Top 10 Reasons you Should Go Bikepacking with Kids
Having children should not stop your bikepacking adventure. You should share these experiences with them. This will give them an understanding of their surrounding environment and a sense of adventure in a healthy way.
Bikepacking can be a great way to get your child excited about the outdoors from when they are young. Bikepacking with your kids is also a time to spend as a family and bond in a fun way.
Bikepacking is not only for fun, but it is good for the body and the soul.
Here are the top 10 reasons for your child to join you in cycling:
1. It keeps them in shape
Smartphones, TVs and game consoles prevent movement in children and they are major competitors for cycling. Children can be overweight or get obesity if they overeat and participate in little or no physical activity.
Obesity in young children and those in adolescence is on the rise and is becoming a serious health problem. Cycling can effectively help counteract this issue. This is because movement encourages metabolism which enables the child’s body to burn more calories, keeping them in shape.
2. Riding is jogging for the brain
Cycling like any other physical activity affects your child’s brain positively. This is because, when your child is cycling, their brain and the whole body is supplied with more blood rich in oxygen and nutrients.
This enables your child to think creatively and their ability to concentrate is improved.
Riding is also a fertilizer to the brain. How? Physical activity such as cycling promotes the production of nerve proteins or neurotrophins, that are released into the muscles and brain. These substances stimulate the formation of new nerve cells and connections between them, as well as preventing the extinction of present brain cells.
This process enables the nerve cells to communicate well with each other, therefore, improving the brain function of your child.
3. Riding toughens them up.
When your child rides their bike regularly, their immune system gets stronger compared to the less active children. When your child’s body is active, it produces more and stronger white blood cells and other essential substances in the blood.
The white blood cells strengthen your child’s immune system enabling it to fight disease-causing germs, making your child experience less respiratory infections.
Cycling means that your child is in the outdoors. This enables them to absorb enough light through their eyes and skin and breath fresh air.
Sunlight increases the production of vitamin D which prevents osteoporosis and makes the immune system stronger.
Also, light affects hormonal balance and mood. Therefore, riding on a sunny day can help improve your child’s mood.
4. Cycling prevents diseases.
Riding a bike minimizes the risk of getting cardiovascular disease. Pedaling regularly not only exercises your child’s legs, but also their heart. This is essential because training makes the heart muscles stay healthy and strong longer.
Cycling gets the blood circulating throughout the body. This means, with every heartbeat, the heart pumps more blood to the body while the heart rate reduces. Also, increased circulation can break down cholesterol, leaving the blood vessels cleaned. This protects the blood vessels from calcification
The risk of getting type-2 diabetes is reduced when your child cycles. This is because physical exercise such as riding a bike reduces the blood sugar level in the body.
5. Riding protects the joints.
Since the bike carries most of the child’s weight, their joints are protected. The gentle loading and unloading, as well as the circular motion, leads to a greater supply of necessary nutrients and removal of by-products.
6. It promotes muscle growth.
When your child cycles, they use their muscles for maintaining balance and steering. They not only use their feet and leg muscles, but also other muscles in the body. Most of your child’s muscles are supplied with blood 10 minutes into riding.
This strengthens the shoulder-arm musculature, buttock, leg and abdominal muscles and the deeper back muscles between the vertebrae. This makes cycling a suitable exercise for preventing back pains and solving the prevailing lack of physical activity.
7. Riding sharpens the senses and improves motor skills.
The development of your child’s sensory and motor system is a necessary foundation for the rest of their lives. Cycling allows your child to playfully combine the various motor skills faster. These include pedaling, steering, sense of balance, orientation, looking around and reaction.
Riding also stimulates perception. Children use their senses to explore and discover the world. Through their sensory channels, children take in the stimuli from the environment and process the input using their brain.
Your child’s sensory perspective is enhanced in different ways when they cycle. They include:
- When cycling, your child learns to listen and watch carefully to be able to assess the potential traffic problems.
- A good sense of balance is important for your child to handle and ride the bike.
- During cycling, your child discovers the many smells, sounds and colors in nature.
8. Riding makes them happy
Apart from the positive effects that cycling has for your child’s health, it is also good for their psyche. From your experience, you know how intensely you take in the surrounding when cycling.
This includes the seasons, different scents, the warm sun on your skin or the cool wind passing through your hair.
When your child is cycling in the open air especially in the countryside, their happiness hormones, that is, endorphins and adrenaline are increased. This provides a good mood and mental satisfaction, as well as making the body feel better.
9. It is freedom
Cycling simply means hopping onto a saddle and riding into the fresh air. Bikepacking with your child enables them to cycle long distances from when they are young. A bike is a child’s faithful companion in every season, whether through the park, in the forest or to their favorite swimming pool.
Moving around while cycling gives your child a lot of personal freedom and independence.
10. It creates bonding
Your child’s emotional development is dependent on their social contacts. Bikepacking with your kids establishes a strong family bond as you get to spend more time with them.
You can share different routes and new experiences with them.
Tips for Bikepacking with Kids
Bikepacking with kids is not only about covering long distances and cycling through the most amazing trails but also learning and experiencing new skills such as problem-solving and map reading.
Now that you have known the different reasons why you should go bikepacking with your kids, it is important to know how to do it a fun way.
Here are a few tips to help you:
1. Let them be part of the decision making
It can be hard for you to keep your children interested. Therefore, letting them decide where you will camp, the route you will take and the activities you will be doing can keep them engaged.
2. Use a trailer
A pull-along trailer can be useful if your child is too young to cycle. This means you will not leave them at home when you go bikepacking with the older kids. However, ensure that the road you ride on is fairly sealed, otherwise, your kid will have a bumpy ride.
3. Let them carry some kit
Let your child carry their small bag with a few snacks and clothes. This will make them feel responsible, involved and important.
4. Let them lead
Your child will feel frustrated if you keep on riding away from them all day. Read the map together and give them some independence to lead if they know the destination.
5. Regular stops
Children cannot concentrate for long like adults. Therefore, stopping regularly breaks up their span of attention. Include an activity such as bird watching, rock climbing, visiting a beach or a castle during your ride.
6. Shorter routes
Shorter routes are better than longer routes because children get tired quickly and their legs can be grumpy. You may need to have a plan B when your child doesn’t want to continue riding.
Bring snacks
When bikepacking with kids, you need to bring fun snacks such as hot chocolate and marshmallows.
8. Online research
Since children love colourful fun images and screens, download a few travel-inspired images of your riding trail and give it to them. This will keep them looking out, reducing boredom during the ride.
9. Live outside
Teach your kids how to use a stove, make a campfire or set up a tent. If possible, let them read on the topic before you go riding and when in your destination, allow them to practice what they read. This can be a learning opportunity for them.
