Biking for fitness can be a fun and exciting way to get in shape. You can burn calories, tone your body and improve your cardiovascular health by incorporating biking into your exercise routine. Biking is a great way to start getting in shape, and it's easy to do-you can bike anywhere, anytime!

Benefits of cycling

The benefits of cycling are many, regardless of your level of fitness. biking is an efficient way to burn calories and lose weight, tone your body, and improve your cardiovascular health.

Cycling is a low-impact activity, which means it is easy on your joints. It is also a great way to reduce stress, increase energy levels, and boost mental well-being.

It's a great form of exercise and has many health benefits for people of all ages and fitness levels as you only have to push as hard as you want to cycle when riding your bike.

In this article, we will explore five fun cycling workouts you can try.

So, let's get started!

5 Fun Cycling Workouts

Here are 5 fun biking workouts as part of your daily physical activity that will help you get in shape, burn calories, and tone your body. With all of these workouts, it's recommended you start with a gentle warm up (at least five minutes) and then build up another 5-10 minutes of increasing intensity so that your muscles are properly warmed up for the session.

1. The Seated Sprint

This is a great workout for beginners. After you've completed your warm up, pedal as fast as you can for 30 seconds with your bum in the saddle. Then, coast or pedal very slowly for one minute to recover. Repeat this cycle 10 times. This helps improve your anaerobic fitness (or your ability to work at high intensity for short periods of time) as well as your biking endurance.

2. The Standing Climb

This workout is ideal for intermediate cyclists. Once you've warmed up and built up some faster sections of riding, pedal hard for 30 seconds while standing up on the pedals. Recover for one minute by pedalling slowly. Repeat this cycle eight times. The standing climb is good for working on your leg strength and power when you really need to dig deep up a hill or to a sprint finish when racing your pals.

3. The Tempo Ride

This workout is perfect for those who are looking for a challenge. Once you've shaken out the legs on a warm up ride, ride at a tempo pace (80-90rpm) for 20 minutes. These tempo sessions should be a slightly faster / harder than your normal riding pace. Recover for five minutes by pedalling slowly or coasting if you're outside. Repeat this cycle three times. Tempo training is good The tempo ride is a great workout to improve your aerobic fitness, which is the ability of your heart, lungs, and muscles to use oxygen efficiently when you're working out at a moderate to vigorous pace.

4. The Hill Climb

You're going to start to love hills (eventually) if you add them into your workouts or training rides. This workout is perfect for those who are looking for a challenge. Find a hill that takes two to three minutes to climb and ride hard up the hill for two minutes (once fully warmed up). Recover for five minutes with a slow pedal or coast back down the hill. Repeat this cycle three times. Hill repeats are great because they help improve your leg strength, power, and biking endurance. The hill climb helps your body to produce more power aerobically but also, the more you do, the more it helps to support your own mental strength when you then have to "conquer" a hill on your next ride.

5. The Fartlek Ride

This workout is perfect for those who are looking for a session to push themselves. Once you're nice and warm, your heart rate is pumping and legs loose, ride at a fast pace for one minute, followed by two minutes of recovery. Repeat this cycle eight times. This should feel like a hard effort for the one-minute efforts, but you should be able to maintain a conversation during the recovery period. Fartleks are great because they help improve your biking speed and VO2max (the amount of oxygen your body can use when working at high intensity) and are a great 30 minutes workout.

Indoor cycling vs Outside cycling

Of course here at Outside & Active we're always going to promote being outdoors over being inside, but these workouts are perfect if you have a turbo trainer at home or use a companion app like Zwift.

Keeping Track of your Fitness

If you cycle the same hill or train on the local bike lane for example, if you make a note of how you feel at the end of every session, you'll be able to see your fitness level improving week on week. Remember to focus on how you feel, not just how fast you're going as conditions may change week to week and you're never going faster if you are cycling into a strong headwind!

So there you have it, five fun biking workouts that will help improve your cycling fitness. Get out there and enjoy the ride!