Riding a bicycle is actually one of the prevalent exercises that people get involved in. On many occasions; you will see economists and health experts asking people to get involved in the riding of bicycles. There are many reasons why people are advised to embrace this act, and there are also some downsides to it. In America, bicycle riding is seen as a culture. So, we will be looking at the benefits of riding a bicycle, the best time to ride a bicycle, and the harms that bicycle riding in a detailed manner.
General Benefits of Bicycle Riding
It is the type of leisure you will enjoy when you get involved at the right time. If you ride bicycle around an area on a warm spring afternoon, it could act like an elixir. It could give you the energy to get involved in other activities for the day. It energizes when you keep the pace leisurely.
This could be that exercise that replaces your daily running routine. In fact, it should. People who are getting back on their feet from injury, and those who want to keep fit, will find cycling a better exercise than running. This is because it helps pump your heart and move your feet as required, without any effects on your joints. So, the lungs, the ankles, knees, and feet will have it easy while they are also exercised.
If you live in the United States, you will notice that bicycle riding has been encouraged with a lot of infrastructures, paths, lanes, government programs and many other projects. If you get into bicycle riding now, you will have the chance to make use of these amazing infrastructures. That’s one of the benefits US riders enjoy at the moment.
Cheap transportation is another huge benefit of bicycle riding. Many people commute to work with bicycles and it saves them a whole lot of money. It is legitimate and accepted as a method of transportation all over the world and you can use it. The world is making efforts to embrace green transportation and bicycle riding fits in.
You can use bicycle riding to reduce stress. This is one of the major benefits. According to numerous scientific researches, enough data has supported the fact that people who enjoy bicycle riding release a lot of stress while doing so. When you enjoy this, you will definitely report reduced stress levels.
It could be done for charity as it has become one of the most used exercises to raise money for charity. By so doing, you gain all the other benefits and still do something good for humanity. Many non-governmental organizations that raise money to help cancer, hunger, and disaster victims use it.
Health Benefits of Bicycle Riding
There are lots of benefits you derive from bicycle riding that are connected to your health directly. In fact, this seems to be one of the major sectors that get people to ride bicycles more than all the others.
Cycling is a very good muscle workout that makes use of the entire major muscle groups in the body. This is also beneficial because it does not have too much impact on them. It is a low impact exercise that is easy to engage in.
Bicycle riding is also very good for human stamina. When you cycle, you build more strength, stamina and increase your level of aerobic fitness. This can be easily achieved because you can set the level of intensity you want to cycle on.
Cycling specifically increases the level of cardiovascular fitness of the person, and makes the muscle not only strong but also very flexible.
The level of mobility of the joints is also improved on by cycling.
With bicycle riding, the athlete’s posture and coordination is hugely improved,
The bones are strengthened and enhanced through cycling
When you cycle, your body fat levels are hugely reduced. This is very beneficial to people who suffer from obesity and stomach fat problems.
Bicycle riding also reduces the anxiety level and the tendency for depression in people. Many other mental health problems could be ameliorated through bicycle riding too.
When it comes to your sexual life, bicycle riding can improve it in many ways. With it, you become very fit, and when you are fit, you will perform the sexual act very well. When you engage in steady bicycle riding, you will develop a better body with the muscles and fats in the right places and at right proportion. This makes you more attractive to the opposite sex. Again bicycle riding has a way of getting you in high spirit. When you are high in that sense, you can engage in better sexual exploits.
Of course, the prevalent understanding out there is that it is better to train the body during the morning, and this includes training the body with the bicycle. Another moment accepted as one of the best times to get involved in such training of the body is in the evenings after work. The truth is that this holds water as it concerns our disposition and the state of our body during this time. It also boils down to the weather condition on the outside where this bicycle riding will take place and many other things. Of course, you can’t ride bicycle on a hot summer afternoon, and you won’t be comfortable riding on a chilled winter morning or evening. So, in the summer, it should be morning and evening, while during winter and spring, a sunny afternoon ride will be better. Again, this is about time, and you can only ride when you have the time, if you can’t create time to achieve it at the exact moments mentioned.
However, when it concerns what to eat after the ride, the interval training, and recovery from the ride, heart rates during the ride, and what to do after riding, the evening is better.
Possible Harms Due To Bicycle Riding
The fact remains that bicycle riding its effects on the body could not be faulted. But then the external factors that are associated with bicycle riding, or the events that may occur while one is riding a bicycle may not be palatable. The last statistics on bicycle riding was done in 2011 and by then, there was 8.7% increase in fatalities owing to bicycle accidents. In the year under review, 48,000 people were injured in accidents involving bicycles. In Minnesota alone, there were 4 deaths in 2011. From 2008 to 2010, 32 deaths were recorded while 836 people were injured. This could be anybody
On another angle, people who ride in bicycles are exposed to huge amounts of pollution. While bicycles do not give out any carbon as they are friendly to the environment, people ride them most times on busy roads with heavy car traffics. While people inside these cars lock up their windows and enjoy conditioned healthy air, those who ride on bicycles inhale the carbon that is emitted by the former. This is very dangerous to their health.
Again, those who ride this in the evening also have the danger of inhaling the settling pollutants that are falling for the day after they have risen to the clouds. This is also not healthy for them.
So, while the gains of bicycle riding are being calculated, all these other things must be considered.