Oh no, it’s Leg Day again! Leg Days at the gym are often the most dreaded training days of all and why not? The leg muscles; quadriceps, hamstrings and calf muscles are the most stubborn muscles to train because they’re used to so much work that in order to shock them to growth, you need to put on lots of plates on the barbell for your squats.
Imagine about 300 pounds of weight on your back. That amount of weight is already so hard to keep steady that to go down deep for the first rep on your first set of many sets of squats is too nauseating to even think about.
Now, if you are a trainer who’s having this kind of concerns on your leg day then it’s time to consider a leg workout alternative.
Cycling Workout
Running may do very little for leg muscle growth since the movement is already so familiar that even a great amount of sprinting will no longer shock your muscles to force growth but, cycling will do the trick.
The movement of alternately pushing the bike pedals down is very close to the movement of alternate dumbell lunges. The thing that makes barbell and dumbell leg exercises so nauseating is that almost all movements will require you to subject your head to an up and down cycle. Any form of physical stress will cause a slight oxygen deficiency to your brain which causes dizziness. This discomfort is even aggravated with the up and down movement of your head. This combination will cause you to lose your balance thus making all barbell and dumbell leg exercises very difficult and uncomfortable. Cycling, on the other hand, is a form of leg exercise where your head is kept at a constant level. It’s still strenuous but the discomfort is nothing more than a set of barbell curls or tricep extensions.
Problems with Biking
The only problem with road biking is that the only way of increasing the intensity is to increase the pace of your pedaling which can result to some danger unless you have the luxury of biking in a velodrome. And aside from the dangers of speeding on the road, you have the natural environment to consider. If it’s too sunny, you have to worry about sun screen protection because to make your bicycle workout productive, you have to stay out under the sun for long hours. Then, there’s also the problem of the weather being too cold.
The Benefits of Indoor-Cycling
For your leg workout alternative, the best possible option is to join an indoor-cycling club such as Soul Cycle. Indoor-cycling has so many benefits over outdoor-biking.
First of all, there is an easy and safe solution for increasing your training intensity. There are actually two ways. You either pedal faster without getting you in danger because you are stationary or, you can tighten the tension wire to make your pedaling more strenuous.
Second, you can enjoy the company of other riders without sacrificing your own pace and workout. When you do outdoor-biking with friends, you are either biking too slowly to keep in pace which is unproductive or, you are constantly trying to keep up which also creates a possible danger especially if you have a medical condition.
Indoor cycling allows you to bike side by side with your friends and keep the workout productive for the entire class. If you think that indoor-biking is a bit boring compared to biking outdoors, wait until you get into an actual cycling-class where you will see everybody cheering everyone on under the leadership of a motivating and charismatic cycling coach.