Cycling UK Forum

I normally go to Yoga at least once a week and in the summer swim 50 lengths of our local outdoor swimming pool as often as I can, but cycling is by far the dominant exercise since giving up squash and cricket.

At 59 3/4 I’m not rushing to take on any new sports.

Cowsham wrote: ↑14 Dec 2023, 5:16pm

cyclop wrote: ↑13 Dec 2023, 8:59am Are we,as cyclists,in danger of being people who cycle and do no other exercise?

No -- Twice a week ( or sometimes 3 times a week in winter ) I do a bit of upper body exercise. Only takes about an hour to an hour and a half each session. I'll do 3 sets of this wee routine.

1 start off with warming up the muscles involved with small weights -- I'll explain that later since I use mostly my own body weight.

2. 35 press-ups but with feet elevated to about table height ( to mimic incline bench press only flipped over ) ( sometimes I'll do about 5 or 10 first just to get a bit more blood to the muscles especially if it's cold then I'll give it a couple of min before doing 35 ) most times I'll do the middle set of press - ups with feet elevated just enough to make my body horizontal instead of head down to simulate standard bench press. This tightens all the muscles around the flanks and abdomen etc -- probably prevents hernias and that sort of malarkey.

3. 30 to 35 pull ups ( depending on how I feel ) but separated into one batch of 20 and one of 15 with 1 min break between.

4. 30 to 35 dips on parallel bars

5. 20 Side lateral raises with weights

Repeat twice more from 2 to 5

Means it can be done at home so no gym fees -- done that for over 20 years now. Before that I was a power lifter.

My first thought was,"this blokes having a laugh" but your very last sentence belied this.Amazing!Chapeau.

cyclop wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 7:00am My first thought was,"this blokes having a laugh" but your very last sentence belied this.Amazing!Chapeau.

My own thoughts and reaction too. I could be wrong but my suspicion, observation even, is that some chaps are naturally much stronger than others. For all of us it’s a case of doing what you can with what you have, well that and keeping things in balance.

cyclop wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 7:00am

Cowsham wrote: ↑14 Dec 2023, 5:16pm

cyclop wrote: ↑13 Dec 2023, 8:59am Are we,as cyclists,in danger of being people who cycle and do no other exercise?

No -- Twice a week ( or sometimes 3 times a week in winter ) I do a bit of upper body exercise. Only takes about an hour to an hour and a half each session. I'll do 3 sets of this wee routine.

1 start off with warming up the muscles involved with small weights -- I'll explain that later since I use mostly my own body weight.

2. 35 press-ups but with feet elevated to about table height ( to mimic incline bench press only flipped over ) ( sometimes I'll do about 5 or 10 first just to get a bit more blood to the muscles especially if it's cold then I'll give it a couple of min before doing 35 ) most times I'll do the middle set of press - ups with feet elevated just enough to make my body horizontal instead of head down to simulate standard bench press. This tightens all the muscles around the flanks and abdomen etc -- probably prevents hernias and that sort of malarkey.

3. 30 to 35 pull ups ( depending on how I feel ) but separated into one batch of 20 and one of 15 with 1 min break between.

4. 30 to 35 dips on parallel bars

5. 20 Side lateral raises with weights

Repeat twice more from 2 to 5

Means it can be done at home so no gym fees -- done that for over 20 years now. Before that I was a power lifter.

My first thought was,"this blokes having a laugh" but your very last sentence belied this.Amazing!Chapeau.

Why would it be amazing ? That's only 3 hours exercise a week extra in summer and 4.5 in winter when there's not so much cycling to be had. The cycle commute is my cardio but that doesn't happen every work day a cos of our dreadful NI weather. What's amazing is the number of my ( over 60 ) peers who are absolutely bucked !

cyclop wrote: ↑13 Dec 2023, 8:59am Are we,as cyclists,in danger of being people who cycle and do no other exercise?

TBH i bristled slightly at this opening statement

Because:
- I know I play other sport, always have done. And:
- the internet is full of cyclists banging on about singing the praises of cross-training
- other sports are just as bad for this. I know plenty of runners/footballers who don't do anything else (picked those two as in the UK they are the most numerous)

Carlton green wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 9:30am

cyclop wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 7:00am My first thought was,"this blokes having a laugh" but your very last sentence belied this.Amazing!Chapeau.

My own thoughts and reaction too. I could be wrong but my suspicion, observation even, is that some chaps are naturally much stronger than others. For all of us it’s a case of doing what you can with what you have, well that and keeping things in balance.

