What is your favorite form of physical exercise?
Saturday 11th October 2025. Today we headed back to Cannock Chase – but this time, we were armed with something small and mighty! But more on this in a minute…
First of all I want to address today’s WordPress prompt, which couldn’t be more appropriate for my planned post today. Right now, my favourite form of exercise, without a doubt, is mountain biking.
Since starting back in May this year, it’s become a full on family obsession. What was initially a plan to buy and convert a van to enable us to take the occasional leisurely ride on our bikes has turned into spending every dry and event free weekend out in some woodland somewhere dodging trees and defying gravity! The boys spend all week asking if we’re definitely riding at the weekend, and even I’m counting down every workday, not for a lie in but to get up early and negotiate my way around tree roots and convince myself I’m as brave as the lads! It’s exercise disguised as fun, it’s exhilarating and gets us all outside – and it’s something we can enjoy as a family. I never thought I could get this excited (or obsessed) over an exercise!
But there is one drawback to this exciting sport. Since starting mountain biking with the boys, I’ve realised how much harder it is to take photos and videos. It’s definitely not as easy as hiking! I usually have to shoot off ahead to grab a decent shot or capture a jump section – which kind of ruins the “family ride” vibe and breaks everyone’s flow.
Meanwhile, the boys have become completely hooked on mountain biking videos. From Red Bull events they find on TV or YouTube, to Instagram Reels that Dad shows them, biking has truly gotten into their bloodstream. Watching alongside them, I’ve discovered two things:
- I will never be as brave as the crazy people who make it onto Red Bull.
- I would really love an action cam to record our own adventures!
For me, it’s all about capturing the memories. For the boys, it’s the joy of sharing those moments with their friends – especially via our YouTube channel.
So, this May I started putting a bit of money aside each month, and by the time October Prime Day rolled around, I finally did it – thanks to a tasty price drop, I became the proud owner of a DJI Osmo Action 4! 🎥
It’s been quite exciting to get the whole family involved in capturing footage for me to edit and turn into some sort of watchable video. The boys have been keen to wear the camera and even assist with editing ideas and music choices – and now we’re ready to share our first video on YouTube for you guys (and for the boys to proudly show their friends!).
As you’ve probably already guessed, Cannock Chase was where we first put the new camera to the test. I thought a quick overview of the Red Route would be a good (and simple!) starter video. Hopefully, as I get more confident with editing, we’ll have plenty more adventures to share – whether it’s a rainy hike, a van escapade, or a few hours hooning around a mountain bike trail!
I hope you enjoy watching! 🚵♀️
Ps if you have a mountain biking blog or YouTube channel, please share it in the comments – we all enjoy discovering new mountain biking content!
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Only walking for me. I’m sure there will be a time were the impact on my knees might need a change to bikes, but for now I’m sticking to putting one foot in front of the other
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I’ve always preferred walking to cycling, but up until recently I only ever did flat, off-road or road cycling (not “proper” road cycling, just getting from A to B on a hybrid bike). It was neither particularly exciting, nor safe (cars!!!) – and when I started the van to get the boys out on bikes I thought it would just be cycle networks and disused railway routes we’d get out on – but we’ve unconvered a whole different sport and it’s totally changed my view on biking! 😍 I still really enjoy walking but for the first time ever, and I never thought I’d say this, but – I’d pick a mountain biking day over a hiking day everytime 😮
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I was looking for buying a kind of Go pro when we were walking a lot and I had my little YouTube channel but my camera is good for photos and videos and now anyway I don’t have enough time to do everything so I stopped the videos.
I hope you will enjoy recording your bike rides.
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I was going to use my phone camera but it just doesn’t have the stability for the bumpy rides 😅 it also gets very warm 😅. I think if you have your hands free (ie when walking) the phone is far better. But this camera has been brilliant for rides and not having to keep stopping. I wasn’t sure whether to go for the go pro or the dji, but the low light levels are better on the dji so that made sense for us, as we spend a lot of time under tree canopies. Feel free to drop your YouTube link here if you’re still using it. Video editing takes its time, finding time to do these things gets easier as children get older and entertain themselves, so if you enjoyed it you could always get back into it one day 😀
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I deleted it a couple of years ago. Yes it is hard to find the time with a toddler but also my problem is that I have too many hobbies. I like cooking, baking, reading, taking care of my indoor plants, painting, volunteering for Visorando and writing my blog 🤣🤣. Plus going hiking of course and seeing my friends 😉.
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I enjoyed the video, EJ. That is a wonderful investment to take cool videos. Mountain biking sounds amazing to me. Your boys look like a pro on it already.
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I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it, thank you Hazel! Mountain biking is amazing – it’s fun and a great way to de-stress too! The boys adore it! 🙂
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I agree! My pleasure always, EJ. Looking forward to read your another adventure outdoors.
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Great fun and great vid. I used to own a GoPro and used to create my own videos mainly of my surf kayaking and skiing outings. Haven’t used it for many years though as I couldn’t find the time to do all the editing
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Thank you! I have to agree, the editing takes far longer than taking the actual footage doesn’t it 😅If you ever dig it out again and get filming you’ll have to make sure you pop it on YouTube and share it so we can have a nose 🤗
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I don’t have it any more but here are a couple of my surf kayak videos from many years back. Even get to see me fall off a few times!
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They were fun! I think my eldest left a like on one of them because he was upset you’d not had any 😍
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Awww – bless him! Tell him I really appreciate it and hope he enjoyed the videos
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