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Turn your cycle to work commute into a workout

You’re on your bike, but how fit is it really making you? We explain how to get a toned body in the saddle

Peta Bee

The number of people getting on their bikes is rising. In London alone, crowds pedalling to work have doubled in the past decade. But does cycling regularly make you fit? The distance of the average cycling commute in the UK is 8.7 miles. This could be a good a workout as going to the gym but only if you have the right technique. So, how can you maximise the fitness gains?

Tweaks to your cycling style can work muscles harder. Experts recommend not setting gears too high, to avoid expending unnecessary effort, and placing the ball of the foot on the pedal, with toes pointing forwards, while aiming for 60-80 revolutions a minute on flatter surfaces. This will maximise blood flow to the legs.

In her book Cycle For Life, the Olympic cycling champion Nicole Cooke suggests pointing the toes slightly upwards at the top of a pedalling stroke and slightly down at the bottom. “This makes your calf muscles do extra work during the dead spots between up and down pedal strokes,” she says.

Choosing the right saddle can make a difference. You might wince at the thought of the hard, narrow saddles used by serious cyclists, but skinny saddles are better for your body. A good saddle is designed to support the two bones at the bottom of the pelvis that bear a cyclist’s weight in the saddle. Cushioning does not help. “Narrow saddles let you slide to and fro to relieve different areas on a long ride,” Cooke says.

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The stop-start nature of a cycling commute creates a chance to add short, fitness-boosting injections of speed. Last year a study at the University of Copenhagen found that subjects who performed up to 12 30-second sprints during their regular cycle ride improved their 10km times after six weeks’ training, having hit a fitness plateau after training at a similar pace and intensity for the previous four years. Another study showed that six sessions of four to seven all-out 30-second sprints (with four minutes’ recovery between) on a bike could be as effective at improving cardiovascular fitness as an hour of moderate aerobic exercise a day.

Cycling does not work the arms and shoulders, but it can put strain on them. “Cyclists often have a hunched posture, with the head placed low over the front wheel,” says Sammy Margo, of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. For short cycle rides an old-fashioned sit-up-and-beg-style bike encourages good posture.

Make sure your handlebars are positioned correctly. Cooke says that if you struggle to touch your toes while keeping your legs straight, you should start with the handlebars higher than the saddle. Cyclists who can touch their toes easily should position the handlebars at the same level (or slightly lower) than the seat. A saddle that is too low, so that the legs get crunched, or too high, so that you rock from side to side, can cause knee problems. Once you get going, Cooke says, “look 50m ahead, not directly down at the road, and keep your hands relaxed”.

Most of the power to pedal and stay balanced on a bike comes from the core muscles that wrap around the abdominal area like a corset. “Improving your core strength through Pilates-style exercises will undoubtedly enhance your cycling performance,” says John Brewer, Professor of Sport at the University of Bedfordshire. “The less energy your body needs to devote to keeping upright, the more it can devote to pedal power, and the faster and more efficiently you will go.”

All of which means that while you cut down your journey to work, cycling becomes the route to toned, streamlined legs and buttocks of steel. (Source: Timesonline, UK)