Health Benefits
The health benefits of regular physical activity are far-reaching. Studies have shown that even small increases in light to moderate activity, equivalent to biking for about 30 minutes a day, will produce measurable benefits among those who are least active. Research conducted in 1999 by the Centers for Disease Control found that obesity is linked to the nation's number one killer -- heart disease -- as well as diabetes and other chronic conditions, and that one reason for Americans' sedentary lifestyle is that "walking and cycling have been replaced by automobile travel for all but the shortest distances."
Regular physical activity that is performed on most days of the week reduces the risk of developing or dying from some of the leading causes of illness and death in the United States. Regular physical activity, such as biking, improves health in the following ways:
Strengthen your cardiovascular and respiratory systems: Exercise enhances the cardiovascular and respiratory system, and helps reduce your risk of related diseases.
The term "cardiovascular system" refers to the circulation of your blood through your heart and blood vessels. With each beat of your heart, a surge of blood is released into your body's intricate web of blood vessels. Blood pressure - the force that's exerted on your artery walls as blood passes through - helps keep the blood flowing smoothly. A buildup of plaques in your arteries, caused by cholesterol and other products in your bloodstream, can interrupt your blood flow and cause life-threatening damage to your cardiovascular system.
Regular exercise benefits the cardiovascular system -- the circulation of blood through the heart and blood vessels -- because exercise lowers the buildup of plaques in arteries by increasing the concentration of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol ("good" cholesterol) and decreasing the concentration of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol ("bad" cholesterol) in your blood, and prevents the onset of high blood pressure and lowers blood pressure if you already have high blood pressure.
Regular exercise benefits the respiratory system by promoting rhythmic, deep breathing, which strengthens the lungs and allows the lungs to develop greater capacity to take in oxygen to nourish cells. This allows blood to travel more efficiently, bringing much-needed oxygen from your lungs and nutrients to the rest of your body. This is one of the reasons why you generally feel refreshed and more energetic after exercise.
Keep bones and muscles strong: Regular exercise prevents the bone-weakening disease osteoporosis. Strength and resistance exercises (such as low gears on bikes and hill training when bike riding) are particularly helpful. Such exercises help preserve bone mass and may even increase bone density.
Manage weight: Exercise helps achieve or maintain a healthy weight by burning calories. By burning calories through regular exercise, exercisers can reduce body fat, maintain healthy body weight, and ease pressure on your bones and joints, which can help prevent conditions such as arthritis. And, even after exercising, the body continues to burn calories at a modestly increased rate for a few hours. The more intensely one exercise, the more calories one burns.
Better Skin: Exercise boosts circulation and the delivery of nutrients to your skin, helping to detoxify the body by removing toxins (poisons). As exercise boosts oxygen to the skin, it also helps increase the natural production of collagen, the connective tissue that plumps your skin. Your skin color is also improved after exercise because of the increase in blood flow.
Less Stress and Improved Mood: Regular exercise reduces the amount of stress hormones in the body, resulting in a slower heart rate, relaxed blood vessels, and lower blood pressure. Research shows that regular exercise reduces symptoms of moderate depression and enhances psychological fitness.
Exercise can even produce changes in certain chemical levels in the body, which can have an effect on the psychological state. During exercise, the levels of endorphins -- hormones in the brain associated with happy, positive feelings - increase. Exercise also boosts the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain, which is thought to play a key role in keeping your mood calm. These phenomena may help to ease symptoms of depression. A recent National Health and Nutrition survey found that physically active people were half as likely to be depressed.
Boosts the immune system: Regular exercise appears to help jump-start the immune system, thus helping to reduce the number of colds, flu, and other viruses.
More Brainpower: Exercise boosts blood flow to the brain and helps it receive oxygen and nutrients. This means that the more physically fit the body is, the faster brain can fire brain waves that are responsible for quick thinking.
Sleep better: A good night's sleep helps maintain your physical and mental health. Moderate exercise at least three hours before bedtime can help you relax and sleep better at night.
Increased Life-expectancy: In a study of Harvard graduates, men who burned 2,000 or more calories a week by walking, jogging, climbing stairs or playing sports lived an average of one to two years longer than did those who burned fewer than 500 calories a week by exercising.
The strength and endurance gains of regular exercise make daily tasks -- such as grocery shopping, doing yard work, or running errands -- easier on the body. Exercise promotes psychological benefits, too. If you look and feel better about yourself, you'll be more confident and have greater self-esteem.
Regular exercise should be a natural part of everyone's daily routine. B2B encourages its members to increase their health by incorporating biking into their every-day lives, such as using the bike to run errands: purchasing groceries, going shopping, commuting, and so on.
By doing so, people will not only see drastic health benefits, but will also benefit from an improved quality of life, longer life-span, and more strength and independence as they age.