Tomorrow, Friday the 15th of May, is “Ride to Work Day.” It is the culmination of “Ride to Work Week,” designed to promote bicycling for exercise and to reduce traffic congestion. It also serves to educate drivers and riders about bicycle safety and sharing the road.
I plan to ride my bicycle to work and hope you will too if it is at all practical. I enjoy incorporating regular exercise into my daily routine rather than scheduling in a trip to the gym. So, biking to work is an ideal way to squeeze a workout into my busy schedule and save some fossil fuels at the same time. It is also like a meditation for me to ride and I count it as a stress reduction tool as well as exercise. As a naturopathic doctor, I do my best to ‘walk the talk‘ of my medicine. A big part of living on ‘the natural path‘ is getting regular exercise.
Bicycling, whether it be outside or on a stationary bike at the gym, provides a great cardiovascular workout for the whole body and is gentle on the knees compared to jogging. Cycling at less than 10 miles per hour for thirty minutes burns about 100 calories. The faster you go, the more calories you burn.
If your commute is 10 miles or less each way, I challenge you to ride your bike to work at least twice a week this summer!
Happy trails,
Margaret Philhower, ND
www.drmargaret.org
