Cycling is an exceptional aerobic exercise that transforms your body in every aspect. You can get fit without pulling weights, hitting the gym, and making your body go through any ugly discomforts. But cycling can become repetitive and monotonous at times because of its standard way of doing things. However, a few cyclists consider it a good enough reason to adopt bad cycling habits and riding in a way they shouldn’t.
Cyclists who regularly hit the roads on their bikes feel it’s okay to cut themselves some slack and ride in whatever way they want to as long as they are on the saddle paddling at full speed. However, little do they know once any cyclist gets into the habit of taking cycling workouts less seriously, they subconsciously develop bad cycling habits. This can make their training less efficient even after putting serious efforts.
Even though it’s highly satisfying to let your shoulders slouch and back rest for a while, it is not normal to make it a practice or a trend to go ahead and do it every now and then. Having said that, there also may be a few bad cycling habits which you may do unknowingly because of the lack of unawareness.
So, let’s see a few bad cycling habits you need to watch out for and stop doing them right away to become a better cyclist in the most efficient manner:
So, to start with:
1. Straightaway Riding the Bike at a Fast Pace
Make it a thumb rule to always ride at a moderate pace for the first 20-30 minutes of your cycling session. Don’t put in all your energy on the go right when you start to paddle. This is because when you ride fast the moment you get on your bike, your heart rate reaches its peak and you end up feeling drained too soon.
You burn sugar instead of fat, which should be the other way round. When your body burns fat, you are soaked with more energy to ride longer. But it anyhow goes down the drain when you lose sugar at the beginning of your ride and there’s no scope left to burn enough fat by your body.
On the other hand, when your body burns sugar, you end up feeling irritated, low on motivation and lose all the will to ride for the duration you promised yourself. So go slow in the beginning to make the most of your cycling workout.
2. Not Fuelling Properly Before, After, and During the Cycling Sessions
You cannot deny the fact that diet plays the most important role in any of your exercising regimes. The same holds true for your cycling sessions as well. Cyclists often make the mistake of not fueling themselves up in an orderly manner throughout their cycling workouts.
This leads you to not performing at par. You struggle to bring out your full potential while on a ride, or get tired too soon, or end up consuming something which can cause more harm than good to your body. All of this reflects in your workout and results in no positive output even after you give it all in.
You need to fuel yourself properly for all your high to low-intensity training workouts as per the diet you should ideally be consuming. If not, your workouts would turn out to be of no-good use.
3. Not Allowing Yourself to Take Mid-Ride Breaks or Rest
This is one of the worst habits while cycling and torturing your body at the same time. You need to hit breaks and rest for a while if your cycling session goes more than an hour’s duration. You need to give some time to your muscles to repair rather than only exerting stress on them endlessly.
Overtraining causes your body to go numb, makes your muscles sore, causes you to be all drained out of energy, and finally ends up making you immensely tired. Believe it or not but this can backfire you to rest more than you wish to rest. This means all your sweat becomes nullified and you have to start all over again.
That is why it is important you allow room for your body to sit for a while and relax after a moderate to an intense session of cycling training to avoid any injuries or discomforts.
4. Not Taking That Extra Plunge to Ride Up the Hills
You want to become a great cyclist but don’t wish to climb? There’s no other way of becoming a pro cyclist who knows how to control the bike, change the gears when the friction is tough and you are required to push the bike with extra force to make it through the inclination. Once you go the extra mile and ditch the flat roads and put on extra effort and strength into climbing the hills, that’s when you can expect to improve and get better.
5. Bobbing Up and Down on Your Saddle Continuously
Not every cyclist notice and the ones who do simply ignore it. But bobbing on your cycle needs to stop otherwise it will put unnecessary pressure on your lower thighs and cause your muscles to grow sore and tense that can continuously lead to a fatal injury. This is one of the most annoying cycling habits that you need to stop doing right away.
An effective way to sort this out is you can simply adjust the saddle of the bike and control your upper body movement to keep it intact. Once you get that fixed, all your bobbing and ill cycling habits can stop and you can go back to cycling in the best possible way.
6. You Don’t Care Enough When It Comes to Maintaining your Bike
Everyone loves to ride their bikes but only a few pays attention when it comes to its maintenance. A bad bike contributes a lot to the poor quality of your exercise. So, if you want your bike to run smoothly, you have got to make sure your bike is in the condition to do so. Greece it properly at regular intervals, make sure to get it checked from a mechanic for any loose fixtures and give it for servicing once in a year to ensure your safety and quality workout.
The Bottom Line
Regular cycling isn’t as crucial as cycling properly and correctly. With exercising, the quality of your workout matters the most instead of the quality of time you put in. The more quality cycling sessions you indulge yourself in, the better it gets for your physical health. No one wants to work hard to see themselves failing, isn’t it?
And so, don’t let all your hard work weigh down because of all your bad cycling habits. Rather, make sure to keep the above pointers in mind whenever you are getting ready to conduct your next cycling workout.
