There is no denying the fact that each one of us needs some exercises and workouts. This is because our lifestyles have changed over the years and decades.
The job nature for most of us has also changed quite a bit. This has resulted in many of us leading sedentary lifestyles.
While we may have prospered financially and economically, many of us have started becoming victims of lifestyle diseases. Hence, there is a growing need for finding out avenues to be fitter and healthier.
Towards this objective, there are enough reasons to believe that cycling could be one of the most helpful and proven workouts.
While there is no denying the fact that bicycling could be a great cardio and aerobic exercise, there are many other questions that come to the minds of people who are already into cycling or planning to get into it.
The focus in this article will be to try to get the right answer to the various questions as to whether cycling can lead to building of muscles in the legs, calves and other such places.
Getting answers to these questions will go a long way in understanding the various benefits and advantages associated with cycling.
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Does Cycling Make My Legs Bulkier?
There is a difference between having bulky legs and muscly legs. It would be wrong to consider that cycling will make our legs bulkier.
If there are men and women who have lean legs and would like to add some muscles to it, cycling could help a lot.
On the other hand, if you have people who have fat deposits around the legs, it makes sense to go in for cycling because it could help in reducing the fat deposits around the thighs, calf and other areas of the feet.
Yes, it is a fact that legs could be stronger, meaner and fitters by regular cycling and for people with thin legs, bicycling could help in giving a shape to their legs by developing certain important muscles of the legs.
However, it may not be always right to state that regular bicycling could lead to bulking of the legs.
Does Cycling Build Calves?
Regular cycling may go a long way in helping your calf muscles to become stronger and fitter. It will make it resistant to fatigue caused by regular use of the calf muscles.
We need to bear in mind that cycling is a good form of aerobic exercise. It therefore could help in making your calf muscles stronger and fitter but at the same time, there are no studies to prove that it could add to muscle mass as far as your calves are concerned.
However, if you are keen on silhouetting your muscles in and around the calf, it makes a lot of sense to go in for regular cycling.
If you really want to add muscle mass to your bigger calves or hamstring, you cannot just depend on cycling alone.
You should complement cycling with various strength programs and this will give you the desired results as far as building strong calf muscles are concerned. There is no doubt that cycling helps a lot in adding strength to the calf muscles and makes it ready for high endurance.
Further, it also aids in burning fat around the calf muscle areas and this helps to tone your legs and makes them look slimmer and sexier.
It happens both for men and women. Many women are apprehensive about developing massive, man-like quads if they are regularly into cycling.
This is not based on facts because women have 15% less testosterone and 10% more body fat and this almost totally rules out the risk of developing man-like quads.
Is It Possible To Build Muscles By Cycling?
Before we answer this question, there are a few things that we must bear in mind.
We have to clearly understand that cycling will not be able to build new muscles. So if you believe that hours of cycling will increase your leg muscle mass, you are perhaps.
However, cycling does go a long way in toning and giving shape to the muscles that you already have.
If you have lean and skinny build around your legs, it would be a good idea to complement your cycling with exercises and specially focused training programs that could help in increasing the mass of your calf muscle, thigh muscles and other such muscles around your legs.
Therefore a combination of weight and muscle building exercises focused around the legs and cycling for increasing stamina, fatigue resistance and strength increase, could be the right way forward.
Does Biking Help Build Leg Muscles?
The answer to this question depends on the way you would like to look at the world “build”. For many buildings it is all about muscular hypertrophy.
This is not most cyclers look for. This kind of huge muscle mass in the legs, calves and quads could be helpful for bodybuilders who are of a different league and build their muscles with separate objectives in mind.
However, this is not the case with cyclers because they want to have legs that are fitter, leaner, well-toned and most importantly they should be able to withstand fatigue and tiredness caused by long hours of training.
We have to bear in mind that cycling is an endurance workout. It certainly will make your calves and leg muscles stronger and you will have much better endurance and will have that silhouetted or cut appearance as the slang is commonly used.
You cannot compare a biker’s legs with that of sprinters, especially short distance sprinters. They need to have improved muscle mass to propel them forward and pierce through wind resistance. However, this is not the main objective for bikers who want to trim their body, improve stamina and have better staying power.
Further, biking also increases other overall physical attributes. It makes your heart stronger and improves the overall cardiovascular health. It also could go a long way in preventing various lifestyle diseases like high blood sugar, increased blood pressure and other such things.
When we take into account all the above factors, it is quite evident that it makes a lot of sense to go into regular biking. It could help in helping improve stamina, overall fitness levels, staying power, and improved cardiac, lung and other functions.
It can certainly help in strengthening existing muscles of the legs and give a good shape to it. However, it may not be too helpful in adding new muscle mass and bulk.
This is possible when you combine cycling with other focused workouts and training programs that could help in muscle building.
