How to overcome the fear of cycling: 7 tips.

Several steps to follow to make cycling anxiety go away.

Riding a bike can become both a hobby and our primary mode of transportation for urban areas. In many cities it can be quietly said that the bicycle has more prominence than the automobile, either due to lack of resources and infrastructure for larger vehicles, or because of awareness of the importance of polluting as little as possible.

However, not everyone is able to enjoy the use of this useful tool for getting around. Fear of riding a bicycle is, for some, an obstacle to progress in the task of that prevents progress in the task of learning to master it and maintain balance for long enough.

In this article we will review several tips on how to overcome the fear of cycling, step by step and with some examples.

How to overcome the fear of cycling

If you want to make progress when learning to ride a bicycle, or simply you would like to to lose your fear of cycling and get back on the bike as you did before, follow these tips.follow these tips.

1. Set simple and realistic goals.

This is very important to avoid getting frustrated. The possibility of setting rather modest goals that are relatively easy to achieve makes us more eager to make progress, because we know that we can then We know that we can achieve a sense of victory almost immediately, or in a matter of minutes..

On the other hand, if we only set the final goal, we will see it as something unattainable, and in the best case we will progress more slowly, while in the worst case, we will give up.

So, the idea is to divide our main objective into several sub-objectives, so that in each practice session we can notice that we improve, even if only a little.

2. Use protection

Wearing a helmet, knee pads and fingerless gloves (to improve our grip on the handlebars) not only offers the obvious benefit of reducing our chances of getting injured. It also has a powerful psychological effect.

If we feel that we have the "physical" part of the problem covered, so that it is very difficult to get hurt, we will be able to concentrate more on what matters. That is to say, our attentional focus will not be so divided on different things that concern us, and this is very advantageous when it comes to losing the fear of cycling.

3. Assume that you will fall sometime.

It is important to downplay the idea of falling, something that may happen sooner or later. However, the bike is designed in such a way that if you are not going at a high speed and not going over rough terrain, it is difficult to get injured.

Following the advice we will see, the most frequent accidents of this type will have to do with the possibility of feeling some Pain when stepping wrong, on the ground to get off, or falling and scratching your forearms a little (which will probably not be important if you wear the appropriate protections).

So, unless you are going very fast or riding in unsafe areas, you should bear in mind that most of the catastrophic thoughts you may have because of fear of cycling are very unrealistic, a bad description of how reality works.

• You might be interested in, "What is fear for?"

4. Find someone to accompany us

Having someone to help us by being close by is very helpful. Not only can it help us in situations where we are about to fall due to a loss of balance, but its presence can also reassure us, and it can take care of carrying things that we do not need when practicing and that would hinder our walking. carrying things that we don't need when we are practicing and that would hinder our walking..

5. Look for soft ground, but not too soft

For obvious reasons, it is good to choose flat surfaces that are rather soft. However, you should bear in mind that it is better to avoid grassy areas, however short they may be, as they can destabilize the bicycle due to the uneven parts hidden in its surfaceand the poor adherence to the wheels it offers, on the other hand.

So, dirt areas are ideal, as long as they are not composed of sharp pebbles large enough to cause major scratches.

6. Avoid areas with physical or visual obstacles

When it comes to losing the fear of cycling and starting to get used to riding a bicycle, many people focus on choosing places to practice that do not have obstacles capable of blocking the wheels.

However, visual barriers are also very important, visual barriers are also very relevant.. If you practice in a place free of the latter, this will allow you to concentrate with greater happiness, and the fear of getting hurt will be mitigated, in addition to reducing the chances of having accidents.

7. Look at a fixed point

This is one of the most important tips. If we do not do it, we run the risk of getting into a state of anxiety by not knowing where to look due to the possible risks of falling, which is significant, because when riding a bicycle the look is very important and the head is one of the few parts of the body that we can move from almost all of its range of motion.