Being physically active helps you remain fit and healthy. Regular physical activity helps you maintain your health while safeguarding you from diseases like obesity, heart diseases, arthritis, diabetes, etc.
Cycling is considered as one of the best physical activities to remain fit. Cycling helps you lose weight, lower your cholesterol and strengthen your body. Cycling is a mode of transport, so you enjoy two benefits at the same time. It is eco-friendly, and can take you to your destination whilst working up your body. It is gaining global popularity as people are becoming more aware and conscious about their health. Let us understand the health benefits cycling has to offer in this article.
As the people in the world are getting more health conscious, it is important to understand the role cycling plays in maintaining the physical health of a person. One of the best things about cycling is that it caters to all ages and all fitness groups.
Whether you are young or old, or you are trying to lose weight or just doing some physical activity, cycling works for all. It is low-cost, eco-friendly and saves time as you can do activities at once. Cycling provides a wide range of physical benefits like:
Cycling helps to make your heart work out. The heart pumps and keeps the flow of blood strong while cycling. This causes the muscles of the heart to be strong and healthy while reducing blood fat levels. Cycling has been proven to reduce the risks of heart related diseases, strokes and high blood pressure.
Even though cycling seems like a leg workout activity, it works up different parts of the body as well. It focuses on muscle groups like quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes. While going up-hill, and during high-resistance pedaling, cycling also boosts the core and upper body strength of a person.
Cycling is considered as a low-impact exercise. This means that it does not leave heavy stress on muscle joints. It helps relieve stress and pain near joints. Cycling is recommended for people with joint problems or stiff lower-bodies as it helps relieve the stiffness around the joints.
Regular cycling improves lung capacity and efficiency. It is also seen that people who chose to cycle over other vehicles have less exposure to pollution, meaning they have a better pulmonary health. It helps strengthen the respiratory muscles and increase oxygen intake in the body.
Running causes damage in the knees and feet for over-weight people. Cycling is the best alternative to running as it does no such harm. Cycling burns through calories and helps reduce weight. It also increases metabolism of the body. A 30 minute ride can burn up to 500 calories depending on the intensity.
While cycling doesn't directly affect bones as it is not a weight bearing activity, it strengthens muscles, coordination and balance which in turn improves the overall structure of the skeleton.
The likelihood of getting chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and certain types of cancers can be reduced with cycling. These diseases mainly occur because of lack of physical activities, slow metabolism and insulin imbalance. Cycling makes you active, and boosts your metabolism.
Balancing is one of the crucial parts of riding a bicycle. Cycling helps improve balance and coordination of the body. As we get old, this ability to balance will help in preventing fall-related damages.
Cycling boosts the production of white blood cells in the body. White blood cells are known as the protector of the body as our immune system is made up of white blood cells. It also boosts the overall immune function of the body.
Cycling is one of the cardio-exercises. It improves the aerobic function of the body. Over time, continuous and regular cycling will improve your stamina significantly. It will allow you to perform physical activities for a longer period of time without fatigue.
Mental health is as important as Physical health. Depression, Anxiety and Stress are the leading reasons for mental disorders. Cycling is a fun activity that releases endorphins and dopamine, which naturally reduces anxiety levels. Cycling is also a social activity, and thus increases social interactions of the person as well. This simple activity goes beyond physical health, it provides emotional balance and mental peace.
Cycling naturally decreases cortisol levels (Stress Hormone), especially when done outside. Exposure to nature and fresh air has a soothing effect on the nervous system as well. Regular cycling also releases endorphins which is a mood enhancer in itself, thus reducing stress and anxiety levels.
When you cycle, your brain releases neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine which are a natural mood relaxer. Just a short ride can up-lift your mood through a tough day.
Just like all other physical activities, cycling helps to go to sleep faster, providing a good quality of sleep. It also reduces stress and anxiety levels which are other sleep dampers. It helps regulate the sleep cycle. Better sleep means better rest and recovery which in turn means better overall health.
While riding a cycle, your complete focus will be on the road and balancing. This would increase your concentration power. Also, as cycling improves blood flow in the body, it helps in creating and enhancing brain cells which in turn helps in improved memory, concentration and focus. Studies also show that regular cycling helps age related cognitive decline and diseases like Alzheimer's.
