Is riding a bike good exercise? The simple answer is yes. Riding a bike offers numerous benefits when it comes to weight loss, physical and mental health, and a better state of mind. In this article, we are going to discuss why cycling is the best exercise and why should you have a round of your neighborhood daily.
The article will also provide the following information.
- Riding biking particularly for weight loss
- Why should you consider a stationary bike?
- Overall benefits of biking.
- How Biking Works?
Keep in mind that you don’t have to ride for hours to reap all of the cycling exercise benefits. It takes commitment and a lot of effort to clock serious mileage. However, it is very feasible to ride a bike every day for half an hour. Start small to find out what you can achieve from cycling. If it seems enjoyable and beneficial, you can go for longer tours once your body gets in rhythm with your bicycle.
Bike Riding for Weight Loss
Is riding a bike good exercise for weight loss? A good cycling routine can help you shed those stubborn belly fats within a couple of months if not days. Riding a bike burn a massive amount of calories just like all other cardiovascular exercises such as running. Besides, it further strengthens your lower body in addition to improving your endurance.
Getting Leaner through Cycling
You may already use a bicycle for commuting, grocery shopping, or sightseeing. However, it is also an easy and fun way to get back to shape. The effect of cycling on body shape is simply unbelievable. Cycling improves your overall health and fitness, keeping your heart healthy and shaping your body especially buttocks and legs. If you are riding a stationary bike with high intensity, you can burn up to 315 to 466 calories in half an hour. Similarly, it will burn 210 to 311 calories at the same time even if you are biking at a moderate intensity.
Now, keep the above figures in perspective. You have to burn 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat. You will burn almost 400 calories if you weigh more than 150 pounds by vigorously riding a bike for 30 minutes. Therefore, you will lose 2800 calories in a week if you ride the bike for 30 minutes every day with the same intensity. You can easily lose more than 1 pound a week if you cut only 500 calories from your diet every day. On top of that, you can expedite calorie burning by adding up other exercises to your routine.
When it comes to cycling benefits for ladies, they can lose 5% of their body weight by riding a spinning cycle for only three days a week for up to six months according to a study. The study further states that you can even continue burning calories even if your workout is over because the spinning cycle is a post-exercise energy expenditure workout.
Comparison of Different Exercises for Weight Loss
Now, we compare different exercises with biking and see how they fare when you are trying to lose weight. It has been proven that high-intensity biking burns more calories than swimming laps, walking, hiking, and strength training.
Remember that high-intensity bike riding for weight loss in the city is more vigorous exercise than riding a stationary bike, walking, or hiking. You will only burn more calories if you pedal fast and ride uphill. However, riding a bike with low intensity is not as beneficial as you are forced to believe. It will burn some calories but low-intensity cycling is not as effective in burning calories as high-intensity cycling.
Why should You Consider a Stationary Bike?
Many people ask us is riding a stationary bike good exercise. The answer is once again yes. There is not much difference between a regular bike and a stationary bike, to be honest. Riding a stationary bike enables you to burn fats quite effectively and efficiently. Besides, it is also a great exercise for your lungs, heart, and muscles.
Riding a stationary bike also offers better results than other aerobic exercises while putting comparatively less pressure on your joints.
The following are some of the benefits of a stationary bike you cannot simply ignore.
1. Improves Cardio Fitness
Is riding a bike good exercise for boosting cardio fitness? Cycling is one of the best exercises to get your heart pumping. It is a type of cardiovascular exercise that strengthens your heart, lungs, and muscles. Cycling also improves the flow of blood and oxygen to all parts of your body. As a result, cycling boosts your health in many different ways such as:
- Lower blood pressure
- Improved brain and memory function
- Improved blood sugar levels
- Better sleep
- Lower stress levels
- Better mood
- More energy
- Stronger immune system
2. Strengthens Lower Body and Legs
You can considerably strengthen your lower body and legs by riding a stationary bike. The secret is to ride at higher resistance if you want to avail of all the stationary cycling benefits for legs and lower body. Similarly, pedaling faster than normal will strengthen your quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Stationary bikes also engage muscles in your core, glutes, and back.
The upper body muscles can also get some exercise if you have a stationary bike with handles. It is particularly beneficial for shoulders, biceps, and triceps.
