You have often seen people cycling and everyone has his own
reason for doings so such as to lose weight, to enhance the fitness, to save
the fuel or to just enjoy the ride. What people really do not know is that how
beneficial cycling is for the mental health.
Cycling can do wonders for the brain health as it helps to
elevate mood, fight against depression and anxiety and improves social
interaction and cognitive abilities.
Mood lifter
Cycling helps to increase the blood flow across the body and
stimulates the release of endorphins that act as the natural mood lifters and
pain killers. So, you can get the advantage of both the mood booster and pain
killer free of cost!
Helps to reduce the
stress and anxiety
The challenges of daily life put a lot of stress on
everyone’s shoulders and prolonged stress leads to anxiety and depression.
Exercise and healthy food is the best way to combat these disorders. Aerobic
exercise like cycling helps to decrease the levels of cortisol in the body that
is known as the stress hormone so, it helps to get rid of the stress.
Therefore, keep cycling to overcome the elevated cortisol
levels!
Lizzie Deignan, Olympic Road Race silver medalist states that
“Mental well-being is the most important cycling benefit for me. I rely on
cycling and exercise to relieve any anxiety or stress that I may have built
up.”
Helps to fight against
depression
A study conducted in Korea identified that cycling three of
more times a week increased the dynamic balance, muscle strength and
self-esteem among the elderly women while it helped to reduce the depression in
comparison to control individuals.
Enhances cognitive
abilities
Cycling also improves the memory and mental well-being.
Cognitive decline occurs with aging due to the death of brain cells and for the
long time it was thought that the loss of brain cells is irreversible. However,
recently it has been identified that new brain cells can be generated in older
individuals and aerobic exercise including cycling is one of the important
stimulant of the brain regeneration and thus the memory formation.
Improves social life
When you cycle regularly with friends or join some cycling
club you become friends with the like-minded people which help you to reduce
the stress and become happy.
So, cycling is more than just fun because it helps to produce
your new brain cells and that is really exciting!
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