Even though cycling may seem like a solo activity, there are many groups of people who love cycling that cycle together to various destinations. Joining such groups will help you improve your social circle, and make cycling an even more fun activity.
Cycling can help improve both physical and mental health. In today’s world, a sedentary lifestyle can lead to various chronic diseases that can be easily prevented with an active lifestyle. Cycling helps with these chronic diseases as it's a simple aerobic exercise that makes you active.
The leading cause of type-2 Diabetes is inactivity. Cycling helps make a person active, increase their metabolism and maintain insulin balance of the body. Studies have shown that an inactive person is more likely to get Diabetes than a person who regularly cycles.
Cycling increases blood flow in the body and makes the heart pumping, which helps in maintaining proper blood pressure and cholesterol levels. These benefits drastically reduce the risk of stroke and coronary artery disease.
Cycling has proven to increase the production of white cells in the body. It also helps flush out bacteria from the lungs and create a good cardiovascular system. All of these factors support a good immune system.
Cycling is a simple aerobic exercise that helps burn calories and makes a person achieve an active lifestyle. One of the root causes of obesity is inactivity. Obesity is a major risk factor for multiple diseases, like hypertension, fatty liver disease, sleep apnea, and osteoarthritis. These diseases can easily be prevented with a healthy and active lifestyle which is easily achievable with cycling.
Cycling is a physically active exercise that lowers the risk of colon, breast, and endometrial cancers. It increases metabolism, regulates hormone levels, reduces inflammation and supports a good immune system which are all factors necessary to protect ourselves against cancer.
Cycling is a fun activity, but has its own drawbacks. As we ride our cycle outdoors, risk of accidents happening is high and considering a cycle is not exactly a safety-optimised vehicle, we should follow safety measures to keep ourselves safe. Here are a few safety tips for cycling that can help you out.
Today, healthcare costs are rising rapidly. Having health insurance can help with the financial burden healthcare leaves behind nowadays. To save and reduce health insurance premiums, you should try to remain as healthy as possible and to get wellness benefits and discounts. Cycling is one of the best, and easiest ways to do that. Cycling helps maintain a healthy and active lifestyle. Here’s how cycling can help reduce insurance premium costs.
Insurers assess risk based on your health and lifestyle. Having an active and healthy lifestyle makes the insurer assess that you are a low-risk profile. A low-risk profile means a lower premium.
As cycling has many health benefits, and helps in improving the immune system, a person is less likely to fall ill and seek medical care. This in turn means less insurance claims and less insurance claims means lower premium rates.
Cycling helps prevent mental illness such as depression, anxiety and stress. This means there would be less likelihood of visiting a therapist and in turn means less claims made. Lower the claims made, lower the insurance premiums.
Having a healthy lifestyle and being physically active can help you get health benefits and discounts as you are termed as a low-risk profile. Many health insurance companies have wellness programmes that reward users for being physically active. They do this using tracking devices through mobile phones or smart watches and reward the user according to information provided through these tracking devices.
Cycling is an aerobic exercise that helps build a healthy and active lifestyle. Cycling also helps reduce the risk of contracting diseases like diabetes, heart-related problems, obesity, mental stress, anxiety, etc. With such health benefits on the line, it would be a huge mistake to miss out on this healthy yet fun activity. Daily 10 minutes of cycling can potentially make your health 10 times better.
Ans: Cycling offers health benefits for both men and women. For men, it helps maintain healthy testosterone levels and supports muscle strength. For women, it enhances bone density, helps manage symptoms associated with PMS and menopause, and boosts overall physical fitness.
Ans: Cycling tones and strengthens the leg muscles mainly the thighs, calves, and hamstrings. It improves endurance and promotes lean muscle definition for women’s legs.
Ans: Just 30 minutes of cycling can boost cardiovascular health, burn calories, and strengthen muscles. It's a great way to stay fit, manage stress, and enhance overall energy levels.
Ans: Cycling burns calories and helps maintain a physically active lifestyle. Along with proper diet and other exercises, cycling can help reduce belly fat.
