Exercise in any form is good for your health. And you are more likely to repeat the exercises that you enjoy the most. It is recommended that you incorporate moderately intense exercises between 150 to 300 minutes every week. And doing exercises that you enjoy, will help you meet these targets with ease.
If you enjoy walking or cycling, the goal translates to roughly 30 minutes of walking or cycling each day. You can either do them at a single stretch or break them down into smaller exercises of 10 minutes each.
But which one should you choose? Cycling or walking? Here is everything you need to know about these two exercises, and which one should you opt for, depends entirely on you.
- Cycling:
Cycling is a fun and rather inexpensive way to stay fit and healthy. It is also one of the easiest mediums to explore cities and localities. Cycling is low impact in nature and provides a lot of benefits. To start with, it strengthens your lower body, such as the glutes, legs, and hips. You can opt to cycle out in the open, which gives you access to fresh air or cycle in your home or gym. If you want to take it a bit easy, you can ride on flat roads or take it to a mountain track or increase the incline on your stationary bike.
- Pros and Cons:
You can explore the option of incorporating cycling into your daily routine as and when feasible. For example, you can consider cycling to work or school. This has a bigger environmental impact as well. As you cut down on carbon emissions when you cycle to work or school or for other chores.
Cycling is a great way to burn calories and eventually lose weight. On average, you can burn as much as 500 calories for every hour that you cycle.
Cycles are not all that expensive and even easier to maintain. Making them much better investments than some other workout-related equipment.
However, cycling can be dangerous if the roads are not properly lit or there aren’t cycling tracks. There is also the risk of accidents, and you cannot travel long distances as well.
- Pros and Cons:
- Walking:
It is one of the easiest ways to stay active and healthy. Adding 30 minutes of walking to your daily schedule can do a world of good to your body. And you do not need any equipment for the same. Anyone can walk at any point in time, thus making it very flexible.
- Pros and Cons:
Some benefits of walking include better mood, a lower risk of heart-related diseases, keeping your knee joints healthy, improve bone density and better blood pressure management.
However, if you are looking to lose weight, only walking might not take you there. It burns half the number of calories as cycling for the same duration. It also tends to neglect the upper body.
- Pros and Cons:
Both the exercises can be a great addition. Yet, cycling fares slightly better if you are looking to burn more calories.