3. It is a Low Impact Workout
As you already know by now, cycling, no matter it is regular or stationary, is a low impact workout. A stationary bike, in particular, does not put much pressure on joints and bones. It strengthens those using smooth movements, making it the ideal exercise option for people with injuries as well as joint and muscle pains.
Keep in mind that running, jumping, jogging and other high-impact exercises put your feet, ankles, knees, and hips under a lot of stress. The stationary bike, on the other hand, is gentle to your body as you don’t have to lift your feet off the pedals. However, it is still a tough and challenging workout.
4. Best for Interval Training
Interval training means alternating between long sessions of low-intensity exercise with short sessions of high-intensity workouts. The best thing about interval training is that if considerably boosts your cardio health. More importantly, it enables you to burn more calories in less amount of time.
You can set stationary bikes to various resistance levels. As a result, you can workout at high, medium, or low intensities. Therefore, a stationary bike is a perfect tool for interval training.
5. Burns Body Fats
Well, this is a no brainer. We have already discussed how cycling helps you in losing weight. Riding a stationary bike at a high intensity level can lead to weight loss because it builds strengths while burning more calories. You can combine indoor cycling with a low fat diet to reduce a lot of body weight. Similarly, it also lowers triglyceride and cholesterol levels in your body.
6. Safer than Cycling on the Road
Cycling a bike on the road, trails, and mountain is a wonderful way of improving your health. However, it also entails some dangers. Some of these dangers include poor visibility, slick or slippery road surfaces, uneven trails, and rough mountain paths. On top of that, inattentive drivers are the biggest reason for most cycling injuries.
Similarly, it is difficult to muster the motivation and courage to venture out if it is too hot, too cold, raining, or snowing. It is, in fact, safer to stay indoors in these conditions.
You don’t have to be concerned about the weather, road condition, traffic, or inattentive drivers if you have a stationary bike. You can exercise any time of the day, month, or year in the comfort and safety of your home.
Overall Benefits of Riding a Bicycle
If you are still asking the question is riding a bike good exercise, here are a few more cycling benefits to convince you it is.
1. It Helps You Save Money
First and foremost, cycling helps you save a lot of money if you are primarily using your bicycle for commuting purposes. A cycle is cheaper than a car and it is also less expensive to maintain. Similarly, you don’t have to buy any gas or petrol to propel your bicycle. Therefore, you save money every time you prefer your bicycle over your car for a trip.
2. Cycling is an Efficient Way of Commuting
Cycling is the most efficient way of commuting in the world right now. Riding to work and back home sets the tone for the entire day. Besides, it helps you burn more calories as well. More and more people are swapping their cars for bikes because they don’t like to sit in the traffic for long hours. Constant exposure to traffic is bad for our health. Therefore, everyone who can ride a bike should ride a bike.
3. Cycling is a more Enjoyable Way of Travel
Nobody can argue over the cycling exercise benefits. However, it is also a very enjoyable way of traveling or commuting. You can make cycling a part of your commute if you cannot spare enough time for it out of your busy schedule. You can incorporate it into your life more easily than gym workouts. Similarly, you don’t have to do anything special to exercise yet you avail a lot of health benefits.
It is no surprise that you can gain weight if you commute by car even if you exercise regularly. Therefore, the benefits of cycling go beyond healthy living and avoiding traffic.
Cycling benefits for ladies who bike at least half an hour every day include reduced risk of breast cancer along with weight loss, improved cardio health, and others.
4. Cycling Makes You Sharper
You can make your mind sharper if you adopt cycling as a means of exercise. Even 30 minutes of bike riding every day significantly improves creative thinking, memory, and reaction time.
5. Better Sleep
Is riding a bike good for you as far as better sleep is concerned? You don’t need to be a scientist to know. Riding a bike daily for an hour will tire you out which in turn will result in better sleep. Cycling improves your fitness levels which is directly linked to better sleeping patterns. Any drop in fitness level will lead to sleep problems such as insomnia.
6. Lower Risk of Cancer and Heart Diseases
Cycling improves the flow of blood throughout your body. It also gets the heart pumping in addition to burning more calories. Therefore, it decreases the chances of becoming overweight. Therefore, it is one of a select few exercises which lowers the risk of major diseases such as heart attacks and cancers.
