Does e-Biking Help You With Other Sports?

[gromike]

I'm too old to worry about cross training, per se. But, if I just ride my bike and don't do walks it's not good.

 

[fooferdoggie]

I can ride like a monster, but hiking up a hill, or a lot of steps, totally takes it out of me.

my problem is I have bee riding everywhere with our tandem we never walk now walking is more work then riding.

 

[fooferdoggie]

My golf game score was positively affected. Cause by holding handlebar grip too hard.

sure thats from biking?

 

[PSm]

Absolutely helps with other sports, and even walking up hills and hiking is improved. More aerobic capacity, stronger heart, and more endurance. (helps that I often ride with lowest assist, or motor off, and do lots of hill climbing with a single speed)

 

[Taylor57]

Now that the weather is hot, I'm switching my primary sport to body-boarding, probably through November. I did swim a few half-miles in the pool to train, but due to cool weather-- and obsession with e-biking!-- I started swimming much later in the summer than usual this year. And I was really worried that I would be totally out of shape for riding waves because, one would think, both sports use totally different muscle groups.

Imagine my surprise that this turned out not be true at all. Yeah, I was sore my first two days in the water, but both sessions were a full half hour, and in easy to moderate conditions-- most seasons, I wait for a really small day to start, and I can barely stay in the water 20 minutes.

I was most sore in my lower back and triceps, but my stamina was much better than expected. What shouldn't have surprised me is that my legs are in better shape than any other season I can remember. I use big fins-- they are called "duck" fins, if anyone knows what those are-- because conditions are so erratic at my home break, which is a beach break. I had much less trouble getting out, and less trouble catching waves-- I missed a few for sure, but a lower percentage.

What I don't think I could have anticipated was that shifting weight, maintaining my balance on the board exactly where I want it, and reading the waves were all skills that came back very, very quickly this season. I remember reading a book in the '70s that said pro skiers cycled in the off season, and that it helped their balance and weight distribution, but I kind of dismissed it-- 'oh, come on, it's just riding a bicycle.'

But the skills seem to transfer! It turns out that reading a sandy, rocky grade on an eMTB is not that different from reading a sloppy, half-closed-out swell. I guess a hill is a hill, and a slope is a slope, whether it's made of dirt or water or snow. The first day, I thought maybe I'd just gotten lucky. But today, I was really doing some subtle, tricky stuff-- the waves are so bad, it's kind of like reading a complex fall line that's breaking in two different directions. Of course, it means something different on a body board than it does on skis or a bike, but the point was, I could see it when a second break formed over my left shoulder for my last wave today, I got on my right rail, and really got a blast of tremendous speed right when I wanted it.

Body boarding is hard on the body; I'm in my mid '60s and have health issues, so I'm down to about 15 days a year, though I did 25 or 30 in my 50s, and I'm avoiding the big days. I figured I'd have to pack it in in a season or two... now I'm wondering if I can keep doing this another five years or so if I'm careful... and keep riding hard! Part of the issue, I think, is that other years it was just too hard to stay in shape during the late fall, winter, and early spring. The elliptical is just boring, and the acoustic bike was too debilitating on the hills near here. Also, now I'm less worried about getting out of shape if conditions, tide, or traffic are not favorable for two or three weeks. I can ride in the hills and be ready when the conditions are good!

Anyway, just curious whether anyone else had a similar experience.

Yes it does. It allows me to put a club or 2 in my Topeak bag and ride to the golf course and hit balls.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Brisk dog walks are my other sport, and we go twice a day. She always seems to know where we're headed next, and she's always in a big hurry to get there.

Now that I'm getting into better biking shape, I can almost keep up.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Surprised we haven't heard from @Stefan Mikes in this thread. Pastry eating is clearly his other sport, and his ebikes are clearly his enablers.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Surprised we haven't heard from @Stefan Mikes in this thread. Pastry eating is clearly his other sport, and his ebikes are clearly his enablers.

The only other sport I perform is trying to maintain balance when putting underwear on

Ride. Eat. Sleep. Repeat.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

The only other sport I perform is trying to maintain balance when putting underwear on

Tell me about it! I may give up and go commando.

