Everyone knows about the health benefits of cycling. From boosting your immune system, making you less vulnerable to diseases, and losing weight–casual and professional cyclists always talk about how cycling can make you healthier. However, there's more to cycling than this.

Cycling not only improves your health, but it also significantly affects your lifestyle, from your interpersonal relationship to your environmental awareness and even how you connect with yourself. In this blog, we'll discuss how cycling improves your everyday life.

1. Cycling makes you healthier.

As mentioned a while ago, the most significant benefit of cycling is that it makes you healthier.

On a leisurely one-hour ride, you can burn as much as 245 calories, while a vigorous ride can burn as much as 1022 calories. This helps your body maintain optimal HDL cholesterol levels, making you less prone to cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and heart attack.

Aside from this, cycling also boosts your immune system. It improves your blood flow, allowing your body to get and store the nutrients from your food appropriately. Researches also suggest that cycling increases the activity of antibodies and white blood cells, which are your body's natural defense against viral diseases.

2. Cycling allows you to save money.

Almost everyone's experiencing an increasing inflation rate worldwide. So, there's no surprise that we are all looking for a way to save money, such as cutting our daily transportation costs through cycling.

According to a 2021 study, the overall cost of maintaining an automobile is around $9.55 a mile. Say that you cycle to work instead of driving. You can save at least $400 yearly for a 5,000-mile commuting distance. 

People will argue that bicycles and cycling accessories are getting more expensive. Unfortunately, this is true. This is why it's best to get multi-functional premium cycling accessories that you can use for an extended period. For example, the CLIQ smart brake light is an anti-theft device.

3. Cycling makes you happier.

Cycling helps your body produce happy hormones such as serotonin, dopamine, and phenylethylamine. It also increases your body's production of endorphins, which helps relieves the sensation of pain, reduce stress, and improve your overall mood.

Aside from shifting your emotions through your hormones, cycling improves brain function by maintaining optimal blood and oxygen supply. This improves your critical and creative thinking, making you more productive. 

4. Cycling makes you connect with people.

Connecting with people increases your sense of belongingness, thus improving your self-confidence and reducing anxiety. Because no mirrors or vehicle body separates you from other people, cycling allows you to better connect with people around you.  

Cycling is a nice hobby for you and your friends. Nothing beats riding through the breezy countryside while you talk with your friends. And to make your group rides more exciting, you can get a bike light with a group synchronization feature.

5. Cycling makes you connect with the environment.

Cycling is, by far, the most environmental-friendly mode of transportation. It doesn't have harmful gas emissions, doesn't contribute to noise pollution, and has less waste than automobiles. Thus, it significantly improves a place's biodiversity.

Aside from all these, cycling makes you see, hear, and feel nature firsthand–making you appreciate it even more. The more you see the world's beauty, the more you try to preserve it. 

According to research, the most harmful carbon emission is contributed to people's everyday commute. So, even though you can't chip into big environmental advocacies, changing your daily transportation mode into cycling can truly make a difference. 

6. Cycling makes traveling more exciting.

Traveling is fun, but cycling allows you to experience and explore a place better. With cycling, you can feel the cool breeze, the warmth of the sun, and go through the ups and downs (literally) of the place. 

When traveling with your bicycle or doing cross-country tours, just remember to get a GPS tracker for your safety. Find one that doesn't only enable you to conveniently navigate through a new place but also allows you to share your exact location with your friends. 

7. Cycling is a fun and easy way to embrace sports.

It's never too late to embrace sports, especially cycling. Compared to other sports, which require people to train at an early age, as long as you're committed to rigorous training, you can also be a professional cyclist.

There are also lots of annual international cycling tours which you can join. Aside from this, you can also explore different cycling niches, such as triathlon, mountain bike racing, cyclo-cross, and freestyle BMX riding. Make sure you have the best gear and cycling accessories before heading to these competitions.

Cycling might be the best lifestyle upgrade you're looking for.

Improving your lifestyle doesn't have to be tough. You don't have to change the way you live overnight drastically–it could be as simple as learning to say no to things that make you uncomfortable, going to bed earlier, or cycling. If cycling can make you healthy, happy, and more sensitive to your surroundings, it's worth your time and effort.