Interesting Facts About Adult Unicycles and Unicycling

Fun fact: learning to ride a single wheel cycle is a serious discipline, not a stunt. It’s a lot harder than you think but it’s also good exercise and brings with it a ton of benefits that you might not have expected. 

Let’s take a look at a couple of them. 

1. It can help exercise cognitive ability.

This is actually one we’ve written about before, and it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. The truth is learning to ride a single wheel cycle is as much a mental exercise as it is a physical one, and you will need to stay sharp to address the multiplicity of challenges that face you when you’re in the saddle. Obstacles become a lot more pointed when you only have one wheel. Unicycling can potentially help sharpen your critical thinking and problem solving abilities, as well as the speed with which you process information.

2. It keeps you flexible and agile.

Flexibility is one of the most neglected aspects of physical fitness, but it is also incredibly important, and unicycling can help keep you flexible, agile and responsive. Considering how important flexibility is not just to health but also to avoiding injury as you age, this is no small consideration to weigh. 

3. It teaches balance (which is a lot like a muscle).

Balance, like a muscle, will atrophy if you don’t practice or use it. Perhaps not in the same physical manner, but the effects are the same. The less you put yourself in situations where you will need to actively maintain your balance, the harder it will be for you if you do. For what should be obvious reasons, learning to ride a unicycle will force you to keep your sense of balance. In fact it’s one of the best things you can do.

4. It’s good exercise generally. 

Unicycling, like bicycling, is a low impact exercise that’s pretty easy on your joints but which is hard on your muscles. It can be a great way for adults not just to maintain but to build strength as they get older. 

5. It’s good crossover training for other sports. 

Because learning to ride a unicycle is a great way to burn calories, build stamina, practice balance and work on flexibility and agility, it is great crossover training for a wide range of other sports. Really, there are transferable skills to most other physical activities, but some of the best examples are snowboarding, surfing, skiing, kiteboarding, and windsurfing. These activities, like unicycling, all require an excellent sense of balance as well as a very strong core and lower body.

6. It’s good cardio.

Riding a unicycle is a great way to exercise your heart and lungs, as well as to burn calories; riding a unicycle with a 24” wheel is roughly equivalent to jogging, either the same distance or the same amount of time that you ride. 

7. It rewires your opposite brain. 

Psychologists often refer to the two halves of your brain as the “right brain” and “left brain” respectively. The right brain is generally considered to be artistic, intuitive, and better at reading soft, nonverbal cues. The left brain is more verbal, rational, and analytical. 

There is a neuromyth that some people are more predominantly “right brained” or “left brained” than others, when in reality, everyone uses both sides of their brains for different activities. But the truth is also that if your personality leans into more of one set of these traits than the other, and that unicycling can help you engage that other half of your brain. 

Presumably, the reason for this is that for most people, learning to ride a single wheel cycle is not just a novel, but an uncomfortable experience that will force you to develop new neural circuits to problem solve and address obstacles you’ve never faced before. 

The long and short of this is that unicycling is good for cognitive development and maintenance, especially once you get older.

8. It keeps your hands free.

The cool thing about unicycling, even if you don’t see it as a marked benefit, is that it will keep your hands free, which is a huge bonus in this busy world. Whether you’re on the go and need to walk your dog or pick up some groceries, it’ll be a lot easier in the saddle of a unicycle than it would be with a bike, and that’s a big draw of a single wheel cycle. 

Try It Out for Yourself Today: Get a Single Wheel Cycle

There’s no time like the present to try your hand at a new challenge, and few challenges are as unique as learning to ride an adult unicycle. Check out our collection of single wheel cycles and if you need a personalized recommendation (or have any questions before you buy) get in touch with us and we will help you out.