Cycling Vs Running
You may be wondering if cycling or running is the best exercise for losing weight and helping you stay healthier.
Or which one would cost you less but give you a great number of benefits.
Then in this article, we will compare both exercises and hope this will give you some clues to pick your winner.
1. Cardiovascular health
For new exercisers, cardiovascular session (Cardio) may sound unfamiliarly but this is one of the main components of every workouts. All physical trainings enable you to raise your heart rate in your heart rate zone to not only burn calorie but also strengthen your heart muscle.
When you cycle or run, your body actives in high intensity and makes the heart strong to pump blood with full of oxygen thorough your body to increase metabolism. This process helps you lower your cholesterol level and strengthen your heart muscle which result in reducing the rate of heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure.
Like other exercise, running and cycling would bring this merit equally to you.
However, for people who are under any health problem, consulting doctors or physic trainers about the suitable level of exercise is necessary to avoid injuries or exacerbate the health issue.
2. Calorie burn
All cardio workouts including biking and running are incredible in burning calorie. However, it has several differences in term of process and result in each exercise.
In general, running would burn more calories per hour than cycling. A study showed that cycling burns 568 to 841 calories an hour while this figure for running is 566 to 946 calories per hour.
But the exact number of calories differs in each individual due to the intensity and the length of time you do that exercise. The more you make an effort, the better result you reach. Otherwise, you also need to count other factors such as age, gender,weight or even your gene. Yes, it is true that some people burn calories more efficiency naturally than others.
One more thing that affects the amount of excessive fat you could burn is your practice program. Although running may be a faster form of exercise to release energy, it also places more stress on the body. When you run, your body needs to lift your whole weight whereas the bike would help you reduce part of your body force when you ride a bicycle. As a result, running puts more tension on your body comparing to cycling.
This means people may probably stick to their cycling program better than running session and sometimes they burn more calories thanks to cycling.
3. Weight loss
This is one of the attractive benefits that both biking and jogging could bring to you. Both these types of exercises require energy consumption, resulting in fat burning and muscle buildup. Therefore, after doing these practices on a certain level along with a heathy, balanced diet, there is no doubt that you could achieve an ideal shape of body that you desire.
There is only one rule you should remember to maintain your desired weight is controlling your calorie in and out. To lose weight, your calorie input must be less than your calorie output and to gain weight you just need to revert the caculation. And balancing your calorie in and out results in holding your weight.
The two exercises increase your metabolism, meaning essential nutrients are able to be more efficiently absorbed into your body and detrimental toxins can be excreted more properly. In fact, your digestive system performs better when you do exercise regularly because exercise keep those muscle stimulated and active to digest food.
Moreover, they encourage your body to burn the excessive fat not only during your workout time but in the rest of the time. This means after your training time ends, your body keeps consuming energy. But this result just happens when people practice consistently.
Cycling is not as strenuous as running but the process of losing weight by cycling may be longer than running. Hence, this is suitable for the new exercisers or people who may want to gentle on the body.
Running may ask you practice harder but at the same time help you achieve your target weight sooner. Thus, for individuals who are willing to commit to vigorous exercise, running might be a suitable option.
The choice is up to you but do not forget the key to lead you to success is persistence practice and healthy food.
4. Muscle building
When running or jogging, runners use all muscles in their body from shoulders to legs so that they usually have a well- built body. The more you run the more muscles you active and strengthen. From time to time, your overall stamina would increase gradually. However, it is difficult to bulk your muscles just only by running because it spreads strain throughout your body.
With cyclists, their muscle, especially in the half low body, bulk up a lot. That is because pedaling has more impact on legs and butts than others. To have well-proportioned body, cyclists tend to combine cycling with other upper-body exercise.
Exercising is essential to increase muscle but the major factor is a balanced and adequate diet. Your meal should cover five main groups of food including carb, fiber, vitamin, fat, and especially protein.
You should talk to your personal trainer and plan a carefully and productive process if you have a specific target in building muscle.
