Two wheels or Four? How are you arriving at work each day?

I'm lucky to live in a situation where both weather and proximity allow me to bike to work daily. Some might argue it is too warm to consistently ride bikes to work here in Saudi Arabia, but I'm pretty heat tolerant and would rather put up with a hot bike ride than a hot car any day! It is rarely raining here (rain is one thing that could quite literally dampen my spirits for a bike ride to work) and with in a few short minutes I can find myself parking my bike inside my office, ready to start my day. Recently I heard a discussion on a podcast talking about the benefits of being a bike commuter. I had never chosen to ride to work for any health benefits, it just seemed like a nicer way to arrive at work each day, so it never occurred to me that I might be doing my body a favor.

Here's the researcher's conclusion: "Among bike commuters, the likelihood of contracting or dying from heart disease was about half that of sedentary commuters. Bike commuters were also 45 percent less likely to contract cancer and 40 percent less likely to die from it." I'd also guess that due to exposure to sunshine and the outdoors, there's probably a benefit for bike commuters in terms of mental health too, but I don't have a study to quote on that! Of course, this is a correlational study, so can't prove causation, but I'd like to think that at least some of the time, causation can be implied in some of these correlational studies!

(If you're curious about the study, the link is here: https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j1456)

So, how about it? How could you turn your commute into something that benefits your body, health and well being? Willing to put it to the challenge?