Cycling is one of the best ways to improve your fitness. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced rider, the most important factor is simple: ride your bike regularly.
However, the ideal riding frequency depends on several factors, including your goals, motivation, and schedule.
1. Your goal
Before considering how often you should ride your bike, think about your goal.
Different goals require different levels of training:
- General fitness or weight loss – moderate riding a few times per week is usually enough.
- Performance improvement – requires more frequent and structured training.
- Preparing for a cycling event – often requires higher intensity and longer rides.
It helps to set:
- One main goal
- A few smaller milestone targets
Then estimate how much training is needed to achieve them. For example, preparing for a major cycling event will require more frequent and higher-intensity rides than simply maintaining general fitness.
2. Your motivation
Your goal should also act as motivation.
For a goal to keep you motivated, it should be:
- Challenging but achievable
- Personally meaningful
- Exciting to think about
If a goal is too easy or unrealistic, motivation often fades and sessions get skipped.
Many cyclists set goals based on what their friends are doing. While this can be fun, those goals may not reflect what you truly want. Instead, focus on something that personally inspires you.
When you feel genuinely motivated, it becomes much easier to stay consistent with your riding.
3. Your schedule
Real life affects training. Work, family, and other responsibilities can limit how often you ride, which is why planning is essential, so that you don’t end up feeling overwhelmed.
- Create a realistic weekly riding schedule – this is essential, don’t try to do too much if you’re short for time.
- Fit rides around existing commitments – don’t sacrifice your other commitments just to ride, you want to find a healthy balance so that riding remains enjoyable.
- Prioritise consistency over perfection – be consistent stick to a certain number of rides per week rather than trying to hit certain numbers.
Even short rides can add up if done regularly.
How often should you ride your bike to get fitter?
According to the NHS, every adult aged 19 to 64 should do at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise every week*. They also recommend splitting this exercise over four to five days a week wherever possible, to give your body a chance to rest and recuperate between sessions.
So, for those aiming to get fitter in general or lose weight, it’s best to aim for these numbers. Remember that intensity matters, and moderate riding shouldn’t be either easy or overly taxing.
Try to plan rides for as many days as possible as it’s better to do lots of shorter rides than one long ride. Be sure to mix it up too; plan in both moderate and vigorous rides for a change of pace. Although they’re harder work, vigorous rides will lead to the biggest improvements.
And, finally, these are only guidelines, ultimately, the way you ride best will depend on what feels right for you. The more you ride, the fitter you’ll get, so you may want to increase the amount you ride and plan in more vigorous rides as you improve.
What counts as moderate cycling?
Moderate riding should feel challenging but sustainable. You should be breathing harder but still able to maintain the effort.
What counts as vigorous cycling?
Vigorous rides involve high exertion, but you shouldn’t maintain this intensity continuously. Instead, alternate between:
- Hard efforts
- Easy recovery periods
This type of training (interval riding) can lead to significant fitness improvements.
How often should I ride my bike to become a better cyclist or prepare for an event?
For more experienced cyclists, the answer is more variable, below we’ve outlined the things you might want to consider.
Minimum of 3 rides a week
To make sustained improvements, you should ride at least 3 times a week. This is only the minimum amount, and you may choose to ride more often.
Don’t overtrain
Different riders respond differently to varying levels of training. Some can sustain 5 days a week, while others would quickly burn out. So, take time to understand your body and adjust the number of days you ride accordingly.
Intensity
The amount you ride is less important than the quality of your training. To improve, you need high-intensity sessions which push your body otherwise it won’t adapt (remember, a couple of short high-intensity rides are more beneficial than one long, easier ride).
Plan your rides
Trying to juggle a solid cycling routine and other life commitments can be tough, and most riders understandably struggle with this. To help, try using a cycling app. Many have dedicated training sessions and can create full training plans based around your goals. Check out our guide to the best training apps.
Learn training zones
Your training zones are different levels of exertion based on your heart rate or power output. Most training rides will be centred on these and will target multiple zones. It can be confusing at first, but check out our guides to heart rate training zones and power training zones to clear things up.
Rest weeks
It’s a common misconception that you can only improve when you’re constantly riding. When you train, you’re forcing your body to adapt. However, this puts lots of strain on your body which is why many cyclists burn out. That’s why you should plan a rest week every 4 to 6 weeks and during these weeks, try only going on easy riders or, even better, don’t ride at all.
Ultimately, how often you ride will depend on many factors, and the key is to understand what works for you. This may take time as you learn about your body and how to juggle riding with other responsibilities, but you’ll quickly learn what works best.
For more training advice, check out our guide to creating a cycling training plan. You can also find a range of bikes, accessories, and cycling clothing over at Halfords.com.