I'm not any more naturally strong than anyone else in fact I was a weak sickly baby and been a chronic asthmatic ( till about 44 -- but that's a whole other story ) maybe just stronger in mind where it all starts.

kept fit all my life, weight lifting since 11 years old ( because of asthma ) -- cycled since I was a wee boy and when power lifting cycling to keep lean and make my weight limits, plus commuting. Not ever been a drinker or smoker.

Whilst this is obviously a cycling forum, I think we can all agree that cycling (like almost any sport) done to extreme and in complete isolation isn't especially healthy. I don't look at Vingegaard and see a picture of balanced health. He's at the absolute top of his game, but for balanced health would benefit from some 'cross training'. But that'd slow him down on the bike.....

For longevity, everything I've read and heard says that cycling is excellent, but needs to be coupled with something that is weight bearing. So at least a couple of hours a week of resistance training is the best way to go. You can start just with some resistance bands (I got some really decent sets from Amazon for about £6 each for my mum and my wife's parents for Christmas) and build up a little from there.

Spinal compression seems to be very important too. There are a heap of super interesting podcasts online from Dr Peter Attia, and his opinion is that deadlift is the single most valuable training tool to prevent ostepenia and sarcopenia as we age. I aim to deadlift every 5 days.

I appreciate that it's tough to balance though. It's difficult to get enthusiastic (especially in summer) about gym training when the bike and the open road beckons......

Jon in Sweden wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 10:10am Whilst this is obviously a cycling forum, I think we can all agree that cycling (like almost any sport) done to extreme and in complete isolation isn't especially healthy. I don't look at Vingegaard and see a picture of balanced health. He's at the absolute top of his game, but for balanced health would benefit from some 'cross training'. But that'd slow him down on the bike.....

For longevity, everything I've read and heard says that cycling is excellent, but needs to be coupled with something that is weight bearing. So at least a couple of hours a week of resistance training is the best way to go. You can start just with some resistance bands (I got some really decent sets from Amazon for about £6 each for my mum and my wife's parents for Christmas) and build up a little from there.

Spinal compression seems to be very important too. There are a heap of super interesting podcasts online from Dr Peter Attia, and his opinion is that deadlift is the single most valuable training tool to prevent ostepenia and sarcopenia as we age. I aim to deadlift every 5 days.

I appreciate that it's tough to balance though. It's difficult to get enthusiastic (especially in summer) about gym training when the bike and the open road beckons......

I used to deadlift well over 500 lbs when I was power lifting at 19 years old -- the Olympic bar gets very wobbly above that -- but the main number 1 rule when lifting weights especially dead lifting is NEVER EVER LET GO OR DROP THE BAR ! if it's too much lower it back onto the ground and unload slowly. I've always obeyed this rule through life and lifting anything. Most back injuries occur when a weight is dropped because of the recoil on unload of the spine.

My back is still very strong but most of the people that told me " you'll have a bad back some day" have a bad back --- I don't have an ache or pain in it -- even the 7 broken ribs falling from bike in 2021 ( at the back ) are now back to normal. Broke two more this summer but even that's healed OK now.

Lifting weights done properly is probably the best exercise you can do.

Cowsham wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 2:33pm
I used to deadlift well over 500 lbs when I was power lifting at 19 years old -- the Olympic bar gets very wobbly above that -- but the main number 1 rule when lifting weights especially dead lifting is NEVER EVER LET GO OR DROP THE BAR ! if it's too much lower it back onto the ground and unload slowly. I've always obeyed this rule through life and lifting anything. Most back injuries occur when a weight is dropped because of the recoil on unload of the spine.

My back is still very strong but most of the people that told me " you'll have a bad back some day" have a bad back --- I don't have an ache or pain in it -- even the 7 broken ribs falling from bike in 2021 ( at the back ) are now back to normal. Broke two more this summer but even that's healed OK now.

Lifting weights done properly is probably the best exercise you can do.

Very strong numbers, especially for your age. I got to 190/140/260 for a 590kg total, but at 203cm and 131kg, I was still a really long way off filling out my frame. My metabolism and physiology was in no way suited to weight lifting seriously though, and my stomach gave out from all the overeating (I went from 77kg at age 19 to 131kg at 23).

But as you say, weight training is incredibly important and everyone should do it really. It's one of the single best things you can do to extend your health-span (healthy life span) and reduce the risk of frailty in later life.

Cowsham wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 2:33pm
Lifting weights done properly is probably the best exercise you can do.

"Best" is always a bit suspect when attempting to describe the benefits of summick. But this to the side.

You're right to suggest that weight lifting is probably an essential activity if a human is to keep their body in proper nick. Its not the only essential activity but we did evolve to stress our muscles, sinews, bones, nerves and everything else far more than most modern humans living in civilisations ever do. One can notice the results from failing to so-stress ourselves when walking down any populous street.

