About fifty million bicycles are produced annually in the world, which means that a huge part of humanity prefers to lead a sporty, healthy lifestyle. What are the health benefits of cycling? Yes, it is simply invaluable: it has a beneficial effect on the musculoskeletal system, and the treatment of vegetovascular dystonia and varicose veins. When pedaling a bicycle, the muscles of the pelvis and legs are simultaneously involved in the work, which trains the ankles and calves, the muscles of the abdomen and thighs. In addition, cycling improves mood and distracts from everyday problems. A lot of books and articles have been written about the benefits of a bicycle, because we live with you at a time when being healthy and athletic is not only useful, but also fashionable.

Why a bike is better than a TV

Remember how, as a child, we loved to ride a bicycle around the yard, not getting tired of pedaling all day long? Unfortunately, as we grow older, we find time for a two-wheeled friend less and less and hardly think about the fact that cycling is simply necessary for us now – in a period of constant stress and chronic fatigue. Arriving home from work or school, we wearily sit down at a computer or TV, confident that this is the best vacation. Here are just reddened eyes and frequent insomnia slightly hint that we are doing something wrong. Maybe you should look for another option for an evening rest – for example, cycling?

The benefits of a bicycle in our frantic pace of life are undeniable. Hundreds of large sports goods companies provide consumers with a variety of exercise bikes. Who is engaged in them in the fitness center, someone is in a hurry to buy it home, but still not even the best simulator can replace a real bike ride in the fresh air. It would seem, what’s the difference? But the wind in your hair, yellow leaves on the sidewalk, birds circling high in the sky – only from all this you can recharge your batteries with positive energy and smile for no reason until the end of the day. Is it possible to get such sensations while sitting on an exercise bike in a stuffy room of a sports center?

And besides, a woman on a bicycle is just very beautiful! The chest is forward, the back is seductively arched. Butt – back, smoothly moving in time with the movement of the pedals. What man can resist and not admire the beauty passing by? Hardly you can achieve the same effect by sitting at home watching TV and eating the last hamburger. Therefore, you should not think for a long time: a bicycle will help your figure, lift your spirits, and save your health.

Health benefits of cycling

Perhaps the biggest benefit of cycling is that the respiratory system is very active while riding. By doing long bike rides, we force our lungs to work at full capacity. As a result, the blood is enriched with oxygen supplied to the cells of the brain and other internal organs. The benefits of cycling are especially great for those who smoke a lot: during movement, aeration occurs in the lungs, which contributes to the release of accumulated harmful substances contained in tobacco.

If you suffer from varicose veins, then you simply must try cycling! By actively pedaling, you force the blood to run through the veins at high speed, which helps to reduce the knots of congestion in the vessels. Even if your legs are completely devoid of unpleasant venous “networks”, the prevention of the disease in the form of regular cycling will not hurt you.

Another undoubted benefit of the bicycle is the improvement of the human cardiovascular system. While you are pedaling, your heart muscle is contracting intensively – your heart is being trained for endurance (it is not for nothing that exercise bikes are called cardio machines). The only point: do not overdo it! If you do not calculate your strength and give your heart an excessive load, then instead of benefiting you will get serious health problems.

No less benefit from cycling for your nervous system. Agree that cycling is not only a physical activity, but also a distraction from problems and an opportunity to relax alone. Sometimes valuable thoughts and innovative solutions come during a leisurely bike ride. It has been noticed that among those who are engaged in cycling, there are much more stress-resistant people (and this is a definite plus in our crazy time, right?)

Did you know that moderate cycling by a pregnant woman helps the unborn child experience the same health and developmental benefits as its mother? Scientists from the University of Michigan USA found that those women in a position that regularly commit moderate cycling, endure pregnancy much easier, and the chance of abnormalities in fetal development of their children is fifty percent lower. Of course, you should not drive a bicycle for women in the last stages of pregnancy, as well as for those who are not friends with sports and do not feel very confident on a two-wheeled friend. But for experienced cyclists, it is not at all necessary to abandon two-wheeled vehicles during pregnancy.

Surprisingly, cycling is an excellent prevention of myopia! The fact is that while moving, you constantly look in different directions, change the angle of view, and also peer into objects distant from you. You can’t even dream of the best gymnastics for the eye muscles! If you are not tempted by the thought of visiting an ophthalmologist soon to choose glasses or contact lenses for your eyes, then just think of your two-wheeled friend and go for a wellness walk with him.

And, of course, cycling is shown to everyone who wants to lose a few kilograms of excess weight. When driving at a speed of about nineteen kilometers per hour, you can burn six hundred kilocalories. In addition, cycling helps speed up the metabolic processes in the body, which means that you will lose weight much faster. For example, with an unchanged diet, but with daily cycling, you can lose six to eight kilograms of excess weight in a year. If you want to achieve a more impressive result, then you should add proper nutrition to sports. Riding a bicycle is not only work and physical activity, but also a pleasant entertainment. Agree that losing weight while having fun is nice?

Among other things, girls who are fond of cycling have a well-developed sense of balance and coordination of movements. And the speed of their responses is an order of magnitude higher than that of those who are not familiar with cycling: unusual situations on the road, the need to make decisions quickly do their job! And in addition to all these advantages, you can simply expand your horizons: after all, you will ride not only around the house! There will come a day when you decide to ride a bike out of town to enjoy the surrounding views away from the so annoying city bustle. And there close to group bike rides in company of like-minded people!

We can talk endlessly about the benefits of a bicycle, because in addition to all the advantages that it gives to our health, a bicycle is also the most environmentally friendly transport. You don’t pollute the environment, and making your two-wheeled friend takes only about five percent of the energy used to build a car.

Interesting Bicycle Facts

The word “bicycle” in literal translation from French means “fast legs”. Came into use in the sixties of the nineteenth century;
The bicycle in the form we know it now—two-wheeled and traditionally sized—appeared in 1900;
With the same energy consumption of the body, moving on a bicycle, we move three times faster than with normal walking;
Fifty-year-old Dane Fred Rompelberg set the world record for the fastest cycling speed: 268.831 kilometers per hour!
There is room for twenty bicycles in one car parking space;
In China, there are two hundred and fifty bicycles per car;
In 2005, a survey was held in the UK on the topic of the most outstanding invention of mankind since 1800. The bicycle was declared the winner, by the number of votes it bypassed such inventions as the telephone and the Internet combined;
In Latvia, every cyclist is required to have a driver’s license to drive a bicycle. In Poland and the Czech Republic, a cyclist who “drives a wheel” while intoxicated is liable to the fullest extent of the law: from fines to imprisonment for up to two years;
Newspaper “Vesti Rossii”, 08/03/1903: “Two hundred and four cyclists were punished on the main streets of St. Petersburg – they are deprived of the right to drive around the city. This punishment befell them due to the fact that they had violated the mandatory regulations, that is, for driving on the panels. Today, there are twenty-seven thousand cyclists in St. Petersburg.