The bike is great for cardiovascular workouts. It works especially well as a warm-up or warm-down when doing a full workout.
Hey, if you find a pool within 5 or 10 minutes drive, get yourself a bicycle and ride to and from the pool... That'll make for a really good blast of exercise.
If you do situps and pushups in the mornings (which I also recommend and do), don't do too many. Maybe 3 reps of 10 to start with and go up to reps of 15 after a week or so.
If you feel sore, don't do exercise that morning and eat some eggs for breakfast (protein helps the muscles heal and grow at the same time
)
A good protein rich diet will help you build muscle mass faster if you're after that, but even if you're not, it's good to help your body heal when you do workouts.
Remember that lots of little exercise is MUCH better than big bursts of excessive exercise. If you just attack your body with heavy weights, or strain it too much with over-cycling or over-lifting your body will fight back with pain and broken muscles!
Having said that, it's good to push beyond your barriers to help break-down and build-up your muscle mass (exercising is actually breaking or stretching the sinews in your muscles and when they heal, they come back stronger
).
At any rate,
don't give up. It's easy to just figure "This is too hard" or "I kinda feel better now, I'll stop". But the second you let yourself go, you'll be right back where you started, drinking coke, smoking more, poking your flab, walking in your girlfriend with your best mate, finding out your brother's gay...
I mean... err...
