As convenient as the car may be, it happens to be one of the unhealthiest inventions around. There are so many ways your health & wellbeing can be negatively impacted by constantly driving a car. It ruins your posture, causes muscular imbalances and encourages a sedentary lifestyle.
Walking and cycling are both preferred methods of movement as they provide the most health benefits. But, if you need a mode of transport, is there a healthier alternative that’s still highly practical? It turns out that motorcycles can be far better for your health than cars. After comparing the two vehicles, you can pinpoint three key areas for this:
Burn more calories riding a motorcycle
If you rode a motorcycle for an hour, you could burn up to 600 calories. For context, you can work out in the gym lifting weights for an hour and only burn around 300-500 calories. Compared to a car, you will also burn far more calories than you would by sitting down and driving for an hour. Why is this possible? Point number two does a good job of explaining things…
Constant muscle engagement
Driving a car is simple and relaxing – hardly any of your muscles are engaged the whole time. Your shoulders and forearms will probably be the only ones doing any work. By comparison, motorcycles require lots of muscles to work the whole time. Specifically, the muscles of your lower body and core stay activated to fight against resistance and keep you on the bike. If you ride for an hour straight, you will have sore legs the next day. In turn, activating lots of large muscle groups requires loads of energy, which is why you burn so many calories! Plus, the activation of your leg muscles can help prevent common issues that are caused by sitting in a car all day – like hip and knee pain.
Better posture
Lastly, riding a motorcycle demands good posture or you will not have a good time. This means you keep your spine straight while you’re riding. Even if you lean forward, you lean with a straight back. In a car, you can slouch with ease and your hips are stuck in a flexed position. While riding a motorcycle isn’t amazing for your posture, it’s far better than driving a car!
As you can see, motorcycles clearly have a lot of health benefits when compared to cars. Making a switch might be something you want to consider, but it’s worth weighing up the other pros and cons first. Motorcycles are cheaper to maintain and it costs a lot less to easily ship a motorcycle if you want to bring a vehicle with you on holiday. They’re also highly practical as you can skip a lot of traffic. The downside is mainly the practicality. If you have a family, you will need a car to fit everyone in – you can’t take your kids to school on the back of a motorcycle!
Ultimately, buying a motorcycle is an idea that’s worth considering. Particularly if you’ve seen lots of postural or health problems from driving a car all the time. If it fits into your lifestyle, it’s well worth giving a try.
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