OK, I promise this is skating-related

Even before I had to sit out all summer with my broken wrist, thereby gaining an additional ten pounds or so I'd been thinking that I needed to increase my aerobic capacity. Not just for health reasons but also to improve my on-ice endurance (huff, puff!) and to decrease the amount of body weight that needs to be lofted into the air with each jump

Although I have a treadmill and I live in an area where hiking trails abound, my lower back and hips don't take well to that kind of pounding. I'm water-averse so swimming is out of the question. So I'm wondering about taking up cycling . . .

Just wondering if anyone here is a cyclist; if so (a) how do you feel about it as a fitness activity? and (b) how kind is it to your lower back and hips?


TIA for any input,
Ellen

Sorry, this isn't a response! What does "water-averse" mean?

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She doesn't like water.

I bike as my off season activity. Look out for cars and dogs. I found that it maintained the muscle tone in my legs and simulated quite well the aerobic component of skating (skate, glide = pedal, coast). You need to bike at an intense level, it's not a sightseeing tour. It is easier on the legs than running.

It's not my hips that hurt, it's those delicate bones in my butt, no matter how many gel seats I try.

Also, be very careful of your knees if you have dodgy or injured ones. Make *sure* the seat is properly adjusted so your knees are able to remain in the same vertical plane (ie: not moving out to the side as you pedal down) while you cycle. This I was told by my (now sadly deceased - but not from sport!) sports medico a couple of years ago.

Rider - I just re-read your post and the replies already there. I don't know how you are supposed to have the seat for road riding - my medico was talking about a stationary bike.

Biking, in terms of what muscles it uses, is the most similar to skating of all common off-ice activities. It's good for your hips, which skating ruins, so eventually it balances out. A warning though: it won't increase your on-ice endurance by that much, since skating a program is anaerobic exercise (in the sense that it goes in spurts) where biking is aeroibc (one continuous exertion). Biking will help, but only double runthroughs can really increase your on ice endurnace to where you need it.

I cycle for recreation mostly, as I tend to not go on strenuous routes. It really only works the outside of your quads, so if you are looking for calf strength or ankle strength it won't do much. Also, if you want real benefits from it, you'll have to choose a challenging route - lots of hills etc!

No problems with lower back and hips, and I'm prone to lower back problems. If you already have a bike, get it serviced before you start. If you are going to buy a bike, be prepared to spend a few hundred dollars to get a decent fitout. I bought a mountain bike this time around, still cheapish (Raleigh) but I did go for a good seat, which has had no problems. Next time I will get a Trek commuter bike or even a folding bike because I plan to commute to work more often on bike in the future.

Cycling is good for me generally though because I haven't been exercising much at all when I was off ice for four years, so I'm kind of starting at zero, plus asthma came on in a big way in the past few years. Cycling is also good when I'm recovering from illness (it doesn't cause too many asthma flareups) and to get fresh air, since obviously the rink is an artificial environment!

Actually cycling is excellent for leg strength both quads and calfs, in addition its one of the safest sports for knees and excellent for endurance. My daughter is a competitive cyclist, speed skater and former figure skater. Cycling is a great cross trainer for many sports and is a great way to stay fit, increase endurance and muscle strength - safely. (although you might want to invest in a new saddle - specialized for women like the 'Italia - trans am seat') Also better for your back and hips as there is no pounding or jarring of the joints!

Eric Heiden competed at the Olympic level in both speed skating and cycling... and was often quoted as saying they were the perfect training complements to each other, since they use the same muscles in slightly different ways. I did hear one interview where he said cycling made his back feel better after a season of hunching over on speedskates. Granted, speedskating is a different posture from what we (are supposed to) look like.. but in terms of lower body, if it's good enough for the guy who won 5 gold medals at the 1980 Winter Games and now practices medicine, it probably would work well for those of us who aren't quite as talented/driven/experienced!

Husband cycles to and from the station to go to work, and usually takes his bike on the train with him. However, he is (getting old and) beginning to find it does his knee in, so he's cutting down to cycling 2-3 days a week and getting the bus the other days. To my relief, I might add - I hate him cycling in London!

Anyway, he says it makes a great warm-up before skating, and he also uses his bike to stretch with while waiting for the train afterwards (and no, I don't know exactly what he does, I have never seen him do it!).

(And if I sound a bit snippy, that's because I am - his team won last night, first time they've beaten us in 70 years, apparently, and he's so pleased that you'd think he'd scored the winning goal himself! Plus he was too pleased about that to tell me much about the dance session that I couldn't go to!).

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