Top 8 amazing tips that will make cycling safe for you during covid-19 / Ride safe in lockdown [2021]

Top 8 AMAZING TIPS THAT WILL MAKE CYCLING SAFE FOR YOU DURING COVID-19 / IS IT SAFE TO RIDE IN  LOCKDOWN?

The outbreak of coronavirus has not only made cycling hard but also made many cycling events and races to be postponed or canceled.

So because of this pandemic situation, we are all in a period of quarantine.

And most of us are unable to ride our bikes outside, and this quarantine period keeps on increasing day by day in many countries.

So we will now work on the topic of how to train for cycling in quarantine and also see how to ride safely in the lockdown period and also discuss that as a cyclist what can you do to reduce this pandemic.

so let's get started and stay tuned with us.

So here in lockdown, I was sitting in front of my bike with remembering all my past rides. I really wanted to go out for a ride but was helpless.

 And I am pretty sure that most of you are undergoing the same situation. 

But I later found some amazing tips that really helped me to enjoy cycling safely from the coronavirus. 

And now I am really excited to share sharing those tips to maintain your fitness for cycling even in a hard situation like this.

So here are the methods and tips that will make cycling safe during the lockdown.

The first golden tip is,

1. SOLO IS BETTER 

The biggest way to control this virus is social distancing, and this thing should also be done with cycling too.

If you're planning to go outside for a ride choose a solo ride whenever possible because this decreases the chance of getting infected by others.

And also you should select your cycling route in such a way that it is well isolated and should have fewer people or vehicle interactions in that route.

Avoid cycling in populated areas.

And after the ride make sure you wash your clothes and bike before doing any other work.

The next thing that you can do for having a safe ride is:

2. AVOID THE GROUPS

Now, this might sound heartbreaking, I don't know about you but for me, it's really tuff to digest this thing, not to ride with your bros.

 But as mentioned above to have a safe ride you should practice social distancing, and if you avoid riding with your group you will be less exposed to the virus.

 Although if you badly want to ride with your group like me, you can ride with at most three members that too with a distance maintaining of 6 feet while riding.

3. GO FOR SHORTER RIDES 

How far should you go for cycling in covid19?

My answer is not more than 20km, because in a long ride you lose a large amount of energy.

Now you might think what's wrong with that? 

Going for longer rides helps you to build your stamina and also increases your endurance level right?

The reason why I suggest you ditch long ride plans is, in a long ride as mentioned before, you start to lose your energy more and because of this your immune system does not function as properly it should. 

Now by chance, if you get into contact with an infected person in this situation the chance of getting yourself infected becomes more. 

So I prefer a short sweet ride during these days. 

And yes keep one thing in your mind,

This same situation can be created in a short ride too, only if you push yourself harder. So avoid intense cycling or sprint.

Instead, plan an easy short ride that doesn't make you tired too much and keep your speed demon inside for a while.

5. AVOID SPITTING 

Fortunately, I don't have the habit of spitting during cycling but I know some cyclists in my group who have the habit of spitting. 

Now if you know someone who spits during the ride or if you have the habit of spitting, you should try to stop it right now.

Because saliva is a great transmitter of COVID 19. and by spitting it can get into contact with others making them a nice treat for the COVID 19. 

Now you might think, I am not infected then how my spit will cause COVID 19?

You should know that this is a very strange disease. doctors are still facing problems of figuring out the precise symptoms of COVID 19. 

COVID 19 symptoms are very vast and it's very difficult to unite them.

Normally symptoms include headache, difficulty in breathing, running nose, and fever.

But it has been seen found that some patients who were suffering from severe diarrhea had positive results towards the test and some patients also had blood clots in their body and found positive for COVID 19.

Another strange thing about this is some patients don't even show any symptoms of having COVID 19 but got tested positive. 

Usually, it takes around 14 days to show symptoms but for some people, it's tuff to notice the symptoms. 

Now, this is the main reason why I advised you not to spit during a ride.

So I recommend you to avoid spitting while riding and if you are riding with your group and found someone spitting, tell them not to spit as this can be dangerous to others because nothing can be predicted in such situations and precaution is always better than cure. 

so you should avoid spitting to have a safe ride. 

The next thing you must do is:

6. WEAR A MASK

No matter how safe you ride, if you're not wearing a mask you're most likely to become prey of COVID 19.

