Cycling versus running, which one is better? A cool cyclist or runner, who would you rather be? Would you rather pound the pavement or pedal it? You may say both of them have pros and cons, so it’s hard to make the ultimate choice. But still, in the ongoing bar bet of which sport is better, I am all in cycling and believe it’s the overall winner. I’m not here to look down upon running, I just focus on the truth, let’s face it, bicycling is more effective. I can prove it, here is why.
1. Muscle Forming
If your main purpose for exercise is to build muscles, then cycling must be the optimal choice compared with running. Since cycling involves the use of quads, gluteus，and hamstring, you could actually expect your legs to bulk. A bike acts as a “transformer” that converts the low-impedance drive capacity of legs, thus you can see that cycling is a way to exert your legs muscles to the largest extent and reach your ideal leg type. Until now, you have known too well that bicycle is your must-pick selection.
2.Bone strength
We must keep in mind that stronger bones usually mean greater protection against Osteoporosis, a bone disease that occurs when the body loses too much bone, in some serious cases, it may result in your bone breaking from sneering or minor bumps. Is it sounds terrible? Go to ride a bike! However, your ways of biking make a great difference on how effective your weight bearing exercise can be. Generally speaking, it’s highly recommended that you ride uphill. In this way, cycling is an absolutely excellent exercise to strengthen your bone and get rid of the osteoporosis.
3.Risk of Injury
In general, running injuries are caused by overuse. As a study shows, for every 1, 0000 hours of running, 11 injuries can occur while cycling is six. Especially when you are running, you will overestimate your tolerance unconsciously. There is no doubt that it will hurt your muscles and probably the body as a whole. Sprinting causes much wear and tear on your knees and joints. That’s why your bones ache as you finish your running. For the lower rate of getting injuries during cycling, choosing biking is much wiser.
4. Impact
Unlike running, cycling is a low-impact activity. A non-profit academic center has pointed out that those who are overweight actually prefer cycling for less stress on the hips and knees than running, which will ease the pain of joint and back problems to a large extent. Therefore, if you have the same kind of problems, cycling is here to meet your need.
5,.Comfort
You must have tired of continuous pounding and jarring effects produced by running, which lesson your exercise enjoyment greatly. Believe it or not, if you do not find your activity comfortable and enjoy it, you will quit it sooner or later. In order to make sure your ultimate commitment and exercise more, cycling may reap greater rewards and improve your activity happiness than running.
6.Journey
Unless you are a crazy fan of marathon or long-distance run, you will definitely miss enormous beautiful scenery for giving up biking. Choosing cycling, you can take advantages of the of the ability to biking to riding multiple hours, which means that you can cover much more ground and appreciate numerous amazing sites in a comparatively short time. Also, if your goal is getting from A to B, and you are a little stretched for time, let bike integrate your daily routine.
7.Weight Loss
Generally, it’s highly believed that running can burn much more calories than cycling for exerting almost your entire body. It’s that a trustworthy truth? No, it’s just because you haven’t found the right strategy when it comes to riding a bike. If losing weight is your only wish, why don’t you try to do HIIT (high-intensity interval training) every other day? The result may beyond your expectation. For example, you can do your HIIT on a mountain bike picking specific hills to go up the hill at maximum speed. HIIT cycling can help you to burn fat faster than any running session ever would. No matter which part you want to reduce, your tummy or belly size, cycling is going to help you work out.
8.Endurance Building
There is a wide-spread misconception that because running can burn more calories per, so it must also build much endurance than cycling equally. However, it’s far from the truth. For most of the people, they actually can’t run as many miles as they can ride, not mention those who are overweight or aim at reducing weight. According to the science, it’s on account of the gravity that you have to spend more energy when you are running to lift your body weight up off the earth and propel yourself forward. As a result, it’s more difficult for you to run say five miles than to ride twice or even three or four times as long. For this point, your endurance will be greatly improved by bicycling.
9.Hunger Control
For a long time, most researchers believe that running is more efficient to suppress a key hunger hormone called acylated ghrelin, which is responsible for appetite and the distribution as well as the rate of use of energy. When the stomach is empty, ghrelin is secreted. When the stomach is stretched, secretion stops. Nevertheless, it is not the truth. A team of
British researchers found that both cycling and running suppressed the hunger hormone nearly equally. And as I have mentioned before, it’s easier to hammer out an hour on the bike than it is to run hard for the same amount of time.
10.Personality showing
I am sure that you can also put on what you like when you are running, but compare with bikes, helmets, glasses, socks, shoes kits, caps, stem caps, arm warmers, gloves, jackets, vests, saddlebags? I bet you will select cycling without any hesitation. Bicycling allows you show and express your personal style to the largest extent.
11. Feeling
Do you want to know how does fly feel? Well, choose cycling and you will not regret. Because of the unbelievable capacity to make use of the forces of the ground to coast and sometimes the insane speed, biking allows you to enjoy the wind through your face as a reward for your hard pedaling work. During the coasting, you can scream or laugh loudly. I believe it must be an amazing experience!
12.A Lifelong Friend
Founder of the University of Colorado Sports Medicine and Performance Center always says, “Even if you can’t walk or hobble, you can still ride a bike.” “Cycling is something you can enjoy no matter what your age. It is truly as close as we can get to a lifelong sport. ”Andy Pruitt, an athletic trainer once said. Cycling is suitable for all ages, you can ride your bike whenever you want, it is going to be your lifelong friend.
13.Transportation
Well, if you need to work, you must admit that you can ride to work, but you cannot run to work unless you want to be a sweaty mess and bother your poor co-workers with disgusting body odor or overdone deodorant spray. Therefore, if you want to convert to an eco-friendly trip mode and be in a relaxing mood. Cycling is your must-consider thing.
14.Making Friends
You must have heard about cycling club where many different people gather together for the love of cycling from all walks of life. But have you heard about running club? There are few. So, if you want to know about more people or get rid of the single situation. Take a try of cycling, I believe you will definitely reap many unexpected things, maybe love, maybe friendship or maybe an unforgettable experience.
15.Possibility
Now, let's put emphasis on the "mechanics" of cycling and running. You probably have heard that efficient running is possible when there is optimal friction between your feet or shoes and the running surface. That's right! However, we all know that it is hard to make that come true. But for the bicycle, it is obviously simpler. The optimal friction is maintained by the bicycle tires and the riding surface. There are many different bicycle tires meant for different terrains for you to make a choice so you don't need to worry about the limitation of terrains. For this reason, cycling is your optimal selection.
To Recap
Bicycling is more effective than running in many aspects and meets your much more need. Either you are a real fan of cycling or you have insisted on running for years and enjoy it so much, or you are hesitating if you should choose cycling or running as your activity, I believe you must have had a clear idea now, after all, cycling is an evidently overall winner. Thus, what you are sill waiting for? Let's start cycling together!
Top 15 Reasons Cycling Beats Running
Posted by tan xiao yan on