Yet, there are ways to be healthier with simply lifting weights. This implies going to the gym or having your own weights. Either way, lifting weights has plenty of health benefits and if you want to know which, read on.

A Controlled Approach – Work as Much as Necessary

With weights, you can choose how much you want to lift. This is great because bodyweight exercises give you an approximation, which can either be too little or way too much. A pull up is extremely difficult for beginners and can be disencouraging while lifting weights to target your back muscles can be done with just enough volume to overload the muscles and still leave the person feeling better.

With weights, a steady progression can be made, which not only helps out mentally, but also physically. Starting off slowly and with little to no weights is essential for some exercises, like the deadlift. 

A Great Way to Exercise All Muscles 

Lifting weights can target every muscle in the body. Not only could you target them all, but also limit the exercise to something safer. Whether shoulders or calves or the glutes, weights can help us hit every muscle in our bodies. Some sports target muscles simply due to exposure, as a consequence of some movements. With weight lifting, you can and should purposely target all the muscles in your body.

Lifting Also Does Wonders for the Heart

When doing high-intensity weight lifting exercises, we start engaging the aerobic part of our body, meaning the lungs.

The heart gets even more active and it also gets a very good exercise.

A healthy heart means a healthy human, so weight lifting helps in exercising another muscle, one that does a lot of work, but when it works overtime, it also gets better.

Weight Lifting Reduces Stress

All exercises reduce stress to an extent, but weight lifting has another benefit to it. By choosing how much to lift, you essentially also choose how long you will spend working out. This is important for people who do not have a lot of time. They can simply do strength training and overload their muscles in 3 repetitions. This way, they can spend less than an hour in the gym and still get an amazing workout and also have time for everything else.

The Bones and Muscles Will Be Thankful

Resistance and high-intensity training is very good for the bones and the muscles, namely muscle mass. As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass and bone density, which is why plenty of elderly people move very awkwardly and slowly. “You don’t get old and stop working out, you stop working out and then get old” Gary Daniels once said, in an interview with Scott Adkins. Daniels stretches 2 hours every day, and all one would need to stay healthy is at least 30 minutes of high-intensity exercising on a weekly basis.

Weight lifting has plenty of benefits, these being but some of them. If you start lifting weights, you will quickly discover some of the benefits on your own. 

Beginners, on the other hand, do not need to bother themselves with very expensive gear and they can focus on the value. Here is what every beginner cyclist should consider as their necessary gear.

Helmets – They Save Lives

Spending more money on a good cycling helmet is a great way to purchase insurance, but the kind that makes sure that you live. There is a cycling subreddit where cyclists share stories of what could have happened if they had not worn helmets. The helmets are often split in two or completely flat. 

Beginners should have a helmet, but that also goes for the intermediate and definitely advanced cyclists.

Keep in mind that the helmet is moreso to protect you from traffic rather than your own mistakes, unless you are a downhill cyclist. In that case, a full-face helmet is mandatory.

Water Bottles – Staying Hydrated Is Necessary

A cyclist or anybody else who fails to stay hydrated may collapse at any point. During hot summer days, you have surely seen people fall, pale as the moon, because they had not hydrated properly. 

Water bottles are cheap and you can mount them to your frame with a bottle cage. If you are going on longer rides, then you should mount two bottle cages and take two larger bottles with you. Remember, warm water is better than no water.

Bike Lights – Staying Visible and Safe

Bike lights serve two purposes, depending on the luminosity of the light. The first purpose is the more important one in traffic, where one will spend most of their time unless they are a night-time mountain bike rider. That purpose is being visible to other people in traffic. Red lights go on the back and white in the front. This way, every driver will know that you are in their lane.

The second purpose is visibility in dark places, like off road trails or poorly lit streets. Potholes can be as dangerous as traffic, not to mention sewer drains. Lights are essential for every cyclist.

A cyclist should have all of the gear above, and even more if they plan on longer trips. But for absolute beginners, this is the gear that one must purchase and have with them at all times. Safety should be a priority and everything else comes afterwards.

Cycling got better because of technology, from a professional standpoint, to the regular, daily cyclist who just commutes. Yet, what about those who wish to cycle indoors and still travel the world, in a sense?

