For most of us cycling is a wonderful workout that keeps us active and helps us shape a healthy lifestyle. Here’s a list of some of the biggest benefits of cycling for someone who needs a reason for hopping on a bike everyday. Besides its benefits on health, it makes you feel so alive and gives you a sense of freedom. It lets you lose in your thoughts while riding past beautiful surroundings. Riding a cycle is a magical experience that melts away all your problems and takes you at peace. It is a great way of escaping the everyday stress.
Reasons why we should get on the bike everyday
- Cycling helps you lose weight:
Cycling is an amazing cardio workout that helps you lose weight and reduce belly fat. That said, one should cycle for an hour or more. You must do it at a certain amount of speed for a certain amount of time everyday. When you want to slim down, you must also take care of the calories you consume everyday. In simple words, the calories you eat must not exceed the calories you burn in a day which is referred to as ‘calorie deficit’. If you are kicking yourself into cycling everyday and eating healthy which creates a calorie deficit, you will lose weight.
- Cycling strengthens your leg muscles:
Cycling is considered to be the best workout for legs. However, it is considered to be an amazing whole body workout but the main target are the leg muscles for cycling benefits. Cycling strengthens and improves the functioning of the lower body muscles without overstressing the joints. It also builds muscles around your quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves. Riding a bike on a regular basis helps to get your legs in shape and toned them. To get the results quickly, you need to pedal faster.
- Cycling improves your health:
Cycling releases the feel-good hormones such as serotonin, dopamine and phenylethylamine. Hormones are like messengers for our bodies which regulates everything from physical functioning to our emotional well-being and keeps us healthy. These hormones relax your mind and make you feel happy throughout the day. This boosts your self-confidence and fills you up with positivity. These hormones improve your mood and reduce your feelings of anxiety and depression.
- Cycling helps you sleep better:
If you find it difficult to sleep, cycling could be the thing you should try. Research from the Stanford University of Medicine shows that cycling for 30 to 40 minutes a day improves your sleep quality and helps you get a deep sleep which in turn improves your health . Plus, cycling helps you to fall asleep more quickly compared to the people who don’t cycle.
- Cycling causes less stress to your joints and muscles:
Cycling is a low impact exercise that involves no jerking and twisting and it’s gentle on the joints. It’s considered to be the safest option for an exercise as it is not harder on your muscles and joints. Cycling is great for people having joint concerns and overall stiffness due to which they cannot indulge into any kind of exercises. Riding a bike is gentle on your body so you don’t have to worry about joint pain and body aches. Cycling is less likely to cause any overuse injury.
- Cycling gives a positive start to your day:
Starting your day with cycling boosts your energy and metabolism levels for the whole day making you more inclined to make positive and healthy choices. It makes you feel good all day. Getting your exercise part done in the first place gives you the reason to eat healthy for the rest of the day. In simple words, it sets the tone for your day.
Hope you are convinced to give it a try!
“Ride as much or as little, as long or as short as you feel. But ride”
– Eddy Merckx
