There are so many fantastic benefits to taking up cycling, and now more than ever people are dusting off their saddles and hitting the road again. Cycling, like swimming is one of the best ways to stay fit and healthy.

But what exactly can cycling do for your health, what are the precise benefits of this great pastime? We’ve broken down every aspect of the physical benefits of cycling for you, so you know exactly what’s happening during a ride and how your body reacts to a consistent cycling routine.

Cardiovascular Fitness

One of the biggest health risks in the UK is heart disease, and cycling is an excellent counter to help keep your heart healthy. Cycling not only stimulates your heart strengthening the heart muscle, it also helps improve your heart’s functionality and ability to pump blood effectively all around your circulatory system. Just 20 mins of cycling a day has been proven to drastically improve your heart’s effectiveness over time, so even a relatively short and gentle ride along some quiet roads can help improve your health if you keep at it!

Muscle Strength and Flexibility

Cycling uses the vast majority of your leg muscles, just make sure you stretch correctly before you begin, specifically your calves, groin, quads hamstrings as these are the muscles most commonly damaged. Most people will experience stiffness and poor flexibility often in their legs and hips; cycling can help improve your manoeuvrability. Much like yoga, cycling can help stretch your muscles to their full potential and strengthen them to boot.

Improved Joints

Due to it’s low-impact nature, cycling is particularly useful for people with some joint problem and can help improve hip, knee and ankle joints all at once. Exercise bikes are often better at help your joints than regular bikes as you can control resistance much easier and therefore work up to a higher, more difficult setting once your joints have gotten used to cycling.

Stress and Anxiety Reduction

Cycling and in fact, most forms of exercise have been proven to improve and decrease stress levels as well as help with the symptoms of anxiety. It’s the act of clearing your mind and concentrating on a task in hand that helps overcome anxiety problems and potential panic attacks. Also for people wanting some time to themselves, cycling is a fantastic escape form the daily monotony of regular life.

Improved Posture and hand-eye co-ordination

Not many people know this, but cycling is actually really good for your posture and is often the favoured exercise of taller people as it can really help stretch your back out. Another rather unknown benefit to cycling is improved hand-eye co-ordination. If you’re one of the people with two left feet or find yourself struggling with the ol’ rubbing your stomach whilst patting your head 'schtick', then cycling can help increase your co-ordination, helping you to feel more in-control of your feet and hands!

Decreased body fat levels

Cycling is an excellent way to shed off some of your unwanted body fat. As it’s a cardiovascular form of exercise, it’s incredibly efficient at burning calories and therefore losing weight. Just 30 minutes of cycling can easily burn up to 300 calories, so dust off that saddle today and you could get in shape sooner than you think!

If you’re looking at taking up cycling then head to our cycle insurance page for all the details about our policies that can help keep your cycle protected.