The Sports Archives – 4 Reasons You Should be Cycling to Work

Cyclists at Hyde Park corner roundabout in London

Image source

Sometimes it can seem like there just aren’t enough hours in the day to take up a new sport. However there is one form of exercise that will not only save you time and boost your fitness but can be done when you would normally be sitting on a bus, train or in a car. That is the mighty commute. Here are our top reasons why everyone should be cycling to work.

Extra Brownie Points With Your Boss

Cycling to work has been proven to improve productivity, motivation and employees ability to deal with stress. A new scientific study has revealed that employees that exercise before work, or in their lunch breaks, significantly improved the way they dealt with their work management, it increased their motivation and they were able to deal much more comfortably with the day-to-day stresses of work life.

This study also revealed that employees that cycled to and from work didn’t get ill as much as other staff who were not getting daily exercise and they also didn’t need to take as many breaks and were able to finish work on time. Proving that cycling keeps both bosses and staff happy.

Doing Your Bit for the Environment

One point that we can’t ignore, when it comes to cycling to work, is the effect that it has on the environment. Not only are you producing zero emissions but you are contributing to a much more efficient society. Cyclists travel up to three times faster than pedestrians and also faster than most cars, when it comes to rush hour traffic. Cars have been found to travel an average speed of 7 mph in peak hour, city centre traffic, whereas cyclists travel up to 15 mph. Bicycles and hybrid bicycles take up less parking space and use up just 5% of the materials and energy needed to make a car.

If you have been wondering for a while what is a hybrid bike, then now is the time to really put some research in. Not only will a hybrid bike get you safely to and from work but it will also double up nicely as a countryside bike, which can take on tougher terrain for outdoor sports fanatics.

Heart Health

We all know that regular exercise can have a dramatic effect on the health of our hearts. However it has now been revealed that regular cycling can drastically reduce your chances of heart disease, by up to 50%. According to recent medical studies, approximately 10,000 fatal heart attacks could be avoided, every year, if people invested in daily exercise, like cycling to and from work.

Reduce Pollution Intake

Surprisingly it has been found that people who commute to work on their bike actually breathe in less pollution than people who drive or use public transport. The Imperial College of London has recently revealed that drivers and passengers in buses and taxis actually inhale a much higher level of pollution than cyclists.

Taxi passengers and bus passengers are said to inhale the most amount of pollution, up to 100,000 ultra fine particles, with drivers of cars inhaling up to 40,000 and cyclists and pedestrians only inhaling up to 8,000 particles. So that debunks the popular myth that cyclists are breathing in more fumes than anyone else in the city, proving that cycling is now proven to be the healthiest and easiest way to get around any city or town.

Advertisement
This entry was posted in Other and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s