Mountain biking is an extreme sport that provides an excellent workout with an extra helping of adrenaline. It's also an fun and alternative way to help manage your weight through aerobic and cardiovascular fitness. Understanding how to tailor your mountain bike workout for weight loss will leave you shedding pounds while tearing up terrain.
Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise is that which raises your heart rate over a sustained period of time. This type of exercise is the best way to help foster weight loss. When exercising, your body first burns through available calories found in the foods you eat. When those calories are gone, your body finds calories in your stores of fat and converts them to energy. Because aerobic exercise like mountain biking is sustained over longer intervals, this process of burning fat is optimized for weight loss. Increasing the longevity of your mountain bike riding is a great way to promote weight loss.
Target Heart Rate
Your target heart rate is a range of heart rate values that defines your optimal aerobic fitness intensity. Mountain biking within your target heart rate range will help you lose fat quicker and more efficiently. A person's target heart rate is equal to 50 percent to 85 percent of their maximum heart rate. Maximum heart rate for men is equal to 220 minus age. For women, maximum heart rate is more difficult to calculate. First, multiply your age by .88 and then subtract that value from 206. Mountain bike in your target heart rate range to burn calories and improve your cardiovascular fitness.
Interval Training
A major part of aerobic exercise is cardiovascular fitness. Cardiovascular fitness is your heart's ability to supply your working muscles with an adequate supply of oxygen. It is also tied to the muscles that are involved with your respiratory system. More cardiovascular fitness means a higher ability to engage in more intense aerobic exercise for longer periods of time, thus helping you to lose more weight. Interval training is the variation of intensities over the course of your workout. Mountain biking is especially well suited to interval training because of the rapidly changing terrain and level of difficulty of most mountain bike rides. The average mountain bike ride is a classic example of interval training that improves cardiovascular fitness, aerobic fitness and weight loss capacity.
Heart Rate Monitor
Understanding how your heart rate affects your cardiovascular and aerobic fitness for weight loss is useless unless you can use that information in the real world. A heart rate monitor is worn on your wrist like a watch and provides an accurate display of your heart rate in real time. While riding, use your heart rate monitor and knowledge about your target heart rate and interval training to adjust your mountain bike ride. Consider hills, gear changes and varying terrain as opportunities to optimize your heart rate for weight loss.
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