Because when cycling you're most likely to encounter other cyclists or pedestrians.

Now, What if you didn't wear a mask and you accidentally came into contact with an infected person by his sneeze or cough.

Now this situation seems like a nightmare and feels like a climax of a horror movie, right?

But you can easily encounter this situation just by wearing a mask as it protects us by blocking all the respiratory droplets caused by the sneeze of a person.

And also suggest you're co-riders to wear a mask.

I know that riding with a mask is uncomfortable and also it makes breathing difficult while cycling.

But as mentioned above if you choose a short ride and don't push yourself harder you are not expected to have severe breathing problems with a mask.

I personally ride with a mask, yes I found it weird for the first time.

But after thinking practically I stopped complaining about it and I also strongly recommend you to wear a mask.

If you didn't wear a mask just by thinking it would look weird then it might be the greatest regret in your life. 

So wear a mask while riding and also advise your co-riders to wear it.

NOTE: When you wear a mask do not push yourself harder, because it can lead to critical conditions for your lungs. So go for a very easy short ride

And for extra comfort, I prefer you not to wear a mask all the time, unless you see some pedestrians or a crowded area near you.

7. WEAR SUNGLASSES

Like your mask, your glasses also protect you from getting infected.

Doctors had found that this virus can not only spread by saliva, physical contact, or by respiratory droplets, but it can also spread by our eyes too. 

For more information regarding this topic read this article about how COVID 19 spreads through the eyes??

So wearing your sunglasses will also protect you from the virus-like mask. And sunglasses can protect you in many ways. 

For example, your hands made contact with some infected area without your knowledge. Now by wearing sunglasses you can avoid any accidental touch by your hands to your eyes, which often happens during riding. 

And also it can prevent any sort of respiratory droplets from entering your eyes. 

Thus it makes you less exposed to the virus. And I always wear sunglasses while riding and even you should start to wear them if you don't use them frequently. 

But to be honest, I like to wear sunglasses as it gives me a "cool feeling", I hope even you think the same.

Let me know your thoughts through the comment section I am eager to read it.

And last but not the least:

8. PACK YOURSELF BEFORE THE RIDE

Before you leave for a ride make sure that you carry all the essentials with you such as a mini pump, first aid kit, etc...

As mentioned earlier maintaining social distancing is one of the effective and easiest ways to avoid getting infected. And if you failed to carry your important accessories with you, you're expected to seek help from others, and especially in this situation seeking help from others can be quite dangerous.

As there can be a chance of getting help from an infected person as mentioned before nothing can be predicted in such situations.

And most probably you will choose a solo ride in an isolated route to avoid any sort of interaction with people. 

And suddenly you find that you got ruined your beautiful ride by a puncher or broke the chain while shifting the gears, now if you have the required accessories you can be independent and you can repair it and continue riding like nothing has happened.

But imagine the same situation with no required accessories, it would create unnecessary stress, and to get over this situation and you would most probably seek help from others which means you failed to obey social distancing and increased the chance of getting infected yourself.  

So make sure that you carry all the essential accessories with you.

So these were the tips that I personally follow to ride safely. And if you practice all the above-mentioned instructions you can make yourself virus-proof and can have a very low probability of getting infected.  

I would like to give some extra tips besides this information for even more extra safety:

1. Disinfect your bike and accessories by cleaning with soap water

2. Always carry a sanitizer with you, so that you can clean your hands if you had contact with any surface right away.

3. Wash your clothes right away after the ride. as you will stay protected by germs.

4. If you use a towel rinse it regularly, although COVID-19 doesn't spread by your sweat it helps you by protecting you from other infections like rashes etc... I personally do this after every ride.

5. Last but important, start knowing about your body.
if you feel any kind of difficulties in your health avoid riding immediately no matter, it can be from a small headache to severe fever. seek immediate medical treatment.

Benefits of cycling during coronavirus

Living in a lockdown can be extremely stressful for many and also claustrophobic as you spend the majority of your time in your home.

And it seems that cycling can solve all your problems to a great extent. cycling is known for being an amazing stress reliever as it produces the happy hormone in your brain called Dopamine.

Not only that, cycling can increase your productivity making you complete your work easily in less time. And I have personally experienced it.

Being in a lockdown can make you safe from covid but not healthy and can ruin your fitness.

