Benefits of riding bikes for your child and you

Many enjoy biking even without knowing how much it is useful for them. Also, many are afraid to sit on a bike and feel the beauty of driving it. Anyway, read the following article to meet 17 benefits of riding bikes for your child and you. I’m sure, this article will motivate you to drive even more or to master this not so difficult, but definitely useful activity finally.

1. Efficiency

Do you know that you can move three times faster by riding a bike than walking? Therefore, riding bikes offer more time for morning hygiene for your child and you without being late for school or work. Of course, you must follow the child in this activity. At the same time, you will be a good model for him/her and you will have everyday morning gymnastics together.

2. Biking to save money!

According to Quicken, if you drive 1,000 miles a month and your car averages 23 miles per gallon, you’d need to budget $117 per month with prices at $2.70 per gallon. And, that isn’t all. You should think about a car payment, parking and other transportation expenses as well if you want to calculate how much you spend driving a car per months. On another side, for riding a bike, you don’t need money, only your energy and volition. 

Also, one more way to save money by riding a bike is non paying for a gym. Therefore, if you want to save some money, ride a bike instead of driving a car and going to a fuggy gym. On that way, you will be healthy, handsome and you will have much more money.

3. Riding bikes maintain health!

You already have heard that riding a bike maintains health. It’s true. Benefits of riding bikes for physical health are many, and these are:

• Physical activity accelerates the metabolism, limits the amount of water that is absorbed back into your body and stimulates the contraction of the intestinal muscles. All these improve the functioning of the digestive system.
• Adults use 10 times more oxygen by biking than seating in front of the TV. That allows better functioning of the heart and lungs with faster use oxygen when needed. Actually, that makes a cardiovascular system stronger, which means that you will be able to drive bikes more and more with less effort.
• Also, according to Hindustantimes,  studies at the Purdue University in the United States show that riding a bike reduces the risk of heart disease by 50%.
• One more of the many benefits of riding bikes is prevention of carcinoma because cycling is particularly good for keeping cells in good condition. According to Mesothelioma, one long-term study, conducted in Sweden, found a 34% decrease in risk of cancer in people who biked just a half an hour every day. 
• Biking keeps your wrists. As you rotate the pedals, the body is in a sitting position, so there is no load on the joints, knees and spine indifference from running or intense aerobic exercises, Also, that makes the injuries less possible.

4. You can overcome disease by riding bikes.

Not only that we can maintain health by riding bikes, we can to overcome a disease as well. In fact, cycling makes the immune cells more active to fight the infection. Because of that, all of you who think it’s too late to worry about your health should start biking to make sure that it’s never late.

5. Riding bikes increase life expectancy.

One more of the many benefits of riding bikes is the prolongation of the life expectancy. That shouldn’t be surprised to us, according to all of the previously mentioned benefits of riding bikes those are related to physical health. According to Mentalfloss, one study, which was published in the American Journal of Public Health, collected data from 50,000 Dutch bicyclists and found that every additional hour of biking correlated to approximately one hour added to a person’s life expectancy. 

6. Biking burns calories and fat and shapes the body.

It is common knowledge that we burn calories and fats better during cycling. However, metabolism isn’t accelerated only during cycling, but also within hours after it. Also, cycling creates muscles. By rotating the pedals, muscles of the lower leg, thighs, buttocks, and the muscles that help the body be in the right position, as the abdominal and muscles of the lower part of the body are active. At the same time, hand triceps are also active, especially if you are driving uphill.

This is a particularly important benefit of cycling in this modern age when there are so many obese parents and children. Also, not only that many people are obese now, but also there are many who develop improperly due to too long sitting, for example, at the computer or a TV. And, in addition, people have never been exposed to so many unhealthy but irresistible meals in the past as now. Many people find it difficult to resist caloric delicacies. However, if you regularly biking, you can treat your child and yourself with calorie delicacies periodically without worrying about whether it will affect your physical appearance and health.

7. Ride a bike to sleep better!

If you have problems with insomnia, cycling may be a solution for you. Namely, Stanford University has conducted a study in which people who suffer from insomnia ride bays 20-30 minutes every day. The result? The time it takes for an insomniac to fall asleep is reduced by half and sleep time is extended for almost an hour. These data are explained by the fact that our body releases cortisol,  a hormone which decreases stress, by riding a bicycle in daylight. Considering how stress affects the rhythm of our sleep, it’s clear that after cycling we will fall asleep without stressful thoughts.

8. Riding bikes defeat fatigue!

Cycling allows us to sleep easily and deeper, but that doesn’t mean that riding bikes makes us tired. On the contrary, many studies have found that physical activity, even from just a few minutes, directly affects the reduction of fatigue.

Because of riding bikes is physical activity, overcoming fatigue is another benefit of it. Therefore, if you are tired and voluntary, however unusual and difficult it may be, sit on a bike and you will forget on fatigue. Biking will increase your energy levels by 20% and reduce fatigue by as much as 65%. This is because cycling encourages the brain to excrete dopamine, the hormone that gives us energy.

