Fun and Fresh Air: How to Bicycle Your Way to a Better Body
With the sheer amount of expensive gym equipment out there today, many people forget the true benefits of the humble bicycle. Inexpensive and easy to get hold of, bicycles are a sure-fire way to achieve a better body and build muscle without gym fees!
In addition to increasing your health and saving your dollars, biking also gives you the opportunity to get some fresh air, see more of the outdoors, and even make exercising fun and sociable. In fact, cycling has been scientifically proven to improve our mood and reduce heart disease by up to 50% – benefits many of us don’t even realize a bike can give us.
If you’re looking to get a better body but don’t want to sweat it out in a hot, uncomfortable gym, here’s how a simple bike can transform your health and melt the fat you’ve always wanted to get rid of.
You can combine exercise with day-to-day life
Aside from exercising and health reasons, one of the main reasons for people owning a bicycle is to get them to places without using a car or public transport. From the years 2001 to 2009, the amount of trips made by bicycle skyrocketed from 1.7 billion to a huge 4 billion, meaning more and more of us are ditching our carbon footprint whilst improving our health.
If you find it difficult to motivate yourself to exercise, biking your way to destinations is a great way to forget you’re even exercising! For example, if you cycled to work, you wouldn’t even see it as exercise: you’d see it as simply ‘getting to work’. Without realizing, you could potentially burn one pound of fat every single month, simply by pedaling to work just twice a week.
Better still, cycling to places instead of driving or getting public transport is guaranteed to save you a lot of money in the long-run. Circle City Bicycles offer a huge range of road bikes perfect for everyday use at prices that will suit almost any budget.
Works almost all your muscles
As well as being a great cardiovascular exercise to burn fat and increase your heart rate, riding a bicycle also helps to stabilize your core and strengthen your muscles. Ever seen a cyclist pedaling out of the seat? Almost like they’re standing up?
This is hugely beneficial to your body, especially if riding uphill. Both your leg and inner-core muscles will be worked and, the more often you cycle, the stronger you’ll make them! Burning calories and losing weight is only part of the way to achieving a better body. Strengthening your muscles and toning up is one of the main components to becoming lean, and cycling is one of the best exercises to achieve that.
Increases energy and motivation to exercise
As earlier mentioned, cycling has been scientifically proven to improve mood and make us feel happy. Why does this happen? Cycling releases dopamine into our brains, a hormone that not only increases feelings of happiness but also increases energy levels too.
Research has shown that purely from cycling, you’re able to reduce tiredness by up to a huge 65%. Paired with the dramatic increase in energy that will be produced every time you ride your bicycle, you have all the tools you need to not only become motivated to exercise, but to also spend longer doing it!
This will then result in more calories being burnt and more strength being built-up in your muscles. It’s common sense to realize that the more you exercise, the more you’re likely to improve your health and get a better body. So, by cycling and receiving the energy boost and decrease in tiredness it provides, you’ll be well on your way to achieving your dream body quicker than you’d have ever thought possible.
Forget the expensive gym memberships and high-tech equipment. Simply getting on a bicycle and taking a ride in the great outdoors is all you need to improve your health, mood and energy levels whilst working your way to a better body. While there’s nothing wrong with sweating it out in the gym, making regular gym visits isn’t for everyone, and many people crave a simple outdoor exercise that’s fun and mood-boosting without a high price tag.
So, if you’re desperate to feel more energized and look better than ever before, get your hands on a bicycle to see where the world of cycling can take you!
Ed Pope is a fitness freak! He works at a gym and spends most of his spare time enjoying sports and keeping fit too. He has now started to write about fitness, sharing his passion online.
Kristin McGee is a celebrity yoga and Pilates instructor in New York City. She is currently teaching yoga with Peloton. She is the star of over 100 videos, seen in several magazines and tv shows and is a spokeswoman for many brands and causes she believes in. A proud mom to three, she sure keeps herself busy!