Cycling can really help you maintain your fitness and strengthens your cardiovascular muscles and lungs.

And once lockdown gets over you will be in very good shape compared to your friends which can make you stand out from them, At least for some time.

I have got additional tips that can improve your performance, here its, 

TURBO TRAINERS 

Turbo trainers can really help you out in such situations. I would highly suggest you go for one and challenge your teammates on strava, or other fitness apps.

Besides training on turbo trainers, I have got some other cool ideas specially for you which can really help you to improve your cycling performance even in such situations.

All though you can't ride your bike frequently, you can work on some elements which will really help you to increase your performance.

And once the current situation comes to normal you will find great improvement in your performance while riding. 

So let us take advantage of this lockdown to improve our skills and performance on the bike. 

1. SQUATS

Practicing squats will strengthen all core muscles that are needed for cycling and this can exponentially increase your sprinting performance on your bike, so let us see how to do it.

I will be explaining how to do it step by step for an easy understanding.

Let's get started.

STEP 1: stand straight with your feet apart 

STEP 2: Gradually bend your knees to a normal sitting position until you have an angle of 90 degrees with your calf and thighs

STEP 3: as you bend your knees parallelly raise your arms up too and hold up the position for 3 seconds.

STEP 4: Repeat this five times in your training session, for beginners I would recommend doing this exercise slowly.    

Let's move to the next exercise.

2.PLANK

Plank helps you to build your core muscles and improve your body posture and flexibility on the bike 

This exercise will help you to improve your bike handling. so let's see how to do it.

STEP 1: stand straight and lay down with only your elbows touching the ground. The angle between your elbow and arms should be 90 degrees. meanwhile, only your toes should be in contact with the ground and knees in the air.

STEP 2: now you are in a perfect position. after you're comfortable in the position slowly lift up your right leg and hold the position for 5 seconds 

STEP 3: after holding up your right leg, slowly keep your leg down and repeat the same procedure with your left leg.

STEP 4: now follow the same procedure by swapping your legs and do it around five times a day. And keep on increasing the count slowly day by day to do this exercise more efficiently.  

3.BRIDGE

If you are a yoga fan or practice yoga regularly you will be familiar with this. 

This really helps you to increase your lower abdomen power and helps in sprinting and improves your climbing performance on your bike.
let's see how to do this.

STEP 1: lay down with your knees bend and hands pointing your foot.

STEP 2: After you're set in this position, slowly try to lift your hip without disturbing the legs and hands position.

STEP 3: hold up the position for a few seconds and slowly put your hip down in the same way you lifted

STEP 4: Repeat this exercise five times and do it regularly.


So these were some main core exercises to do in lockdown to keep up your cycling without being on the bike.

 I would also recommend you to do some extra yoga and lunges besides these core exercises which will keep your body and mind more active and fresh like never before and control all the unnecessary stress which is expected in such a situation.

Well, there are so many other exercises that will help you to train for cycling, but the main reason why I have handpicked up these three core exercises is that they are comparatively much effective than the others.

And practicing these three core exercises will train you every muscle which is required for cycling 

Moreover, these three exercises are easy to do and as well as less time-consuming but the result you get is an extraordinary performance improvement on the bike.

Now if you want to take full advantage of this blog, all you need to do is practice these exercises regularly without any kind of excuses.

I would also strongly recommend you to continue these exercises to do after quarantine, as doing these exercises in the long term will give you a great performance on the bike.

And if you can't go for training on the bike because of bad weather or some other reason, practice these exercises which would compensate for your ride to some extent.

So these were the concepts behind how to train for cycling in quarantine. 

So I hope you have grabbed the core knowledge of this blog. 

If you follow the above steps honestly, you can ride safely without any tension.

Meanwhile, you can know more about your machine.

We had recently posted a blog about how to shift gears on your bike.

It is a great read for beginners, where you will clear all your queries about shifting gears as I have clearly explained the mechanism and elements behind it in an easy way. Don't forget to check it out.

So, in the end, I again strictly recommend you to follow the above-mentioned instructions for having a safe ride. Don't forget, precaution is always better than cure.

And yes, more importantly, don't forget to share this blog as it will help other cyclists too.

So the next time when you ride, keep all the above-mentioned things in your mind and pedal like pro.