Handlebar choice?

[Danneaux]

Cycling is great for building stamina and aerobic fitness but it's pretty rubbish for flexibility or core strength!

<nods> Boy, that's true. Doesn't do much for bone density either as it is not considered weight-bearing exercise. I found myself with osteopoenia -- partly due to cycling as my primary exercise, according to my doc, partly due to celiac sprue disease (gluten intolerance). He advised walks -- preferably with rocks in my pockets or some sort of additional weight carried. I took it to heart and added a daily 8km walk to my regular exercise. That and Vitamin D supplements helped a lot in rebuilding bone density. My original DEXA bone density scan showed a >28% risk of hip fracture; that is now down to about 3%.

I lost the greatest bone density when I was regularly riding 8,000-12,000mi/13,000-19,000km annually.

For more on the topic:
http://www.cyclingweekly.com/fitness/cyclists-bone-health-281573
https://www.trainingpeaks.com/blog/why-cycling-is-bad-for-bone-density-and-how-you-can-improve-it/
https://www.velopress.com/building-strong-bones-for-cyclists/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3554602/

Best,

Dan.

[Inbred]

Yikes! I didn't even think of that!
Maybe I should avoid cycling altogether? 😉
I think I presently do a fair mix of walking and cycling.
Probably going to diversify a bit into other activities too, just to be on the safe side!