Bicycles are a favorite mode of transportation, especially among children. No matter how old you are, you can get a great deal of benefits from using a bicycle to run school errands every day. Whether you already love your bike or looking for a reason to start biking every day, the goal here is to show you all the top benefits of riding a bicycle every day as part of your school errands.
Some of the top benefits of running school errands on a bicycle include:
- Encourages children to develop healthy habits
- It can make the school run fun and enjoyable
- Your journey can become multi-functional
- You get to know your local community better
- Helps you stay fit and/or lose weight
- Lowers risk of health issues
- Decreases stress
- Helps strengthen joints
- Improves mood
- Improves brain power
By reading on, you can learn just why biking is so great for your mental and physical health. Riding your bike every day for school errands is the healthy and eco-friendly choice that can make a significant difference in your life.
What are the Top Level Benefits of Running School Errands on your Bike?
There are so many good reasons for making your school journey, and running school errands on your bike; here are some of my favorites…
1. Develops Healthy Travelling Habits in Children
For me, the number one reason I thought about running school errands on a bike was to encourage healthy travelling habits in my children. If you take your children to school everyday on a bike, this becomes second nature as a form of transport for your children, and will be a lifelong healthy habit that can stay with your children as they grow up into healthy adults!
2. The School Run becomes Fun & Enjoyable!
We’ve all had those moments on a school morning where your children never seem to know exactly how to delay getting out of the house on time. Well, once cycling to school becomes an option, you may find that your children love getting out of the house to get to school!
Not only will you be able to have an easier time getting out of the house in the morning, but you’ll be top parent in the eyes of your children for the morning 😉
3. Your Journey can become Multi-functional
Running school errands on your bike helps you to do those things you have to find time to do otherwise, like pick up some milk on the way home, or visit a local friend. Biking helps to do all of those local little errands that essentially help you to multi-task, whilst enjoying all the other health benefits of cycling (see below).
4. Get in Touch with the Local Community
Running school errands by bike regularly means you will get to know the locals, and be in touch with your local community at a much deeper level. Before I started cycling regularly, I didn’t see this benefit until I actually went through it. Cycling around locally, including to school and back helps you get to know the local folk and interact with the community on a completely different level that you would if you used your car.
What are the Top Health Benefits of Riding Your Bike?
There are plenty of other great benefits that you can enjoy through riding your bike. This section will look at the top benefits for your physical health.
1. Lose Weight
There is evidence that just biking once a week can work wonders for helping you stay in shape. If you are looking to lose weight or want to maintain your current weight, bicycling every day can help you stick to your fitness goals. This means that you should ride to and from school in addition to running errands to maximize this benefit.
2. Strengthens Your Muscles & Joints
Riding your bike is a great exercise because it allows you to improve your musculoskeletal health. Because riding your bike is a full body exercise, you can work out all of the muscles in your body in addition to strengthening your important joints in your legs.
Additionally, bicycling helps to improve your overall flexibility, something that is important to reducing injuries. This can be especially beneficial to students because not only do they spend a lot of time sitting in the classroom, but often times they don’t get a lot of physical activity in general.
3. Lowers Risk of Disease
Bicycling is extremely beneficial when it comes to reducing your risk of disease in the future, especially if you keep up with bicycling after you get out of school. There is evidence that riding your bicycle every day can reduce your risk of heart disease and developing certain types of cancer. Biking is an excellent cardio workout, meaning that it’s great for strengthening your heart. A stronger heart is essential to living a healthier life.
4. Better Stretching
As previously mentioned, cycling is a full body workout. What this means is that you are using muscles that you may not use on a regular basis. You are extending specific muscles, like the glutes and hip flexors, that you usually don’t even think too much about. That stretches these muscles out, improving your flexibility and range of motion. After your bicycle adventure, it is recommended that you do extra stretching, to improve your recovery time and reduce your risk of injury.
5. Healthier Lungs
Working out your lungs is another way that you can improve your health. Cardiovascular exercise forces your lungs to expand and contract harder than they normally do, strengthening your lungs. Stronger lungs are healthier lungs.
6. Better Sleep
People need to get an adequate amount of sleep in order to stay as healthy as possible both physically and mentally. Cardiovascular activity like bicycling can be extremely helpful in helping people get a better quality sleep at night, while also having an easier time falling asleep. The amount and quality of sleep that you get is so important to your physical and emotional wellbeing.
What are the Benefits of Bicycling to Your Mental Health?
These days, people understand that it’s just as important to focus on your mental health as it is to focus on your physical health. Bicycling can not only work wonders on helping you be physically fit, but it can also offer great mental health benefits as well. This section will take a look at the mental health benefits you can enjoy thanks to bicycling.
