Benefits of Cycling
Cycling has a lot going for it.
It can improve your fitness, strengthen your legs, help you manage your weight and give your cardiovascular system a good workout. It can also be a practical form of transport, save you money and, perhaps most importantly, be genuinely enjoyable.
Unlike exercise that has to be fitted into a specific training session, cycling can become part of everyday life. You can ride to work, cycle to the shops, head out for a weekend ride or simply get on your bike because the weather is good and you fancy going somewhere.
And if, like me, you are fortunate enough to live somewhere as beautiful as Devon, there is the added bonus of some fantastic scenery along the way.
So, what are the benefits of cycling?
1. Cycling Is Good for Your Heart
Cycling is predominantly an aerobic activity, which means your heart and lungs have to work harder to deliver oxygen to your working muscles.
As you become fitter, your cardiovascular system becomes more efficient at doing this. Regular aerobic exercise can improve cardiovascular fitness and is associated with improvements in several of the factors connected with cardiovascular health.
You don't necessarily need to ride particularly fast to benefit. A steady ride that raises your heart rate and breathing can contribute towards your weekly physical activity.
UK physical activity guidelines recommend that adults aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week, and cycling is one way of accumulating those minutes.
2. Cycling Builds Fitness and Stamina
Anyone who has returned to cycling after a long break will probably recognise the feeling of the first few rides.
A hill that initially seems enormous gradually becomes manageable. You can ride further before feeling tired. Your breathing settles more quickly after a hard effort.
That is your fitness developing.
Regular cycling challenges both the cardiovascular and muscular systems, helping your body become better adapted to sustained physical activity.
The beauty of cycling is that the intensity is largely in your hands. A gentle ride can provide relatively easy exercise, while hills, longer distances and a faster pace can turn the same bicycle into a considerably harder workout.
3. Cycling Strengthens Your Legs
Your legs do most of the work when you cycle.
The repeated action of pedalling recruits the major muscles around the hips and legs, particularly the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteal muscles and calves.
Cycling therefore provides an opportunity to develop muscular endurance alongside cardiovascular fitness.
It shouldn't replace strength training altogether — the two provide different types of stimulus — but regular cycling can certainly contribute towards stronger, more conditioned legs.
4. Cycling Is a Low-Impact Activity
One of cycling's biggest advantages is that it is a relatively low-impact form of exercise.
Unlike running, where each stride involves landing against the ground, your body weight is supported by the bicycle while you pedal. That can make cycling an attractive option for people who find repeated impact uncomfortable.
Low impact doesn't mean effortless, of course. A hard climb can quickly prove that.
It simply means that cycling allows you to challenge your cardiovascular system and leg muscles without the repetitive impact associated with activities such as running.
Correct bike set-up is still important. Saddle height, riding position and a bike that fits properly can all influence comfort, particularly as the distance you ride increases.
5. Cycling Can Help with Weight Management
Cycling requires energy, and the further or harder you ride, the greater that energy demand becomes.
Regular cycling can therefore contribute to the overall energy expenditure involved in maintaining a healthy body weight.
But there isn't a magical point during a ride when the body suddenly starts burning fat, nor is there one calorie figure that applies to everyone. Energy expenditure varies considerably depending on factors such as body size, speed, terrain, riding intensity and duration.
If weight loss is the objective, cycling is best considered as one part of the equation alongside a balanced diet and an active lifestyle.
The real advantage may simply be that cycling is an activity many people enjoy enough to keep doing.
6. Cycling Can Help Reduce Stress
Not every benefit of cycling is physical.
Exercise can provide an opportunity to switch off from the pressures of everyday life, and cycling has the additional attraction of getting you outdoors and changing your surroundings.
There is something particularly satisfying about getting on a bike and simply riding.
Whether it is a quiet country lane, a trail through the woods or a familiar route after work, time on the bike can provide a welcome mental break as well as physical exercise.
For many cyclists, that feeling is every bit as important as improving fitness.
7. Cycling Is Easy to Fit into Everyday Life
One of the biggest barriers to exercise is finding the time to do it.
Cycling can help overcome that problem because it doesn't necessarily have to be an additional activity. It can also be transport.
Cycling to work, commuting part of a journey by bike or using a bicycle for shorter local trips allows physical activity to become part of your normal routine.
Instead of finding an hour to exercise and another hour to travel, sometimes the two can become the same thing.
8. Cycling Can Save You Money
Once you have a bicycle and the basic equipment needed to ride safely, cycling doesn't require a monthly membership fee.
Using a bike for some of the journeys you would otherwise make by car can also reduce fuel and parking costs.
Of course, anyone who becomes seriously interested in cycling will soon discover that there is no shortage of bikes, clothing and equipment on which to spend money!
But cycling itself can be remarkably simple.
A bike, a safe route and the desire to ride are enough to get started.
9. Cycling Is Better for the Environment
Choosing a bicycle instead of a car for suitable journeys has another obvious benefit: the bicycle doesn't produce exhaust emissions while you are riding it.
Not every journey can realistically be made by bike, but shorter journeys often can.
When cycling replaces a car journey, you combine physical activity with transport while reducing the environmental impact of that particular trip.
It is one of the relatively rare occasions when doing something beneficial for your own fitness can also be beneficial beyond it.
The Best Exercise Is the One You Keep Doing
There are plenty of ways to become fitter.
You can run, swim, walk, lift weights, join a gym or play a sport. Cycling isn't inherently better than all of them.
What makes cycling particularly appealing is the combination it offers.
It can be exercise and transport. It can be challenging or relaxing. You can ride alone or with other people. You can use it to train seriously or simply spend an hour exploring somewhere new.
And because the intensity can be adjusted relatively easily, cycling can remain part of an active lifestyle as your fitness and goals change.
Final Thoughts
The original question behind this article was a simple one: could a bicycle be part of the solution to becoming healthier?
For many people, the answer could be yes.
Regular cycling can contribute to cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, weight management and an active lifestyle. It is relatively low impact, can be incorporated into everyday journeys and, unlike many forms of structured exercise, can take you somewhere at the same time.
But perhaps cycling's greatest advantage is simpler than any physiological benefit.
It is exercise that doesn't always feel like exercise.
Sometimes you're concentrating on the hill in front of you. Sometimes you're trying to ride a little faster or further than last time.
And sometimes you're simply enjoying the view.
References
- Oja P, Titze S, Bauman A, et al. Health benefits of cycling: a systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine Science in Sports. 2011;21(4):496–509.
- Kelly P, Kahlmeier S, Götschi T, et al. Systematic review and meta-analysis of reduction in all-cause mortality from walking and cycling and shape of dose response relationship. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. 2014;11:132.
- UK Chief Medical Officers. Start Active, Stay Active: A report on physical activity for health from the four home countries' Chief Medical Officers. Department of Health, 2011.
