Is cycling a good workout?

Yes, cycling is a very good workout. It trains your heart and lungs, builds endurance in your legs, and it's easy on your joints because your weight is on the saddle and not landing on your knees and ankles with every step.

Two or three rides a week of 30 to 60 minutes is enough to see a real change in fitness. That alone covers most of the weekly cardio guideline from the WHO and CDC, which is 150 minutes of moderate activity.

What cycling does well

• Cardio fitness. A steady ride at a pace where you can still talk raises your aerobic base the same way running does.
• Low impact. It's one of the better options if running bothers your shins, knees or hips.
• Leg endurance. Quads, glutes and calves do the work for hours at a time.
• Easy to scale. You can ride gently for recovery or go hard on hills and intervals.

What it doesn't do much

Cycling won't do much for your upper body or your bone density. Bone responds to impact and heavy loading, and riding has very little of either. That's the main thing I'd fix if you ride a lot. Add two short strength sessions a week, and the WHO's two days of strength work is covered too.

It also won't build much muscle past the first few months. More on that in does cycling build leg muscle.

Making a ride count as a workout

A relaxed roll to the shop is better than nothing, but it isn't much of a workout. For a ride to count, you want to be breathing a bit harder than normal for most of it. A few ways to get there:

1. Pick a route with some hills, or a long steady stretch with no stops.
2. Keep the effort at a level where you can talk in short sentences.
3. Once a week, add a few harder efforts of 2 to 5 minutes with an easy spin in between.

Rides sync from Apple Health into League of Fitness and are scored by heart rate zones, so time spent in the harder zones counts for more than a relaxed roll. It's a simple way to see whether a ride was really a workout.

If you're new to it, start with 20 to 30 minutes and add a little each week. Sore sit bones are normal early on, and there's a separate page on stopping saddle pain.

If you have a heart condition, chest pain or dizziness during exercise, check with a doctor before starting a new training routine.