March 2, 2016

You’ve just fin­ished a two hour ride through flow­ing sin­gle­track, your adren­a­line is pump­ing, your heart rate is high, beads of sweat are rolling down your face and you are present — in the moment. You look around at the stag­ger­ing beau­ty of the nat­ur­al envi­ron­ment and smile at the gen­uine excite­ment you get from hit­ting the trails with friends. A post-ride beer is consumed.

Have you expe­ri­enced this? If so, keep doing it. If you haven’t, I would high­ly encour­age you to take up moun­tain bik­ing as your new hob­by, pas­sion and sport. Why? Because it will make you healthier.

HERE ARE 5 HEALTH BENEFITS OF MOUNTAIN BIKING

1. MOUNTAIN BIKING DECREASES STRESS

Do not under­es­ti­mate the pow­er of nature and green spaces to change your mood and gen­er­al health. The envi­ron­ment around you has a huge impact on how you per­ceive the world and feel on any giv­en day. In the midst of the hus­tle and bus­tle of the city, you may feel over­whelmed, stressed and hur­ried. Once you hit the trails, and immerse your­self in a for­est or nat­ur­al land­scape, stud­ies have shown that stress lev­els are reduced, blood pres­sure decreas­es and your over­all well-being increas­es. Don’t believe it? Com­pare your bod­ies reac­tion when bik­ing in the city vs. bik­ing t through the forest.

2. MOUNTAIN BIKING IS EASIER ON YOUR JOINTS

If you have bad knees, moun­tain bik­ing can offer great exer­cise, while hav­ing min­i­mal impact on your joints. Run­ning can often lead to hip and knee prob­lems from hit­ting the pave­ment, but bik­ing is eas­i­er on your body.

3. MOUNTAIN BIKING ENCOURAGES YOU TO LIVE IN THE MOMENT

Moun­tain bik­ers are great yogis. It’s hard to think about any­thing else but bik­ing when you’re hop­ping over logs, rid­ing through streams and around tight cor­ners with trees on either side. You have to be focused on rid­ing , be in the moment to avoid injuries and get the most out of the expe­ri­ence. You will for­get about doing your tax­es, your annoy­ing boss or recent trou­bles — and instead, release loads of hap­py endor­phins that will have you smil­ing from ear to ear.

4. MOUNTAIN BIKING MAKES FOR A HEALTHY HEART

Moun­tain bik­ing will get your heart pump­ing. Steep clmbs will chal­lenge your car­dio­vas­cu­lar strength and over time your heart will become stronger. The recov­ery peri­od for those climbs will decrease and you will find it eas­i­er to accom­plish longer, and more chal­leng­ing rides.

5. MOUNTAIN BIKING CREATES SOCIAL CONNECTIONS

I recent­ly watched a TED Talk by Har­vard researcher Robert Waldringer, enti­tled “What’s Makes a Good Life? Lessons From The Longest Study on Hap­pi­ness” - want to know the secret to a good life? Well, accord­ing to Robert’s study it’s high qual­i­ty social rela­tion­ships. The clos­er you are with friends and fam­i­ly, the hap­pi­er you will be in the long run. So, what does this have to do with moun­tain bik­ing? EVERYTHING. Moun­tain bik­ing encour­ages trail­side chats with bike bud­dies and post-ride beers to debrief the ride and talk about life. Moun­tain bik­ing brings peo­ple togeth­er, to teach each oth­er new skills, learn from oth­ers and cre­ate mem­o­rable expe­ri­ences in beau­ti­ful places.