5. Injuries
Most physical coaches advise exercisers to prepare carefully before practice to limit the unnecessary injuries during practicing. And this is a valuable and useful advice for every workout including biking and running.
Cycling is a low-impact workout and it may be a comfortable form of exercises for all ages. Your muscles and joints hardly suffer from severe injuries that other vigorous sports would be the reason such as leg broken. Riding provides you a cardio substitute for running, while still brings you the similar advantages and lowers your chance to get hurt yourself.
In contract, running causes muscle soreness and damage. That is also a reason why cyclists keep up with their practice longer than runners. To decrease the rate of injuries, professional trainers emphasize the important role of warming up before running and stretching after finishing it.
Remember to drink enough water and supplement electrolyte in and after the exercise.
6. Cost
This could be a tricky question because your list of equipment for running or cycling is endless and variable depending on your budgets and demands. There is a variety of facilities for sports which are available on the market.
For instance, speaking of bikes, you have various choices from original, basic bikes to elevated one like road bikes, mountain bikes. Another example for devices of running is that there are plenty of expensive branded shoes beside the budgeted shoes.
Hence, I just mention the basic equipment that you need to prepare to start your exercise in this article.
For cycling, you absolutely need to equip yourself with a bike and this is likely to cost higher than a pair of shoes. Moreover, more functions can be integrated into bikes, making them much more modern versatile and sophisticated and thus, pricey. Besides, most people tend to own at least one pair of sport shoes so in generally, running costs nothing.
Even though you should invest in your health in long term, you also need to consider a reasonable amount of money that you allocate to your facilities. The most important thing is that the time you spend practicing it, not preparing it.
7. Ageing
One positive effect you may not know about doing exercise is slowing your ageing.
There are some changes starting when we get older. After 30, for example, the average heart rate declines steadily and the capacity of pumping blood falls gradually leading to many cardiovascular disadvantages. In the middle age, people gain weight easily and the body tends to store fat instead of building muscles. Our nervous system also is affected by ageing and its signs are bad memory, slower thinking and reaction.
Fortunately, scientists proved that regular exercise is a feasible measure to tackle this problem. When you ride or run and make sweat, the toxins are eliminated to clean your body. At the same time, the blood circulation increases rapidly thorough all organs which help you active smoothy and easy. This has resulted in stamina improvement considerably and maintaining your body functions over time regardless your age.
Endurance training such as cycling or running also produces hormones like endorphin or dopamine that are the contributors of creativity and happiness. That is the reason why you should active yourself by activities instead of watching TV or using smartphones to unwind and relax. Replacing sedentary life by cycling or running won’t help you be young forever but it helps you defy the aging process.
The sooner you do exercise, the greater of benefits from exercise you get. Each age has each different level of training. In the twenties, we reach the best physical health so we may suit in high intensity workout. However, when you get older, you should adjust the exercise program to take the best advantage from workout not to torch your body.
Regarding of age, unlike running, you are possible to enjoy cycling in leisure time when you do not have ambition to race or the specific health target.
8. Sightseeing
Outside activities like cycling or jogging create opportunities for you to engage in the wonderful nature. And each exercise gives you a different way to enjoy beautiful sceneries around you.
When biking, cyclists could explore more views than runners due to longer routes and a variety of chances to cycle, for instance, going to working place, going to the shops or other similar distances. Many say that they are into cycling also because they prefer to experience the feeling that the wind touches their face and hair.
Running do not offer you many breathtaking views like cycling but there are some amazing destinations which may be discovered only by running. It would be easier to cross a jungle or overcome a hill by running because in these situations a bike will take you much effort than usual.
In conclusion
No pain no gain is the common state which I usually say when comes to do exercise. You should be proud of yourself whenever you finish your training plan in everyday no matter which exercise you choose.
The crucial element of successful practice: you have to find something you actually enjoy and be patient to do it. When cycling is your preference then let get on the bike. In case you feel good with your footing, do not procrastinate any more.
A small tip to help you track your plan efficiently is finding a partner who has the same target with you to encourage and motivate each other.
Source: Cycling Vs Running
Via Active Pedal https://activepedal.com
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