Continuing with the series about health impacts and cycling, this time I am going to show additional body benefits different from the ones exposed here and here.

When comparing cycling with some other sports, is considered low impact. A lot of research has been carried out in the last years comparing perhaps the two most practiced sports: cycling vs running. The fact of running being weight bearing makes injury rates to be higher in comparison to cycling (which is not weight bearing). This point was demonstrated even with long distance runners and cyclists. When researchers compared both groups, they discovered runners suffered 133-144 per cent more muscle damage, 256 per cent more inflammation, and 87 per cent higher DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) compared to the cyclists group. Overall, riding a bike is specially indicated for those who have osteoarthritis since it is a low-impact exercise that places little stress on joints.

Moreover, cycling allows reaching further places compared to other sports in the same time. As a result, it improves your navigation skills no matter where you practice it. You need to remember a route or determine where is the North when riding. Orientation and addresses should be in your memory or you would need to earn your daily bread with your own resources, no matter whether you are cycling in a city, mountain or countryside.

Furthermore, cycling improves your sexual life. Yes, you have read it right. Why is so? Doctors said the muscles developed on the bike are used during intercourse. The better developed these muscles, the longer and more athletic intercourse will be. And it works for women and men.

Next, it is not rocket science that tiring yourself out on a bike will improve your sleep. Researchers determined sleep problems to those people who drop between 2-4 per cent in cardiorespiratory exercise practice, no matter the people gender. Looking for the causes, they suggested it could be a reduction in anxiety brought by exercise than improves the ability to sleep. Bike exercise also protects against weight gain with age, which is another cause of sleep dysfunction.

Finally, riding a bike also increases handling and spacial awareness. Climbing, descending and cornering, among others technical elements, teach you how to use your body weight to get the bike to go where you want it to. Gaining the skills to manage these technical elements can provide an increase in your muscles and a massive confidence boost, specially when you start to see improvements. Posture and coordination are also improved. And it only takes two to four hours a week to achieve a general improvement to your health.

Continuing with this series of posts, in the first one I talked about health benefits of cycling: weight control, muscle development and immune system reinforcement. Now, I am going to highlight the benefits of riding regarding diseases.

Researchers have demonstrated blood pumping your body and calories burned when riding helps you cut your risk of developing major illnesses such as heart disease and several kinds of cancer. For instance, cycling to work was showed an impact of cutting half the risk of suffering heart attacks or cancer in 260,000 individuals over the course of five years.

Second, cardiovascular disease is a term than includes stroke, high blood pressure and heart attack. By practicing regular cycling, one stimulates and improves her heart, lungs and circulation. Conversely, she reduces her risk of cardiovascular disease. This is related to the fact that riding strengthens your heart muscles, lowers resting pulse and reduces blood fat levels. The comparisons are odious, but research demonstrated that people who cycle to work have two to three times less exposure to pollution than car drivers, and their lung function is improved.

Third, type 2 diabetes is related to lack of psychical activity as a clear indicator of developing such a disease. Large-scales researches have shown than riding for more than 30 minutes per day had a 40 per cent lower risk of developing this type of diabetes.

Related to a previous point, bicyclers are exposed to fewer pollution than car drivers. Indeed, researchers measured air pollution through detectors fitted to a driver, a bus user, a pedestrian and a cyclist. These people moved through a busy route in central London. The results showed the car driver experienced five times higher pollution levels than the cyclist and three and a half more pollution measures than the bus user. As a result, lung health improves when riding instead of driving a car.

Cycling is related to psychology and produces a series of mental benefits as I wrote about it here, here and here. On the other hand, it also provokes a lot of body health benefits. The first post of this series deals with the weight control, muscle development and immune system reinforcement.

The basic equation when intending to loss weight is calories out must exceed calories in. In other words, you need to burn more calories than you consume. Researchers have determined that cycling burns between 400 and 1,000 calories per hour, depending on intensity and bicycler weight. Other research shows that riding for just thirty minutes every day will burn nearly five kilograms of fat over a year. Furthermore, you decide the time and intensity of cycling, thus you can adapt them to your needs.

Additional implications are the joy this activity produces when practiced and how much time you spend burning calories on a bike. Moreover, riding increases your metabolic rate which is closely related to burning body fat. However, weight loss by cycling is boosted with a healthy eating plan.

Next, riding a bike also builds muscle, specially around the glutes, hamstrings, quads and calves. Impressively, muscle is leaner than fat and people with a higher percentage of muscle burn more calories practicing the same sport.

Finally, the immune system is strengthen when cycling. Researchers have found benefits of the upper respiratory system (and reducing instances of the common cold). In addition, mild exercise can improve your immune system by increasing production of essential proteins and waking up lazy white blood cells.

Nevertheless, some research suggests that immediately after intense exercise your immune system is lowered, but adequate recovery such as eating and sleeping well reverses it.