I love riding my bike. Only traffic here in Amsterdam is a nightmare. Morons on electric bikes have no idea what they're doing and wreak havoc. So yes, I use my homotrainer. Hooked it up to a generator and pedal away 60 W (easy) to 80 W (hard). I feed the energy into the mains grid. I now have generated 2.4 kWh over some two years now. I get rich! While exercising I read magazines. Full articles until I reach my energy goal. Usually 10-16 Wh, somethimes more. Working easy that takes about 15 minutes. I can also hook up a 12 V inverter for off-grid operation or just charge batteries. The inverter I have, batteries unfortunately not. Not too keen to recycle laptop 18650 battery cells.
I had one. Used it mainly for drying clothes....
Like other people are saying - get a real bike and ride it outdoors. Much more fun, and much better exercise. If ice and snow is a problem during the winter, get some studded tires. I have them, and its incredible how grip such tires have on ice.
Like other people are saying - get a real bike and ride it outdoors. Much more fun, and much better exercise. If ice and snow is a problem during the winter, get some studded tires. I have them, and its incredible how grip such tires have on ice.
Yup, that's the real problem, motivation. Try different things to find out what you like, because you'll do more of that...
You could buy a month or two gym membership and try a few thing there to see if indoor exercise suits. I always found it easier to go to the gym than use the rowing machine at home. Perverse but true.
But getting out is best. Get some sun on your skin and make some vitamin d. Boosts immune system and mood. Any exercise is good exercise.
The problem for me is that indoor exercise is the definition of boring. I had a gym membership for a couple of years (before Covid), and forced myself to go there. Now we have a treadmill, weights and other stuff at home. I like that better, because we can choose our own music... 😎 Anyway, outdoors is always preferred. Since we live in Norway, we do cross country skiing a lot. That's perfect exercise for the entire body!
You're not alone there. I actually don't mind the gym. It's somewhere I can plug in phones, concentrate on exercises and think about anything I want to think about. I'm mostly in the UK and we have a lot of rain :| so indoors is sometimes unavoidable...
Key. The more you move the more heartbeats you get and will issue great benefits particularily as you get old.
dave
That looks like the one I found in a ditch. Are you going to use it on a concrete floor, or upstairs on a wooden floor? It the latter, you may find others don't appreciate the noise.
I can never get enough motivation to push until I see spots and pretty colors if it’s not actually MOVING. Competing with a bunch of buddies virtually comparing power meter output on some app isn’t much motivation anymore either - since about 5 years ago I just had to quit trying to keep up anymore. I dropped the whole idea in one day an never looked back. The body just won’t take that kind of pounding like it used to - a long steady-ish ride between zones 3 and 4 is about all I can muster anymore. Doing THAT on a trainer is the definition of boring.
If conditions are just right and sustained long enough I can get extremely high off of it. It happens just before you hit zone 5, but not if you cross into it. Work too hard and it breaks it, not hard enough and it never happens. It not just a runners high - that happens almost all the time. When it does happen the music playing in my head changes, gets very intense and I‘ll lose track of time and miles. Its like an honest to god drug trip. It has NEVER happened on a trainer or any other machine.
If conditions are just right and sustained long enough I can get extremely high off of it. It happens just before you hit zone 5, but not if you cross into it. Work too hard and it breaks it, not hard enough and it never happens. It not just a runners high - that happens almost all the time. When it does happen the music playing in my head changes, gets very intense and I‘ll lose track of time and miles. Its like an honest to god drug trip. It has NEVER happened on a trainer or any other machine.
There must be dozens of those sitting idle collecting dust. Save yourself a bundle and track down a used one.
jeff
Yup, there are plenty washing around post COVID as people fail to keep up with their exercise plans...
I use the recumbent stationary bike at the YMCA -- it used to be more fun but the girls from the nearby private school got their own exercise room and you can no longer view them on the treadmills.
As you get older (like in your 50's) baseline a PSA blood-test. You'll see that riding a few miles every few days on bumpy surfaces raises the PSA even though you have no aggressive prostate cancer.
