Cycling - the healthy option
Cycling is healthy, both for you as an individual, and for the community you live in. That's the conclusion of the British Medical Association's report, 'Cycling: Towards Health and Safety'.
Cycling regularly will improve your fitness and can help you live a long and healthy life.
Riding a bike can help you maintain a healthy weight.
Three quarters of all personal journeys are less than 5 miles long - that's half an hour on a bike.
Switching these short journeys from car to bicycle will benefit your health and your community. You'll be helping to reduce noise and air pollution as well as traffic congestion.
What's In It For You?
More cycling is good news for the environment and your local community. But the biggest benefit is for you as an individual.
Increasing Fitness
Your strength, stamina, aerobic fitness and general muscle function will all be improved. Cycling is a low impact activity and one of the safest ways to exercise without risk of over-exertion or strain to muscles and joints. Regular physical activity also facilitates other healthy behaviour and could help you reduce weight or even give up smoking.
Lowering Risk of Heart Attack
Your heart muscles are strengthened, resting pulse is lowered and blood fat levels reduced. People taking regular physical activity suffer far less heart disease than people who don't!
Shedding Excess Weight
By burning body fat and raising your metabolic rate you can lose weight. If you undertake physical activity regularly you can enjoy a more varied diet without increasing body weight. Cycling is one of the more comfortable forms of physical activity for those who are new to exercise, allowing most people to get fit easily and safely without undue physical strain.
Reducing Stress
Anxiety, stress and depression are all alleviated, partly due to the physical activity itself, but also due to the pleasure and satisfaction of riding a bike. Cycling is convenient for short journeys, and often faster across town than other forms of transport. It's a stress free means of taking physical activity because it can form part of a daily routine. So there's no need to worry about fitting your new healthy lifestyle into an already overcrowded schedule. So go cycle - you'll feel better for it!
CTC can act as your window on the wider cycling world. If you want to get into different kinds of cycling we'll help you get more out of it.
