Most of my big plans concern me and my new bike.
So when Bicycling Magazine’s new year post scrolled past me, I paused and I clicked. I should have read more closely first.
“Make 2015 the year you ride faster, get leaner, feel happier, train smarter, and maybe even look better naked.”
Faster, fitter, I get. I even get leaner. See Fat, fit, and why I want to be leaner anyway. Really, there’s one short explanation and it’s one all cyclists instantly understand: HILLS.
But look better naked?
I hate the focus on women’s looks (see Sexiest Pro Cyclists? Really? Good grief) but I confess I was curious.
The post is really just a list of links so I scrolled through looking for how cycling might help me look better naked. It’s all weight loss, of course. Post after post on how to ride yourself thin. Big assumption there that smaller is better and that we all have the same tastes. That’s something I know to be false–see Body positivity and queer community. It’s false even for straight men, the group of men for whom it’s most likely assumed to be true. News flash: Not all straight men think slimmer is sexier.
They do link to a post about how cycling makes you sexier. But really it’s about having better sex, or more sex, or feeling sexier, not so much being sexier.
Makes You Sexier
One study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior found that when men performed regular, moderate exercise, they experienced more and better sex than men who did not exercise.Then in 2004, a study at the University of Arkansas found that men and women with self-proclaimed higher fitness levels believed that they had above-average sexual desirability.
Most recently, in 2012, a University of Texas study reported that exercise—20 minutes of cycling, in this case—increases genital arousal in women, even when sensory nerves were suppressed by antidepressants.
New year, same stuff. Bah. Nothing to see here. I’m riding on by. And Bicycling Magazine, you’ve annoyed me.
