I went on a couple little bike rides to the store the other day while camping with my family and it was so fun! I realized i can make that a fun night exercise. I took the bike out for a little ride down the street till it dead ends and turned around and came back. It is a simple easy, mostly level ride. Not many cars come on that road which is why I decided to head that way. I had such a great time doing it. It was my nice alone time while also getting a leg work out! I took the car down the route the other day; curious of how many miles I had been riding this week. To my surprise it was 4.5 miles! Biking is my new favorite thing. I am going to continue that same ride for a little longer. Biking a little faster each time until it becomes easier then I am going to switch it up and make a new route with a little hill and see how I do with that.
I read up on how many calories I am burning and it goes between 100-200 calories. By bike ride is about 30 minutes and it go between leisure and fast pace so it is hard to tell how many I am burning because my speed is not constant. So later today I am going to check my mph with an app on my phone that will help me figure out how many calories I am burning.
I was curious what muscles I was actually working while going on these bike rides.
I looked it up and learned that my quads, hamstrings, calf muscles, and gluteus are all being worked. These muscles perform the bulk of my work and they are a large muscle group which burns more calories than a small group; I learned! I also read that my whole core is getting a workout as well! My stomach, and back muscles all remain tight while balancing and riding which is giving my core a little workout as well.
I pulled the following paragraph from Livestrong.com which agreed with my other readings.
Leg Muscles
According to www.ultracycling.com, the primary muscles used in biking are the gluteal muscles, quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles. The quadriceps are the large muscles on the front of the thigh that are responsible for straightening the leg and pushing the pedal down towards the ground. The gluteus maximus and medius are located in your buttocks and are responsible for pushing the pedal forward at the top of the stroke. The hamstrings are located on the back of the thigh, and they work with the calf muscle to lift the pedal up from the bottom of the stroke. All of these muscles work together to give you power when pedaling and endurance when riding.
So I downloaded the MapMyRide app. I have used the MapMyRun app and loved it so I think I will like the how the ride app works.
I did my 4.4 bike ride using my new app it was great. It told me all my stats, calories burned, how long and how far!
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