Clear Evidence that Cycling Makes You Stay Healthy for Longer
‘We now have clear evidence that cycling is a great way to stay physically healthy for longer’, says Professor Alister Hart.
He is an orthopaedic hip surgeon at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, and he led a trial that measured the effect on muscle health of everyday recreational cycling. It is reported in The Times by Peta Bee.
Previous Studies
Most previous health studies on cycling have focused on the cardiovascular effects.
There was also a study by the Institute for Inflammation and Ageing at Birmingham University which showed that lifelong cyclists improve the performance of their thymus glands, and produce as many T-cells as younger people.
New Trial
The new trial led by Professor Hart looked at sarcopenia, which is the weakening of muscles with age.
‘We wanted to see if cycling helped to prevent [sarcopenia] and has another sort of protective effect against ageing.’
Professor alister hart
The study involved:
- twenty-eight male recreational cyclists with an average age of 49 and
- a control group of twenty-eight self-declared “couch potatoes” who did less than an hour a week of exercise
Using an MRI scanner, the researchers took muscle fat readings of:
- the gluteus maximus and
- the gluteus medius
With age, muscle becomes marbled with fat, and gets weaker. This is a factor in sarcopenia.
The cyclists’ muscles were larger and stronger than those of the couch potatoes, and had less fat between the fibres. This is a marker of good muscle health.
The average difference, cyclists vs couch potato, was:
- 14.8% vs 21.6% fat infiltration in the gluteus maximus
- 11.4% vs 16% fat infiltration in the gluteus medius
This is the clear evidence that cycling is a great way to stay physically healthy. ‘It helps to maintain muscles and prevent them from being weakened by fat infiltration, delaying some of the effects of ageing’, says Professor Hart.
A study to be published shortly will compare the effects of cycling on the muscles of men and women, to see if there is any difference in the response.