Afi Ruel In honor of May being Mental Health Awareness month, I decided to do a mini blog series on how to improve mental health and overall health. This is part 1 of my mini blog series on how to get your body healthy with movement, and how to get happy. For this part, we’ll be talking about using bicycling to get healthy and happy. Bicycling is not something I ever really did until I met my (now) husband. One of our dates early on was a bike ride through one of the preserved national forest areas near us. Every time we go bicycling now, I always feel great when I come home. (Except Spring! I try to limit outside activity in Spring because of the pollen) Here’s why I think it does your body and mind good.
1: It gets you outside. Being outside is magical and it does something to your body. I believe the air and the atmosphere interact your body in a way that improves your wellbeing overall. The trick is that you have to do it consistently (think 3-4 times a week).
2: Bicycling helps preserve your knees. One of the reasons I stopped running was because of the horror stories I heard of otherwise healthy and fit people having issues with their knees. They were runners and ran on pavement, which they later found out deteriorated their knees. Bicycling helps avoid that. You’re not standing, walking or running so there’s no impact on your body while you move.
3: It gets you fit. Bicycling helps tone your muscles AND it gets your heart rate up, which means blood flow; and blood flow helps to remedy a number of differerent physical ailments!
As always, make sure you’re staying hydrated throughout the day to make sure you don’t overheat and to avoid dehydration. And enjoy your time outside…on your bike!
What do you do to keep yourself happy and whole?