1. Decreases Stress
Students of all ages have plenty of stress that they need to manage on a daily basis. Exercising, especially cardiovascular exercise like running and biking, can be amazing for reducing stress. You get the benefit of deep breathing, something essential to reducing stress. This is in addition to that “high” that people get after doing these types of exercises, which works wonders on decreasing stress.
2. Improves Mood
Bicycling can release serotonin and dopamine, neurochemicals that improve your mood. This makes you generally happier. Plus, when you ride around on your bicycle, you’re not stressing out about other things like a crowded bus to get to and from school.
3. Improves Brain Power
Exercising on a regular basis, such as riding your bike every day, increases energy and reduces those feelings of fatigue. Even doing 30 minutes of bicycling can improve your memory, creative thinking, and your reaction time.
4. Boosts Confidence
Students of all ages can greatly benefit from a boost of confidence, especially when it comes to teenagers. Bicycling every day has numerous physical and mental health benefits, which can work wonders in significantly improving your confidence.
Why You Should Ride Your Bike on School Errands?
Especially when the weather is nice, riding around a bike for your school errands can be a great idea. Here are just a few:
- You can ride to and from school without sitting on a crowded bus.
- You don’t have to worry about getting a ride to work after school because you can just bike there.
- You also don’t have to worry about missing the bus after school, especially if you stay late for sports or other activities.
Biking is the convenient way for you to get around and ensure that you get all of your school errands done. Plus, you get so many great benefits from riding your bike for all of your school errands.
What Happens When You Ride a Bike Every Day?
Cycling is growing in popularity, becoming a popular way to commute for people of all ages. But what happens when you ride your bicycle every day? This section will take a closer look at what will happen when you ride your bike on a daily basis.
Excellent Mode of Transportation
Riding your bike every day is just a great way to travel around to and from school and when you have to do any errands. You can control how fast you go and which route you feel like taking. It’s a fun way to get around, helping you to feel more energized as you travel around.
Keeps You Physically Fit
Not everyone has the time and money to go to a gym. If you’re younger, you don’t have the ability to go to the gym because of your age. But, riding your bicycle every day gives you the daily exercise that you need to stay healthy. You will have more endurance, better immune system, and get better blood flow to your body.
Losing Weight
If you’ve been struggling with your weight, you may want to find a great solution to help you achieve your weight loss goals. Exercising every day by riding your bike does give you a fun way to lose the weight. Plus, riding your bike every day can actually boost your metabolism which is essential in losing weight. It’s estimated that just a 30-minute bike ride can help you burn nearly 300 calories. Those who are struggling to lose weight may find that riding their bike every day will work for them.
Prevents Illness
Thanks to biking, you can reduce many of the health ailments that people struggle with. You can reduce cholesterol, reduce your risk of diabetes, and improve your lung and heart health. These are things that can help prevent a variety of different illnesses and help you be much healthier overall.
Are there Other Benefits to Riding a Bike?
There are plenty of health benefits that riders can gain through riding their bike every day. But there are environmental and economical benefits that the rider can enjoy as well. Here is a closer look at some of the other benefits of riding a bike every day.
The Environment
One of the best benefits for everyone is how great riding a bike is for the environment. Riding your bike reduces your carbon footprint as it doesn’t require the use of fossil fuels and doesn’t contribute to the smog problem that can have a major impact on the environment. You are overall using less resources by enjoying your bike every day. You will also cut down on the noise pollution by choosing to ride your bike instead.
Economic Benefits
If you are old enough for a car, but don’t have the money, you can be happy that a bike can help you save money until you can save up for a car. Plus, you don’t have to worry about those extra costs that add up when you own a car such as car insurance, car maintenance, and fuel costs. You also won’t have to worry about paying for a parking permit or a parking spot since it’s typically free to park a bike.
Social Benefits
There are also plenty of social benefits that you can enjoy thanks to riding your bike. You may be able to make friends that you can ride around with. There may be a cycling club in your community that you can enjoy and make new friends at. You can create incredible memories by taking up bicycling and riding great paths and enjoy new adventures when riding bikes with friends.
Enjoy an Adventure
Through riding your bicycle, you can actually enjoy some great adventures. There are usually bike paths nearby that allow you to take in nature as you ride around, giving you stunning views of the area. Or you can ride through places that you wouldn’t be able to without your bike. Bikes allow you the chance to enjoy some great adventures.
