Couples Cycling Together Increased Motivation

We have observed a peculiar phenomenon - couples buy near identical bikes to go riding together. Doing some digging we have found a lot of neurobiological evidence to show why this might be the case - cycling together can give a boost to the love hormone oxytocin.

Published: Thursday 02 August 2018

Couples Cycling Together - Increased Love and Motivation?

Here at E-Bikes Direct we have observed a peculiar phenomenon - couples buy near identical bikes to go riding together. Doing some digging we have found a lot of neurobiological evidence to show why this might be the case - cycling together can give a boost to the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin, but can also improve motivation and even how much you get out of a good old blast together.

Bonding

Couples love doing things together. Ultimately as a couple you are part of a unit and you may well be planning to be that unit until one of you dies. Hanging out and having fun doing the same things may well have been the very reason you decided to progress from being friends to doing what adults do in private! You may well have had a bit of a tough time recently and want to start something new that you can quietly do together without friends, kids or family popping up and bothering you as you do it.

Did you know that there’s neuroscience that reinforces all of this? A blog on the New York Times website showed that exercise can increase levels of the ‘love hormone’ oxytocin. You may have run into oxytocin when you hear of new mothers holding their newborn babies, with the hormone flooding through yours and your child’s body for months as you get to know one another.

The New York Times blog stated, “Lots of stresses can trigger oxytocin release, among them exercise,” says William Kenkel, a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who led the study. He continued that “it stands to reason, then,” that such exercise-related oxytocin release “could facilitate social bonding.”

Having a blast in the countryside, perhaps on a Haibike SDURO Trekking 9.0 2018 Ladies Electric Trekking Bike and / or a Haibike SDURO Trekking 9.0 2018 Mens Electric Trekking Bike (identical bikes only different geometries for men and women) could really strengthen and deepen that bond that makes you that indomitable unit.

Fat Burning

OK, let’s get off the gushy mushy stuff about making you as one and deepening what you hold dearest in your life! You may have eaten too many romantic dinners together and are on the verge of calling the builders in to widen your doorways so you can get out of the house, and need two seats each on the plane to your romantic getaway - or certainly be on the road to that point. It may well be time to buy an electric bike each! How about a Raleigh Motus Grand Tour e-bike? Male Style Motus Grand Tour Electric Bike and / or Female Style Motus Grand Tour Electric Bike.

Another paired-up set of electric bikes that are often purchased together are the Oxygen S-Cross Hybrid Electric Bikes; available in Cross Bar (gents) and Step through (female) versions.

There is tons of evidence out there that doing exercise increases your motivation to get out there every day and that you burn more flab as you do it. Let’s look at these two issues in a little depth.

In 1999 a large scale clinical trial found that your motivation increases when you get into it with a friend: “In those recruited alone and given SBT, 76% completed treatment and 24% maintained their weight loss in full from Months 4 to 10. Among those recruited with friends and given SBT plus social support, 95% completed treatment and 66% maintained their weight loss in full.” There’s something like a 20% greater chance you will maintain your exercise routine together than should one of you go it alone.

This motivation runs a little deeper: you push yourselves harder when you exercise as a couple. A 2012 study found, “Exercising with a virtually present partner can improve performance on an aerobic exercise task across multiple sessions.”

Overall this means that you are more likely to commit to exercise and you will push yourself that extra mile to get where you’re going if you get on your bikes together and are committed to reducing the size of your paunch and / or bum.

While we have suggested high value and medium value e-bikes so far, for less than the cost of one top end Haibike touring machine you could buy a pair of Greenedge e-bikes - the GreenEdge CS2 Cross Bar E-Bike version is here and the GreenEdge CS2 Step Through E-Bike version is here.

Bonding and Shrinking

They do say that being part of a unit is to combine your facets to become something greater than the sum of its parts. If that happens to be the fact you couldn’t get through a door side by side or just the ever deepening affection you have for one another, getting e-bikes together could well move you forward together and enable you to live longer, happier lives. What could be a better excuse?!