Cycling
for health

On your bike

Cycling is a fun and inexpensive way to get fit and stay healthy. It’s easy to make riding a bike part of your daily fitness-building schedule, and it’s accessible to just about anyone, from tiny toddlers to the over-80s. Switching from car or bus to pollution-free bike is planet-friendly and a great, low-cost alternative for getting from A to B and exploring the world around you. An estimated one billion people ride bicycles every day for transport, recreation or sport. Here’s how cycling can put you on the road to better health:

1. Good all-round workout

Cycling is excellent for developing your overall fitness at any level and suits exercise-beginners as well as fitter people looking to take their workouts to a higher intensity. You don’t need special skills or a big budget, and you can progress to tackling more demanding rides at a pace you find comfortable. Cycling gives you the freedom to exercise where and when you want, with no need to pay gym fees or stick to prearranged class-times. Take to your bike and your breathing gets deeper, your perspiration increases and your body temperature rises. Your heart, blood vessels, lungs and all major muscle groups get a thorough workout, with benefits such as:

• Increased cardiovascular fitness
• Greater muscle strength and flexibility
• Improved joint mobility
• Better posture and coordination
• Strengthened bones and joints
• Decreased levels of body fat

2. Helps weight control

In these days of sedentary, sit-down living, cycling is an easy way to get back to regular exercise, helping you to boost your fitness and manage your weight. Cycling increases metabolic rate, cuts body fat and builds muscle. Typically a cyclist can burn from 400 to 1000 calories every hour, depending on the intensity of activity and body size. That means a 30 minute bike ride every day for a year consumes about five kilograms of body fat. In conjunction with a well-balanced diet, cycling helps you take control of your weight and avoid the health problems associated with obesity.

3. Prevents serious illness

Cycling is recommended by the NHS as a healthy way to lower your risk of developing life-threatening conditions like heart disease and cancer. Cycling is proven to improve your heart-health by strengthening heart muscle, reducing blood fat and lowering resting heart rate. It helps to protect you against the threat of strokes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and type 2 diabetes. Studies have found that people who bike to work every day experience a 50% lower incidence of heart disease and cancer than non-cyclists.

“Cycling all or part of the way to work was associated with substantially lower risk of adverse health outcomes.”
Dr. Jason Gill, Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences

4. Good for mental wellbeing

Cycling is good for reducing stress and putting you in a more relaxed and positive state of mind. Like any other full-on cardio exercise, a challenging bike ride gives you a natural buzz from the release of feel-good hormones. Whenever you hit an individual goal, smash a personal-best or finetune your cycling technique, you enjoy a well-earned confidence boost. Jumping on your bike gives you a chance to escape the humdrum pressures of everyday life, explore the great outdoors and leave your problems at home. Cycling helps you lower the risk of developing depression and other mental health conditions.

5. Keeps your brain healthy

Cycling, together with other types of physical activity, is good for your brain as well as your muscles and cardiovascular system. Riding a bike has become associated with improved brain function and a lower risk of developing the negative cognitive changes which can eventually lead to dementia. Studies have revealed that, during exercise, blood flow in the brains of cyclists increases by between 28% and 72%, with elevated residual flow-rates of up to 40% post-exercise.

6. Helps you sleep better

It’s no surprise that the tiring effect of cycling during the day helps you sleep more soundly at night. In fact, research has proven that any cardio exercise such as cycling, running or swimming can result in extended periods of restorative deep-sleep (the important phase of sleep when the body repairs and recharges itself for the following day) and improved overall sleep quality. Cycling also helps prevent obesity and anxiety, two major causes of sleeplessness.

7. Low impact and less injury

Compared with high-impact sports such as running, cycling puts less stress on your bones, muscles and joints. When you cycle, your weight is fully supported by your bike and so your body is far less susceptible to impact injuries. Research shows that high-impact exercisers such as long distance runners suffer significantly more inflammation, muscle damage and residual pain than low-impact cyclists. Of course, cycling injuries do happen, but in general cyclists can expect to suffer less from impact-related medical problems and exercise downtime.

8. Builds more muscle

Cycling is a resistance activity that builds muscle as well as burning fat. In fact cycling places significant demands on all of your body’s major muscle groups as you pedal, and powers muscle development in specific areas such as your glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and calves. As muscle is leaner than fat, cyclists who train regularly and have a higher proportion of muscle tend to burn more calories, even when they are inactive.