Benefits for Athletes
If you are a young athlete, there are additional benefits that you can get from riding your bike. Because of the stretching and use of muscles that are often ignored, you can help reduce injury when you enjoy your sports of choice. It can also help you recover from any injuries faster. You can also improve your endurance, which can translate into various other sports.
How to Choose the Best Bike for You
Now that you can see just how great riding a bike is for you; you will need some help in choosing the right bicycle for your specific needs. The first part of this is to decide on which bike best meets your needs. There are a few different types of bikes that you can choose from, such as:
- Cruisers
Cruiser bikes are more casual bikes that were meant for just cruising around. These are typically used by people who just want to ride around in a calmer fashion.
- Road Bikes
Road bikes are a type of bike that was meant to be enjoyed speeding around in. These are built for speed and specifically made for use on the pavement. That’s why this is a great option for daily commuters of people who ride around their city.
- Mountain Bikes
Mountain bikes are typically rugged bikes that are best when used for off-roading, such as enjoying bike paths. You can also use these on the pavement, but these are primarily used for those who enjoy off-roading.
- Hybrid Bikes
Hybrid bikes are bikes that are a combination between road bikes and mountain bikes. These are excellent commuters and a great compromise between the ruggedness of the mountain bikes and the speed of road bikes.
There are plenty of other options, but for the purposes of running school errands these are the top choices that you can choose form. These are great options for beginners to consider and there are plenty of choices within each of these top categories to ensure that you can get the best bike for your needs.
It’s also very important for you to consider your budget. Bikes can range dramatically in prices, so you need to have a clear budget in mind. For a good bike, you can expect to spend a couple of hundred dollars for your first bike.
Lower range bikes are generally between $80 and $300. These are made from very basic metal frames, giving you a stylish and functional bike without breaking the bank. These are the bikes that you can typically buy at local retail stores like Walmart and consist of brands like Forge and Huffy.
With a mid-range bike, you can expect to spend between $300 and $1,000. These bikes are made with a durable, lightweight metal like aluminum. These are higher quality bikes that generally make the best daily commuters. Lastly, there are high-end bikes that can well exceed $1,000.
High end bikes cost so much money because they are made from some of the lightest and most durable metal that you can get. These are often made from carbon or titanium, designed for most things that you can throw at them. You can also expect to spend plenty of money when you customize these bikes to get something that is perfect for you.
If you are a beginner, you may be better off investing in a secondhand bike. This means that you can get a good bike for an affordable price, which is a great option if you want to make sure that you enjoy biking before you spend a lot of money on it.
After considering your budget or thinking about what type of bike you want, it’s also important for you to get a bike that fits you. You will look ridiculous on a bike that doesn’t fit and there’s the risk of injury.
To choose the right frame size for you, you need to measure your height and inseam. Then you can look up a frame size chart to help you pick the bike that best fits you. Ideally, you will want to go to the store to see how the bike fits you, but these measurements should help.
You should also consider such things as:
- Handlebar shapes
- Gears
- Suspension
- Brake type
- Comfort
By following these tips, you can end up with the perfect bike for your needs. If you’d like more detailed information about how to choose the best type of bike for your needs, check out my article here; it’s a beginners guide to getting the perfect bike for your needs.
What are Some Great Bike Accessories for Students?
When using your bike for school errands, you need to be sure that you have all of the best accessories. This section will take a look at some of the best accessories to consider.
Helmet
Bike helmets are an absolute must when riding around your bike. This is the single most important safety equipment that you can have when riding your bike.
Bike Lock Cable
If you have spent a lot of money on your bike, you want to protect that investment no matter where you go. That’s why it’s worth it to spend a little extra on your bike lock cable. You want something sturdy that can’t be easily cut. There are some options that have a combination lock on them, which is great so that you don’t have to worry about losing your key.
Phone Mount
Most students can’t seem to go anywhere without their phone. It can be a good idea to have a phone mount for your bike. This is good because you can have something that will hold your phone as you listen to music riding around. Maybe you want GPS directions because you’re unfamiliar with the best routes. Just be sure that you don’t text and ride.
LED Lights
LED lights are great for improving your visibility when riding around, whether you have to leave early in the morning or have late day at school. These are also great to have if you are riding around in inclement weather.
Rack Mount
This is especially important for students who are riding their bike for school errands. Or if you’re a parent that is taking their children to school. These can hold your backpack and other items that you need for your day while you ride your bike. For information on the best types of storage on your bike, check out my article “Best Storage solutions for your Bike”.
NOTE: If you’re looking for some top tips on how to plan running errands on your bike, check out my article here, where I go through some things you need to think about before planning your journey, and what you’d need to take with you.