Motorbikes and Exercise

Written by Arun

A personal take on how riding motorbikes and exercise has synchronous benefit for the rider.

A runner has lot of things going on in his mind when he sits in one place:

what distance to cover
route that is to be covered
Tempo or Interval
Strengths or Core etc.

A rider too has almost the same thoughts – like speed to ride, distance to travel, number of intervals, the route, etc.

Now when the guy happens to be an avid bike enthusiast, it’s a good combination to be a runner too, because for a good ride and to enjoy it, one must be healthy and fit. A long ride can take a toll on the body there will be muscle fatigue at the lower back, upper back, shoulders, thighs, near the toes, the elbows and palms.

Well all this is bound to happen how much ever the ergonomics are improved. Though I am not a medallist, I love to run and I have been running half marathons quite consistently. My best time is 1 hour and 53 minutes.

To achieve this, I usually log at least 30 km a week; this would comprise of 5 km run during the week days and long run over the weekend. When you start running regularly, we are making sure our muscles are toned and with an occasional long run we increase the endurance of our muscle.

WILL GUY!

Usually running is not only beneficial physically but mentally as well; I run when I am happy, when I am sad and sometimes when I have a sore throat. When we start to run, we improve concentration, discipline, cadence, pace, search for any pain and obviously the finish ribbon. Our true self comes to light when we start to lose our steam, our brain starts to ask questions like do you want to complete the run? Do you want to stop? Do you give up?

Many questions will be asked but our ‘will guy’ who plays a major part says our home is near by just a couple for km and we will be in our home with a victorious run, this ‘will guy’ in the beginning will be a kid, with more runs the kid becomes a pro and this ‘will guy’ helps us in may activities that we do.

Just like running, when you ride a bike you must have dedication, discipline, passion and the most important tolerance, especially on Indian roads, the occasional squids will come and taunt you. Never heed then and follow the rules. The good thing with running is anyone can run. All you need is the will and a little bit of dedication and in no time you will see yourself getting addicted to it, which is good!!

How do you get the motivation and dedication to run?

This is quite easy; start from your home and set a distance of 5 km. For a beginner, set 2 kms. Make sure to increase this 1 km every 2 weeks.

Once started, you will have to return home (this also will be a contributing factor…just kidding 😉 ). When a run is complete, we get a good sense and feel of accomplishment. Once we get a taste of this accomplishment our mind would like to get this feel in every activity we do.

I would recommend a beginner to take part in marathon events like the Dawn to dusk marathon, Chennai marathon, dream runners marathons etc.

Lot of things will make you wonder, the sheer amount of people , the different age groups participating, believe me or not the guy who finished before me in one of my good runs was 60 years young and he did in a time of 2 hours. There are even older runners completing full marathons. These are the motivations that make us run.

At any event like this, there will be at least 3000 people running. You never would have known these many people have been running and shows how serious people are in taking care of their body. Running is a medium to accomplish that.

How can I link motorbikes and exercise?

This is all based on my experience. To me, motorbikes and exercise goes hand in hand, giving a synergistic effect.

I feel light. Figuratively speaking, it is like taking out the stock silencer and fitting them with lighter cans.

The core exercises done after every run will reduce any back pain issues. I had a shoulder injury some time back and when I ride a bike or do vigorous training, I can feel a pinch of pain. With a little bit of yoga, I was able to overcome the pain by at least 80%.

Mentally, long rides may remind of these pains especially if your going solo. With the mental preparedness and the “will guy” helping us, the fatigue can be reduced.

When you run, you will reduce weight and this adds to the bike’s look. Oh not to mention more mileage from the bike due to reduced weight (kidding!!).

I would recommend the following work out regime for any beginner who wants to run:

Start with brisk 1 km walk convert this to a 1 km run in 1 week
Then in week 3 increase the distance by 2 kms.
Try to Log 10 kms for every week.
- Increase 1 km every week where in you must be comfortable to run 5 km with no issues.