Well, virtual reality has been around long enough for someone to take things into their own hands and create VR cycling solutions. Will you be cycling the world virtually?

CycleVR – The Homemade Project

After a while, Aaron Puzey decided that he should make his own VR project, so he cycled the UK, south to north, all 1448 kilometers, in a little over 3 months. His project gathered plenty of followers. Due to that and his own passion for cycling and technology, he started CycleVR, as a Kickstarter. He got the funds and is currently working on a stable version, which people will be able to enjoy. When something is built from passion first, then you can expect things to be much better, at least with regards to cycling. The software will use Google Street View to allow you cycle all over the world, basically.

VZfit from VirZoom

VirZoom already specializes in VR products, so it should come as no surprise that they have developed an accessory for exercise bikes called the VZfit. This is a device you attach near your bike’s pedals and it works with the Oculus Go and Oculus Quest. It is wireless, so fear not that you will get wrapped in wires.

The game has many interesting features like catching bandits and competing in the Grand Tours. You can also chat with other cyclists who are on the same route, or rather, talk with them. You can also download maps from Google and travel the world. The game is subscription based, 9.95$ per month or 99.95$ annually. You do get a 7 days free trial so make the best of it.

Holofit by Holodia

Holodia is also a company which deals with VR but their target audience is primarily people who want to stay fit. Fitness is important, even more if you are homebound due to a global pandemic. Holofit works similarly to VZfit, except you can also attach it to ellipticals and rowing machines. You do require a sensor and their Holofit device, an Oculus Quest, HTC Vive Focus or tethered VR headsets and you need a membership. The cost might seem high, but if that is what you need to stay fit, then they are a good solution.

These three virtual reality solutions will help any cyclist who wants to explore the world indoors. Once CycleVR is ready, it might overtake the other projects on the list, but we will know that when it is ready. Until then, the VZfit and Holofit are your solutions if you want to cycle indoors but still explore the world through VR.

A great part of working out is eating the right food. Having the right food, the healthy kind, for your workouts, can take some time to choose, and then prepare. Here is a guide on how to prepare the right food for your workouts.

Pre-Workout – Carbs and Energy

When you need to go and work out, you will most likely not eat food immediately prior to working out. That will probably cause nausea, as your body will be struggling to send blood both to your muscles and stomach.

One should eat at least two hours prior to a workout. Generally, when we are working out, we are using our glycogen stores which can get depleted. Depleted stores will lead to a terrible feeling of tiredness and weakness. Carb loading can help us with that. 

The type of carbs we should prepare are pastas, rice, any vegetables, actually, nuts, seeds and the like. Prepare a meal, mostly of vegetables and you will have a great pre-workout meal.

Post-Workout – Some Proteins and Electrolytes

After a workout, a good recovery meal is necessary. Some people assume that all you need after a hard workout are proteins. Proteins are necessary but you should not fret about taking them immediately after a workout. Electrolytes are more important than proteins in this regard.

Electrolytes are necessary for the body to function normally and they get depleted or rather, reduced after a workout. Dairy, bananas or coconut water are all good sources of electrolytes. Adding proteins from either meat sources such as poultry or vegetables such as peas is recommended. The post workout meal should be geared towards recovery rather than muscle growth.

The Protein Meal – A Nighttime Meal

Proteins are best taken at nighttime, prior to bedtime. Proteins are mostly used when we sleep to repair the tissue damage caused by workout. With that in mind, anything containing proteins should be eaten for dinner. Start with poultry or lentils, beans and quinoa, and you should have a good basis. A dose of healthy fat, such as that from fish, is also good to keep the body in top shape.

You can add a protein shake in the evening if you feel like you did not add enough protein during the day or during dinner. Standard whey or casein proteins work well and plant-based options (bean protein or rice protein) for the vegans.

Preparing your workout meals is not rocket science, but one should pay attention to the macronutrients, carbs, proteins and fat. Consider your pre and post workout meals, as well as dinner. Breakfast should contain a healthy dose of carbs and proteins alike, to replenish the supplies used while sleeping.

In cycling, the Grand Tours are the most prestigious tournaments which a cycling team can attend and if they are good enough, win. There are three Grand Tours, the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a Espana, also known as La Vuelta. Here is more about cycling’s most prestigious tournaments.