You may think there is no need to sharpen a natural sense of direction when you have Google Maps and other navigational apps. You should experiment with getting out and exploring the streets without navigational aids. It is such a wonderful exercise to enhance your own mapping capabilities.
8. Cycling Strengthens Your Immune System
Is riding a bike good exercise for your immune system? Studies say it is. Cycling can protect you from the constant attacks of germs as it reduces the time of commute. It also expedites the production of white blood cells and essential proteins. Both these components combine to improve your immune system as well. Cycling can also reduce the number of sick days by 40%.
9. A Longer Life
Last but not least, cycling is a perfect exercise for prolonging your life. Cycling daily will keep you healthier and happier even if you are getting into the later stage of your life. People in their 70s or 80s tend to live 5 years longer if they do just 30 minutes of exercise every single day compared to their more sedentary counterparts.
How Cycling Works?
It is appropriate to understand how cycling works at the end of our article. Remember that cycling is one of the best cardio exercises without any side effects. The effects of cycling on body shape are tremendous. It covers each part of your body especially your hips, legs, and glutes. Similarly, it helps you burn whopping 400 calories in an hour which is ideal for weight loss as well.
Above all, cycling is a gentle exercise that does not put an extra burden on your knees, back, hips, and ankles.
Places where You can Ride a Cycle?
The best thing about cycling is that you can practice it anywhere you like. You can ride on a special bike path, a road, a footpath, a dirt trail, or a mountain trail. Similarly, you can buy a stationary bike if you want to ride indoors.
Experts recommend choosing a flat road or path if you are a beginner. On the other hand, mountain biking is ideal for you if you are looking for a tougher challenge. It also engages your upper body and hence, it has more health benefits than flat path riding. You can do mountain biking on rough terrain or mountain trails.
Your core and upper body come into action in case of mountain biking because it is more difficult. It involves negotiating trickier surfaces and hills. If you are looking for a total body workout, you must consider mountain biking. Road biking, on the other hand, is more of a lower-body cardio workout.
How to Start Riding a Bike?
You must be wondering how long should I bike for a good workout. A beginner should ride only 3-5 days a week for 30-60 minutes a day. Don’t forget to warm up before every ride. Paddle for 5-10 minutes at an easy and slow pace. Then increase your speed until you start sweating. You can change the settings on a stationary bike for more pace options. Similarly, pedal at a slow pace for another 5 minutes when you have decided to call it a day.
Everything You Need to Know About Riding?
Is riding good for you? It depends on several factors such as cost, health, environment, and commitment to the task. We will discuss some of these factors below.
1. Cost
You need to buy a new bicycle if you don’t already have one. A good bicycle can cost you anywhere from $100 to more than $1000. Similarly, you can also rent a bike in some cities across the country.
2. Required Equipment
As mentioned above, you need a bicycle for riding. It is important to get a bike which fits your size. Similarly, you should also buy a helmet for head safety. Padded biking shorts will make the bicycle’s seat softer and much more comfortable. Also, go for the gloves as they protect you against grip rubbing.
3. Is riding a bike good exercise for beginners?
Yes, it is a great exercise for beginners. You can start riding again even if you have not touched a bike in years. Cycling is not a weight-bearing activity which means it can greatly help you if you want to lose weight.
4. Cycling Outdoors
Cycling is the best workout for outdoors.
5. Cycling Indoors
You can also ride indoors if you have a stationary bike. Indoor cycling is also possible if you hire an indoor trainer.
6. How Intense is Riding as an Exercise?
Riding a bicycle is a high-intensity exercise. It helps you burn a lot of calories by increasing your heart rate as much as running. It is also not very hard on your body or joints. As a result, you can easily get back into shape even if you have joint problems.
7. Which Body Areas Cycling Targets?
Cycling targets almost all body areas. Cycling benefits for legs, core, and glutes are well documented. Biking strengthens your core and it is the best exercise for hamstrings, quads, and other parts of the legs. Similarly, biking is a serious workout that can make your hips and glutes leaner but stronger.
Final Thoughts
Now you have found the answer to the question is riding a bike good exercise. Cycling is not only ideal for weight loss but is necessary for your general wellbeing, better sleep and sex life, improved confidence, and prolonged life.
