You may have heard that riding a bike is good exercise. But is it? Well, biking can be an excellent form of cardiovascular exercise and has many benefits. For example, you’ll get the same workout as you would by running at 4 miles per hour for 30 minutes – but in less time!
Biking also provides some resistance to your muscles so they don’t get too used to one position. You’re also getting fresh air and sunshine while burning calories all at once! What’s not to love?
We all have our childhood memories filled with riding bikes outdoors with our friends and family because they are one of the easiest and budget-friendly fitness equipment that runs on our physical exertion. No doubt, it is the simplest activity to keep our life active and healthy.
Along with multiple physical and mental benefits, many people still question is riding a bike good exercise? Well, to completely answer the question, we have highlighted a few modern types of bikes with their long-lasting and short-term benefits for readers.
Types of Bikes
Road Bikes
Road bikes or our traditional bikes are made up of lightweight frames and allows us to enjoy our journey on flat grounds, streets, roads, and even on rough grounds as well.
These bikes require stamina for long rides, concentration, and focus on avoiding any incident.
Mountain Bikes
They are specially designed for mountain adventures, they are enriched with excellent features to handle the hilly surface and control the bike over rocks, bumps, and lakes.
Riders need special skills and training to pedal it into the wilderness and perform incredible stunts.
Upright Bikes
These are very famous and standard indoor exercise bikes usually seen in commercial and home gyms.
These bikes have the same physical effects as road bikes but they offer more advanced and technical options for building muscles and keeping track of your workout.
Recumbent Bikes
Recumbent bikes are more popular than traditional and upright bikes due to their optimum level of comfort. The beautifully designed reclined chairs are helpful, especially for those who have severe back issues.
These models target the lower body, such as calves, glute, and leg muscles, without putting stress on joints. These bikes are packed with more advanced workout programs, heart rate monitoring, multiple resistance levels, and digital consoles.
7 Benefits of Riding a Bike
Recommended Reading – Recumbent Bike Shopping Guide
Whether you are riding a road bike or an indoor exercise bike, it’s an amazing cardio workout; the exertion can enhance your endurance and fitness at a high level.
If you are a regular rider and burn your calories by pedaling, you would love to know some of its other perks as well.
- Riding has a significant impact on your lungs, heart muscles, and brain. Researches have proved that cyclists have better lung health as compared to vehicle users.
- Riding a recumbent exercise bike has proved to be a more efficient workout routine engaging multiple muscles and building overall strength in a comfortable position.
- It’s the most recommended alternative exercise to running and jumping and has the same positive effects on the cardio system.
- A recumbent bike workout can help patients with joint pain and knee therapy.
- If you want to lose weight and love riding, you will enjoy your intense workout session and high resistance levels.
- Although bike exercise improves overall body functions, it targets your lower muscles and tones your leg shape without overstressing them.
- Riding is a simple and friendly exercise, and it helps to motivate beginners to start an active and healthy lifestyle.
Have a Look at Some other Benefits
Muscles Involved While Riding a Bike
Every workout program is designed to target specific body muscles; the same is the phenomenon of riding a bike. Each pedal stroke activates different parts of our body like quads, hamstrings, calves, and glutes.
In the initial phase, legs start moving with the pedals and activate hip extensions or muscles followed by knee extensions. As we proceed and continue moving, the pedals, ankles, and large calf muscles get involved for support and function.
Cycling Burns Calories
Training exercises and workout programs help you lose body fat and burn calories, and riding an exercise bike increases your metabolism and builds muscle, allowing you to burn more calories while in a comfortable position.
A recumbent bike with seat and backrest adjustment options can help you spend more time in a comfortable recline position and carry out high-intensity workouts for a longer duration.
Effects of Cycling on Mental Health
Today, our doctors accept that mental health is as important as physical health to keep our bodies in a stable position. Riding an exercise bike has a tremendous effect on our mental health; it can ease anxiety and depression, which is common among people nowadays.
Although bike riding is not a treatment for mental issues, it can help release endorphins, which in return help lower stress levels, and you may feel more relaxed and confident.
Moreover, the constant concentration and awareness of the environment during road bike exercise deviates you from the problems that let you live in the present moment.
Self-Esteem and Confidence
Riding a bike is not just about pedaling and raising your heartbeat; it’s an efficient exercise for our physical body, mental health and an excellent option to build self-esteem and confidence.
Being an active and healthy person boosts more confidence in your personality while performing daily social and domestic duties.
Once you start to see improvement in your bike exercising skills, it elevates your self-confidence, and your ability to manage things greatly improves.
Some Last Words
Riding indoor exercise bikes such as recumbent and upright bikes is more secure than road and mountain bikes. These bikes have a low risk of accident and great benefits in terms of intense training and interval sessions.
To answer the question ‘’is riding a bike good exercise?’’ you should give yourself at least 1 daybreak of a week to fully enjoy muscle building, endurance and avoid muscle soreness and pain.
Also Read: Recumbent Exercise Bike Hybrid
About Author
Research is the key to producing good content. Meghan Joye loves to write research-based articles. Her articles cover topics ranging from wellness, health, and self-improvement, to more lighthearted ones such as hobbies and pets. Meghan strength is that she can write.