Winter exercise switch-up for bike riders

[Bicycle Belle Ding Ding!]

I hope this is not off-topic. If it is, I apologize. 

Living in Michigan means I park my Platypuses for 3 months or so in the winter. I know there are die-hards out there with their studded tires and fat bikes but that’s not me. No Platypus means a lot of my workout time has been freed up and I need to find ways to stay active in winter. I already do strength training and core 6-7 days of the week, year round. I run a little. I walk a lot. But I wanted to add in something new and challenging. I added TWO things: Pilates and HIIT.

I have to say that I’m amazed how much I feel Pilates. The muscles I’m using in Pilates must never get used in my other workouts. Gluteus medius, specifically. I think I have really neglected my hips. I’m also doing some physical therapy for my shoulder and knee, and my physical therapist has uncovered some of my weaknesses that are, incidentally, being helped with Pilates. I think I’m going to keep it in my routine all year. Maybe ditch the core workouts, because I think Pilates is more effective.

Also good is HIIT. I find that 20 minutes is plenty challenging. Lots of new moves that make you focus on balance, coordination and isolating muscle groups. Can be hard on the knees. Grant has talked at length about short bursts of intense exercise being the way. This is that.

I do all of this in my basement using Apple Fitness, in case anyone was wondering how to start. Dirt cheap, very little equipment needed, and a joy to follow the lead of the instructors. I love a group exercise class - just tell me what to do to make the most of my time and put on some good music for the session. I’ll do whatever you say.

If you park your bike for winter, what do you do to keep up your fitness? I’m always looking for new ideas.

Leah

[Bill Lindsay]

Mrs Bubba and I signed up at Orange Theory.  It's a small class studio, and it is expensive, but we're gaming the system a little bit.  It is definitely aimed at the HIIT thing and focuses on heart rate.  In a 50 minute workout, the target is to get 12 or more splat points, a splat point is 1 minute in the Orange or Red zone of heart rate.  I share Leah's appreciation for "just tell me what to do and play the music loud".  Going along with my wife gives me an accountability buddy.  The gamification of points and the data-geekery of heart rate scratches a couple of my OCD itches.  This is my first month, and the program I'm on is just 8 classes a month.  This is a complement to my cycling rather than a full winter time substitute.  

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[Tim Bantham]

I live in Upstate NY, not too far Leah from our friends at Analog Cycles . This translates to lots of snow, long winters and a lot of time off the bike. I do ride indoors on Zwift but the real game changer for me has been yoga. I practice LYT yoga. It was designed by a physical therapist and is rooted in kinesiology. It focuses on  postural alignment, better movement habits and a strong mind body connection.  I've been practicing LYT almost daily for a few years now. I like it so much that I even got my 200 hour teacher certification so I can now teach although I am not current doing so. I do all of this online at home. You can check it out at lytyoga.com. I've never done pilates but I have heard that this type of yoga has a lot of cross over. It has worked very well for me and has helped me build strength, flexibility and mobility!

Tim

[George Schick]

I bend an elbow and walk the dog.  Oh, and if there's any snow, there's shoveling to be done.

[Chris Halasz]

My mornings begin with a little qigong, then yoga or weights on alternating days. 

Every third day I enjoy five to six miles running in the hills, interrupted by winter rain (and mud), and the trees and I are thankful for every drop we're receiving this week! I love those runs, and am grateful my leg and hip joints enjoy the time as much as I do. I don't enjoy running on roads as much, I miss the Overstory experience I have here on the edge of the Los Padres Forest. 

A few December photos: 

Nice what I'm hearing about Pilates. 

Happy holidays and happy first day of Winter to all. 

- Chris 

On Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 6:55:36 AM UTC-8 Bicycle Belle Ding Ding! wrote:

[Kushan]

I started using an indoor trainer and Zwift for winters when we moved to Seattle. I must say that I am enjoying it more than I thought I would - and the irony of upright rivendell on an indoor bike trainer only makes it more fun :)

It's a pretty low cost option to try (can generally find used trainers for $20-$50 on Craigslist) for anyone interested. 

