There are several ways to increase your resistance if you want to burn calories. One of the best ways is to go up hill. This will escalate your heart rate and have you huffing and puffing before you know it.

To get maximum benefit, choose a resistance between 70-80 revolutions per minute. RPM stands for "Revolutions Per Minute". For RPM on an outdoor bicycle, simply count the number of pedal strokes you take in a minute. And set the gears accordingly.

Another method of burning calories is to lower your gears a notch or two to increase the resistance, so you have to pedal a little harder.
Don't look at going down a hill as time to take a breather, but as a way to pedal as fast as you can.
You should also consider lowering your calorie intake, to really lose some weight.

Cycling is an excellent form of exercise, especially for people over 40 years of age. It is much easier on the joints than jogging or aerobics. People over seventy after surgery are still able to cycle. It also allows you to deal with high blood pressure.
The nice thing about cycling is that you can go at the speed that you want. If you want a good vigorous work out, you will burn a lot of calories, and if you want a more leisurely ride, you will burn calories, but nothing like the vigorous bike ride.

You can burn almost as many calories as jogging, and that is why I now cycle. It is much gentler on the joints than jogging or aerobics. It is great for people who want to get into shape, especially for those that have had a long period of inactivity. I highly recommend it for anybody over forty. With any form of exercise, the more resistance, the more calories you burn. I am lucky to have a lot of hills where I live, and it can be quite a task to get up some of these hills, but I do it. I work up a good sweat and feel it in my legs. You should try and cycle no less than 4 days a week for the best effects.
But Please talk to your doctor first!


The bicycle was my main method of transportation. I would use it for my paper route, to go fishing, to visit my friends, etc. My father was not into driving me around, like modern day parents, and my mother didn't learn to drive until she was somewhere around 40, and by then I had my own car. Nobody told me about the exercise benefit about racing my friends down the hill, or down the street. I went by a middle school a year ago, and there were absolutely no bikes on the bike stand! Parents in my day were demanding that more bike stands be provided by the school, because kids would have to lay their bikes on the ground. I was proud of my bike, I was pretty fast.
We would also take our bikes up the Cascades following fishing streams to fish, and this was long before mountain biking was popular. Sometimes, we would come down the logging roads to be met by the cops who were out looking for us. Even though my father was overly strict, he never gave me heck for these excursions and he never forbade me to do it again, he just suggested that I try to get home a little earlier.
There were many years that I never rode a bike. I took up jogging, weight lifting, tennis, and other sporting endeavors. I had to give up jogging because of shin splints. Unfortunately, while I was jogging, the running shoes were appalling, there was no scientific analysis about the pavement and shock on the knees or legs, or I might have continued. It was weight lifting and nautilus after that.
I rediscovered the benefits of cycling when I was looking at a way to burn some fat, that I had managed to accumulate after only 3 years.

BMX Racing has finally made it to the Olympics in 2008. Finally it has legitimacy and recognition from that stuffy Olympics governing body. This is the same body that considers shooting a sport. Give me a break.

I am too old to participate in this kind of cycling, but I enjoy the stunts that BMX riders can do. I will watch the X-games just to watch the incredible stunts that the BMX riders can pull off. If you get a chance to watch these riders, by all means watch them and support them, they do not make the money or get the recognition that the Tour de France cyclists get, but they should, and hopefully they will! If you looking for a BMX check the list below for a selection from Amazon.

These are the most popular Bikes on the market today. Mountain biking started in California back in the 70s when people would take big ugly cruiser bicycles down the trails in California. The tires of these bikes were the best on the market, and they later modified the bikes with gears and motocross handlebars. They were called Klunkers. The term would also be used as a verb since mountain biking was not yet in use. They would race down mountain fire roads causing the hub brake to burn the grease inside, requiring the riders to repack the bearings. These were called "Repack Races" and triggered the first innovations in mountain bike technology as well as the initial interest of the public.
Mountain bikes have improved immensely since those days. Now, even the cheaper bikes have dual suspension, decent gearing, good tires. You can find mountain bikes for every terrain, every price range, and for most sizes from 20 inch tires to 29 inch tires. They have come along way from the old klunkers of the 70s.
For the average person, the Mountain Bike is the ultimate bike. Many of these bikes have 15 to 21 gears! Check out some mountain bikes below.