Pootler

A region in England is trialing "prescribing" cycling through it's state funded national health service.
Cornwall residents will benefit from. the project which "will involve health professionals, such as GPs (physicians) and social prescribers, referring patients to groups that will help them be more active through cycling or walking."

Among remedies offered will be

• Cycle confidence courses
• Adaptive cycle sessions
• Access to bikes through cycle loans
• Access to e-bikes through a loan initiative
• Local bike banks
• Cycle maintenance training
• Walking groups

Now I'm all for getting people fit and healthy through active lifestyle choices, but let's be honest here, the single biggest shift would be brought about by BUILDING SAFE INFRASTRUCTURE - if kids and regular folk were separated from fast moving cars and given direct, completely safe routes that went where they needed to go like shops and schools, then there would be an immediate benefit and shift. It would save them a lot of money on rapidly increasing fuel prices too. You can read more here: bikesy.co.uk/features/every-day-cycling/cornwall-residents-to-be-prescribed-cycling-on-the-nhs/

Yan 

Hey it can't hurt. It's not so bad here in Manhattan but when I go to other parts of the country... oh my god... If I was an alien biologist I'd think it's a different species of animal.

Pootler

How is it in Manhattan? Can you do a whole commuting ride mostly separated from motor vehicles like say in Dutch or Danish cities? I've got a couple of routes into London, UK like that and I feel so much more mentally relaxed at the end of them.

flangehead

Must be pretty common; we have it in Houston TX:

https://www.houstonbcycle.com/news-1...ike-rx-program

livedarklions

European mental health providers frequently prescribe a moderate exercise as a treatment for mild depression. Stuff like walking a half hour a day. Its efficacy is probably better established than antidepressant medication.

Darth Lefty 

That’s the basic amount of exercise you should get anyhow regardless of mode

work4bike

The problem with the health industry is that they focus too much on cardio exercise for fitness. Bikes are great, I've been riding as my primary form of transportation since the mid-80's and that combined with my love of running and hiking has given me a really good aerobic base. Although much of my cardio conditioning comes from periods of intense cardio exercise, another form of exercise the health industry doesn't emphasize enough -- doing 3-4 days a week of moderate exercise (~70% of m/HR) is totally insufficient (if that's all you do). And then you got ebikes infiltrating the cycling scene

However, just as important is lifting weights, but everyone, including much of the health industry scoffs at the idea of pumping iron. Just look at any old person and see how their body is falling apart and can no longer participate in activities such as cycling and many can barely walk. Lifting heavy weights helps a lot to fight these conditions of aging. The industry is starting to come around to this, but still way too many people (the so-called experts) out there warning how pumping iron is dangerous for the elderly.



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livedarklions

What are your scary qualifications for making these obvious over-generalizations? I know plenty of fairly fit older people who wouldn't risk lifting weights.

Are you seriously suggesting that injury from weight lifting isn't a real concern?

work4bike

My qualifications simply come from my observation over the years of friends, family and others. I've seen the people that were moderately active, slowly age, becoming less active and eventually becoming virtually bedridden. At one point in my life I thought this progression was just a fact of life – inevitable.

However, I've learned differently, since I decided I didn't want to become what I've witnessed. Long story...short, I started looking more into fitness and found that it doesn't have to be that way. And I started practicing the new knowledge I gained, both in my cardio work and my weightlifting.

And today, at 57, I look around at others my similar age and I see what I saw earlier in life, where people (my age) don't run anymore, don't lift heavy weights and simply do moderate exercise at the gym, lifting small weights and jumping on the elliptical for 30-minutes.

But yeah, I have no qualifications, I'm just some guy.

You want hear someone with qualifications, listen to this guy, he's a doctor and he'll say basically the same thing. Us older people need to lift heavier weights. And he shows examples. And what's important when watching the people he's coached is that these were people that were not nearly as active as many of us on this website.





And just a few examples of success. I can only imagine how much better off they'd be if they had more of a base to work off, but still incredible results.

JW Fas

I wouldn't say lifting weights is critical, but some level of resistance training is since bone density needs preservation. People who bike and/or run but don't do any resistance training have great bone density in their legs but low density in their upper bodies. This can be largely mitigated with pushups and situps (I prefer planks). Martial arts are also great for preserving muscle mass, bone density, and flexibility.

livedarklions

The article is about getting people who aren't doing anything to start doing something. One objection to what you guys are saying is that I think there's a danger that denigrating the benefits of cardio is simply going to discourage people who may not be willing to start with resistance training, especially weight lifting.

But yeah, I agree with you that resistance is important and that once someone is starting to get active, you're laying out a set of alternative resistance methods that are a hell of lot less risky than picking up weight lifting later in life. My main complaint was that work4bike referred to the caution of "so-called experts" that weight lifting is dangerous for the elderly as if it was silly. Weight lifting injury is common among the young and healthy, if the elderly person has already had some bone density loss, it could be absolutely disastrous. I'm not bothering to look at his links--I don't recognize his right to determine which "so-called experts" we should pay attention to.

wolfchild

Weight lifting does have some significant risks. The most important thing to remember when lifting is to maintain a proper form and technique. Majority of injuries from weight lifting are caused by using too much weight and failure to maintain proper form and technique when performing an exercise. Proper form is especially important for older people, The older you get the greater the risk of injury... I wouldn't say that lifting weights in a gym is an absolute necessity , there are plenty of other ways to do resistance training and weight bearing exercises which doesn't involve barbells and dumbbells at a gym. The most important thing is to do something that works, the tools that you choose to do your resistance training with doesn't really matter.

wolfchild

And the other problem I noticed with health and fitness industry is too many anti - cardio zealots telling people that steady state cardio is bad for them.

livedarklions

We're in complete agreement here. Beginners are especially prone to poor technique weight lifting injuries, so I think the combination of being elderly and a beginner is something that needs to be approached carefully if at all. Keeping in mind that weight lifting does nothing to reverse already occurred bone density loss, there's just going to be some elderly people who shouldn't go near a barbell.
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livedarklions

Frankly, the industry is full of zealots who agree only that everyone else is wrong. The "conventional wisdom" changes completely from year to year. And when you look into the "science", it's study after study that no one seems able to replicate.

Arthur Peabody

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/24/w...-benefits.html

Right-click on the link, save the file, read the copy.

Milton Keynes

Now I want my doctor to write me a prescription for a brand new Trek.

rydabent

Prescribing fresh air and exercise seems pretty logical to me.

genec

Oh, I had to re-read the OP to realize that this was from a country that believes in "national health care." Figures.

Inusuit

Any exercise is better than none. Whatever encourages people to exercise is a good thing, I think, even if it's on an ebike. My riding buddy is my age (78) on oxygen 24/7 and has a pacemaker. His ebike allows him exercise he couldn't get on two wheels otherwise. For those who consider ebikes cheating, he logged tens of thousands of miles on a pedal bike before COPD. I alternate weight and resistance training with cycling. I have had some minor injuries associated with weights, but almost all have been mistakes mishandling dumbbells picking up or putting down, not doing the lifting. That said, I don't lift excessively heavy and exclusively with dumbbells. My simple home gym setup limits what I can do with barbells.

Milton Keynes

But not if it's a throttle-driven ebike which the person riding it never pedals.

Inusuit

I agree.

M Rose

my chiropractor pretty much did exactly this for me… my prescription says to ride my Trek at least 10 miles every day. Which meant I needed a new bike.

livedarklions

Non sequitur much?