Road biking or Mountain biking, which is better for your health and fitness?

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Road biking or Mountain biking, which is better for your health and fitness?
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flag freerider4210
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Posted: Dec 14, 2009 at 13:17 Quote
Hey everyone
I'm working on a school project and needed help finding information on which is better for fitness and or health.. A little background on my project. I’m building a freeride bike trail at my house, 5 acre lot. I will have no problem with the building as I have found mentors to help me design and build the course. Anyway, my mentors gave me as much information as they could but didnt have much information the really back it up. I was guessing road riding would be better for fitness than freeriding but just thought I could find some help on here, so if you could send me a link to possibly another forum with this information, a site with information, or if your an expert on the topic any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dylan
flag bryan11
Posted: Dec 14, 2009 at 14:46 Quote
Well apparently cross country mtb racing is the 2nd hardest sport (cardio wise) next to cross country skiing racing. As for free riding though, your mainly doing hard cardio (going up hill) then going downhill which is not too hard. So comparing road riding to freeriding is sort of like comparing sprinting to long distance running. They are both great fitness, but you will get different results.

http://www.captaincynic.com/article/477/hiit-versus-lit-sprinting-vs-long-distance-running.htm
flag konashred99
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Posted: Dec 22, 2009 at 13:27 Quote
I find mountain biking more of a work out.
flag davemud
Posted: Dec 22, 2009 at 14:07 Quote
Obviously bryan11 doesn't do a lot of longer FR and DH trails and possibly doesn't ride Super D style.

I used to think the Whistler bike park was the lazy way to ride untill I actually rode there. Try riding from the top of the gondola non-stop all the way to the bottom if you want to know waht a work out is like. Unless you are an extremely fit pro DH racer your entire body will be screaming in pain and I was riding the easier stuff on my Reign.

Around home I ride more Super D style where you climb in cross country mode seat fully extended and then slam the seat and descend in DH mode on any of the incredible AM bikes available these days. When you ride SD style there is no rest, you pedal up and then you stand and work the bike with your upper and lower body all the way down.

I also commute 50+ km 4 days per week on a flat route that is 100% pedaling door to door on my cyclocross bike, the road bike for mountain bikers. Since I always ride to and from work as fast as I can and have been known to do intervals all the way to work its hard to say what is more demanding. I'd have said road bike is better but that whole SD style is very demanding physically. You have all of the pedaling of XC plus the pedaling and full body work out of the DH riding style where you stand all the time.

Cardio wise you will generally be able to get your heart rate up and keep it there longer easier on a road bike and that burns calories. Mountain biking is more like interval training if you are pushing all the time.
flag VTwintips
Posted: Dec 22, 2009 at 14:13 Quote
Road biking ive heard is terrible for ur bones. Ive heard its like being in a rocket ship, the lack of impact makes ur bones decalcify. along with the sweat. And apparently its impossible to take in enough calcium through pills or anything either. But if u are truely mountain biking, it isn't to great for ur health considering ur gonna crash and get hurt, which is part of the sport. XC would be the best for ur body for sure, it has impact, amazing cardio, and its relatively safe, so long as ur not exerting urself at a pro level in which case ur body can become so depleated that ur muscles can get all f*cked up. But that is only for the craziest most competitive pro's too. So XC all the way for fitness. (all mountain too, just as long as ur not ruining ur health by crashing. hope this helps!
flag davemud
Posted: Dec 22, 2009 at 14:38 Quote
You actually think riding a road bike has the same effect on your bones as living in zero gravity? Do you have a link to that nonsense?

Your muscles move your skeleton to power the bike and your skeleton transmitts the power to the ground via the bike. Your skeleton or "bones" are always carring your weight and a variety of other forces on any bike... not to mention anything else you do where gravity is present.