[Patrick Moore]

+ 1 for walking, dog or no dog. I've lived within 15/100 mile of a Defined Fitness gym for 20 years and have never joined, and I attribute my youthful good looks to the 10 years I caught back from the slow-down of the temporal continuum during the 1 winter season I tried riding a stationary trainer indoors -- very structured 60 minute workout with multiple cycles of working up to max heart rate, cool-downs, and repeat. Time slowed to 1/100,000th of its normal flow and I aged, or failed to age, accordingly.

Slightly more seriously: even tho' I avoid it as much as I can, I really do think that if you had to choose just 1 healthy activity, walking would be it.

And there's shovelglove, which I've been doing very sporadically for 15 years: https://www.shovelglove.com 

Latterly, I cut the handles down 2 12 lb hammers to 8" and do combined curls and presses, or at least that's the idea. Mostly, the hammers sit near my work desk and send dark, accusing looks at me for neglecting them. But I still do pushups -- straight back, all a way down to touch chest, all a way up with straighted arms.

And sitting cross-legged -- good for flexibility.

[Patrick Moore]

Walking:

https://www.urbanranger.com

Urban Ranger [ An Everyday Systems site ]

Search | Bulletin Board | Podcast Song of the Urban Ranger I am an urban ranger, I walk, it's what I do. The city is my wilderness, Sky scrapers are my trees. I hang my thoughts on lamp posts, And park my dreams in metered spots. I populate the empty lots With my good ghosts, And invest the pavement with diamond recollections. Exertions are my exercise, My labors for effect. I walk to go and go to walk. I walk to work and work that I might walk. I walk to dream up orders For my servile sitting self. No stagnant sedentary thoughts Shall rule this life. But who knows what's for what. I sure walk a hell of a lot. Don't waste my time, what is this? Urban Ranger is an extended metaphor to convince people (starting with myself) to make a habit of purposeful, sustained walking. Man, you are a bad poet And you should be doing your job. Gimme a break. This is the internet. Exertion vs. Exercise It's idiotic. We've invented one class of machine to spare us physical exertion, and another class of machine to inflict it back on us again, but in an infinitely more boring, painful, and useless manner. We view it as the triumph of our age that work no longer means labor, that we can burn fossil fuel instead of living muscle. And yet we berate ourselves that we do not labor in our leisure time, that we do not spend our freed hours in the gym, that torture chamber that is only possible because the automobile and the escalator have saved us so much labor that the surfeit is killing us. It's offensive. Work, dammit, and you won't have to play work later. No, you probably can't kill a caribou for dinner, or plow a field, or do most of the useful work that your ancestors did for thousands of generations. But you can still walk. And believe it or not, walking is enough (more on that below). Let me guess: you don't go to the gym, or strap yourself to the bike machine, or grind the cartilage off your joints jogging around the track, as often as you think you should, if at all. Maybe you go for six months, plateau, get bored, quit for a year, get disgusted, and start up again. Maybe you haven't exercised in ages. You suspect that your problem is a deficiency of willpower. Well, you're off. Your problem is you are squandering willpower on a hopeless task: exercise divorced from purpose. The solution: purposeful exertion; in particular, walking. Walking is still useful. It is interesting and pleasant. You can think and observe while you walk. You get somewhere. You don't need any special equipment or outfits. It provides great health returns on very little investment, without the risk associated with high impact activities. And you can do it for the rest of your life.

