Cycling is great for toning the lower body, particularly the legs. The hamstrings and quadriceps are two of the most targeted muscles during a cycling workout, as they play a huge role in pedalling.
Cycling can be your only form of exercise, but instructors advise people, especially beginners, to ride every other day or a couple times a week. Giving yourself rest days between rides will allow you to train at a higher level when you do ride with less risk of injury.
You will also notice that your stamina will have increased and your leg muscles will become a little more defined. But you will need to put in consistent effort for three to four months before you see a considerable difference in how toned your legs are.
It's not to say that cycling regularly doesn't impact body shape but that change is also often dependent on several other factors, including gender, diet, the intensity and type of riding a person does. Cycling is a great way to burn calories.
Yes, Cycling gives you a flat stomach. Cycling can actually enhance your figure by giving you visible abs if done properly. Cycling is considered an inexpensive sport that does not require you to spend too much on equipment, yet there are some it can help you save for in the long run.
Cycling And Its Benefits
It is a massively effective way to torch calories and melt off belly fat while strengthening your muscles, heart, and lungs. Compared to other forms of cardio equipment, cycling puts minimal stress on your joints and offers an excellent aerobic workout (1).
Muscle strength and toning: Cycling primarily targets the muscles in your lower body, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves. Regular cycling can help build strength, endurance, and tone these muscle groups, leading to improved overall leg strength and a more defined lower body.
You get leaner by not only riding long and slow, but by ALSO tapping into faster work on the bike too (using more of what's called your “anaerobic system”).
Adults between 18 to 64 years should perform moderate intensity physical activity for two and a half hours every week to stay fit. But if you are cycling, then you must do it for at least 30 to 45 minutes every day for shorter sessions or 2 to 3 times a week for longer sessions of a hour or more.
Regular cycling stimulates and improves your heart, lungs and circulation, reducing your risk of cardiovascular diseases. Cycling strengthens your heart muscles, lowers resting pulse and reduces blood fat levels.
Cycling doesn't increase strength or muscle mass because you are overwhelmingly using your muscles aerobically, through very low force repetitions—which is great for burning calories. The recipe for increasing muscle mass and strength is through resistance training.
Although not adequate alone as strength training, cycling does build muscle. Cycling also builds bone density as you push down on the pedals. Studies have found that cycling rather than driving to work reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer and even extends life expectancy (1).
#1 – Thigh muscles
Cycling is great for toning the lower body, particularly the legs. The hamstrings and quadriceps are two of the most targeted muscles during a cycling workout, as they play a huge role in pedalling.
How much distance to cover for weight loss. On an average, one must do cycling for around 20 to 30 kms. But Channa suggests that instead of focusing on the distance, one must focus on the duration of cycling, which should be for one hour or more.
A simple Google image search of cycling + weight loss showcases hundreds of before and after images of individuals who have lost weight, thanks to regular cycling. A 10 km bicycle ride helps burn around 300 calories which is the same as running on a treadmill at 8 km/h for 30 minutes.
In a nutshell, the average cyclist will lose 2 pounds (1kg) per week from cycling 20 miles a day. This is at a relatively slow average speed of 20km per hour. The average rider would burn somewhere between 450 and 1500 calories per hour while cycling.
Once you get into a training schedule and it becomes a part of your everyday routine, it can be hard to take a day off. However, rest days are just as important as training days, and need to be part of recovery for cyclists.
Cycling and stress
The obvious answer is cycling boosts your mood in the same way all physical exercise makes you happy “by influencing the release and uptake of chemicals in your brain that make you feel good” according to the Mental Health Foundation UK.
With your quadriceps, hamstrings, and gluteus maximus in play when you pedal, expect to see your legs getting toned and your calves' strengthened. Riding a bike burns calories, thus helping you to lose weight. Regularly riding your bike is more likely to make your legs thinner than bulkier, and more defined.
Biking can help you lose weight, but it depends on how much you do. Cycling at a moderate pace for 30 minutes every day will burn around 300 calories. To lose 10kg, you would need to cycle for about 3 hours every day. However, this is not sustainable in the long term and is not recommended.
For a person of reasonably average size and weight, research suggests you need to cycle 54 hours a month to lose 10 pounds (5kg). This would be close to 2 hours per day.
So it will take 4 hours of cycling on a weekly basis to lose 1kg of weight. The longer you exercise the more calories you burn but for the beginner, it is not practical to do cycling for 4 to 5 hours every day. Also, If you have any kind of disease (physically unfit), we recommend taking advice from your doctor.