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Rev Up Your Bike Ride And Supercharge Your Health

Rev up your bike ride, sharpen your thinking skills, whittle your waist and put some sparkle in your mood. If you love nature, map out some beautiful places to bike through near your home or just bicycle through your neighborhood or park. Riding outdoors require that you be alert and present in your surroundings, while exploring some new terrain.

Of course spin classes feels like a killer but doing outdoor cycling makes you exert even more energy. Being outside enjoying the fresh air and sunshine makes you work harder.

So start your bicycling in a loop, that way you are not too far from home and can log the distance. Once you feel stronger and more confident you can turn it into an out-and-back adventure.

Escape the gym, experience a different way to strengthen the body, but remember to guard your precious brain while biking. There is evidence out there that says experiencing a moderate or severe head injury increases your risk of Alzheimer's disease. Up as much as 3.5 times if the injury is severe.

Exercising to lower your blood pressure safely isn't just a means to an end, it should be part of your life, so it should be fun and shouldn't feel like a chore.

Revving Up Your Bike Ride Exercise

Bicycle riding strengthen the legs muscles, your core, lungs and arms, and it can be exhilarating. Going up and down a track, through a winding hilly mountain with an ever changing scenery is fun. But over-exertion is no fun, and you might not have a heart rate monitor, but there are many ways to gauge your intensity level.

Jim Rutberg, a cycling expert for Carmichael Training Systems and Strava in Colorado has created this 30-minute interval workout that I found to be worth the effort. He has suggested that you do timed intervals.

For timed intervals you would look at your watch, or time the distance between landmarks, like phone poles and use those as your markers.

Warm-Up Process

3 minutes easy riding.

1 minute fast pedaling (high cadence, low resistance).

1 minute easy riding.

1 minute fast pedaling (high cadence, low resistance).

2 minutes easy riding.

Bicycle Riding Outdoors Workout

Six 30-second speed intervals separated by 30 seconds of easy recovery. Rev your cadence and power as you accelerate for 30 seconds, then pedal very lightly as you slow down for 30 seconds before starting again. These he says aren't really sprints so much as hard, seated accelerations.

3 1/2 minutes easy recovery.

8 minute temp interval. That is increasing your efforts on a perceived exertion scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being as hard as you can go. Your breathing should be deep and controlled and nowhere near panting.

Cool down with an easy pace for 5 minutes.

Bike Rides To Your Health

Exercise helps your heart in many ways. It puts a damper on high blood pressure and heart-threatening inflammation, improve the circulation of antioxidants that protect the cells of the heart and the cells lining blood vessels from injury.

Researchers states there is a good reason to invest in an exercise bike because bike riders had fewer heart attacks, strokes and serious chest pain. And remember to always check with your physician before starting any physical activity.

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