The Tour de France – The Biggest Cycling Tournament

The Tour de France is what every professional cycling team wants to win. Some of the most athletic performances were witnessed at the Tour and cyclists from all over the world converge to attempt and win it. Founded in 1903, it has been around for 118 years. During that time, there were 108 editions of the Tour, with only 10 being skipped. 

The Tour has changed over its century and a little more of existence, but the modern variant has 21 stages. A stage usually lasts a day. The Tour always finishes at the Champs-Elysees, an iconic avenue in Paris, France, or rather, that was the finishing stage since 1975. Multiple times over the years, the Tour started outside of France, in countries such as Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Ireland, the UK and even Denmark.

The Tour is one of the most popular tournaments in the world and certainly the most popular cycling tournament, but not the only important one.

La Vuelta – The Vuelta a España – Another Amazing Tour

La Vuelta or the Tour of Spain, is a Grand Tour in Spain, founded in 1935. It has had 75 editions up until today. Like the Tour de France, the modern Vuelta has 21 stages and 23 days of competition. Two of those days are rest days. The Vuelta also had its tour start abroad, in Portugal, France and the Netherlands. The Vuelta also passed through other countries, like Andorra and Belgium.

The Vuelta ends in Madrid, the capital, as does the Tour de France. The Grand Tours are similar in terms of organization. They are different because the cyclists ride under different weather conditions, each tour having its own month. The Vuelta is in August and September, which is really hot in Spain.

The Giro d’Italia – The Italian Grand Tour

With the Giro, the list of Grand Tours is complete. The Giro was founded in 1909 and has been held 104 times since then. It is a multi-stage race just like the other two Tours, and just like the other two, it is a 21 stage race with 23 or 24 days, depending on how many rest days are appointed. The Giro is different to the other two tours because it has a lot of uphill cycling through the Dolomites and the Alps, hence the extra rest day.

The Giro is the first Grand Tour in the schedule, being in May/June, followed by the Tour de France which is in June/July and the Vuelta which is in August/September.

The Grand Tour Similarities

The Grand Tours have a couple of things in common, namely the number of stages and race days. The second thing they have in common is that the leader, the rider with the lowest cumulative time, gets to wear the leader jersey. The Tour’s leader jersey color is yellow, the Vuelta’s is red and the Giro’s is pink.

The Grand Tours are the most anticipated and covered tournaments in cycling so if any of them is currently being contested, make sure to tune in.

If you are in the United States, but have no real clue where you should go with your bicycle, here are some of the most popular cycling trails in the United States. This way, you can explore both history and find new horizons.

Swamp Rabbit Trail

There is nothing like a scenic route through a forest and on a good, paved road. What more could a tourist cyclist want, except an adrenaline rush? You won’t find much adrenaline here, but you will find plenty of kilometers of great roads and scenery which will heal your soul.

Located in Greenville, South Carolina, the Swamp Rabbit Trail is something every cyclist should see. It is just below the Blue Ridge Mountains, so if you are feeling adventurous, you could head uphill.

Captain Ahab Trail

There is nothing like a little bit of desert scenery to shake things up from all the forests and greenery. Luckily, Moab, Utah, has plenty of landscapes of the desert kind, to give you new cycling challenges. This trail is a branch of the Amasa Back Trail and while relatively short, will present cyclists with great off road experiences.

Shark Valley Trail

Miami, Florida, has plenty of things for a tourist who is there for the first time. On another hand, it also has something for cyclists. The Shark Valley Trail takes you through the Everglades, where you can see first hand, the domestic animals of Florida, namely alligators. There’s other wildlife, but these are often the most captivating and scariest to newcomers. It is a well-populated area, so you needn’t fear for your safety.

Forbidden Fruit

In Sun Valley, Idaho, you can find a very extreme trail for mountain bikers. It is a great downhill ride where adrenaline alone will be propelling you, as well as gravity and a desire to experience speed. It is a great trail, well-maintained and popular in the MTB community.

Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail

Learn a bit of history and explore the forests and great roads of Sacramento, California. Sacramento is one of the better cycling towns and this 51 kilometer long trail is a perfect way to start exploring it.

These cycling trails are among the more interesting ones in the US. You can be sure that there are thousands more, so making a choice might be your only problem. Get your bicycle and start touring.

