2024 has approached with great speed and unstoppable force, bringing our 2023 to a close much sooner than we may have expected – and not a moment too soon for some. 2023 has not been the easiest of years – but 2024 brings with it the potential of a clean slate.
For those struggling with their fitness, this clean slate is a particularly important time. But ‘get fit’ isn’t a great resolution to start with. Choosing a specific sport or discipline can be much better for your motivation; this writer argues that the sport you choose should be cycling. But why?
Getting Fit
The most obvious reason you might find for writing cycling into your New Year’s Resolution list is, quite simply, to get fit. Cycling has a good reputation amongst fitness groups and personal trainers – and so many fitness routines are based around exercise bikes for good reason.
Cardiovascular health is particularly well-impacted by cycling, as you get your heart pumping and your lungs working both in short bursts and over longer periods of time. The result is better endurance, reduced stroke risk and a host of other ancillary improvements.
Mental Wellness
The link between bicycle-riding and wellness is not strictly limited to the physical realm, either. Getting into cycling can work wonders for your mental health, in a number of big ways. For one, exercise in general is good for our mental health, as exerting effort helps our brain better regulate happiness hormones. There is also something to be said of the therapeutic impact of simply riding – as an opportunity to think things through, or as an opportunity to ride out somewhere quiet and enjoy a moment of rural bliss.
Social Opportunities
The social potential that cycling presents cannot be ignored, either. With cycling being as much a hobby as a sport, it is astonishingly easy to find a group of like-minded and similarly-skilled riders, with which you could do all manner of social and bike-centric events and experiences.
Even outside of such hobby clubs or sports groups, there are social opportunities to be found. Taking part in cycling trips abroad can introduce you to people from all over the world, giving you a very real and rare opportunity to make friends outside of what may be an otherwise small social bubble. The mental health impacts of this are great as well, alongside the baked-in benefits discussed earlier.
A Cheaper Commute
It is true that North America’s travel infrastructure favors automobiles over most everything else. However, this shouldn’t be reason enough to prevent you considering alternative modes of transport in general. Running a car has gotten more expensive in recent years yet is often the only lifeline people have.
Getting into cycling – and getting fit from it – can bring about significant reductions in monthly costs, by enabling you to commute to work on two wheels instead of four. This might be more accessible for those within cities than without – but arguably city-dwellers are in more need of reducing an expensive cost of living.
