What is the difference between Cycling and Jogging?

Jogging is one of the most popular exercises in our country. One of the grandest annual sporting events in Malaysia is the marathon event, such as Penang Bridge International Marathon. 

Cycling is another popular sport in our country, however, it became mainstream only after the year 2006, and started to boom when our government started to launch some initiatives to encourage the public to cycle. 

Today, jogging and cycling are some of the most popular exercises among the working class. The sight of cyclists and on the road at night, and joggers in a park or inside a housing estate are very common especially in big cities, such as Klang Valley, Penang, Johor Bahru, Ipoh and Malacca.

What are the common benefits of cycling and jogging?

1. Cardiovascular exercise.

They are equally good for you. Both are helping you to strengthen your heart. By doing cardio exercise, you reduce the chances of heart attack, and at the same time, you will develop stronger stamina.

Heavy breathing when you are doing cardio exercises will increase your lung capacity, to push your breathing ability to the limit during a tedious workout.

2. Calorie Burner.

Both cycling and jogging help you to burn your fat. Losing weight is about the balance of calories. By limiting your intake of food while increasing the burning of fat, you will lose weight.

3. Maintaining muscle

Running is not good for building muscle unless you are a sprint runner. However, jogging helps you to maintain lean muscle mass. That’s the reason why those sprint runners are muscular but long-distance runners are usually thin, their muscle is lean and firm.

What are the benefits of cycling over jogging?

1. Impact on bones, joint and muscle

Jogging might be harmful to our knees. Imagine the impact it caused to your knee if you are not running in the right way when you are going downhill. 

As the joint is absorbing the impact in every step you run, it might cause damage to your joints, especially the knees. Watch out for your running posture to avoid any damage to your knee, such as Osteoarthritis.

2. Building muscle

Like I had mentioned earlier, cycling is good for building muscle. The way we paddle is helping your hip and thigh to build muscle.  

3. Cycling is less prone to injury

Base on the statistic of Men’s Health UK, there are only 6 injuries per 1,000 hours in cycling while joggers will experience 11 sports injuries per 1,000 hours.

4. More fun

You can’t do much while you are running, compare to cycling. What is there for you to do when you are running, compare to biking on a hill with a mountain bike?

5. Developing skill

You would learn a lot of skills, such as balancing and braking if you are cycling. That is also a reason why cycling is more fun than jogging because you expose to new things.

6. Wider coverage area

You can complete a trip of somewhere between 20km to even 100km if you are cycling, but you rarely will run 20km a day, unless you are a hardcore runner.

7. More sightseeing

A wider coverage area means more sightseeing. Sightseeing can uplift your mood and answer your curiosity. Another reason why cycling is more fun.

8. You can have a lot of friends

Cycling is more to a community sport than an individual sport for some people. Most cyclists flock together unless you choose to be a loner.

Conclusion 

Jogging and cycling are both good for our health. At the end of the day, It depends on what you love more. However, if you are a runner who started to experience knee pain or discomfort on your knee, it could be time for you to look for an alternative. And cycling is one of the best options.