Keeping track of how many calories we took and burned throughout the day is the first step to scientifically approaching weight gain or loss. Why not use applications for it? Here are the best calorie counting applications.

Fitbit

Fitbit works best with the Fitbit tracker, a sensor which tracks your pulse, heart rate and activities in general, as in how many kilometers you walked that day (steps are silly, aren’t they?). The Fitbit app can sync with the tracker, and keep you updated on all the information regarding your body that the sensors can transmit and detect.

The application’s other use case is barcode scanning, so that you can immediately know how many calories a product has.

You can also insert the food type and dose manually. The app keeps count and you can set your daily dose or limit or goal, if you want the app to remind you if you went overboard.

Lose It!

The application’s name refers to weight loss, of course. It is a witty name but their track record is over 80 million pounds, according to their statistics, of course. While first party sources should be taken with a pinch of salt, the app itself does a lot of things right.

The application has manual input and barcode scanning, but you can also take a photo of the food you purchased and you will be offered a selection of the closest foods that match it. The app can sync with other trackers and sensors, which is helpful in gathering all the data regarding your exercises and weight loss. Lose It has a great track record so you should consider giving them a try.

MyFitnessPal

This application and service has been around for a while. They work well with plenty of trackers and they have a variety of options regarding scanning products and calculating calories. The application is also a great scheduler and planner for meals and calories during the day. You can be flexible with your meals, sleep schedule and calories.

They also have a huge list of ingredients and meals taken from restaurants and fast food places all over the world, meaning that you can keep count of your unhealthier meals, as well.

Keto Carb Manager

Keto diets are very popular and this application will help you keep track of how many carbs you ate during the day. Carbs are the most important ingredient in a keto diet and therefore, it is no wonder that there is a single application dedicated to just carbs. The app has more features, but a carb calculator is one of them. If you like being in ketosis, this is the right application for you.

Counting calories does not have to be a chore if you set up your meals in advance and scan your food using any of these apps. Weight management is easier with technology.

In cycling, the two major manufacturers are Shimano and SRAM. Shimano has been around longer, but SRAM burst onto the scene and made strides and leaps with their devices. Which one is better? That cannot simply be answered. What you should know is that one or the other may be better for your use case. Here is how they differ.

Shimano – The Older and More Established Brand

Even the non cyclists often know that when a bicycle has Shimano gear, that must mean that the bicycle is good. Now, whether that gear is a decade or more old and has been used to its last breath, that is another story.

Shimano, being founded in 1921, hails from Japan and is a well-known company for making innovations in the world of cycling. The odds are if your bicycle has any sort of newer Shimano gear, it will be reliable in the planned use case scenario (do not take a road bike mountain biking, no manufacturer can save you in that case).

Professionals seem to prefer Shimano gear on road bikes and the split is 50/50 for gravel and cyclo-cross bikes (the ones meant for light off roading and asphalt). Mountain bikers prefer SRAM just as road bikers prefer Shimano.

SRAM – The New Kids on the Block

SRAM isn’t as new as the subtitle makes it to be, but compared to Shimano, they are a newer company. Established in 1987, SRAM had to do a lot of work to catch up to Shimano, but mostly in regards to brand recognition. In those 2 or 3 decades while the internet was ramping up, SRAM did lots of good work. They designed a grip shift system, allowing cyclists to have their hands on the drop-bar while shifting gears, which was an innovation that came before Shimano’s version.

Today, SRAM has a great reputation as a manufacturer, and if one were to look up bicycle gear online, they would likely find the two companies, and perhaps some emerging ones with lower quality parts.

Which One is the Right for You?

Well, this question can be answered by trying out their gear. Depending on what kind of cycling you are doing, you may go with the majority for road bikes or mountain bikes, and head towards either Shimano or SRAM.

If you have the opportunity and you are serious enough about cycling to change your entire set of derailleurs, drivetrain, cassette and everything else, then you should try both.

If you are a hobbyist cyclist and you just want any kind of reliable gear, both SRAM and Shimano will be a great choice. An amateur cyclist or a professional will have the opportunity to try both and make an educated choice.

But, if you know bicycles and are familiar with your location and its surroundings, why not start a bike touring business? But how? Here are some steps you should take to make sure your business goes the right way, towards profit.