However, your "done properly" is the rub. Having frequented all sorts of gyms over the decades, it always gives me feelings of alarm to see the not-done-properly antics of so many. A lot of gyms have no effective trainers or supervisors to show, advise, demonstrate or compel gym users to avoid the improper heaving and jerking that's going to damage them.

It is possible to read good advice and, these days, to view how-to-do vids. But its also possible to read bad advice and to see some really daft "techniques" advised by various interwebberry macho poseurs and those vying for attention by performing bizarre acts. But most seem to make it up for themselves, resulting in all sorts of weight lifting "techniques" that seem both unfocussed in what they're trying to achieve as well as being almost certain to damage the practitioner.

*************
I was lucky to begin weight training in a school gym at evening classes run by a knowledgeable and demanding fellow paid to do so by the council. Strict form and no showing off or silly antics allowed. I'm still extremely grateful for that induction, especially after seeing what went on in less structured gym environments, from bodybuilding style to those glossy places erected purely to make money out of the 90% who sign up for a year but never return after visit one.

I was recently watching a long and detailed interview with a professor who studies health in the context of our evolution and looks at activity patterns in remaining populations of hunter-gatherers and subsistence farmers. One of several interesting ‘big points’ that he made was that in societies other than westernised, industrialised ones, everybody, irrespective of age, spends huge proportions of time lifting and carrying stuff. Not hugely heavy things most of the time, but almost constant small loads of produce, water, fuel, small children, implements etc, and that our physique has evolved not only to be good at that, but to need it for wellbeing. So, maybe the answer is to lug about a couple of 2kg bags of flour wherever we go.

As a footnote, he also said that hunter gatheters and subsistence farmers spend as much time sitting down as do people in westernised, industrialised societies, which really surprised me. The big difference is that they rarely sit for longer than about a quarter of an hour at a stretch, basically having little rests between bouts of doing active tasks. He had a lot of other interesting observations too!

to those glossy places erected purely to make money out of the 90% who sign up for a year but never return after visit one.

Note to self, and anyone else who might find it useful, don’t make New Year resolutions or at least not in January. Just decide to change things when you see the need and then plan the change.

Weigh lifting. I’ve no plans to do any heavy weights but have been outdoors using a spade this afternoon and generally getting too hot. I’ve had back trouble, it’s OK now, and I put it down to lifting things that were really too heavy for me - just because you can doesn’t mean you should, etc. Of course care with exercise is important, but as I and many others have found out it’s easy to do yourself a mischief; luckily I’ve always made full recoveries but not everyone has been so fortunate.

Jon in Sweden wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 3:19pm

Cowsham wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 2:33pm
I used to deadlift well over 500 lbs when I was power lifting at 19 years old -- the Olympic bar gets very wobbly above that --

Very strong numbers, especially for your age. I got to 190/140/260 for a 590kg total, but at 203cm and 131kg, I was still a really long way off filling out my frame. My metabolism and physiology was in no way suited to weight lifting seriously though, and my stomach gave out from all the overeating (I went from 77kg at age 19 to 131kg at 23).

6' - 8" 20 stone ! Yes you'd probably still look thin and you'd had a long way to lift 573lbs -- I was lifting almost that at 11 and a half stone ( 5' 10" ) . I went down to 10 and a quarter to win a lower weight class and still could deadlift near the 500lb.

The monstrous older guys your height were lifting near twice what I was ( or seemed like it at the time ) .

I considered my dead lift and squat ( about 410lbs ) my weak lifts at the time but my party piece was bench press -- 350lbs ( nearly 160kg ) which more than made up for the other two.

I used to run (albeit not very well) for my main exercise but stopped in 2016 because two knees and one hip were complaining too much but also did some cycling, typically a 12 mile circuit. Now I do a lot more cycling with, weather permitting, longer distances. I also walk, particularly if the weather isn't attractive for cycling. One of the walks is an 8 mile round trip to some shops. Carrying the shopping home discourages me from buying too much.

I keep a record of my cycling trips as I find it interesting to compare how I'm currently performing with previous years and whether changes to my bike fleet are fending off the effects of increasing age. My spreadsheet includes an estimate of the wind during the bike ride as that can be a big factor in the time - a headwind in the wrong place means more efforts but slower progress.

Weight lifiting or other forms of indoor exercise have never appealed to me and I think that if the Almighty had intended us to swim then he would have given us webbed feet.

JohnR wrote: ↑15 Dec 2023, 5:37pm
Weight lifiting or other forms of indoor exercise have never appealed to me and I think that if the Almighty had intended us to swim then he would have given us webbed feet.

reminds me on what me da used to say when I drove too fast with him as a passenger " Slow down if God meant me to go fast he'd have put a propeller in my rse so I'd could fly there."