Exercising the body, regardless of the type of sport practiced, is synonymous with health and well-being. However, the routine and the changes that have arisen following the covid-19 pandemic have modified the lifestyle of many inhabitants, reducing sports activity or shifting it back to being a secondary activity.
The bike or cycling It has become an alternative so that people, without leaving home, can carry out some type of activity, which in addition to contributing to the cardiovascular system, with just 45 minutes a day, obtain physical and emotional changes.
“You don’t need to be an athlete to include habits of your day,” says expert Carolina Fonseca, an athlete who found in stationary cycling an opportunity to motivate people to change their lifestyles.
The athlete, of Venezuelan origin, has conquered several cities from the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, among others, with its Purepower Cycle program, a platform that invites you to exercise from anywhere in the world.
More than 2,000 people (in the United States alone) connect with the expert of indoor cyclingwho highlights the benefits of practicing this sport, either at home or on previously scheduled tours.
1. Create resistance
Although the constant pedaling is strong to create a good resistance, the effort does have its good results. Carolina Fonseca affirms that “a toned body does not appear overnight, you have to work on it with a lot of perseverance and discipline”.
2. Reduces risks of cardiovascular diseases
Any physical activity that improves heart rate and strengthens the heart is key to lengthening life. The cycling prevents blood pressure and increases oxygen consumption. Besides, improves flexibility and eliminates physical tension.
3. Improves emotions
This training is capable of reducing anxiety, depression and improving the quality of life of those who practice it. Many users check the energies that have come into their lives since they practice this sport.
Recently, the medical journal of cardiology European Heart Journal published an analysis involving 25,000 people from Latin America, which found that the main cause of death is cardiovascular diseases (31.1%), followed by cancer (30.6%) and respiratory diseases (8.6%).
In 2020, according to Dane figures, in Colombia, the number of deaths from heart attacks increased by 18%. While in 2019 39,179 people died due to these circumstances, in 2020 the figure rose to 46,349, with heart attack being the main cause of death.
The report shows that there was also an increase in this type of illness in people between 25 and 39 years of age, a situation that sets off alarms not only to counteract the disease, but also to prevent it early.
Only in Colombia, the expert Iván Escobar assures that Colombia is cracked in physical activity because the Statistics say that “half of adults do not comply with the recommendations, that six out of seven young people do not comply with them and that three out of four children do not comply either. Another worrying issue is that there are sedentary behaviors. From 60 to 75 percent of children and young people are glued for many hours to cell phones, computers, video games, etc.
He assures that “unquestionably the confinement [producto de la pandemia por la covid-19] made many people leave physical activity behind. The same thing happened with food and there was a lot of weight gain.”
In addition, he indicates that lack of time is a bad excuse used to justify lack of exercise, “because while talking on the cell phone you can walk, if you move from one place to another you can walk, you can go up and down stairs, there are things very simple things that one can do. Now, you can watch TV, you can watch a series or whatever while you’re on the treadmill.”