Whether you’re doing an indoor cycling workout or riding rocky terrain outdoors, cycling can benefit your body from head to toe – and muscles to mindset.
So what exactly are the health benefits of cycling? Here’s what your time in the saddle can do for your body.
1. Builds Muscular Endurance
Doing a bike workout can help increase your endurance—the ability to keep going even when your muscles are completely fatigued, says Melanie Melillo, CPT.
2. Burn fat
No surprise here – cycling is a great way to burn calories, which can help you create a calorie deficit for fat loss.
How many calories does cycling burn? It depends on a number of factors, including your pace, intensity, resistance, duration, and body weight. A 155-pound person cycling at a moderate pace on a stationary bike, for example, can expect to burn 252 calories in a 30 minute workout.
“The more you cycle, the better your cardiovascular fitness and the greater the reduction in body fat levels,” says Todd Buckingham, Ph.D., exercise physiologist and world champion triathlete.
3. Builds Lower Body Strength and Muscles
Whether you’re adding resistance during an indoor cycling session or taking your way back, cycling can help improve lower-body muscle strength and endurance, Buckingham says.
“The main muscles active on the bike are also the largest muscle groups in the legs: the glutes and the quadriceps,” says Buckingham. “Other accessory muscles are also active, including the hamstrings and calves.”
4. Engage your core
Cycling is not a targeted abs workout, but you will naturally engage your core to help maintain balance and stability on the bike, especially when you get out of the saddle.
“Your core works hard to keep your body properly positioned, balanced, and straight while you ride a bike,” says Paul Johnson, founder of CompleteTri.
5. Spares your joints and bones
Because cycling is a low impact workout, it minimizes wear and tear on your joints.
“Low-impact exercises are those that allow you to keep at least one foot connected to the ground or surface at all times, allowing you to reduce the amount of body weight that lands on your joints,” says Melillo.
This makes cycling “one of the best forms of exercise to start with, especially if you’re not used to exercising regularly,” Buckingham says.
6. Helps strengthen your core
Like all forms of aerobic exercise, cycling improves your cardiovascular fitness.
“Your heart is a muscle like the other muscles in your body. If you exercise your heart regularly, he will get strongerBuckingham says.
7. Strengthens your lungs
According to American Lung Association“As your physical condition improves, your body becomes more efficient at getting oxygen into the blood and transporting it to working muscles. It’s one of the reasons you’re less likely to get short of breath during exercise over time.
