improvement. Trying this made sense. As it turned out, this level of exercise increased my “work capacity” with my weight training so I was very happy with the results.

If you decide to try a routine like this, I recommend a few things. Depending upon your health, you may want to check with your doctor. If you’re in poor condition, give yourself a month to adapt. I ride 5 days a week for 20 mins. As I mentioned, it took my body weeks to adapt even though I exercise constantly.

Make sure the seat is at the proper height. If you are vulnerable to knee tendon or kneecap tendon pain it is critical that your seat is properly adjusted. Most bicycle seats are too low, and a higher seat might take some getting used to. There are a lot of videos online that cover the correct seat height.

Make sure your tires are properly inflated.

I don’t have hand brakes, but I wish I did. If you have a choice, go for hand brakes.

You don’t need a fancy bike and my old-fashioned heavy bike was perfect for getting me into better condition.

 Be safe. It doesn’t hurt to wear bright colors or a reflector jacket. Consider a helmet. Serious bike riders wear helmets. It they do, we novices should too.

Coming soon

Hanging from a bar for time. It’s the latest craze. Is it worthwhile? I’ll let you know.

 JP Carlson is the author of FIRE YOUR PERSONAL TRAINER AND KICK YOUR OWN DAMN ASS. He’s still working on it. It’ll be out this year!

File Under: bodybuilding, powerlifting, fitness, senior training, bike riding