AFP Health Reviews

For starters, Bowling Green State University recently reported
that riding a bike for 10 minutes (seriously, that’s all!) improved the
mood of 21 men and women when compared to a control group that did
nothing during that time. Not only can cycling your way to happiness
improve your attitude, it can strengthen your relationship, increase
your performance at home and on the job and lead to improved health
(Cornell researchers have found that people who are sad tend to eat more
and eat less healthy foods).

While it’s well known that cycling
gives you energy, researchers at the University of Georgia have proven
that this energy boost will increase your productivity. The more you
move the more you feel like moving, a fact confirmed by researchers at
Georgia when they analyzed data collected in 70 studies on fatigue and
exercise – studies that involved data collected from nearly 7,000 men
and women. Ninety percent of these studies revealed that exercise leads
to more energy – energy you can use to be more productive at the office,
earning that big promotion. Forget the energy drink in the afternoon…
it turns out that regular exercise from cycling will offer you more
energy than taking stimulants!

Sleep statistics reveal that in the
last 20 years the average amount of sleep one gets has dropped from 9
hours to just 7 hours each night. Cycling can help you make the most of
that limited shut-eye. While cycling increases your energy during the
day, it has been proven that regular exercise also helps you sleep like a
baby when the lights are off. Getting sufficient rest can also helps
you lose weight as scientists have proven that your body will crave food
to replace the energy you lack if your body is getting insufficient
rest.

Researchers at Tufts reported in a review article that those
looking to diet will benefit from starting an exercise regimen at the
same time. It turns out that cycling and other forms of aerobic exercise
provide what the Tufts research team calls a “spontaneous reduction in
hunger.” Not bad!

Cycling can reduce stress and improve your
overall health. Whether you’re at home or at work, stress creates a
fight-or-flight response within your body. Your heart pounds within your
chest and your cells pump fatty acids into your bloodstream to fuel
your muscles during the impending crisis. Stress hormones like cortisol
flow into your bloodstream, putting your body on high-alert, preparing
for action. For most of us, the stressor isn’t anything as exciting as
the zombie apocalypse and it’s unlikely that we’ll need to run for our
life. Instead, this biological reaction leaves our body sitting in a
cubicle, festering in an unhealthy stew of high-stress toxicity.

It turns out that the best thing you can do to relieve
stress is to engage in aerobic exercise like cycling - burning excess
adrenaline and slowing the production of cortisol. Cycling stimulates
the release of "good mood" chemicals like endorphins that will lower
your anxiety and leave you feeling happy - a great alternative to
feeling stressed-out.

While fitness experts will always debate
what the "best" form of exercise is, what they can and do agree upon is
that the most successful form of exercise is the one that you can
sustain because you enjoy it.

Mark Blaubach of Kerrville, Texas
was stressed and unhealthy, weighing 364 pounds. Many high-impact
exercise programs were out of the question for him, but with the help of
a mountain bike he lost 117 pounds. Cycling was the only form of
exercise Mark could sustain and he remains in shape (and cycling) to
this day. Not only that - his riding has improved his relationship with
his wife, Faye, who began joining him on his rides and dropped 50 pounds
herself. That's what we call a healthy relationship!

It turns out
that whether you want to improve your heart health, overall fitness,
productivity or your mood... buying a bicycle and taking a short daily
ride is scientifically proven to be a step in the right direction. Those
that have been riding for years already understand the benefits of
cycling and we'd love to hear how riding a bike has improved your life
in the comments below.