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The benefits of cycling for mental and physical wellbeing
Cycling isn’t just a way to get to work or a weekend hobby; it’s a powerful tool for enhancing both your mental and physical health. Whether you’re riding through town or exploring the green lanes, the benefits of cycling are profound and backed by real-world science.
Grab your e-bike, adapted cycle, arm-bike, or push-bike and let’s dive into how getting on a bike can transform your wellbeing, and how it’s not too late to get involved with Cycle September, which can help kickstart your cycling journey into the winter months.
Benefits of cycling:
- Better mood: Cycling improves the mood by releasing endorphins (the body’s natural mood lifters). It also boosts serotonin and dopamine levels, which help maintain a positive mood. A few minutes of exercise can be enough to improve your day.
- Increased fitness and energy: Cycling can improve fitness, which makes difficult physical work easier and gives feelings of energy. 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week, 75 minutes of high intensity exercise a week, or a combination of both is enough to increase your fitness levels.
- Build friendships and get social interaction: Cycling is social. It involves communicating with others, whether you ride with family, friends, greet others on your ride, or join a club. The Love to Ride app is also a great way to connect to other cyclists in Jersey and beyond. Social interactions during activity can improve mental health and reduce loneliness.
- Less stress and anxiety: Cardio exercise, like a relaxing or intense cycling, can help reduce feelings of anxiety and stress. Regular activity can even help prevent mild and moderate depression.
- Muscle strength, flexibility, and balance: Cycling engages various muscle groups, like the quads, glutes, and core. Training with resistance helps maintain muscle size and strength. Healthier muscles carry you throughout your life, helps maintain your balance, and reduces the risk of injuries as you get older.
- Maintain good health: Regular cycling can help prevent diseases and manage long-term conditions. Being active cuts the risk of dementia by 30%, type 2 diabetes by 40%, and cardiovascular disease by 30%. Cycling is a great low-impact way to get your heart pumping with low stress on the joints.
- Mental performance: Regular cycling can enhance cognitive functions like memory, creative thinking, and problem-solving skills, due to increased blood flow and oxygen to the brain during exercise.
- Improved sleep: Regular physical activity improves sleep quality, supporting mental and physical rejuvenation.
- Keeping a healthy weight: Cycling is an excellent way to burn calories which may help you keep a healthy weight. Depending on intensity, you can burn between 100-650 calories per hour.
Love to Ride
There is still time to log a ride in Love to Ride’s Cycle September challenge! It is a fun, free, and friendly challenge that’s open to riders of all levels. With the Love to Ride app, it is easy to join a community of like-minded people on Island and track your rides. Stand the chance to win prizes by signing up and riding. This can help get you started as we approach Love to Ride’s next campaign, Winter Wheelers.
Find out more at: Love to Ride Jersey (gov.je).
Learn more with this quick course: Cycle September 2024 (lovetoride.net)
Happy cycling! 🚴🚴