How healthy is riding an ebike? What happens to our body when we ride an ebike? Do we have to pay attention to certain things if we want to improve our fitness by e-biking, are thinking about targeted training with the bike or want to integrate it into our daily sporting routine in some other way? These questions arise quickly when, for example, you are planning to switch from a regular bike to an ebike or have decided to start cycling again after a long break. In our view, riding an ebike is always a good thing. However, five aspects impressively illustrate how much our health can benefit from this type of exercise.
1. Science considers e-biking to be healthy
2. Benefit 1: Riding an ebike is easy on the joints
3. Benefit 2: Riding an ebike helps you lose weight
4. Benefit 3: Riding an ebike lifts the mood
5. Benefit 4: Riding an ebike strengthens the cardiovascular system
6. Benefit 5: Riding an ebike makes us more resilient
7. How much exercise do I need?
8. Commuting: a recipe for success
9. Healthy with the ebike – how to get there
1. Science considers e-biking to be healthy
Employers motivate their employees to cycle by paying part of the cost of an ebike and setting up charging stations. Health insurance companies subsidise relevant courses. Cities and municipalities are expanding cycle paths and building special parking garages for bicycles and ebikes. All this is happening, among other things, because science can prove beyond doubt how sustainably cycling promotes our health. Compared to other people, cyclists can show a convincing health certificate. Lower general mortality rate. Lower mortality rate from cardiovascular diseases. Fewer cases of cancer. And so on.
Fortunately, the same picture emerges when studies distinguish between riding a regular bike and riding an ebike. For example, a study published in 2023 by the Institute of Sports Medicine at the Hannover Medical School (MHH) came to the following conclusions:
- Risk of heart attack: 40 per cent lower
- Risk of metabolic syndrome in the form of obesity, high blood pressure and sugar and fat metabolism disorders: 50 per cent lower
- Risk of cancer: 30 per cent lower
- Risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease: lower
- Risk of fatty liver: lower
- Cholesterol level: reduced
According to the study director, Prof. Dr. med. Uwe Tegtbur, all it takes is riding an ebike between twelve and fifteen kilometres a day.
Ebike riders show characteristic disease pattern
However, part of the truth is that many ebike riders can certainly use such a health boost. For medical reasons, Uwe Tegtbur therefore strictly differentiates ebike riders from other cyclists. In March 2023, he told the German news magazine ‘Der Spiegel’: ‘These two groups differ significantly in their characteristics such as illnesses and age. Ebikers have nothing to do with cyclists. The proportion of ebikers with an illness is around 35 per cent. Here I am talking about people who suffer from joint wear and tear, diabetes, high blood pressure or obesity.’
The good news is that for all these conditions, riding an ebike is the ideal solution. With the help of ebikes, you can get healthy or at least healthier. This is especially true for untrained people, older people, overweight people and people with type 2 diabetes. All the more so because another factor helps them. Thanks to the additional power of the motor, e-biking can feel much more relaxed than pedalling on a regular bike. That’s why ebike riders tend to take slightly longer tours. Spending more time in the saddle means you get more out of your health programme and do something good for your body over a longer period of time.
2. Benefit 1: Riding an ebike is easy on the joints
Some of you may have heard the term ‘smooth pedalling’. This refers to the idea of ideal pedalling, in which the force from the body is transferred to the pedal with as little loss as possible in each phase of the pedalling movement. This usually only works when riding with clipless pedals, because the human and machine act directly connected to each other. But the term is also used to describe the harmonious, uniform, constant movement of feet and legs in a circular path. The human body likes this movement. It stimulates muscles and joints as well as bones and cartilage. Those who exercise regularly in this way increase the density of their own bones and reduce the risk of osteoporosis. At the same time, it promotes blood flow to the joint cartilage, which produces more synovial fluid. This fluid allows our joint surfaces to glide more smoothly over each other. This is why doctors often recommend riding an ebike as a rehabilitation measure after knee surgery and for osteoarthritis, for example.
Effective training while sitting
The muscles that you build up through regular cycling provide additional relief for your bones and joints. Unsurprisingly, the muscles in your calves, thighs and buttocks benefit from this. However, we also support ourselves with our arms on the handlebars. In the long term, this stabilises other muscle groups, from the arm and shoulder girdle to the abdomen and back. This is how we strengthen our core, become more stable in the upper body and, thanks to increased body tension, can maintain an upright posture more easily.
While it takes a certain amount of time for more muscle to minimise the effort required for e-biking, another circumstance has an immediate effect. This refers to the position on the ebike, i.e. the sitting position. It immediately reduces the pressure on the knees and hips. Overweight people in particular will feel this immediately. In addition to the more comfortable distribution of body weight, developments such as bicycle frames with a low step-through make it easier for them to access the ebike, thus opening up new options for promoting their own health. Once in the saddle, the load can also be individually adjusted using the various assistance levels of the electric drive. Those who start off gently at first and gradually get their body used to the new challenge can comfortably increase the level later and cycle their way to a healthier self, step by step.

