I often cycle on a stationary bike using a difficulty (around level 8-10) which I can ride at 40-50kph comfortably and can go over 65kph in short bursts. I can ride this way for at least an hour if i really push myself so you can see it isn’t extremely difficult.
The other day, I decided to try going on max difficulty (which is level 16 on my bike) for a little while. My aim was to give everything I had for 30 seconds. For the first 20 seconds, I rode between 40 and 45kph. For the next 10 seconds, I cycled at over 45kph. I pushed myself to the absolute limit here and had to get off the bike immediately. Straight away, my legs tightened up and I could barely stand my legs felt that weak. I had a shower and once i got out (which was something like 20 minutes after I finished riding), my legs still felt really weak and I could barely climb the stairs.
This got me thinking..
If I can cycle at level 8 for 30-60 minutes, I can increase my fitness and aerobic endurance.
How does the body respond to cycling as fast as you can on the hardest difficulty for 30 seconds? Does this improve leg strength, or muscular endurance..??
Could someone please help me figure this out?
Thanks heaps in advance.
Cycling at 70-90 rpm’s with a lite pressure is good for the cardiovascular system. It uses your slow twitch muscles that use fat as a fuel and wont wear out you legs. Pedaling hard will cause you to switch over to the fast twitch muscles that use glycogen as a fuel and will burn out your legs quicker. This is when your legs tighten up and you cant supply enough fuel and oxygen to the muscle.
Interval training is good for both types of muscles. You don’t want to over do it to where you shutdown but can go for 30-60 seconds at the higher level and then drop back to recover.
Here is a good explanation of how to best use your muscles.
http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/cms/article-detail.asp?articleid=433
If you want to build endurance, riding at lower difficulty for a longer period is what you want to do. If you want to build strength, do some intervals at a higher effort. You can’t really measure speed on an exercise bike, you can measure your cadence (how fast you spin the pedals), and you can measure heartrate using a heart rate monitor. This is the only way to measure the level of effort you are putting out. The tension adjustment is only a way of setting your bike to a known level of effort, and can vary from bike to bike. I would not spend too much time pedaling at high tension levels, it is a good way to damage your knees if you ride like that all the time.
In your muscles you have two types of fibers, slow and fast twitch. Each does a certain type of work and depending on your work out. What you did when you got to the point of muscle fatigue is tear apart the muscle fibers, this is not bad, what happens is that when muscle is torn down is repairs it self to so it can be stronger the next time.
Here is a good article that goes in to more detail.
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/MuscleFiberType.htm