Get the Legal Information for Opening a Bike Touring Business

There are likely no special requirements for a bicycle touring business, but there are requirements for opening a business which has to do with tourism.

Depending on the country you are in, you should contact local professionals, or use the internet, to find out what you need to legally open a touring business.

Once you know what you need, you can start gathering the paperwork and preparing for the actual business, and not just the formalities.

Find a Great Location for a Business Front

The city center would be a great location for almost any business, but the rent prices over there will be the highest, as it often is with any city. Something close to the city center, maybe a little hidden from the most popular streets, will get you a much better price.

Yet, you still need to set it up properly, with maps and bicycles up front, so that customers can see that you mean business. You should also consider having advertisements and pointers around, which will literally point customers in your direction (which is important if you are in an alley instead of a boulevard or avenue).

Choose the Right Bicycles for the Job

Now, a bike touring business can mean seeing city sights, going around the city on road bikes, or even going off-road if there are more adventurous and fitter tourists around. Depending on your direction of touring, you should get the right bicycles.

City bikes are great for going around town, and e-bikes are even better. E-bikes can accommodate the less fit and heavier people, who still want to pedal and see the world using their own energy (partly). Consider tandem bicycles or pedicabs, where your tour guide will drive people around, but using a bicycle. This also works well for families, with the parents pedalling and driving their children around.

Find the Right Guides – They Should be Certified

Any good cyclist will not do. Your tour guides should be certified for their job and also fit to an extent. If you have off-road tours, then that tour guide should be fitter than the rest, as well as more experienced in cycling.

The guides should also be friendly and know their way around your location, whether inside or outside the city.

Marketing – Another Modern Essential

You might not want to, but marketing makes or breaks a company (as well as good services or products). Find a way to advertise your business, whether locally or online, and it should be booming with new tourists.

Having a cycling business can be great, particularly if you take part in the touring side of things, whether by organizing tours or actually being a tour guide. With these tips, you can now consider opening your own bike touring business.

There are plenty of sports which can help you stay in shape, but not all of them are suitable for beginners or people who are unfamiliar with sports in general. With that in mind, swimming and jogging are often mentioned as two of the best sports to start your fitness journey with. But, which one is better? That depends on a couple of factors and here are the pros and cons of both.

Swimming Is Relaxing and Hard at the Same Time

Swimming is one of the best ways to exercise if you are overweight or have issues with your joints, particularly the knees and ankles.

Swimming, by nature of gravity and water, takes away a lot of our weight, allowing us to do amazing exercises without putting stress on the joints. You will feel tired after a good swim, but you will also need to know how to swim and apply all of that effort continuously, which can be a challenge for beginners, or for people who cannot swim.

Jogging – A Pair of Shoes and Good Will

Jogging does not take much, you need a pair of shoes and plenty of good will to do it. You can simply go outside in almost any weather, though rain can be a nuisance, as well as extreme heat, and jog.

The nature of jogging is easier than other forms of running, because jogging implies a slower pace, something faster than walking, but not fast enough so that you get tired immediately. Jogging is great, but it has a few flaws. It takes a long time to burn calories and it has a larger impact on the joints. Either of the two can be a large minus in busy or heavy people’s books.

Swimming Can Tire You Out Quickly

Swimming is great because you can swim for an hour and literally destroy your body, but you could also do it in 15 minutes, by sprinting. Swimming as fast as you can is a pretty good way of burning calories quickly. Since the pressure is not the same as in jogging, swimming can reduce your workout time to under an hour if you work hard enough. 

That being said, one needs a good swimming pool and a good technique to make the best out of a swimming pool. Things can get out of hand if one is not a good swimmer. 

Jogging Makes You Go the Distance

Jogging is good for staying in shape, but not just the physical kind. The attitude is important and when you are challenged every time to go the distance, you get used to it, you learn to be in the moment. The goal is no longer important, but that next step. With this attitude, going through life is much less painful and you are guaranteed to get there, eventually.

Depending on what you prefer, either swimming or jogging can be good for staying in shape. If you are a good swimmer, then by all means, go swimming. It is recommended to do both, and anything else that you enjoy, for there are so many ways to stay in shape.