The Health Values of Cycling Combined With Diet

Cycling is one of those exercises that when executed correctly and performed regularly offers a slew of health benefits. Whether the goal is to shed off those extra pounds you’ve gained during the holidays or make body ready for the next beach season or just feel overall good about yourself, it is without a doubt that cycling can help you achieve them, and more.

Despite being a low-impact exercise, cycling provides enormous benefits to the body, particularly in the shedding of unwanted fats, toning and strengthening the leg muscles, and improving your cardiovascular system. It even makes you feel happy and less stressed.

But any exercise should be complemented well with a healthy and balanced diet to obtain the best results. So before you get on the seat of your bike and sweat yourself up, it is essential to understand first why you need to pair cycling with a healthy diet.

Lose Weight

It is a moderate to high-intensity workout that allows you to burn a lot of calories and lose weight along the way. This Chicago cycling studio is an excellent venue to take up cycling classes indoors, allowing you to break a sweat and remove the extra pounds even when it’s snowing or raining outside, or you want to take a spin along with classmates and an instructor.

According to Livestrong.com, you can burn at least 300 calories for a 30-minute cycling routine on the stationary, depending on how intense your workout gets. And paired with a good diet, cycling can improve the metabolism, therefore expediting the weight loss process. Also, check out the intermittent fasting and fitness guide for dads if  you want to learn more about the importance and impact of exercise for a healthier lifestyle.

Build More Muscles and Improve Endurance

Cycling is also an excellent way to improve muscular definition, particularly on the leg area. Targeting the core, glutes, quads and the hamstrings, it allows you to build more muscles in two ways: one, by the push-pull motion which places more force to the hamstrings and quads.

On the other hand, if you like to do it low-impact and with less intensity, cycling also helps build better muscle endurance. And not only does it improve the leg muscles, but such workout also enhances overall strength, allowing you to meet the physical demands of everyday life with relative ease.

If you’re interested in strengthening the upper body as well, combine cycling with cross-training.

Low-Impact Workout

Whether or not you are recovering from an injury, cycling is one of the best low-impact activities you can do. It doesn’t put as much pressure as running does, and if performed correctly, also doesn’t aggravate existing injuries to the knees, legs or ankles. Indoor cycling is even often introduced as one of the first few routines that empower patients to recover from such injuries since pace and intensity can be modified to meet changing fitness needs.

Good for the Heart

It also brings enormous benefits to cardiovascular health. Cardio workouts such as cycling maintain a healthy heart rate, as well as combat bad cholesterol, manage blood pressure, and in turn, lessen the risks of heart conditions.

Although some uncontrollable factors such as genetics can make you a candidate for cardiovascular diseases, exercise and diet are two of the things that you can control to manage such conditions. So combined with a healthy diet, it becomes an even more excellent workout routine that renders the heart with a lot of benefits.

Release Happy Hormones

Those who regularly run are already familiar with the word “runner’s high,” a state or feeling when the person feels euphoric and less stressed. Cycling also releases happy hormones pretty much the same way in that the brain releases neurotransmitters called endorphins, leading you to feel calm, blissful and happy. If after a hard day’s work, you feel stressed, tired and grumpy, then it probably takes 30 minutes to cycle to regain your old happy self.

Final Thoughts

It can’t be emphasized enough how important exercise and diet are to living a healthier, happier lives, but those aren’t created equal. Indoor cycling is excellent if you want to do low-impact exercise with all the benefits it can give to your heart, lungs and lower muscles. Both diet and workout go hand in hand in creating a better version of yourself, and it’s important not to take away or neglect the other from the entire equation.