Everyone knows that exercise helps improve mental health. As cyclists, we all know that cycling makes us feel better mentally and physically.
Now, researchers have done the first and most important research on the psychological improvement of cycling, and confirmed this: In terms of the improvement of sports to psychology, cycling (outdoor or indoor) came in second place following team sports. The researchers took three years to study and investigate the effects of exercise on mental health in up to 1,237,194 adults. Participants reported the type of exercise, the amount of exercise they performed and the number of days with stress, depression and other emotional disturbances during the entire exercise. The results were published in the Lancet magazine.
All exercise improves mental health. People who exercise regularly experience only having a bad mood for 2 days in a month, while those who do not exercise have bad moods for 3~4 days. Exercise is more pronounced in people who are already suffering from depression. They have reduced the number of days of bad moods in a month by almost 4 days. Of course, different sports play different roles in improving your mental state. In the study of 75 sports, the role of team sports came in first. People who played football and other team sports reduced the number of days of bad moods by 23.3%, followed by cycling, with a very small difference , which is 21.6%. The third place is aerobics in the gym, but not including running, which ranks fourth.
The findings also show that team sports have additional benefits over other sports because they include social factors in addition to the sport itself. Therefore, if you often feel depressed or catch yourself in a bad mood lately, you may wish to find three or four friends and organize some cycling activities together. This can effectively improve the bad mood, increase happiness and avoid mental illness.