9. Become better in other sports by riding bikes!

Of course, because biking strengthens muscles, joints and bones and encourages sports spirit, also we become better in all sports by riding bikes. That’s why bike riding is very useful for the ability to adapt to sports games and be good at them. This is especially important for children because being good at sports activities increases their confidence. 

10. Encouraging creativity is one of the many benefits of riding bikes.

Riding bikes is an aerobic exercise. This type of exercise improves the flow of oxygen to the brain when it’s most needed. At the same time, that stimulates the functioning of neurons. Studies have shown that it is enough for children to drive bikes only 25 minutes a day for encouraging their creativity. Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that many artists use this physical activity to get inspiration for creativity. Among them are Russell Ira Crowe, British composer Sir Edward Elgar, Leo Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway, Henry Miller, famous actor Brad Pitt, and many others.

As Arthur Conan Doyle, author of Sherlock Holmes said: “When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking.”

11. Biking improves brain functioning.

Not only that riding bikes improve creativity, but also cognition. Specifically, biking increases the flow of blood with oxygen and nutrients to the brain. In that way, receptors regenerate. Also, that stimulates the creation of new brain cells in the hippocampus, part of the brain responsible for memory. Therefore, improving memory and preventing the occurrence of Alzheimer’s disease belong to the benefits of riding bikes too. Also, according to Citylab.com, actually a Danish study, kids who cycled to school perform tasks which demand concentration much better than kids who come to school by car or publish transport, and that effects lasted for up to four hours after they got to school. Because of that, experts recommend riding bikes especially for kids with ADHD characteristics and kids with some other cognition impairments.

Therefore, if your child has some learning problems, don’t worry. He/she just should turn pedals every day. Of course, join him/her to improve your attention and memories as well.

12. Save the planet by riding bikes!

We all know that people increase air and noise pollution by driving cars, trucks and many other vehicles. But many of us still aren’t aware of the consequences of that. We must change that as soon as possible because the pollution of our planet affects very bad our health. It causes coughing, heart disease, abnormality in newborn children, cancers,… According to Ourworldindata.org, outdoor air pollution caused 4.2 million deaths in 2016. This represents an increase from 3.4 million in 1990. 

One writer, Peter Walker know that cycling can be a solution and that represents in his book “How Cycling Can Save the World”. Inter alia, he wrote about a 2015 study from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy which found that if 14% of travel in the world’s cities was done by bike, carbon emission would drop 11% by 2050.

Did you know?

According to Architecturaldigest.com, a Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has invented a new type of bike that can reduce pollution by cleaning the air while people cycle. It works by sucking the polluted air into a contraption located on the front of the bike, cleaning it through a filtration system, then releasing the fresh air while the rider is pedalling through the streets. The idea has been supported by various factions of the Chinese government and it would be better for the planet if people from around the world would drive these bikes soon. 

Absolutely that we can decrease the pollution of our planet if we start to use bikes instead of cars or other vehicles. In that way, we will maintain our health and health of our planet. I think that this benefit, besides the benefits of riding bikes related to health, is especially important. We should teach children to love and care nature if we want a future healthy environment for them and all future generations. This teaching should be based on encouraging children to activities that prevent the nature pollution, not just on talking about it. Certainly, one of these activities is cycling, ie avoiding the use of vehicles that pollute the environment. Of course, above all, we need to be good models for our children.

So, you should drive a bike with your child through amazing nature. Talk to him/her how we can save that natural beautiful by riding bikes. 

17. Riding bike can close your child and you as a joint activity

It has already been said that cycling is a good way to overcome stress and get positive emotions. Of course, that is why increasing closeness among family members is one more of the many benefits of riding bikes with your child.

In addition, cycling is an activity in which all family members can participate. You just need to have bikes which you can adapt to each of you to enjoy the beauty of riding together. Even very small children can ride with you on three-wheel bikes. In that case, you must drive slower and be on constant alert, but you will definitely enjoy the happiness of your child while he/she cycling the pedals. Also, driving with teenagers is especially good because teenagers need understanding, and the best opportunity to talk to teenagers are situations in which there have cheerful spirit and a clear mind.

At the end

Of course, in order to get benefits of riding bikes, you need to know how to drive it, be familiar with traffic rules and be cautious. This is especially important for children.

Experts recommend that the bike seat should be at the correct height in order to not load the spine while driving. When the pedals are down, the knee should be slightly bent and the legs shouldn’t be too stretched or folded because this means that the seat isn’t in the correct position. That is why you should have bikes which you can adjust to you and your child. If you don’t have bikes, buy Prevelo Bikes which are really comfortable and safe. Then enjoy all the benefits of riding bikes.

P.S.

Do you know some more of the many benefits of riding bikes that I have not mentioned? Do your child and you like riding bikes? Please, share with us your experience, comments and suggestions.