Pretty much any doctor will tell you riding a bicycle or swimming are far better for your joints than say running due to the lack of impact on your joints.
flag VTwintips
Posted: Dec 22, 2009 at 15:16 Quote
yes precisely. better for ur joints but not ur bones. Ur bones become stronger with impact, believe it or not just like muscles do when u use them. The brain tells the body to put more calcium into that area. Where as biking, the weight goes onto ur butt. Its not 100 percent zero gravity, but its a similar effect. Just so u understand, I believe road biking is good for you, its THE BEST cardio, besides running. But xc would be better for u body overall, and thats just my opinion.
flag davemud
Posted: Dec 23, 2009 at 14:06 Quote
VTwintips wrote:
yes precisely. better for ur joints but not ur bones. Ur bones become stronger with impact, believe it or not just like muscles do when u use them. The brain tells the body to put more calcium into that area. Where as biking, the weight goes onto ur butt. Its not 100 percent zero gravity, but its a similar effect. Just so u understand, I believe road biking is good for you, its THE BEST cardio, besides running. But xc would be better for u body overall, and thats just my opinion.

Riding any bike isn't like zero gravity at all and suggesting it is is ridiculous. On a bike your skeleton is still carrying the load of your body weight plus the additional load you are creating with your muscles. In addition to that impacts cause stress fractures in bones. How about posting a link to the reputable source of this info?
flag anotherbikerguy
Posted: Dec 23, 2009 at 14:59 Quote
Ah, I can actually back him up (somewhat) on this one. There was an article recently about how many road cyclists have lower bone density due to the lack of impact on their bones. (Article: here as well as many other places, easy to find with google. http://articles.latimes.com/2009/feb/16/health/he-cycling16) This is supported by Wolff's Law, which states that your bones grow stronger when you put more stress on them. So, he's not totally wrong. The key word there is impact - road cycling is a very low-impact sport and the lack of those harsh blows means that the bone doesnt strengthen itself as it would for a runner. It's not so much a problem in mountain biking because we're going over rocks and roots and we're getting more impacts.
flag davemud
Posted: Dec 23, 2009 at 17:24 Quote
Fair enough, I stand corrected. I wonder if those cases had any hereditary conditions that contributed to the lower bone density as well. I can see where mountain biking is better in that regard because you do spend more time standing... and falling lol! It amazes me though that elite level road racers who work with professional coaches and sports doctors, nutritionists ect. would not be cross training to prevent that problem from occuring.

I ski, hike and run and a lot of us DJ, BMX, skate and snow board so hopefully we don't run into that problem.
flag mbjz
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Posted: Dec 23, 2009 at 17:48 Quote
VTwintips wrote:
yes precisely. better for ur joints but not ur bones. Ur bones become stronger with impact, believe it or not just like muscles do when u use them. The brain tells the body to put more calcium into that area. Where as biking, the weight goes onto ur butt. Its not 100 percent zero gravity, but its a similar effect. Just so u understand, I believe road biking is good for you, its THE BEST cardio, besides running. But xc would be better for u body overall, and thats just my opinion.
about the cardio thing biking is def. not THE BEST...as u stated running is definitely better for cardio...but dont forget swimming is very good for your swimming too...just my 2 cents..o and btw i hate swimming so im not trying to highlight swimming or anything..i much prefer biking and running
flag downhiller21
Posted: Dec 23, 2009 at 18:10 Quote
witch ever one you do more....
flag davemud
Posted: Dec 24, 2009 at 10:52 Quote
Depending on how you ride of course I would say road bikes are easily as good as running. The Fraser Valley is flat so you pedal 100% of the time. As long as you are training in your target heart range for the same period at the same intensity it doesn't matter what sport you are doing the cardio benefits are the same.
flag freerider4210
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Posted: Dec 24, 2009 at 13:41 Quote
Thanks for all the replies everyone.
flag VTwintips
Posted: Dec 26, 2009 at 19:09 Quote
swimming is actually pretty sweet if ur going across a lake to get somewhere. and its actually really fun if u have flippers. i know that sounds unrealistic, but trust me from experience its pretty cool. cept not so cool cuz im a ginger and sunbern sucks
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