Benefits of Cycling for Intense Cardio and Why Avoid It Excessively

Benefits of Cycling

If you are looking for one of the most fun ways to do cardio, you got to check the benefits of cycling. It is not just a recreational activity that gives you a sense of freedom and joy, but it also helps you achieve your fitness goals.

You can vouch on this one for regular cardio and find out how it benefits your health, both mentally and physically. Here, you will know the benefits of cycling and some drawbacks it might cause if done excessively. It sums up all the reasons why 2020 is an excellent time to use your vehicles and maintain fitness even if you want to skip the gym for social distancing.

The Benefits of Cycling 

Cycling does not only help your health improve but also comes with other benefits. It can be a little difficult for someone who starts, but with gradual and regular practice, you can master the art of cycling. Just after that, the benefits start reflecting. So, would you want to know how it helps you? Read on, and you will know it all here, as below is a list of the benefits of cycling:

Improves Balance

The benefits of cycling start with the belief that it can improve your body balance. Wondering how? It is because cycling causes your legs to exercise, which further builds up more muscles. You’ll find a beginner to struggle a little at the start of the cycling. It is quite a common phenomenon as people usually lack balance.

With numerous attempts, he/she starts gaining the balance, but after a few falls, of course! However, all you need to do is, keep trying, and the balance gradually develops.

Helps in Improving Mental Health

Cycling is perfect for your mental health. You will notice a positive change in your mental health as you’re in regular cycling practice. It has the power to increase your memory and boosts up the creative side of you too. Also, you’ll have a sound sleep after a good cycling round. Moreover, numerous psychiatrists around the globe suggest cycling to people having depression. It can release your stress and change your mood too! So, when you’re in a bad mood, put on your gears and get out cycling!

Aids in Weight loss

Weight loss is one of the top 5 benefits of cycling. Since it is a type of exercise, you can easily avail of the health benefits of cycling 15 minutes a day. It is not as strenuous as swimming or running across the trail. But it does end up helping you lose the right amount of calories. More so, you can count cycling as one the quickest way to lose your weight too. But you need to ensure that you do not end up doing the leisure riding. That is because only when you vigorously cycle at high speed will your body start to sweat. And you’ll burn off those excess calories.

Helps to Curb Heart Problems 

You can even count cycling as a precaution to curb the chances of most heart problems. Journal Heart conducted a study that showed positive results in people availing cycle, walking, and public transport where the chances of stroke or any other heart ailments minimized. Even though cycling was primarily not the focal point of the study, but it did show encouraging results.

Environmentally Friendly

The environmental benefits of cycling are immense as it causes no pollution. You can comfortably ride around the city and not pollute it much, like any other means of transportation. Moreover, you’re not creating a carbon footprint by using your bicycle. Many people bike to work and use a laptop pannier to bring their items. They are particularly helpful because they convert to a stylish cross body bag and have a built in raincover.

Another advantage of cycles is there is a meager amount of emission during the manufacturing. It is much lower in comparison to a car or bus manufacturing. Pollution is highly responsible for the change in climate we are facing. So, it is essential everyone takes small steps in saving Mother Nature. And you can start that by riding your bicycle today!

Networking 

The benefits of cycling not only fall on your health but helps in other things too. Some companies are following the footprints of golf using bicycles to use it as a means of networking. So, you can start riding to benefit your health and also increase your business network. It will fetch you some clients that are prospective and provide you with numerous business opportunities.

Have Your Favorite Meal

You have already got yourself the best way to lose weight quickly. So, it is evident that a few cheat meals now and then will be easily possible. You can have your favorite meal and not worry about gaining weight. But it would help if you did not go overboard with your meals. That is because if you do not end up burning the number of calories you’ve had, your weight might increase. So, keep a close watch on that!

A small calculation might come handy to you in this regard. Try calculating the total calories you have in a day. Then deduct it from the number of calories you are losing. If the loss of calories is more than your daily intake, you’ll lose weight. And if the consumption in more than the lost calories, you end up gaining weight. It also has a lot to do with your metabolism rate too. But this small calculation will help you judge when you have the cheat meals!