As you get older (like in your 50's) baseline a PSA blood-test. You'll see that riding a few miles every few days on bumpy surfaces raises the PSA even though you have no aggressive prostate cancer.
I bumped into an old school chum today and was surprised by how fit he looked for his age.
So I asked him, "Do you have an exercise bike?"
He replied, "No, but everytime the bloke next door goes to the gym, I ride his missus."
(© Galu)
So I asked him, "Do you have an exercise bike?"
He replied, "No, but everytime the bloke next door goes to the gym, I ride his missus."
(© Galu)
For my legs I have a dog. For my legs I conveniently forget things in the car so I use the stairs repeatedly. For my upper body I have a home gym with the computer monitor placed in front. The nice thing about a home gym routine is it’s broken into segments thereby reducing the boredom.
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What are the cycles like? Are they seasonal? Can you leverage the energy phase to work on movement; walking, riding - particularly outdoors? I mean, if it's summer when your energy phase comes... I would think it doesnt matter if you take 3-6 months off, say, keeping consistent for - like a decade, yet following your own cycle for when you can feel energetic enough to go outside.
One thing I've noticed is that when you hit a level, say 7 km jogging while feeling well afterwards - it's a lot easier to get that back after some time off exercise, than it is if you've never got to such a level at least once in recent life. Once you've done it, it comes back sooner and easier and I'd have to believe in time, it's like you've never quit for a spell at all.
I injured my foot when I dropped an amplifier on it, after getting a covid shot, which I believe an after-effect caused me to pass out standing up at my bench. (I grabbed at the 30 lb amp as I was goin' down, pulling it off the bench and it landed on my left leg). That injury put a big dent in my routine jogging; totally blew out the end of last year. I wish I never went downstairs that night, but I just had to take those last minute spectrums to make a post in DIYAudio. True Story...I really should have closed the laptop and gone to bed.
Went for a 10 minute jog today; my capability slate is wiped clean after 6 mos - had to walk. This coming summer, I'm going to see if my above words are true, by how easy it'll be to get myself back to 5k - without feeling like a dead fish afterward. We'll see. I'll work up to 1 mi without walking first.
I believe it is easier to regain than build.
I would add, like investing, best start young. Before my dad passed, at 85 on a hospital bed, the doctor told us one day in bed = one week getting back to before, and it adds from there.
It's an exercise in itself seiing people doing exercises... It really works, I am very tirered when I see all that people in mussles factories !
That said after 50 the mussle masse is decreasing, so trying to slow that is good for keeping mobility as far as possible and the pump. It has not to be hard, but regularity is the rule as already stated. Walking, biking, swimming are the usual trilogy, choose your pill.
Sofa as an half part of our hobby is dangerous, we are made afterall to sweat by slowly running after gazelles before they exhaust. I personnaly shop with a caddy and walk in between. Running is too much violent.
It is advised to make an effort checking pet scan to see the state of the plumb and to talk with the cardio doc as good health is a whole. We are not made equal. Anyway junk food as well as eating too much is also your worse enemy.
The last part of this triade is fascias network and tendons : so flexibility exercice as muslles renforcment of little mussles around the jonctions help to keep equilibrium, prevent falls and partially figth local jonctions pain.
Your doc should explain also after 65/70 you must rise a little the dailly proteins cause the body has problem to digest them... it is a common rule to eat 30% more protein according your health weigth from 70.
salt, sugars, alcohols, too hot burned greases and sofa are your ennemies. What I find usefull is to have an exercise bike or an exercise rower (find it more complete for the body) with a pack of bottle in front of it you try to catch... but no way as the exercise device is not moving... very refreshing !
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I've read studies that indicate you can lose 20-50% of your muscle mass in a decade this way.... Sarcopenia 3-5% of your muscle mass every year. Can start as early as 50, but most often not until into the 60's. There are two main ways to deal with it:
1. Regular resistance/load bearing exercise.
2. Significantly increasing your protein intake.
Men can also consider supplementing with testosterone. Depending on where you live in the world that can be easy, hard, expensive.