If you’re wanting to maintain your health and fitness, then having an active lifestyle is a must. If you’re considering whether or not cycling is right for you, then let’s go over its many health benefits!

 In this article we’ll be looking at the health benefits of regularly jumping on a bike…aside from the fact that it’s tremendous fun!

What are the Health Benefits of Bike Riding? 

Regular aerobic exercise such as cycling can boost your mood and reduce your risk of obesity, heart disease, and cancer.

Cycling to work, school, grocery stores, restaurants and more is one of the most powerful and time-efficient ways you can add exercise to your daily routine.

Better still, you don’t need a super-fast racing bike to see the health benefits of cycling— a city bike will be ideal if you’re commuting.

 Exercise, in general, has lots of health benefits but there are some benefits where cycling really shines through. Want to know what they are? Keep reading!

Cycling for health and fitness

Cycling is a superb way to increase your overall health. The best bit? It only takes two to four hours of your time each week to experience the biking benefit, so whether you’re riding a road bike, mountain bike, or city bike, you’ll get to your destination and unlock the exercise you want all at the same time.

 Want to know why cycling is such an optimal activity for health and fitness?

Low Impact Form of Exercise

When compared to other forms of exercise, cycling puts less strain on your body. Let’s take running for example, its high impact nature can inflame or cause damage to joints and increase likelihood of injuries.

Cycling takes the impact off of your joints, allowing you to strengthen your muscles and increase your heart rate at lower risk of injury.

Works Major Muscle Groups

Get those muscles working! As you’re pedaling, cycling works some major muscle groups like calf muscles, hip flexors, quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes which lets you get a good overall workout!

No Great Skill Required

Cycling can be strenuous, however, it doesn’t require much skill. “It’s like riding a bike”, once you know how, you never forget.

Increases Strength and Stamina

Cycling improves your heart rate, aerobic fitness, stamina, and strength. The key to this point is that you don’t overexert yourself all at once.

The more cycling becomes a habit, the more you’ll notice just how effective it is at building your strength.

Varied Intensity

If you’re totally new to cycling, you will most likely want to keep the level of intensity low. As you get fitter, you can make it more of a demanding exercise. The point here is that you can be flexible with cycling and go at your own pace.

Cycling is flexible & fun!

Unlike sports that you have to do at certain times, places, or seasons, cycling can be enjoyed at any time.

Cycling should fit your lifestyle however you want it to. 

On top of the flexibility that cycling affords, the joy of taking on that climb or descending it is unparalleled and can make for the most memorable experiences.

What Health Benefits Are There When You Cycle Regularly?

As we touched on before, cycling is an aerobic exercise. What this means is that your heart, blood vessels, and lungs get a good workout when you’re on your bike.

 Cycling causes you to breathe more deeply, perspire and increase your overall body temperature—all of which will improve your level of fitness.

Regular cycling can give you the following benefits: 

-       Improved cardiovascular fitness

-       Stronger muscles

-       Better joint movements

-       Reduction in stress levels

-       Improved coordination

-       Reduction in body fat

-       Improved mental health

-       Prevention or management of disease

How Cycling Can Help Specific Health Issues

We’ve already established that cycling is good for both your body and mind. It can also reduce your chances of experiencing specific health issues too.

Weight Control and Obesity 

If you’re looking for a tool to help you lose weight, then cycling could be the ideal solution.

We use the word “tool” as it can only assist you on your journey to losing weight.

Research has shown that it takes a 3,000 calorie a week deficit to lose 1lb of fat. Cycling at a steady pace will burn around 300-500 calories an hour depending on your weight, and other factors.

 This shows that if you restrict your caloric intake and cycle, then putting yourself into a 3,000 calorie-a-week deficit can be a little more manageable.

Cardiovascular Disease

Cycling has been proven to prevent cardiovascular diseases, strokes, high blood pressure, and heart attacks.

This is where cycling shines as it strengthens and stimulates the condition of your heart, lungs, and circulation all while providing you with a fun outdoor experience!

Cancer

There have been lots of studies to show how exercising can help to reduce your risk of cancer.

The report in the 2018 American College of Sports Medicine International Multidisciplinary Roundtable on Physical Activity and Cancer Prevention and Control concluded that aerobic activities, such as cycling help to improve common cancer-related health outcomes and have pointed to higher survival rates if cancer patients exercise after their treatment.

Does Cycling Help Prevent Diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes has evolved into an increasing public health concern.

It’s now reported that 1 in 10 Americans have developed type 2 diabetes, however, you don’t have to be one of them!

Research conducted in Finland found that people who cycle every day for more than half an hour reduced their risk of developing diabetes by 40%.

How Cycling Helps Mental Health

Cycling is an excellent activity for those suffering from depression, stress or anxiety.

Getting outdoors and releasing those “feel-good” endorphin hormones will help calm your mind and build longer-lasting feelings of contentment.

In turn, this will boost your mood and help to reduce anxiety that may arise.

If you’re feeling depressed, you might find that you don’t have the energy to even consider going out for a bike ride. However, even just a short bike ride around the block can provide a big boost to your mood.

Improve Your Cognitive Functioning With Cycling

We’ve already established that cycling is a great form of weekly exercise and can benefit your body in so many ways, but did you know it can also improve your brain power?

A recent study showed that adults from 50-83 years old, who rode a bike three times a week for 30 minutes showed an improvement in their cognitive functioning.

This study showed that despite one group on regular bikes and one on e-bikes, both demonstrated improvement in their mental ability, so when someone tells you that “e-bikes are cheating”, you can be assured that they’re wrong!

Get out there and go!

Is 30 minutes of Cycling Enough Exercise?

Any cycling is better than nothing. Depending on your usual activity level, your height, weight, and age, 30 minutes of cycling can be enough to keep you healthy.

With 30 minutes of cycling, you’re burning around 150-250 calories and doing it every day can quickly add up.

Sure, you may need to make some other changes to your lifestyle if your current one wouldn’t make up for a change in exercise, but 30 minutes of daily cycling can help contribute to that.

Which is Better, Indoor or Outdoor Cycling?

Riding indoors has seen a boom in recent years as more people were forced to stay indoors.

Some people prefer an indoor stationary bike at this point, but now that Covid-19 restrictions have eased, which kind of cycling is better for health? 

A lot of people are going to tell you that cycling outside is the best—you get to see the world and engage with the beauty of the outdoors.

However, with indoor cycling, you don’t have to worry about weather conditions, traffic, or time of day, and you can adjust your pedal stroke resistance to get an extra burn in. 

A study from Harvard University showed little difference in the number of calories burned indoor (260 calories) vs outdoor (298 calories). While there isn’t much difference in caloric burn, outdoor riding does engage your core and upper body strength more, so inevitably, you get a more full-body workout.

Final Thoughts

Cycling is not only an enjoyable activity, it’s also a fantastic way to keep healthy.

If the weather permits, venture out on your bike and explore your local area, all the while knowing that you’re getting fit!

When weather is extreme, indoor cycling can still be fun and comes with many of the same health benefits.

Our final bit of advice? Find what works for you. It’s all about building a lasting habit for yourself and to do that, you need to enjoy it!