Kids’ brains light up in real time while bike riding.
A version of this article ran in the February issue of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News. Retailers can get the print or digital version of the magazine free — subscribe at this link .
PALO ALTO, Calif. — In addition to giving more kids access to bikes and places to ride, the nonprofit Outride organization also studies cycling’s cognitive and physical benefits.
“At the end of the day, what would be a dream for us would be for the information and evidence to get out there for people and parents to go, ‘This is very real,’” said Mike Sinyard, Specialized Bicycles founder and co-founder of Outride.
A decade after Sinyard helped start the program that would research how cycling could benefit kids with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, that day might be here, and it might lead to more kids turning pedals instead of only taking pills.
At the Outride Summit in October, research conducted with Stanford University showed cycling activates the brain “to engage the hunting, gathering, and foraging systems,” said Dr. Allan L. Reiss at the summit. “These are the most effective for improving and sustaining brain health. What are these systems? They utilize a combination of spatial orientation, and navigation, body awareness, memory, motor control, balance and coordination, and executive function — planning, sequence, flexibility, inhibition, etc. What type of exercise does this sound like to you? It sounds like cycling, right? This is exactly what cycling does.”
At the summit, […]
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