What are the benefits of cycling? We have 6 fantastic reasons in this post – Cycling is very beneficial for your health and happiness! Whether all together as a family at the weekend for fun or on your own for fitness (or to escape the family!) – cycling is not only good for you it’s also cheap transport, environmentally friendly and could save you money!
Here is our round up of the benefits of owning a bike and cycling regularly
1. Cycling is a ‘Non Impact’ activity
This is one of the best things about taking up cycling. It doesn’t matter how big you are, anyone can get on a bike and not have to worry about jarring and damaging joints as with impact sports like running and tennis.
This makes cycling great for all ages. Get yourself a comfortable bike seat and ensure your bike fits you properly – important for safety and comfort. For kids bikes we have a useful inside leg measurement search (Click on ‘Find my Bike’ above), it displays all the bikes that will definitely fit your child in our lightweight kids bike range.
2. Cycling excercises lots of important big muscles in your body
Quads and hamstrings (that’s your thighs), hip muscles and glutes (buttocks!) Cycling tightens up all those potential wobbly bits – useful for most people over the age of 30!
3. Cycling gets you super fit
When your lower muscles feel strong it also increases the amount of excercise you can do (not just cycling, you’ll feel stronger generally) and therefore this makes you even fitter – you’ll be hopping about like a gazelle after a few weeks of cycling every day. (Once you get over the initial aches and saddle sore that is – unpleasant and can be avoided by building up cycling gradually, stretching before and after and not pretending you are Bradley Wiggins until at least week 3!)
4. Cycling burns fat!
This seems fairly obvious as all excercise helps. The more your body gets used to turning stored fat into fuel the better, as your body gradually becomes more efficient at it. Losing weight or better still, maintaining weight gets easier the more regularly you cycle. Being fit is about your body being efficient and using more oxygen – and cycling is a great way to gradually build your fitness without the high impact on your joints or having to join an expensive gym.
Research has shown we determine the number of fat cells we have as children. Healthy kids wont automatically be healthy trim adults, but it is suggested by the research that they have a far easier job of maintaining a healthy weight as an adult as healthy active kids have less fat cells as they reach adulthood. We cannot delete fat cells only shrink them so the less you have to start with the better as you have less capacity for storing fat.
5. Cycling Boosts your Metabolism
Well so does all excercise – but cycling is more fun and can get you from A to B faster! Your metabolic base rate is how many calories you burn when you are doing nothing, with daily excercise of around 30 minutes or so you will naturally boost your metabolism. Your body works more efficiently and you wont store as much fat.
6. Cycling is fun and eco friendly
We thought we’d end with this one as the great thing about cycling is it doesn’t have to be too much hard work. Cycling is “as easy as riding a bike” – no special training required after you learn the art of balancing. We have a video with top tips for teaching children to ride a bike. (The tips work just the same for adults who want to learn!)
With a bike ride you get to your destination quicker, you can free wheel down hills “weeeeeeeee” and you can reward yourself for the uphill climbs by having a nice picnic stop and admiring the view. You can avoid traffic jams and feel smug that you’re not polluting the environment.
One of the nicest parts for us is that you can cycle as a family – how often have you heard of people going for a family run!
If little kids get tired of cycling you can tag their bike onto yours with a bike trailer – this is far more fun for you both than breaking your back carrying them home after a walk.
We’d love to hear what you love about cycling – leave us a message on our Facebook page or send us a tweet @thelittlebikeco 🙂
