Even when you’re not active once getting older, you still get healthy by cycling. Today, we reveal 5 benefits for elderly bicycle riders and suitable types of bikes to use.
Riding bikes is a relaxing activity that both children and adults can do outdoor, with their family, friends, and a team. It’s known as an effective way for elderly riders to gain loads of health benefits. Do you ever wonder what they are? Today, we’re going to find out if this activity could help seniors stay fit or not.
Bike riding for the elderly is always a controversial issue, especially when specialists argue whether it helps or hurts the riders. The truth is, bikes are safe for mature adults, and there are a lot of examples to prove that.
Benefits For Elderly Bicycle Riders
According to a study published in the journal of aging, they found out that the participants riding 30 minutes three times per week rarely experience a physical decline as compared to those who walked the same amount. More than that, bike riding can partially slow down the aging process. Is it true? Let’s explore more of it now:
Get Moving Will Slow Down The Aging Process
Keep young with daily biking
Once getting closer to the later years, humans tend to lose muscle mass, not to mention the decrease in our muscle contraction. This happens due to the amount of fat and connective tissue. Therefore, as mature adults don’t exercise or play sports much anymore, the rate of their muscle loss would increase, causing them to age fast.
Besides, the elderly’s immunity can’t be the same as before when they’re young. It makes them all prone to infections like influenza or pneumonia for instance. Worse than expected, most seniors appear to react less well to vaccines. In other words, vaccines can’t deliver similar protection which it can to youngsters. Well, anyone desires to have an immune system resembling that of the young people.
Bike Riding Can Burn More Calories
There’s something you might not know that unintended weight gain is a big issue many seniors face. It usually happens in obese patients with different chronic conditions related to obesity, including stroke, hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and many others. As you know, older adults own a BMI of less than 25, which falls within the accepted range, and biking can help you keep this rate as long as possible.
And once you become more familiar with getting on a bicycle, you can lose even more weight. Physical activity is one of the best measures for seniors to take if they want to shed more pounds. It also helps avoid obesity and diabetes. Don’t forget to combine cycling with the low-impact exercise like swimming to get in shape as you wish.
More Movement Improves Memory For Seniors
According to the results taken from a study done at Dallas, older adults who joined more physical activities by cycling or merely using the treadmill three times per week had higher resting blood flow to their brains. And this is associated with improved memory among seniors. Aside from this, enjoying fresh air while cycling can increase the seniors’ creative thinking skills.
Importantly, our memory gets intertwined with the body and its motion. In detail, our bodies remember to do stuff that we’ve done several times before, which gets mentioned as muscle memory. Riding a bike can help us recall things we did together with more crucial information. Whenever we start doing something familiar, our brain would remember the same things.
Cycling Boosts Your Mental Health
If you don’t use the stationary bike in the house, how about riding on a bicycle outdoors? Doing so gives you a high dose of vitamin D and fresh air at the same time. Trust me, sunlight is a good way for our bodies to receive vitamin D to boost our mood and lower stress effectively.
No doubt, doing exercises can improve your mental health. Therefore, just go heading straight outdoors and get your blood pumping.
In case you find it hard to get outside for cycling, particularly in winter, then indoor biking still brings several physical and mental benefits to your body. Don’t mind using a wide range of training apps available on the phone to fight boredom and increase your health.
Bike Riding Helps Prevent Cancer
Bike riding will burn more calories than you thought, which is a natural way to help you keep in shape. Besides, getting overweight or being obese is seen as a risk factor for various cancers. These consist of postmenopausal breast and colorectal cancers. In reality, there’s a certain number of studies showing that those cycling daily stay at lower risk from cancer.
As the study goes, those riding bikes to work were less likely to grow cancer and heart diseases. They also stay at a lower risk of death from this mortal illness. For this reason, don’t hesitate to take part in this physical activity to have the cure to cancer one step closer. Not only that, but the research also proves that if your bike, the chance of bowel cancer would get lower.
Types of Bikes
Riding bikes is just great for seniors, and we can’t doubt it. Only exercising every day could provide us with a bunch of benefits no matter what age we are. Even when we get older, exercising plays a big role in fighting any disease coming up with aging.
Better than that, biking improves your mood quite effectively after emitting endorphins, which are responsible for good emotions. Alright, now you understand that cycling does so many great things for seniors, so let’s find out which ones would be the best bikes for seniors and why they are so beneficial.
Cannondale Treadwell 3
This brand new Treadwell bike is meant to deliver more fun and style to your daily exercises. It’s not just lightweight but also responsive for you to roll around, meet with friends as well as get from here to there. Everything gets done with a feeling of freedom that two wheels can offer.
Once anyone mentions Cannondale bikes, you usually hear about the decent components, including the quilted saddle and ribbed grips, not to mention the Promax disc brakes.
For its frame, it’s made from aluminum for the aim of saving weight, and it even includes amazing touches such as the Urban Armor Bumper Strips. These can get used to dodging any damage occurring from racks.
Schwinn Wayfer
This bike brand tends to ride quite smoothly and rarely makes the riders feel hard to turn sharp corners of the streets. And yes, we all love it for the comfy ride and the affordable price on the market. Like nearly every Schwinn bikes, this bicycle features a suspension for building up more stability and comfort while you’re riding.
This part serves as an essential part in guaranteeing that you can enjoy a good ride by absorbing impacts from uneven roads. Besides, the fork allows the wheels to follow certain curves of the terrain without making other parts of the bile move a lot.
Better than thought, it also gives you a chance to control the bike more tightly, particularly when you have to ride on rougher sections.
Verve 3 Disc Lowstep
Whenever you desire a conventional bike, then don’t look anywhere else other than Verve 3 Disc Lowstep. Although the bike isn’t electric, but a basic and easy hybrid bike offering the riders the highest comfort on every street and path. It also provides a nice frame to make it easier for you to get on the bike.
By offering good-quality components with puncture-proof tires, vibration-lowering grips, and comfy padded seating, this bike deserves your investment for sure.
Go to pick out the suitable bike you want the most. Its concentration would be on comfort, which helps the riders move longer and farther. In other words, feel free to use it for fitness or when you have to wander around for leisure.
RadCity Step Thru-3
It’s one of the best bikes we’d like to recommend to everyone, RadCity Step-Thru 3 since it has everything you want from an electric bike. For those who don’t know, the bike won the EBR Choice Product Award for the best city and affordable bike. How about the options available for this bike?
It arrives in one size but two different colors to select, including black or white. RadCity consists of one rack in the back to offer more spaces for storing stuff as well. For the front lights or reflectors, they can help you view the road better. More importantly, there’s a display on the front that will inform you about your cycling stats.
Final words
You should always ride a bike, especially when you get older. Cycling bears several benefits for health, such as slowing down the aging process, boosting your mood, preventing heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and lowering the chance of your falls.
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