Looking After The Engine: Thats's You!

Cycling is a cool way of keeping fit. In fact it’s so easy that you won’t notice you are getting fit!

Being fit and healthy is really important for our bodies if we want to feel good, look good and stay healthy for a long time. Having good fitness has other benefits - more energy, better sleep, better concentration and greater power to fight off illness.

Regular cycling keeps us in shape but being fit is not just about being skinny because a person can be thin and unhealthy. And fitness isn’t always easy to see from the outside - the most important muscle in our bodies, our heart, needs plenty of regular exercise, too.

Humans are mammals and we have evolved to be at our best when we have active lives. We were designed to walk and run long distances, hunting, and being hunted. We were designed to be busy all the time, moving from place to place, gathering food, working in the fields, making things using our own efforts. Even very recently, when your grandparents were children, they walked much more, cycled much more, and joined in more games with their friends than we do today. They had less of a problem about weight. If you have a problem keeping your weight down, cycling can help. If you cycle for an hour each day you’ll burn about eight calories a minute, which works out at about eleven kilos of fat in a year.

On a bicycle you are the most energy-efficient of all moving animals and machines, and clearly the most intelligent!

Your body is an amazing constant-temperature fuel cell, perfectly designed to power a bicycle.

Just the same, you need to make sure you have the right bike. A better, lighter bike certainly helps. Find your comfort zone! A low saddle will soon tire you out. Make sure you can just about extend your leg on the downstroke, and that your hips do not rock. Your saddle can be adjusted up and down, forwards and back, and you can tilt the nose up and down. Handlebars can be moved up or down. The most helpful thing of all is to keep your tyres pumped up. Keep the pressure up and you will zip along!