Cycling for women can be a lot of fun – whether for holistic health reasons, helping the environment, trying a new activity or to complement another sport. Mentors feel comfortable doing it and the possibilities of cycling are open to you. Moreover, more people own bicycles than cars — 42% of the world’s population — and that number keeps growing every year.

For example, in the United States, the number of cyclists to work has increased 60 % in the last decade, and the total number of cyclists has increased 1.5 million. A 2012 national turnout survey showed, however, that “the number of cyclists in Australia is decreasing due to urban development, not support for cycling and cycle helmet legislation and our ageing population.

Whether you want to join the global cycling community or want to join them, here are some amazing benefits of cycling for women that encompass all aspects of life. For experienced riders, cycling has many advantages of which you may not have considered. Holistic health benefits include slowing the aging process, reducing the risk of falls in daily life, improving mental health and generally improving well-being.

Mixing cycling training – for example, intervals of a day a week or longer trips twice a week – can help you achieve different aspects of your fitness. Many of the results we discussed when we talk about the benefits of cycling have to do with exercise. Some of these benefits on your first bike rides may have you seeing them, but many of these benefits require that cycling evolves and is maintained.

Cycling for two hours or more a day reduces the risk of developing cancer 59%. Cycling is also less likely to lead to injuries from overuse but they do happen. When researchers compared a group of athletes (long-distance runners and cyclists) they found that the long-distance runner had suffered 13.3 to 14.4 percent more muscle damage (25.6 percent) and inflammation (DOM) 8.7 percent more.

It has been proven that cycling for women can prevent different types of holistic health problems and is fun and low-stress in essence. According to the research, regular cycling can help burn up to 1,000 calories per week and cycling at a gentle pace of 12 miles per hour can help burn 563 calories per hour.

For most people, cycling is probably a slower and calmer way of travel. While there are some expenses associated with cycling to the office, the cost of maintaining a bicycle can be much lower than the equivalent cost of running a car.

Cycling to work is a low-stress, adaptable exercise that burns calories at a speed of 400-750 calories per hour depending on the weight of the rider, speed and the type of cycling you do. Not being able to do any activity during the day can be difficult and as many of us are busy with work, household and social life, time can be short. The easiest way to stay fit and holistic healthy is active travel. 15 minutes of cycling to work mean you can stick to government-recommended guidelines for at least 150 minutes of exercise a week without having to sport a pair of sneakers and go to the gym.

The good news is that if you are driven with a bicycle, you can travel 5g per kilometre. Cycling for women increases heart rate and pumps blood around the body. It also burns calories and limits the likelihood of being overweight. As a result, it is one of the exercise types recommended by the NHS to reduce the risk of developing serious illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.

As a society as a whole, the documented positive effects of increased physical activity are large enough to significantly reduce air pollution. As people switch from cars to bicycles, we estimate that these benefits result in a 9 times longer life expectancy per year than human deaths each year due to higher air pollutants inhaled by traffic accidents. A study by the University of New South Wales in 2008 found that road cycling is both safer and more virtuous than cycling.

As perception of the relative safety of cycling improves, the number of collisions decreases as more people start cycling. As more people in a particular city drive, the number of collisions between motorists and cyclists in this city decreases in absolute terms. As drivers behaviour changes, including safer driving practices, so does the number of cyclists and pedestrians.

For advocates of sustainable, health-enhancing design, cycling instead of cars can be seen as the perfect time to change the status quo and make the country more cyclist friendly.

Pop-up Bicycle Networks in places like Paris and Berlin are a source of inspiration for this piece, which advocates people on bicycles. They demonstrate how American cities have the intelligence, infrastructure and ability to make cycling for women safe and accessible to those who need it most. The play tells a similar story that was made in Austin, Texas last year and has proved to be a huge help to commuters.

Based on our analysis of over 100 studies and 73 working hours, we have collected over 100 statistics, facts and research results on cycling health benefits. If you are considering cycling and weighing it against other potential activities, we can tell that cycling for women is the best option. The benefits of this sport are endless and there are dirt roads to explore.

It should come as no surprise that weight loss is one of the biggest benefits of regular cycling, but it must be repeated. Cycling has been shown to help people improve their holistic health as an aerobic exercise. We know already that cardio benefits heart health, but cycling has also proved to be powerful for another purpose : studies show that cycling can reduce the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, strokes, lipid profiles, cholesterol rehabilitation and cardiac events.

Although diet is an important part of weight loss and fat loss, science has shown that exercise can also be helpful. A 2015 study published in Hepatology found that aerobic exercise such as cycling helped overweight and obese participants lose visceral fat. Another study showed that older diabetic women lost visceral fat – a harmful fat that increases the risk of health problems such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes – when exercise and diet were incorporated into their routines.