Why Owning a Mountain Bike Is Good For Your Health
Mountain biking has become increasingly popular among adventure seekers and fitness enthusiasts. We think it’s because it’s so cool, but the reality is that it’s awesome to get out with your friends on the trail, rip a few bank turns, maybe drop a few drops, and then crush beers in the parking lot after. Or water. Either way, there are a lot of great reasons to get out on the bike.
The Mountain Biking Community
First and foremost, the mountain biking community is insane. And chances are that if you’re not a mountain biker already, you have a few friends who get out on the weekends and rip through trail systems and bomb down steep dirt. We found this article by The Gaurdian that discusses how mountain biking can foster social integration and bring communities together. Why is that cool? Because it shows how mountain biking brings together people from all walks of life, different backgrounds, different social circles, and puts them all in the same place celebrating just one of the things that unites them. Oh yea, and it's a bunch of people getting together to send it who might not ever get together otherwise.
We love this. And whether it’s road biking, mountain biking, bmx biking, e-biking, or one of the many types of other bikes, we love more people on bikes.
Mountain Biking Health and Wellness
Mountain biking is also a fun sport that elevates your heart rate. The sustained cardiovascular effort involved in navigating challenging terrains enhances cardiac function, is incredibly fun to do, and also increases brain wave activity and coordination. Shit, why wouldn’t you want to do this?
And listen, we are not scientists when it comes to cycling. At all. Hell, our team barely made it through high school. But we read (and you can read it too!) about how cycling is great for your heart. We will die on this hill if we have to: Mountain biking saves lives. You can read the same blog we did published by Landry Bobo for EVOQ. It’s awesome and is a great reminder as to why health is so important as we enter the new year of 2024.
There’s also the benefits of being outside for, like, hours on end, smiling and laughing with your friends. We worked remote through the pandemic like the rest of the world – it was shit. We were miserable. And we weren’t alone.
Here’s a study by the National Institute of Health (yea, the big dogs) talking all about the benefits of physical activity in nature versus the same in urban environments (like people who just sit on Peloton bikes while staring at the brick wall of the building next to them. Listen, we love this, too. Stationary cycling is important for training, and if it’s the only cycling you can do we support that, also. We just think getting outside is so good for you, and we love it and want everyone to do it. Sorry for the longwinded explanation and disclaimer about stationary bikes.)
Make Your Brain Work Better
Pretty much the entire time you're on a bike, your brain is working just has hard as your legs and arms. If you're out on a trail, you're probably navigating uneven terrain. So, there's your balance. Motor skills become more honed as you continously maintain equilibrium and spatial awareness. It's almost as if you're getting dumber by simply not riding a bike, especially a mountain bike.
The Idaho Sports Medicine Institute published this great article about the benefits of mountain biking, and without plagiarizing the entire thing, we wanted to lift a couple tips that they shared:
- Cardio Exercise
- Increased Muscle Strength
- Losing Weight Because of MTB
- Stress Release and Reduced Anxiety
So, there are a lot of reasons to get out on bikes, and this is just a few of the reasons. Just know that Send It always has your back. We get you. We got you.
-Send It
