May is for Bikes and Mental Health!

Image Credit: Shelby Ling

Did you know that May is both National Bike Month and Mental Health Awareness Month? How fitting as cycling is scientifically proven to positively affect one’s mental health. And with shelter-in-place and physical distancing guidelines still in place, our well-being, physically and mentally, is in focus now more than ever.

Outride has set out to prove that cycling benefits your brain. Through our research, cycling programs, and grant giving activities, we provide evidence-based cycling interventions to improve the social, emotional, and cognitive health of youth.

Our Riding for Focus program indicates and research supports that cycling for at least three days a week for at least 20 minutes per day with the heart rate in the target zone of at least 115 bpm has life-long benefits. We also know that some kids may need more support in addition to riding too—whatever it takes to reach the top of the mountain.

We don’t talk often enough about the mental health benefits of biking, including reduced stress and anxiety, and improved happiness, mental focus, and sleep, but now is the time.

Isla and Andy Cunningham, Outride Fund Program Manager

Our New Partner in Wellness for the Mind

We are thankful for our partnership with Mental Health America (MHA), the nation’s leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to addressing the needs of those living with mental illness and promoting the overall mental health of all Americans. MHA is here for you—need help? Reach out and learn more about the resources they have for you.

MHA provides a number of online screening tools, including screens for anxiety and depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, eating disorders, and alcohol and substance abuse in English as well as screens for anxiety and depression in Spanish. Also check out the searchable collection of articles on a variety of mental health topics.

We all know there is a special feeling that comes with riding a bike. It’s hard to describe or put into words. But—we ride for many reasons. We pedal to outride fear – we pedal to outride fear of inadequacy, fear of not being good enough. We pedal to help our brain, to help our heart, and to free our minds.

Be inspired from a few of our Riding for Focus and Outride Fund partners—athletes, teachers, and researchers—on their suggestions and findings to help bring awareness to your mental health and well-being. May you find comfort and joy in spinning wheels that can calm active minds and inspire life-long activity!

FROM THE DESK OF DYLAN SHERRAD—OUTRIDE ATHLETE AMBASSADOR

Outriding Fear and Uncertainty on an Old Dirt Road

In his latest article for Outride, Dylan Sherrard brings us a rider’s perspective on the current landscape - political, economic, psychological - and the peace and grounding the trails can bring us right now. Coronavirus. Economic meltdown. Global Pandemic. The highest unemployment rate since the great depression. Covid-19. It’s a wild time to be alive. I’m overwhelmed. So I leave the news at home, and pedal into the zone.

Yá'át'ééh! –– "It's good" (in Navajo). The Brotherhood of Riding to Stay Focused

In 2018, a local middle school was awarded a fleet of mountain bikes through Outride’s Riding for Focus grant program. The students were also awarded the opportunity to establish the first NICA team in the region, Gallup (GLP) Composite. Now having participated in the Arizona Interscholastic Cycling League (AICL) for its second year, GLP Composite increased in size and has fostered the development of a separate single-school Team at Rehoboth Christian School. It is exactly that which Diné Composite, based on the Reservation in Nazlini, AZ and coached by Vincent Salabye, hopes to foster for additional single-school teams popping up across the Navajo Nation.

Diné (Navajo) Comp NICA Team student-athlete brothers, Bear and Isaac Teller. When they rode out to take this shot they remarked that even only few minutes on the bikes was enough to improve their perspective. Support their campaign here.

Ready for CHALLENGES—Alison TetricK—Outride Athlete Ambassador

Alison Tetrick, one of our Outride Athlete Ambassadors  is California-based in Petaluma and aside from riding and winning races—2X Gravel World Champion (2017 & 2018) and USA National Team, Pan America Games—she serves as the Biotechnology Communications Manager for Amgen and she races on gravel—between mountain biking and road racing and is really good at it! She feels she has a dream job working in science, bikes, and education each day changing the world.

I support Outride because I believe in the power of sports to foster education. It is incredible to be able to give the opportunity to teach healthy habits both inside and outside of the classroom. Read more.

Riding for Focus Champion John Glodek, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, Germantown, Maryland

John Glodek reached out Outride two years ago via e-mail—super-enthusiastic about the Riding for Focus program and how he could bring the program to Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Maryland. He asked non-stop questions on what makes a winning school and how to assure their school could check off the requirements at a beyond 100% score. Fast forward a year later, he applied and was awarded an Outride Riding for Focus grant.

What do my students outride? Stress, ADHD, homework, bullying, divorce, gossip, loneliness, grades, anxiety, relationships, being overweight, depression, lack of confidence are just some of the answers my students gave.

They are reminded of these daily as they get their helmets on and their bikes ready to ride. It is a small reminder of why this program is so important. It helps remind myself, as a teacher, what I am providing for them. It reminds them that for the next hour they get to go out riding and be whoever they want to be. And that is all that matters.

Be inspired—Read more about John’s program in this article in USA Cycling about Riding for Focus.

Riding for Focus Program Manager Meagan Daniel and School Champion John Glodek hanging out with his awesome students.

Our Research: Dr. Allan Reiss and the Research Team at the Stanford University Center for Interdisciplinary Brain ScienceS

“We are excited about what this research can uncover, possibly identifying which children will most benefit from using physical activities like cycling to treat their ADHD, and how we can structure their activities to be the most impactful on their cognitive functions,” explained Reiss.

So—catch your breath, take time to spin your wheels, get your body moving in sync with your brain and spirit—Let’s all go for a bike ride. And when you get back home, take some time to read more about the science behind the benefits of spinning wheels and your mental health in these suggested articles:

Bicycling Can Sharpen Your Thinking and Improve your Mood

Psychology Today, Linda Wasmer Andrews

How Riding your Bike Helps you Beat Stress—Why Cycling is Good for your Mental Health

Bike Radar, Matthew Barbour

Science Explains How Cycling Changes Your Brain and Makes You Mentally Stronger

Lifehack, by Jocelyn Jones