The bicycle is one of the most used means of transport in large cities. It allows you to move comfortably and avoid possible jams. In addition, it also makes it possible to reduce pollution with respect to cars and motorcycles, among others, and is a way of promoting healthy lifestyle habits among the entire population and the practice of sports in a completely healthy way.
Main uses of the bicycle
This type of transport was invented by the German Karl von Drays in 1817. Since the 19th century, the bicycle has been adopting different uses that we will explain below. The main one is the means of displacement in the big cities. Faced with the increasing destruction of the ozone layer due to the growing emissions of carbon dioxide, coming from traditional means of transport, more and more people are signing up for this new green fashion and using the bicycle instead of the car or the motorcycle. For this, there are different types of bicycle, although the most used is the one that can be folded and uses a type of smooth and thin wheel. In fact, large cities also allow citizens to rent bicycles from local authorities by paying a small annual fee and allowing unlimited use. All the measures are few to lower the high levels of contamination.
In addition to using it to complete our daily routes, the bicycle is also used as a hobby and as a social activity with friends or family, among others. There are more and more groups that take advantage of the good weather to make different outings to endearing places and end with a good meal to celebrate the day. Saddlebags and ways of carrying luggage are usually incorporated in this type of bicycle. As higher speed is needed, the wheels are usually larger in diameter. In this connection, bicycles also have a recreational use. In fact, it is considered that one of the first parameters that indicate that a child is starting to grow is when he is able to ride a bike without using four wheels. Therefore, it is not surprising that many parents take their children to the park to ride a bike, after painting the bike, and incidentally, start teaching them to take that step.
Although most of these uses involve sports, more and more people use the bicycle as the main means of burning calories and doing sports., whether on the road, in the mountains or at a static level in sports centers. The goal is none other than to stay in good physical shape and burn fat. In fact, it is estimated that at a medium intensity you can lose about 350 calories, which can reach up to 600 as the intensity increases. For this, it is only necessary to exercise for a minimum of 20 minutes to start fat loss. If we accompany this with a balanced and healthy diet, our body will greatly appreciate it. The end of sports practice is competition. Many choose to compete in cycling races at either the road or mountain level. In this discipline, it is necessary to ensure that a large amount of oxygen reaches the blood in order to achieve a good deficiency during the long hours that each stage lasts. Also, the team playas very important role as they influence the pace of the leader and slipstreams. In these cases, it is necessary to choose the correct type of bicycle depending on the discipline. There are also so-called motorized bicycles.
Advantages of cycling
However, riding a bicycle offers great advantages over not doing it. For starters, it provides huge financial savings. The mechanical cost caused by taking the bike is much less than that of a car or a motorcycle. When we take our motorized vehicle, we spend gasoline, in addition to all the mechanical parts of the car that suffer wear and tear and that we will have to repair once the time comes. With a bicycle, on the other hand, no type of fuel is used and the useful life is much longer compared to a car or motorcycle due to the simplification in its construction.
The improvement in health is also evident. Riding a bicycle is a very important intrinsic sporting practice that few realize. Going by bike every day can mean doing a minimum of 50 kilometers a week. Most studies indicate that for every euro invested in sport, three are saved in healthcare. For this reason, playing sports also leads to a direct consequence of really clear economic savings.
Cycling, on the other hand, also contributes to a green world. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the use of alternative transport if you really want to reduce the emission of polluting substances to the ozone layer. Limiting the use of the car to what is strictly necessary and betting on the bicycle will help to have more decongested cities and, in turn, cleaner. Even this type of practice saves time. A study verified, in an urban radius of three kilometers, how long it took a car, a bus and a bicycle to travel, and to the surprise of many, the bicycle was the one that completed it in less time.
Contraindications that cycling can cause
Although the bicycle has enormous advantages for the human body, it also has some small contraindications that should be known beforehand. One of the most curious is that its contribution is not at all favorable to the development of a correct sexual life of people. Some scientific studies have concluded that it has negative consequences for both sexes. For men, prolonged practice can cause erection problems, while in women it can result in loss of genital sensitivity, something that affects sexual pleasure. However, we should not be alarmists either, since it is more typical of professionals who travel great distances on their saddles than of amateurs.
Excesses are never good, and in the case of sport, neither. Therefore, you have to know how to put on a maximum despite the enormous love of cycling that we may have. This should be our number one principle especially if we have some physical knee problems such as osteoarthritis. Doctors recommend practicing sports but never overtraining. It is just as important to do sports regularly as it is also to be able to rest. When it comes to riding a bicycle, the choice of saddle will also be especially important, and more so, with injuries to our body. We don’t race like professionals and therefore we don’t need a saddle that is tremendously aerodynamic and allows us to go much faster than usual and ultimately improve our personal bests. It may seem very nice but this can lead to possible physical problems in the future that can weigh down our body.
All in all, riding a bicycle has enormous advantages for our body on a physical, economic and ecological level, but we must use our heads. Plan its uses very well to prevent these advantages that seem very nice from becoming our worst nightmare. Use the bike, but first use your head.
