Originally Posted by aplcr0331

During the month of February the local hospital has a special where you can get an MRI heart valve scan. They look at the heart valves and check for plaque. You get "scored" from 0(clean and clear) to 5(you're probably having a heart attack right now). You want some piece of mind, then go that route. I did, scored a 0, also had a scan of my carotid artery too, just to be safer. More info is better, rather than assuming doing a few low intensity rides every once in a while will deter something that could be caused my genetics or diet. Check and see if they do this in your area, typically it's centered around heart health month or something like that.

No cycling is not enough. Thinking "I do this" therefore "that" will never happen is not too bright. Better to have a complete picture.

- My grandpa lived to almost 100, never exercised and ate like a garbage can. Smoked a pipe and ate red meat almost daily. Therefore the key to a long life is eating red meat, not exercising, smoking a pipe and yelling at the TV. My N of 1 makes about as much sense as your N of 1.

????

- Nope, not really. Did your friend do anything for flexibility? As others mentioned yoga is great for this. Even a few simple stretches every day can be good.

That's why God invented cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and indoor gyms and his most blessed invention...Zwift. I live in the PNW where we average 45" of snow a year, last year we got over 60". Not exercising because of weather is a poor excuse.

Cross training is certainly a thing.

Not one person with half a brain would say you're crazy for NOT using cycling as your only form of exercise. In fact, I've never heard anyone outside of misinformed people insist that one activity alone will be all you need for health, physical fitness or disease prevention. Not one. And if you do hear that from someone, discount their every utterance.

I ride because I love it. That there are some health benefits is nothing more than icing. I do other activities because I enjoy them to. Not once do I do any activity thinking it will prevent some disease, death or anything else. Surest way to stop doing something IMHO.

You slightly mention gaining or losing 15 pounds in the summer/winter with no riding. Who are we kidding, you're in the Clydesdale forum. It's actually kind of sad to see that you didn't even mention diet. Which is something that will effect heart disease even more than exercise or lack thereof. What was your friends diet? More importantly what changes are you going to make to your diet?

Obesity increases risk of heart disease and heart attacks in a huge way. Not only that, you are more at risk for heart disease with obesity even when other indicators like diabetes and high blood pressure are not present.

Keep riding your bike, as long as you enjoy it. Eat better (that should be a number one priority), have your heart scanned, cross train in other activities you like and don't make excuses. As far as martial arts go, I've been a Judoka for a number of years. It, and BJJ, are probably the best martial arts for exercise, fitness, and actually learning how to fight and defend yourself (assuming that matters). Find a decent Judo gym and start rolling. The cardio there will knock you flat, and you'll use a lot of fast twitch muscles (cycling typically focuses mostly on slow twitch) to round out your health and fitness. Avoid any of the older traditional martial arts fads that rely on charging a lot for yearly memberships, charge for "promotions", charge for "belts" and all the other McDojo crap that goes on in many places. For many martial arts gyms out there you're better off spending your money on dance lessons, you get better cardio, more useful skills, and the ladies will flock to you if you can cut a rug. You'll be just as talented in defending yourself after taking Salsa lessons as you will with most TKD training.

Good luck!