Increases Family Bonding 

Amongst all the benefits of cycling, family bonding is a significant one. In today’s world, smartphones have taken a lot of our quality time. We hardly have the time to lift our heads and communicate with our loved ones. But cycling can help you and your family bond well!

Why not try out a biking day-out? You, along with your family members, can select a day to go out biking. Apart from burning calories, the fun and frolic will be simply unforgettable. So, go to the park with your loved ones and start a bicycle race.

Benefits of Cycling

Increases Creativity

People in the entertainment industry does face blockages in their creative thinking. Artists, writers, musicians, and more are likely to face this issue. Once they start facing the block, it becomes challenging to ooze out the passion in their creative work. So to regenerate all your creative ideas spending time with nature, exercising, and especially cycling helps a lot. You can loosen your brain muscles and feel the stress going away. Once you are relaxed and the tension leaves you, the creative flow comes out even better.

Increases Strength 

You are already aware that the cycling benefits for legs are immense, as it builds up more muscles. But it also helps in toning the muscles of other parts of your body too. Hence, making it a great exercise to do every day. It helps you in boosting up your energy levels and strength. But remember that your cycling ride should not be a stroll. Only a faster and vigorous movement will strengthen the body muscles, thus further increasing your stamina. Gradually, as you practice this regularly, you’ll notice a change in your tenacity. So, you can ditch your gym membership, and buy yourself a bicycle instead!

Increase Your Friend-Circle

Being surrounded by the right circle of friends is always a great thing. As you go about in your cycle on the trail, you’ll make friends. A good and healthy friendship develops when we are on the same page. Similarly, cycling does the same. You can even join the associations or clubs to make more friends.

Be happy exercising

One of the best advantages of cycling is to boost up your brain health. You are already aware that exercising keeps you in good health mentally. So, you can increase your dopamine release by exercising. Dopamine is the hormone that keeps you happy and why keep yourself away from it!

Disadvantages of Cycling Excessively

Keeping yourself in balance will always reap you the maximum of the benefits. So, it would help if you approached cycling in a balanced way, or else you may end up harming your health.

Now, let us see the ill effects of cycling when you end up spending all your time on the bicycle. The disadvantages of cycling are listed below. Which are:

Artery and Nerve Compression

The disorder occurs to people who are die-hard riders. Some riders use their bicycle to go on tours and spend most of their time on it. After doing this for many years, these riders come in for artery and nerve compression.

According to the study done at Harvard, riders sitting on the seat of the bicycle for prolonged hours come in for this compression. All the arteries and nerves that supply blood to your reproductive organs get affected because of this. Moreover, they can even come in for numbness and many more health issues.

Consumes Time

Before you get out and start your riding, a lot of your time has been consumed. You put on your biking gears, take your energy drink, and kill almost half an hour. When you finally reach your bicycle, settling the chains, tires, and other things takes away a little more time. When all these factors are covered, only then you leave. However, you can be an expert or a beginner; the time to get ready is the same for all.

Lower Back and Upper Back Pain

You must have noticed numerous riders to hunch over and ride their bicycle. When you’re on the bike, you have to remain in that same position continually. The repetitive act puts extreme pressure on both your lower and upper back. It further leads to muscle stiffness and causes severe pain too. So, riding in limited hours is advisable to all riders to avoid these health problems.

Loss of Bone Mass

Loss of bone mass can be another disadvantage of cycling. It isn’t that good when it comes to your bones. By the New York Times, a study concluded that bike riders who are competitive runners were examined for a bone test to some non-riders. In the final result, all the cyclists had excessively lost bone mass than the non-riders. Some of them even came in for osteopenia, which is the previous stage of osteoporosis. So, you can draw a definite conclusion that cycling regularly for long hours can harm your bones severely.

Final Thoughts 

It would help if you kept in mind that everything done moderately will benefit your health. So, as you know, you should start it off all the benefits of cycling without any delay. Ride through the empty roads and give your mind and body the tonic it needs. You’ll have a much better mindset and bounce back to work like never before. If you haven’t taken a ride yet, go and do it right now!

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