There are three important characteristics of mountain biking that make it a viable form of exercise and a healthy one. These are:
It is aerobic. Mountain biking is a high intensity exercise. As a result, it burns fat, muscles, and glycogen. It is cardiovascular. Mountain biking increases heart rate and blood pressure. It is a weight reducing exercise. Mountain biking can be made to be as efficient as running, which has a lower impact on a person's body than downhill biking.
All three of these qualities are important to maintaining health. The following sections will discuss why each one of these qualities are necessary for fitness and wellness.
Aerobic exercise is the term given to the activities that build muscle. When you ride a bike, you are exercising the muscles that are in your upper body.
These muscles have a lot of muscle groups and if you're not doing a lot of aerobic exercise, they can become weak. This can lead to chronic pain and may need to be addressed by your doctor.
I don't know how much exercise is necessary. If you exercise too little you'll build muscles in your lower body that don't benefit your upper body. You'll also have trouble building your upper body, but you'll probably build a lot of strength and endurance in your lower body as you start to become a cyclist. If you want to build your upper body, you will need to do aerobic activity. But if you're a new cyclist, you probably don't have that time.
If you're not interested in aerobics, then you won't be able to develop your aerobic capacity until you start cycling.
I've got a different way of looking at the two different types of strength and endurance: Strength endurance builds strength, endurance builds endurance. Strength endurance is built in the weight room, endurance endurance is built on the bike.
Strength is the physical capacity of the muscles to produce force. An example of that would be a boxer who can punch more punches or a gymnast who can do more jumps. Strength strength is the result of exercise or practice. And endurance strength is the result of practice.
