No Gym Needed

Exercise is technically an eight-letter word, but can feel a lot more like a four-letter word sometimes. Luckily, the bike path offers so many ways to switch up your routine and avoid falling into the exercise rut.

Walking
For the accidental calorie burners, there’s walking. As a simple rule of thumb, a 180-lb. person will burn about 75 calories per mile. If you walk faster than 13 minutes per mile, you’ll burn more, but the important factor is the distance. Unless you’re walking so slowly that you actually stop in between steps (which would force you to re-activate muscle groups with each step), you’ll be relying on momentum to do some of the work and increasing your distance will benefit you more than increasing your speed.

The path is conveniently painted with mile (and half-mile) markers for much of its span. Start out at the nearest marker and head out to a comfortable distance. (When deciding on your comfort level, remember you’ve still got to make it back.) Do that for three days; then try adding to it each week. Set a goal for the end of the summer and work your way up to it.

Biking

For the moderate crowd, there’s biking, which can really be anything you make it - your bike choice and intensity will dictate how serious your workout will be. For those who prefer to be horizontal as much as possible, try a recumbent bicycle, which allows you to enjoy the beauty of the path and the comfort of reclining. People on these bikes always look like they’ve got life figured out. For those looking to use their arms in addition to their legs, a regular bicycle will help you to burn about 50 calories per mile (725 total calories if you bike the path at 14 mph and weigh about 180 lbs).

For those who live in compression shorts and wicking fabrics, get your run on. The average person burns about 100 calories per mile, and for those with the lung capacity to run the entire path, you’ll burn almost 1,500 calories, which is impressive. The path offers cool breezes and a pretty intense hill at the East Providence end to give hardcore runners that perfect blend of enjoyment and sheer pain that they seem to enjoy so much (whatever that’s about).

No matter your comfort level or how you choose to traverse the bike path, we encourage you to do so. Inline skate, bike, run, skateboard, push a stroller, walk, lay-down-bicycle, get pulled by your dog - just get out there and get down it.