health and fitness

Half of your fitness lives in your leg muscles, in the mitochondria that burn fat, sugar and, late in a long ride, your own muscle protein. Here is how training...

Pro cycling teams stopped grinding out heavy sets to failure and started watching bar speed instead. Velocity-based training loads the bar at 60 to 70% of max, pushes every rep...

The old advice was pasta and a banana. The newest research in cyclists says 1.6 to 2.0 grams of protein per kilogram a day, double the RDA, with 30 to...

The skin-and-bones climber of the 2000s is gone. Today's pros are as lean as ever but carry more muscle, because durability, the power you still have after three hours, is...

Winter on the trainer is the one time of year you control every variable, so spend it fixing a specific weakness. Four of them, fading after 90 minutes, a low...

Aerobic fitness carries over between sports, but unevenly: running and cross-country skiing transfer to the bike well, swimming barely at all. The real payoff is what cycling cannot give you,...

Dirty 30s are eight 30-second efforts at 120% to 150% of FTP with a minute easy between them, 26 minutes door to door. The Norwegian research behind short intervals, the...

Winter is the only stretch of the year long enough to build real strength. Here is how mountain bikers should spend it: two heavy gym sessions a week, a minimal...

Pro riders eat 90 to 120 g of sugar an hour and amateurs copy them. Now lean, high-volume cyclists are turning up with prediabetic bloodwork. What the studies show, what...

Push hard for long enough without recovering and training stops making you faster. Here is how normal fatigue turns into overreaching and then overtraining syndrome, why cyclists are unusually good...

Somewhere in your riding group there is someone injecting BPC-157 near a knee that has hurt since March. Here is what is in the vial, what the research says it...

Good climbers are made, not born. The research points to a handful of trainable levers: power-to-weight ratio, VO2max intervals, threshold work, heavy strength training, cadence, and pacing. Here is what...

The old warning that lifting makes cyclists slow and bulky has not survived the research. Two heavy gym sessions a week improve pedaling economy, sprint power, and fatigue resistance, and...

Bike commuters in a 263,450-person BMJ study had a 41 percent lower risk of dying from any cause. Here is what the longevity research actually says about cycling: the heart,...

Cycling is one of the best things you can do for your heart, deep into your 60s and beyond. But hard-training research adds a wrinkle: the risk is unmanaged intensity...

Golf participation is at an eight-year high, yet in tech, finance, and health-minded leadership the deal has moved off the fairway and onto the bike. A two-hour group ride replaces...

Iron gets all the attention, but it is one of a dozen numbers that decide whether your legs show up. Here is the complete blood panel worth asking your doctor...

Wildfire smoke and summer ozone are now part of every cyclist's training calendar. Here is what the Air Quality Index actually measures, how hard exercise multiplies your dose of pollution,...

Creatine is one of the safest, most studied supplements on the shelf, and you do not need to race to benefit. Here is what it does for cyclists, what it...

The Norwegian 4x4 is the most studied interval workout for raising VO2 max: four 4-minute efforts at 90-95% of max heart rate, three minutes easy between. Here is how cyclists...

The e-bike regulatory landscape is shifting rapidly in 2026. From New Jersey's S4834 reclassifying all e-bikes as motorized vehicles to California’s proposed AB 1942 registration mandates, riders face a new...

Whether you took the winter off to heal an injury, dodge burnout, or simply enjoy a well-earned break, there’s something about the promise of summer racing that stirs the legs...

If you ride a bicycle long enough, the inevitable will happen: you’re going to crash. One moment, you’re happily pedaling along, and the next thing you know, you’re looking up...

Building fitness as a cyclist over the winter months requires a structured plan incorporating indoor and outdoor training, strength work, and recovery. A well-designed plan will optimize for gradually increasing...

The difference between a good cyclist and a great cyclist is explosive power. No matter what cycling discipline you participate in, explosive power is a secret weapon for advancing in...

Whether you are a road, gravel, or mountain biker, we all want to go faster. Any cyclist will tell you that a critical component to progressing as a rider is...

Surveys show that of Americans who regularly work out, over 50% report that their workout occurs before 10:00 A.M.

Regardless of the cycling discipline you lean toward—yes, even me, the beer-drinking mountain biker—can benefit from high-intensity interval training

A few years after becoming a father, I rediscovered and fell back in love with mountain biking. Shortly after, I realized nothing would bring me greater joy than having my...

Countless cyclists eagerly anticipate the arrival of summer’s warm weather, longer daylight hours, green landscapes, and cycling events However, for others, summertime means scorching sunshine and soaring temperatures

Cycling is not only a great way to stay fit and explore local surroundings, but for many, it also serves as a gateway to a vibrant community where meaningful connections...

The simple act of riding a bike instead of driving a car can have a profoundly positive impact on the environment. According to a notable study conducted by MIT in...

Recovering from injuries or undergoing rehabilitation can be a challenging and sometimes frustrating journey, but incorporating electric bicycles, or e-bikes, into your rehabilitation program can make all the difference. While...

In the past, discussing mental health was reserved for doctors and private settings. However, the last decade has seen more resources devoted to learning about the brain and mental health....

Anyone who pursues an athletic endeavor, whether recreationally or professionally, knows what an injury means: time away from doing something we love and need—bike riding. There is an undeniable mind-body...

Most people can recall the carefree days of childhood, riding their bikes for the sheer joy of it. Yet somehow, in the years between childhood and adulthood, many leave this...

Winter weather doesn’t have to put an end to your rides, but it does mean that you’re going to have to make a few adjustments to continue enjoying them year...

While a casual rider likely has little concern regarding how much they’re actually sweating, if you’re an endurance cyclist or ride competitively, knowing your sweat rate is a critical component...

The struggle of having to exercise in hot weather is all too real. While many people simply forgo their daily fitness regimen when the heat is too much to bear,...

The above is a pre-ride stretching routine for many cyclists. Newsflash: this type of stretching does more harm than good before and is best left until after the ride.

A widely held belief is that prolonged intense workouts, such as endurance races, compromise the immune system. While evidence suggests that may be the case, it also suggests that a...

Cycling boosts weight loss, heart and lung health, muscle tone, and immunity—benefits so strong it’s hard to need more reasons to ride.

The Coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a global effect on how billions of people go about their daily lives. Many “nonessential” businesses, such as restaurants and bars, nightclubs, movie theaters, and...

'Yoga is soooo overrated!' said nobody, ever. That’s because anyone who has adopted a consistent yoga routine knows firsthand the many benefits that accompany all that stretch, conscious breathing, and...

Health benefits, environmentally-friendly transportation, and exhilarating fun are just a few of the many reasons why cycling is so popular. What makes cycling so different from almost any other sport...

Whether your passion is shredding a singletrack, an intense road hammerfest, or just a leisurely pedal, there’s one thing all cyclists tend to agree on: riding is an exhilarating experience!...

If you didn't grow up riding a bike through your neighborhood streets, you might find cycling a bit daunting at first. However, it's just as easy for an adult to...

Cloudy skies with a forecast of rain might make you change your mind about heading out on your bike. You are not alone: cyclists from Miami to Portland deal with...

Bicycling can have a plethora of positive health effects. Cycling increases muscle strength in your lower body and spikes a healthy brain protein essential to maintaining and improving neural pathways....

Children are encouraged to go outside and ride their bikes so they can get their bodies moving and breathe in some fresh air. Doctors tell us to ride a bike...