In order to achieve desired physical fitness, one needs to adopt an exercising regime or some outdoor activity that includes the movement of whole body muscles. Regular workouts are useful as they make our body to excrete the toxic elements from the body in the form of sweat.
The challenging part is “to be regular”. We need to add some fun element to our workouts so that it keeps us motivated to be regular in our practice.
Cycling is one such activity that is not only fun but includes most of our body muscles and ligaments in an active state. The best thing about cycling is that you can do it at any age –just like walking or running.
The small children enjoy doing cycling as well as elders enjoy a sense of freedom and activity through cycling. However, for elderlies it is recommended to use indoor exercise bikes which are safe.
Here we will enlist the 7 health benefits of regular cycling practice to give you more substantial reasons for including cycling in daily routine:
Weight Loss
Weight is a problem with half the population of the world! Cycling regularly can show you effective results over the period. When you pedal, you not only stretch your legs but the pressure comes on your whole abdominal structure, arms, back and even facial muscles.
Cycling helps in burning calories at a faster pace than brisk walking or other slower forms of workouts. You can lose somewhere in between 300-800 calories by cycling for one hour everyday- which is pretty rewarding!
Building Muscle
Building muscles include a lot of endurance and strength. Cycling not only helps in burning the fat from the body it also helps in putting the fat in the right shape over the period of time. Especially the areas of the body that need toning in particular- hamstrings, calves, and quads get benefitted from regular cycling.
Improves Lung Functioning
When you cycle, you tend to inhale at a faster pace and exhale too relatively. This allows maximum oxygen to reach your lungs and helps in improving their functionality significantly.
Reduces the risk of heart diseases
When you do cycling your heart beat goes from zero to high. The blood starts pumping at a faster rate thus burning more calories gradually. It decreases your chances of being overweight. These are the reasons that the doctors often suggest heart patients take up cycling in regular practice.
Improves your sleep patterns
The lifestyle these days is full of stress and tiredness. Amidst extreme busy schedules, we get little time to work-out as we are always in a hurry to go somewhere. It is better if we include cycling as a regular practice for covering short distances. This way we will be able to save time with moderate work out too. People who take a bicycle to their workplace are often considered fit. Cycling brings our maximum body muscles in motion, therefore our body gets tired enough to sleep peacefully through the night. The symptoms that are relieved from attaining full night’s sleep are:- anxiety, obesity, breathing problems etc.
Enhanced brain power
The studies show that they cyclists’ brain power is higher than the other people. This is considered because the blood-flow in their brain increases by as much as 28-30% and even more.
Boosts the immunity
If you do intense exercises to achieve certain fitness goals, it tends to lower your body’s normal immune system because you cannot keep on doing that on regular basis. The body needs to adapt to your fitness routines and therefore you need to pick something as subtle as cycling. Cycling can be included in regular practice for commuting from one place to another which will give you sufficient 30 minutes to 1 hour cycling every day.
You can moderate the speed of pedalling as per your mood and requirement. People who cycle tend to produce vital proteins and have a better rate of blood being pumped thus raising the levels of immunity.
Conclusion
The above 7 health benefits of regular cycling are just a few out of innumerable other benefits that can be linked to this low impact workout. Cycling is a wonderful everyday routine that one must bring in practice. This is the most optimum way to stay close to nature and be fit with endurance and strength.