 

[Nomad]

believe it or not e-biking can help your brain as well.

 

[OrTrek]

Does (e)biking help with other sports? Probably but it may depend on the other sport to how much. So for me only - Yes to a point.
My other "sports" are hiking and rock scrambling/bouldering. As PSm has said it does make a difference with such things as cardio and endurance. But so does cross training and in my belief weight training - though less so on cardio in my opinion.
While I'm old (75) I've done weight training for 50+ years so I get it. But what I found is that too much heavy lifting actually can hurt such activities such as hiking and biking. Squatting 350#'s (I only weight 155#) isn't good for those activities and I no longer even do it at any level. But boy I can still grind a single speed (ebike Roadster V2 and analog single speed) up a hill and actually like it - ok kind of like it . But is biking helping me scramble up a technical rock face or climb up over debris in a slot canyon? I don't really know. I think maybe a little in regards to endurance.

So I will say biking and gym "stuff" seem to work for me and I really like both because I just feel better. And without any doubt biking helps me with cardio, balance and some strength for my other likes. But hey that's just me. So to me ebikes (and bikes in general) are a tool. But most importantly I just like riding them.

 

[Catalyzt]

Does (e)biking help with other sports? Probably but it may depend on the other sport to how much. So for me only - Yes to a point.
My other "sports" are hiking and rock scrambling/bouldering. As PSm has said it does make a difference with such things as cardio and endurance. But so does cross training and in my belief weight training - though less so on cardio in my opinion.
While I'm old (75) I've done weight training for 50+ years so I get it. But what I found is that too much heavy lifting actually can hurt such activities such as hiking and biking. Squatting 350#'s (I only weight 155#) isn't good for those activities and I no longer even do it at any level. But boy I can still grind a single speed (ebike Roadster V2 and analog single speed) up a hill and actually like it - ok kind of like it . But is biking helping me scramble up a technical rock face or climb up over debris in a slot canyon? I don't really know. I think maybe a little in regards to endurance.

So I will say biking and gym "stuff" seem to work for me and I really like both because I just feel better. And without any doubt biking helps me with cardio, balance and some strength for my other likes. But hey that's just me. So to me ebikes (and bikes in general) are a tool. But most importantly I just like riding them.

Agree it is dependent on the sport. There is an unusually large overlap between body boarding, skiing, and eBiking/biking, both cognitively and physically, I think: Reading a wave, trail, or run, balance, speed & fear issues, balance, leg and arm movement, etc.

My triceps get worked from body boarding and using ski poles-- in different ways, maybe, but it's the same muscle group. Less triceps w/ eMTB, but some, during descents.

I do think it's true that some sports can actually cause problems for others, or for other activities. I stop doing dumbbell curls at least 10 days before a show. And if my connective tissue thing is kicking up, I even back off on swimming. If my fingers, hands, and arms get tight, it makes it harder to play guitar.

Absolutely helps with other sports, and even walking up hills and hiking is improved. More aerobic capacity, stronger heart, and more endurance. (helps that I often ride with lowest assist, or motor off, and do lots of hill climbing with a single speed)

Yeah-- I second that on low assistance. In fact, the battery for my kit bike is nearly dead, so it's only good for a few hills-- I haven't replaced it yet, which was laziness at first, and then for training reasons!

I had a very good four days at Mammoth. But I will say, I had trouble keeping up with a friend my age, which I think was partly due to cigarette smoking (which I stopped over 10 years ago) and my connective tissue disorder. I also didn't train as much as I should have the final week.

I will say that on the steepest runs, my friend was not any faster than me. And both of us agree my form is better.

One of the reasons I don't ski as fast is because I'm on blood thinners-- I still will do single and the occasional short double black if I am confident I can avoid a high-speed fall. I only go fast where the snow is reasonably thick and soft, medium speed on hard pack, and slow, with lots of linked turns, on concrete (harder, icy snow.) And I also wore my armored motocross jacket, which really helped on one fall on a double black where my skis were uphill. I rolled on my back, cushioned by all that padding, to get my skis on the downhill side, and was able to use them to slow down and stop before I picked up too much speed.