Run Like a Mother: How to Get Moving—and Not Lose Your Family, Job, or Sanity by Dimity McDowell & Sarah Bowen Shea

Author:Dimity McDowell & Sarah Bowen Shea [McDowell, Dimity; Shea, Sarah Bowen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781449400248
Publisher: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC
Published: 2010-08-18T16:00:00+00:00

CYCLING OR SPINNING

What It Works: Quadriceps, glutes, and calf muscles, mainly.

The Good: As Dimity can attest, cycling hard can give a runner explosive power by strengthening the big muscles of the lower body. A nonimpact activity, cycling can provide the same aerobic buck as running without all the bang-bang-bang. It’s also fun to be able to cover a lot more ground than you can on foot: What does that paved trail look like beyond your usual 5-mile turnaround spot? And the social aspect of spinning is a nice break from the often lonely life of a runner. If you’re in your basement, with your bike hooked up to an indoor trainer, you can catch up on the last 5 years of movies or TV shows everybody talks about but you’ve never seen. (Who are these Mad Men everyone keeps talking about?)

The Bad: You have to ride hard to stay fit. Tootling around on your bike (or at the gym on a stationary bike) is fine for a recovery day to get the blood moving, but researchers have found you have to pedal intensely enough to get your heart rate up to 80 percent max to enjoy the same cardio-enhancing benefits as running. (Keep your pedals spinning at about ninety revolutions per minute to mimic an ideal running cadence, and wear a heart rate monitor to keep yourself honest.) Oh, and falling on hard pavement or a rocky trail can sideline your running, not to mention your life.

And the Ugly: A butt not used to sitting on a cycling seat is a butt that will be sore for days after your first (and second and third) ride.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.