How to Turn a Casual Ride Into a Full-Blown Workout

Casual rides are perfect for families with young children or to get to a destination. However, many people use biking as a way to exercise. In fact, "Regular cycling stimulates and improves your heart, lungs, and circulation, reducing your risk of cardiovascular diseases. Cycling strengthens your heart muscles, lowers the resting pulse, and reduces blood fat levels." Biking is a fantastic workout, and you can gradually turn your casual rides into full-blown workouts by working on your cardio and endurance and introducing HIIT workouts to your routine.

Cardio

“Cardio training is any exercise that increases your heart rate, gets you breathing heavier, and directly increases the strength of your cardiovascular system (heart, lungs, and blood vessels).” Casual rides do improve the strength of your cardiovascular system simply because the act of biking does so. But riding with the intent of working on cardio is much better. With the hills on Denver trails, you’ll have a great workout no matter where you ride to. 

Endurance

Endurance refers to pushing yourself to “endure” things longer. To strengthen and test your endurance, take longer and more challenging rides. Push yourself to ride longer and longer, and you’ll gradually build up your endurance. The longer you ride, the more calories you burn and the more exercise you’ll get. Electric bikes actually help with improving your endurance. With the assisted pedaling feature, you are able to ride longer, which means you are burning more calories. 

High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)

HIIT workouts are typically much shorter because they're much more challenging. Anytime Fitness reports, "Research from the Global Cycling Network indicates that just 20 minutes of HIIT cardio can get you the same calorie burn as 40 minutes of steady-state cardio." You can do HIIT workouts on indoor spin bikes or outside on E-Bikes. 

The point is to raise and lower your heart rate in quick succession. You should pedal as fast as you can with high resistance (either on the stationary bike or if you’re outdoors, go uphill), then give yourself about a 1:30 minute low-resistance break. Complete this for 15-20 minutes, then cool down. You’ll be feeling the burn in no time!

Do You Get Exercise on an Electric Bike?

A common misconception about electric bikes is that riding them is like “cheating” during a workout. That’s actually not the case. You ride an E-Bike just like a regular bike by using gears and braking, but you have the option to use the levels of pedal-assist or throttle to give you an extra boost. What does this mean? You ride more often, you ride further, and you explore more! Since you are still exercising while riding an e-bike, you can lose weight. The average number of calories burned is about 500 per hour. Of course, it all depends on your current health, terrain, and speed.

According to an article, “‘The biggest benefit for e-bikes is that they allow people who normally wouldn’t ride a bicycle to ride a bicycle—and they ride it more often and they ride it farther,’ says Christopher Cherry, professor of civil engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and second author on a 2017 study in the Journal of Transport & Health.” 

The Importance of Consistency

Getting out on a bike ride is great, but you need to stay consistent to see any results from your hard work. When getting into an exercise routine, start small and slow and gradually build up to more challenging rides. Creating a consistent exercise routine is key to reaching your fitness goals. Electric bikes can help you get there!

Biking is an amazing workout and can help with weight loss and maintenance, muscle toning, and cardiovascular health. We always encourage people to include biking as part of their exercise routine for those reasons. Plus, it’s just fun! And yes, electric bikes are workouts, too! So grab a friend, hop on your electric bike, and get on those trails.

About Electric Wheels of CO

Electric Wheels of CO is your trusted source for electric bikes (e-bikes) accessories, parts, and service. We carry only high-quality brands that we trust the supplier, have a path for service and warranties, and have passed our Quality Checks. Come visit us for a test ride today! Electric Wheels’ mission is more miles, more smiles. The Logans' hope is that Electric Wheels brings to customers a new experience, a new way to enjoy life, and a new way to be grateful for the opportunities to get out and move, breathe fresh air, and smile! 

*Check with a medical professional before beginning any type of exercise program.