4 min read
As cyclists, we know that riding bikes is good for our minds, bodies, and souls. We know this not just because science tells us so, but also because we can feel how much riding improves our physical and mental well-being. But let’s dig a little deeper into what research tells us about how cycling impacts our heart health and longevity specifically, along with exactly how much riding it takes per week to make a cardiovascular difference.
First, let’s examine what research has shown about the impact riding more has on our heart health and longevity. A 2021 systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis in Sports Medicine offers some of the clearest cycling-specific evidence. Looking across 17 studies involving nearly 479,000 participants, the researchers found that higher levels of cycling were associated with a 23 percent lower risk of all-cause mortality and a 24 percent lower risk of cardiovascular mortality compared with lower levels of cycling. That’s a significant drop.
The authors also estimated that the lowest cardiovascular disease mortality risk appeared at about 15 MET-hours per week, which they translated to roughly 130 minutes per week of cycling at a self-selected commuting pace. That number is useful because it lands in roughly the same neighborhood as the broader public health exercise guidelines: not nothing, but not huge mileage either. In other words, if you’re riding for a little over two hours a week at a moderate effort, you’re likely in the range most associated with meaningful heart-health benefits.
Other research suggests the benefits may start before you hit that weekly target. A 2014 meta-analysis in International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity found that people who rode at a level roughly equal to standard exercise guidelines had a 10 percent lower risk of death from any cause than people who did very little or no riding. This isn’t necessarily surprising.
But what’s interesting is that the researchers found the benefit curve was steepest at the beginning, meaning the biggest health gains seem to come from going from none to some cycling, not from piling on more and more miles once you’re already active. So the takeaway is not that there’s one magic number where benefits suddenly start; it’s that some cycling is better than none and heart health gains likely become more gradual as your mileage rises.
But here’s an important point: intensity matters, too. In fact, shorter, harder rides may be more strongly linked to heart-health benefits than longer, easy ones. A comparative study from the Copenhagen City Heart Study found that relative intensity may matter more than duration when it comes to all-cause and coronary heart disease mortality. People who rode at a higher relative intensity had lower risks of dying from any cause and from coronary heart disease.
That doesn’t mean every ride needs to be hard. It does mean that if your weekly riding includes some brisk, heart-rate-raising efforts, you’re most likely getting more cardiovascular bang for your buck than if every ride is purely easy spinning. 30 easy minutes is good, but 30 brisk minutes may be better.
So what should a practical weekly riding goal to improve heart health look like? For most people, the easiest benchmark is still 150 minutes a week of riding at a moderate intensity, which falls into the guidelines for weekly aerobic activity as set forth by the American Heart Association. That could look like five 30-minute rides, or a few longer rides spread throughout the week.
“Moderate intensity” means you’re working hard enough to raise your breathing and heart rate, but not so hard that carrying on a conversation becomes difficult. Using the talk test, you should be able to speak in full sentences, but you probably wouldn’t be able to sing comfortably. Using heart rate, a common rule of thumb is about 50 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate; to estimate max heart rate, many people use 220 minus your age. So for a 40-year-old, the moderate-intensity range would be roughly 90 to 126 beats per minute.
If you ride harder than that, you may be able to get similar benefits in closer to 75 minutes a week. And if you’re currently doing less than that, the evidence suggests it’s still worth getting on the bike: the biggest jump in heart health and longevity may come simply from doing some riding instead of none. For most adults, a couple of hours of riding a week is a strong, evidence-based place to start. And trust us when we say that once you start riding, you won’t want to stop.
Natascha has been a NASM-certified personal trainer for over ten years, focusing on functional strength training and corrective exercise—which is a fancy way of saying her passion is teaching people how to move better, with more strength and less pain. She holds multiple certifications, including specializations in corrective exercise, stretching and flexibility, behavior change, nutrition and more. She’s also been into bikes for almost three decades, and has at various times been a bike mechanic, a frame builder’s apprentice, a grunt at a bike messenger company, a fitness studio owner, a Spin instructor and a few different things at a few different bike companies. These days, she’s one of Bicycling’s Health and Fitness editors.