Found the following passage really interesting, which made me wonder. Do we have real evidence that cycling is good for longevity and health?
“To take a specific example: A recent paper found that swimming didn’t lower mortality, but running did. Does that mean swimming isn’t effective? No. When you look more closely at the data in the appendix of the study, it’s clear what is going on — swimmers were much less likely than runners to engage in other positive health behaviors.
For instance, only about 5 percent of frequent runners in the study smoked, but among frequent swimmers it’s 11 percent — just shy of the U.S. average. Swimmers were also more likely to have high blood pressure at base line, weigh more and have a family history of cancer. One explanation is that doctors may recommend swimming as a low-impact activity for people who already have higher health risks. Even if the swimming helps, the other differences among people hide that.”
When I was in college and I’d come home I’d ride with a local group that was organized by a friend of my parents. 50ish miles Saturday, maybe Sunday as well. They’d like when I was home as the average pace was a good bit faster. The one guy once the ride got to a certain average pace would allow for a cigarette when we stopped at 40 miles to refill bottles at WAWA. He also typically didn’t wear a helmet. No idea how he decided on what days he wore it.
Depending on what you are looking for when you say “longevity and health” the answer is, yes. Nothing guarantees “longevity and health.” People fit have died young. People unfit have lived long. Having said that, there are studies that exercise improves well-being and quality of life. Cycling has done that for myself. It also spills over into balanced nutrition. It is a win-win.
Studies aside, I severely doubt I’d still be here when bowel (colon) cancer hit circa 10-11 years back in my late 30s if I hadn’t been fit. There’s a debate that being fit masked its symptoms for circa 3-4 years before the proper diagnosis but a large part of that falls on my psychology. That’s enough evidence for me.
There is overwhelming evidence that regular moderate exercise improves health and longevity. If there is a topic of debate, it’s establishing the point at which additional exercise/training stops providing additional benefits and starts causing more harm than good. Too much of a good thing and all… The science is all over the map on that topic.
You need a study to show cycling is beneficial??? All exercises that raise your HR are beneficial. I would say the only aspect of cycling that is unhealthy is this infatuation with low weight.
I’m not a population group, I’m an individual. I don’t really care whether some cyclists offset the benefits of exercise by smoking, being overweight, drinking too much. I don’t. Cycling is my preferred form of both exercise and social interaction and the evidence for both those things being good for health and longevity is overwhelming. I add in walking and strength training for added health given that cycling isn’t load bearing.
My major health concerns with cycling are crashing, air quality, and the impact on dental health of high sugar intake while training. Do my best to mitigate all of these via a whole bunch of things. There are certainly exercise regimes that are better for health and longevity than a high volume, predominantly cycling based approach that includes a lot of time sharing roads with vehicles. But life is neither perfect nor without risk! So I work with what I’ve got and what I love and pretty happy with it.
It’s my opinion that almost everyone here will say cycling or running is their favorite form of exercise. It certainly tops being a Sumo wrestler on this forum. The best is the one you do most often
I’m a bit of a nerd. So bear with me. You’ve been forewarned. lol
If swimming has a higher mortality rate than running - as the article implies - because swimming is commonly encouraged by physicians for people needing exercise, I’d assume the same would be true for cycling. It’s pretty accessible, and doesn’t hurt as much (IMHO) as running. Plus - if you were to include indoor cycling as well (thinking about those people who bought a Peloton as a health intervention during COVID), you’ve got a pretty broad patient population of both hard core cyclists and people doing it largely for health reasons.
Have you gone to the pool at the gym? People stand there, talk to each other, walk in the water for 10 min, then swim 5-10 laps leisurely, rest 2 min in between each, and then they log that they did 45 min of swimming.
On the other hand, the most leisurely run is quite a bit more work. Because it requires all muscles to carry the body weight for a while, HR’s are usually in the 130’s to 160’s on any given run. It’s very hard to have a run that is leisurely.
give people 3000 yds of swimming with short rests and varying intensity on a regular basis and the study outcomes will change.
it’s the same with cycling. If you do 6 miles of leisurely cycling at 7 mph, the outcome is different than 75 min of tempo and sweet spot work.
