Bicycling your Way to Fitness

6 Minutes on your Bicycle per Day...

If you weigh between 160 to 170 lbs 6 minutes on a bicycle (cycling as fast as you can) burns 120 calories.

You are only cycling 20 mph (32 kmph), but in 6 minutes you've burned 120 calories... And when you realize you are only supposed to eat approx 2000 calories per day then that is 16.7% of your daily calories in JUST 6 MINUTES.

Now of course you don't need to be racing / going that fast. You could go at a more leisurely pace.

At 10 mph you burn 47 calories.

At 12 mph you burn 62 calories.

At 14 mph you burn 79 calories.

At 16 mph you burn 95 calories.

And this is just for someone who weighs 165 lbs. The more you weigh the more you burn when doing cardio because it takes more effort.

If you weigh 220 pounds the numbers go up dramatically!

10 mph for 6 minutes = 62 calories.
12 mph for 6 minutes = 84 calories.
14 mph for 6 minutes = 104 calories.
16 mph for 6 minutes = 126 calories.
20 mph for 6 minutes = 168 calories.

And its just for 6 minutes! Imagine if you bicycled at a leisurely 10 mph pace for 1 hour (bicycling 10 miles)... the total is 630 calories.

Go weigh yourself, visit the free calorie calculator at fatburn.com/free_tool_activity_burn.asp and then calculate how many calories you can lose just by cycling daily...

And then go bicycle every day for a month and see how much you lose.

For fun you can also take up fixing bicycles. Lose weight, fix bicycles, bicycle, save money on transportation, have fun!

Break Times = Excuse to Exercise

Ever found yourself waiting for a bus, train or taxi?

Ever discovered that you need to wait for someone to finish or deliver something before you can do something you're supposed to do?

Ever got really bored while standing in a lineup?

Well here is a hot tip!

Take that 6 minutes or 10 minutes or however much time you have available to do some basic cardio exercises.

#1. Run in Spot

#2. Jog up and down the Stairs

#3. Do Stretches or Yoga

#4. Do balancing exercises on your legs

#5. Do squats

#6. Do Counter Pressure Exercises (aka Isometric Exercises) with your arms (pulling or pushing one arm vs the other).

Now I admit some exercises may look silly if you do them in public. eg. Doing yoga while waiting in a bank lineup, but some exercises like the Counter Pressure Exercises or Stretches you can do anywhere and nobody will notice or care*.

* Although truth be told, stretching also has an effect of making people look more attractive to the opposite sex.

One famous user of Counter Pressure Exercises / Isometric Exercises was Bruce Lee, the martial artist / movie star. It made up the majority of his training exercises. His martial arts style, Wing Chun Gung Fu, placed huge emphasis on using such exercises to build up strength and speed.

Bruce Lee injured himself while exercising with free weights and swore off using weights, insisting from that point on that he would focus on using Isometric Exercises and bodyweight exercises.

The end result is if you have 6 minutes and nothing to do, why not do some quick cardio, stretching or any other kind of exercise? Think of it as an exercise break and you've got no excuse not to use that time productively.

And lets pretend for a moment you end up waiting around like that on a daily basis. Say half an hour every day while you wait to pick your kids up after school. That is 5 days per week, 30 minutes per day, 150 minutes worth of exercise. Burning 300 calories per hour you are looking at 23,400 calories per year or approx. 7 lbs. Maybe more if you're burning more than 300 calories/hour.

6-Minute Cardio Fat Blaster

Want to increase your metabolism? Apparently one of the best things to do is to have a very short vigorous workout (ie. a Quickie) and then go about your daily business.

Here is a quick 6 minute workout I found that burns fat superfast.

0:00-1:00: Bouncing Shuffle

Squat slightly with elbows bent at sides. Shuffle left to right for 4 counts each.

1:00-1:30: Jog in place

1:30-2:30 Speed Skate

Hop from side to side, swinging opposite leg behind you and arms in the direction you're moving.

2:30-3:00: Jog in place

3:00-4:00: Knee Crunch

Lunge with left knee bent, right leg extended behind you, arms to front at shoulder height. Bend right knee and pull toward chest as you crunch upper body toward right knee (as shown); extend back to lunge. Switch legs after 30 seconds.

4:00-4:30: Jog in place

4:30-5:30: Jump Squat

Twist Squat with feet hip-width apart, hands behind head. Rotate torso to left and right, then jump, hands overhead. Land with knees soft and repeat.

5:30-6:00: Jog in place