What Are the Benefits of Cycling?

Medically reviewed by Amy Kwan, PTMedically reviewed by Amy Kwan, PT

Cycling has many benefits. Whether riding a bike outdoors or using a stationary bike at home, the gym, or in a spin class, cycling has been shown to improve overall health, increase fitness, and provide lifestyle benefits such as reduced emissions when used as transportation.

Riding a bike is an accessible activity that can easily be incorporated into daily life and enjoyed by people of all ages.

Continue reading to learn the fitness, health, and lifestyle benefits of cycling, the different benefits associated with outdoor and indoor cycling, how often to cycle, and how to get started.

Fitness Benefits of Cycling

As a low-impact activity that increases muscle strength and improves cardiovascular fitness, cycling can help people meet the recommended guidelines for weekly physical activity for overall fitness.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity per week for overall health. Moderate-intensity activity means your heart and breathing rates increase, but you can still carry on a conversation.

Biking at a casual pace three times a week for 50 minutes allows you to meet the recommended guidelines for activity. This can be done on a stationary bike at home or at the gym or in ways other than purely for exercise. Using a bike for transportation is an easy way to help you meet fitness guidelines.

Biking also helps increase the strength of the quadriceps muscles (muscles at the front of the thighs) and other leg muscles. Strengthening these muscles can help with balance, daily activities such as walking up and down stairs, and other physical activities.

Muscle mass is also an important part of healthy aging. As people age, muscle mass decreases. Cycling is one way that older adults can maintain their muscle mass.

Riding a bike improves heart health. People who exercise regularly have been shown to have lower blood pressure and a lower resting heart rate than inactive people.

Is Cycling Good Exercise?

Cycling is good exercise. As an aerobic exercise, it increases your heart rate while you cycle and burns calories. Cycling at less than 10 miles per hour on a level surface is rated as a moderate-intensity physical activity, while cycling at 10 miles per hour or more is a vigorous-intensity physical activity.

Cycling strengthens muscles and has proven health benefits such as decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

Health Benefits of Cycling

Incorporating physical activity like cycling into daily life has been shown to improve overall health. These benefits improve the heart, the joints, overall body composition, and mood, and can help prevent and control some diseases.

Cardiovascular Benefits

Cycling can lower blood pressure, improve resting heart rate, and reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. One study found that people who cycle had a lower risk of heart attack.

Joint Health

Cycling is a low-impact activity that is easy on the joints. It is often used in physical therapy to help restore mobility and range of motion without having to bear weight (such as in walking or running) on the joints.

A 2024 study showed that people with osteoarthritis (common wear-and-tear arthritis) who bike as a means of physical activity had less knee pain than people who didn't cycle.

Weight Management

People who bike regularly were found to have healthy body composition and less incidence of obesity. Body composition is the distribution of fat, muscle, bone, and other tissues in a person's body.

Most people need 150 minutes of physical activity a week to maintain weight. Cycling is a great way to meet this goal because it is easy to incorporate into daily life. Increasing intensity by adding inclines, hills, speed, and duration can lead to weight loss.

Improved Mood

In general, physical activity like cycling can have positive effects on mental health. People who regularly engage in physical activity have decreased depression and anxiety, experience better sleep, and notice improvements in mood and quality of life than those who don't exercise. Getting out in nature on a bike can help brighten your day.

Prevention of Diabetes

By improving overall health and helping people maintain a healthy weight, cycling can help prevent type 2 diabetes. A study showed that people who used cycling as a means of transportation or who biked for fun or exercise had a decreased risk of developing type 2 diabetes compared to people who didn't cycle.

Lifestyle Benefits of Cycling

Although cycling has many health and fitness benefits, it isn’t just a form of exercise. Biking can also be forms of recreation and transportation, which come with added benefits.

Cycling can be a great way for families to enjoy time together while meeting recommended daily physical activity guidelines. Parents looking to encourage their children to be more active might find that biking is a fun activity that the whole family can enjoy.

Cycling for transportation has benefits, too. People who commute to work via bike can save on transportation expenses.

Cycling is a small step in helping the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions helps lessen the impacts of climate change, which also has indirect health benefits.

Outdoor vs. Indoor Cycling

Both outdoor and indoor cycling have health, fitness, and lifestyle benefits. Depending on preference and goals, one might be more suitable for daily life than the other.

Outdoor cycling can be used for commuting, taking long scenic or endurance rides, or as a social activity. Outdoor cycling races and group rides are also also available.

For people who need to schedule their workouts or who live in areas where outdoor cycling isn’t ideal, indoor cycling in fitness centers or at home could be a better fit. Indoor cycling can also make it easier to increase the intensity of the exercise—allowing people to achieve a more vigorous workout without having to find hills or race through traffic.

While both have costs, using outdoor cycling for transportation may reduce some transportation expenses.

Who Might Avoid Cycling?

Since cycling can be done outdoors or indoors on stationary bikes, most people can cycle. However, people prone to falls should avoid outdoor cycling and may need a recumbent bike instead of an upright one. A recumbent bike has a seat low to the ground and the rider in a reclined position, with pedals closer to the front of the bike.

How Often Should You Cycle?

If cycling is your main form of weekly physical activity, you should aim for at least 150 minutes a week of cycling to meet physical activity guidelines. This can be broken down in various ways.

For example, you might take a 50-minute spin class three times a week or bike to work up to five days a week.

If you are new to cycling, you might find that starting with 10 minutes a day is enough. As with most exercises, starting slow and increasing time and intensity may help you stick with a program. Increase your cycling time incrementally until you are meeting your weekly goal.

For people who already achieve the physical activity guidelines, cycling might simply be an extra activity you do to add variety, increase mood, or lower stress.

Before You Get Started

If you are new to exercise, have a chronic health condition, or are recovering from an injury or surgery, talk to a healthcare provider about precautions and advice for getting started cycling.

How Can You Get Started Cycling?

To get started cycling all you need is a bike. The type of bike depends on whether you plan on biking indoors or outdoors.

For those getting started outdoors, any bike will do, even a beach cruiser. Some cities have programs in which you can rent a bike by the minute or hour.

Take a short ride and see how you feel. If you love it, you might decide to invest in a road bike for commuting or longer rides.

For those opting to cycle indoors, you can sign up for a spin class or hop on a stationary bike at the gym. Many stationary bikes have computers that will guide you through a ride, helping you to get the most physical benefits.

Stationary at-home bikes can also be a great place to start. Bikes such as the Peloton come with computer monitors on which you can access live and recorded spin classes.

Other home bikes simply allow you to track time and energy output and to increase intensity manually by adding resistance.

Summary

Cycling has fitness, health, and lifestyle benefits. These benefits include increased cardiovascular health and muscle strength, reduced risk of diabetes, weight management, improved joint health, better mood, and reduced transportation costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

Indoor and outdoor cycling both have benefits, but depending on your lifestyle, one might be more accessible than the other. People with tight schedules might find that attending a spin class suits them best, while others might choose to commute via bike.

Regardless of whether you choose indoor or outdoor biking, aim for at least 150 minutes of physical activity a week. These minutes can be achieved in many ways.

To get started cycling, all you need is a bike. Whether it’s a beach cruiser, a road bike, or a stationary bike, all will do—what matters most is that you start pedaling.

Read the original article on Verywell Health.