Many people who try the switch from car or public transportation to bike report that they arrive at work and back home more relaxed. Scientific studies support this impression. If you start biking right now you are in the perfect shape for your next TonyBet journey.
THE REASONS WHY
1. cycling improves your concentration and reduces stress
Exercise while cycling gives our brains good blood flow, more oxygen, and allows them to function better. In addition, cycling reduces stress and increases our well-being, as shown, among other things, by a study conducted by the University of Zurich. The almost 9,000 people surveyed said that they feel less stressed when they cycle their everyday journeys. This is mainly because cycling helps us to reduce the stress hormone cortisol. It also eliminates stressors like hassles in traffic jams, crowded subways, or looking for a parking spot.
2. cycling can help relieve depression
Both lowering our cortisol levels, and thus stress levels, and the steady pedaling motion of cycling may help people with depression under certain circumstances. This is the result of a study conducted by the University of Tübingen. For this purpose, the researchers had older people with depression cycle for about 30 minutes on an ergometer.
Before and after the bike ride, blood values were measured that play a central role in the development of depression. While these values of the depressed people were worse than those of healthy comparison subjects before the endurance exercise, they had normalized in almost all study participants after the 30-minute bike ride.
3 Cycling can help prevent dementia
Lack of exercise is a known risk factor for dementia. So cycling is also a good way to reduce the likelihood of developing dementia – and may even help people who already have the disease. This has been shown in numerous studies. In a Spanish study, for example, the cognitive performance of residents of an old people’s home was tested. The 39 subjects were divided into two groups. One group rode an exercise bike for at least 15 minutes a day, while the other group did not. The result: attention, cognitive ability and visual perception of the surroundings improved significantly in the cycling group compared with the comparison group.
CLIMATE PROTECTION
So you can do a lot of good for your physical and mental health if you cycle every day.
But the environment also benefits. Of course, the amount of CO2 saved, for example, depends on various parameters: How would you otherwise travel your daily routes? Would you take the car instead of the bike? And if so, how old, how big and powerful is your car, how is it powered?
A rough example calculation with average values of a few years old middle class gasoline car can offer a first orientation: Such a car produces about 120g of CO2 per kilometer. If you cycle ten kilometers every working day (i.e. an average of 230 days a year) instead of driving, you would avoid 6 kilograms of CO2 every week. In a year, you could save 276 kilograms. That’s almost as much as a round-trip economy class flight from Frankfurt am Main to Paris. You also reduce nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions.
OTHER BENEFITS
Good for your body and mind, good for the environment – what other benefits are there for you if you ride your bike every day? Especially in cities you can reach your destination much faster, you don’t get stuck in traffic jams and you don’t have to look for a parking space, but you can usually park your bike directly at your destination.
You save a lot of money compared to daily car trips, because you have lower fuel costs and your car wears out less. If you cycle ten kilometers every workday instead of driving the aforementioned several-year-old mid-range gasoline engine that consumes about 7 l/100 km, you can save about 25 euros every month – just in fuel costs – assuming a gasoline price of 1.85 euros/liter. And much more, of course, if you decide not to use your car at all.
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