Try Bicycling

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for a Healthy and Meaningful New Year!

I started going on bicycle rides after reading the book “Younger Next Year” by Chris Crowley. He recommended riding a bicycle daily for fun and exercise. Cycling is a great activity for all ages.

My wife and I ride for 45 minutes each week-day, and do a longer ride on Saturdays. We have been doing this regularly for almost three years and find it a great low impact activity. It is easy on the joints, helps improve cardio-vascular fitness, as well as strength, balance and coordination.

It can be done at different activity levels so one does not have to be a racer to ride. In fact a very helpful bicycling book for “un-racers” is “Just Ride” by Grant Peterson. It’s a practical little book with lots of tips on how to ride well in different conditions.

When choosing my bike I looked at a number of different models. Test ride a few bikes before you decide to buy one. A good way to do this is to first rent different bikes for your rides. My wife and I finally decided on the 7-speed Townie by Trek. We have been on both short as well as overnight rides with our townies. The Townie offers a number of great features for seniors. The pedals are slightly offset forward so that your feet can rest flat on the ground when you are seated on the bike. It also allows for a more upright ride which is great for the back!

Apart from all the health benefits, riding is fun! I installed a bike hitch on our small Prius C so we are able to take our bikes to different riding trails. We find it very relaxing and therapeutic to ride through wooded areas and breathe in the fresh air. For safety reasons we try not to ride on roads with traffic. We are fortunate that there are a number of safe riding trails that we can conveniently get to.

Coupled with our strength workouts, our bike riding activity helps us maintain all round fitness in a relaxing and enjoyable way.