--

Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Garth]

Well I live among hills, lots of hills, nothing but hills ! So I go walky walky, on the roads and through the forest, up and down and all around. I live outside the city so this small subdivision of homes has always been closer to rural than any semblance of an organized neighborhood. It's a free for all in that people can do most anything with their land. Basically the woods are my back yard so in winter I can venture in where in summer it's a jungle. Of course I'm riding then, so it works out perfectly as in fall all that jungle tumbles down. I generally follow animal trails, hey, they know where they're going ! On a topo map this whole area looks like closely spaced spider veins, basically all feeding the Ohio River, eventually. I like the serenity of the woods as it's just me and wildlife, it's a nice change of pace from riding on the road, or riding at all. I exert myself as needed to stay warm but no more, as sweating the cold is no fun. I can stop wherever and whenever, rock hop along the creeks, duck beneath or slide over the fallen trees. The terrain is so varied, so wild, it's fun being able to be so creative as to where to place your feet. Find a certain rhythm and I feel like I'm just gliding along.  My high spot is atop a hill where there is a very tall AEP Power company tower. I can see forever up there, all the layers of the hills and valleys. When we have winter snow squalls come in from the NW, it's especially awesome as you see the various small pockets of snow falling off in the distance, often while the Sun is shinning. They're like little snow filled clouds that touch the ground. Five minutes layer I''m in a snow globe. Hah !  Then it's gone, with more on the way. Those are some of the most wonderful walks of all. Anytime its snows is magic, I can't explain why, it just is.

I don't consider myself an athlete at all, hah hah. I'm more like someone who does athletic things because I love doing them in the way I do them. I love bike riding for the way I can ride it, as walking for the way I can walk. It's everything, the only thing !

[John Rinker]

A good friend once said: 'If it doesn't end in a cord of wood or a barn full of hay, it ain't exercise!' I would add a cleared driveway. Ha!

Winter around here brings lots of snow and the following exercise: clearing a 450m driveway (Thank you Honda!), splitting wood (Thank you Blaze King!), skiing (downhill, cross-country, touring), snowshoeing, and yoga. And, my lovely wife loves to bake, so basically all this keeps my muscles from atrophying and my waistline at a net-zero.

Cheers, John

[Roberta]

I can ride in the winter, but choose to go only if 35 - 40 degrees or warmer and the sun is shining.  Basically, that means going from commuting every day to riding on most weekends, only.

Walking, hiking and I'll be starting weight lifting soon.  I might get back into yoga.  I did love that.

I did an internet session with Tim on LytYoga a couple of years ago and thought it was terrific!  I like that they train their teachers and the developer of the system is a PT.  There are so many yoga "teachers" that just shout out the next pose and don't help at all.  When my local hatha yoga studio, with trained and knowledgeable teachers, closed, I stopped.  My body has been unhappy since.

Leah has been bugging me to sign up for Apple fitness.  Like her and Bubba, I like the "tell me what to do and I'll do it" process.  Here in Philadelphia Orange Theory gets fantastic reviews.  They are a bit too far away for me, though.

Roberta

[Leah Peterson]

I do. I do bug her. We have Marco Polo so we video message every day, so I’ve had plenty of chances. She is a long-suffering woman, is Roberta. I have a 103 week workout streak on Apple Fitness and maybe I just really want someone else to be on it so I can say, “Ugh, did you do that upper body workout today? Greg nearly killed me.” And then they would tell me what they did, and so on and so forth. 

There are new workouts every week and I get so excited on Monday when they drop and I can see what I’ll be doing for the week…

Sent from my iPhone

On Dec 22, 2023, at 1:17 PM, Roberta <rcha...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Roberta]

And, the difference is...  Leah is super fit and I have a hard time getting up hills.

[Sarah Carlson]

Roberta, Leah has been working on me about Apple Fitness too. I think she should be getting commissions from Rivendell AND Apple fitness! I know strength training is the missing piece... maybe it's time we sign up all together... RiveSister fitness....

[Patch T]

Where I live I don't need to park it completely, but I do ride less. My yoga practice (specifically hot Vinyasa with Pilates and occasional cardio elements) cadence then increases in the winter.

It has significantly strengthened my core, increased flexibility/balance/body awareness, improved my breathing and my stamina, and has probably (speculating here) prevented injuries. I'm still pretty young, but my body is probably 'younger' than a lot of folks my age.

Patch 

[Will Boericke]

Winter is for mountain biking!  It's slow enough and in the woods that you can stay warm just fine, with the right gear.  

Will