3. Benefit 2: Riding an ebike helps you lose weight
The freedom to choose your own pace and to be able to regulate your exertion as you see fit is one of the major advantages of ebikes from a psychological point of view. The electric assistance is like having a joker up your sleeve. You may or may not play it, but it’s good to know that you could play it at any time. This noticeably lowers the inhibition threshold to get on the ebike, especially at the beginning – regardless of whether someone wants to get healthy, fit or become an elite athlete with the ebike. Thanks to technology, you can adjust your load individually to your personal physical condition and its respective development.
If your goal is to lose weight, it’s worth considering why our body needs energy and how much food we therefore need to supply it with. Energy requirements are called total energy expenditure and can be divided into two parts – basal metabolic rate and active metabolic rate. The basal metabolic rate is the energy our body needs to maintain all vital functions such as breathing, digestion, etc. Multiply your body weight by 24 to get your daily basal metabolic rate in kilocalories.
The active metabolic rate, on the other hand, is the result of all physical and mental activities for which we expend additional energy. This amount is therefore variable and depends to a large extent on how much we move – whether independently or, for example, as a result of our occupation. Those who move more therefore need more energy, while those who take it easy need less food and drink.
The ratio of total calorie expenditure to active metabolic rate does not necessarily have to be balanced. If you want to lose weight, you can regularly run up a small calorie debt. This means that you consume slightly fewer calories than your active metabolic rate – your level of activity – would actually require. This results in an effective approach to losing weight.
Better the same mass, but a more favourable ratio?
In the opinion of German sports scientist and author Ingo Froböse, however, you should not focus on mere weight loss. Instead of losing weight, he recommends a system of exchange: fat for muscle. Burning calories plays a subordinate role. You can ignore the scales for a long time. The real turnaround towards a healthier body can be achieved with regular exercise such as cycling. This strengthens the body and replaces fat with muscle in the long term. If you follow this motto, you increase your basal metabolic rate so that your body permanently burns more calories. Incidentally, this applies both when you are moving and at rest.
So how do you get to this point? Ingo Froböse recommends regular endurance and strength training. Ideally accompanied by a balanced diet, of course. The exercise itself should be kept rather moderate. This means that on the ebike, it’s best to ride with a heart rate in the range of 60 to 70 per cent of your maximum heart rate. As a rule of thumb for calculating your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 180. You should spend around 80 per cent of the time in the endurance zone and no more than 20 per cent of the time in the zone between the endurance zone and your maximum heart rate. After just four weeks, the ratio of fat and active muscle mass can change. This should be noticeable first in the calf and thigh. And don’t get nervous if you don’t see any change on the scales. Muscle tissue weighs more than fat tissue. It’s better to take a look in the mirror or consciously feel the parts of your body. This should allow you to draw more conclusions about how successful the past few weeks really have been.
If you want to train more intensively and are starting from a higher level of fitness, we have three suggestions for how you can enhance your endurance training with more sweat-inducing sessions:
- Incorporate intervals: Consciously increase the load from a moderate level and optionally incorporate shorter phases with loads of 75 per cent, 80 per cent and 85 per cent. Experiment with ascending and descending pyramids. Plan sufficient recovery phases. Slowly increase the number and intensity of the intervals. Always start interval training with a conscious warm-up and end with a conscious cool-down.
- Seek out natural obstacles: Add sections with inclines or regular headwinds to your tours.
- Gradually increase intensity and duration: Continuously develop your physical fitness, especially by covering longer distances and increasing the number of tours.
4. Benefit 3: Riding an ebike lifts the mood
‘E-biking makes you healthy and happy. The longer you ride, the more serotonin you release,’ says sports physician Uwe Tegtbur in the aforementioned Spiegel interview, describing the hormonal reaction that cycling triggers in our body. Just 30 minutes in the saddle is enough to release dopamine as well as serotonin. Both neurotransmitters make us feel joy and satisfaction. Our mood improves noticeably because less of the hormone cortisol is produced at the same time. This lowers our stress levels, reduces aggression and alleviates anxiety.
There are even factors that can further enhance this feeling of elation. The first is social community. The shared experience is good for us and our sense of well-being infects the people with whom we share it. The second booster is the sun. UV radiation boosts the production of serotonin and dopamine, so that when the weather is nice, our mood tends to rise. Many of you are sure to be familiar with the effect of riding an ebike in nature. It helps us to forget the daily grind and all its challenges for a while, allowing us to recharge our batteries, which we can then use as motivation in other areas of our lives. E-biking is therefore good for our health – not only physically but also mentally.

5. Benefit 4: Riding an ebike strengthens the cardiovascular system
Hardly any other form of exercise is as healthy for our cardiovascular system as relaxed ebike riding over a longer period of time. The motto here is: more is better. ‘More’ refers explicitly to the duration and less to the intensity of e-biking. Again, use the 60 to 80 per cent of your maximum heart rate as a guide. In the MHH studies, a heart rate of around 110 beats per minute emerged as a suitable benchmark. ‘From a scientific point of view, there is no better way to train in the basic endurance range,’ said Uwe Tegtbur to Spiegel.
The effect extends to the actual activity as well as the time afterwards. While cycling, your body is working, moving the heart muscle intensively and pumping blood through the veins. This initially results in an increase in blood pressure. However, if you incorporate such stresses into your daily routine, your body will get used to them. As a result of adaptations such as the widening of the arteries, your heart will not only beat at a permanently lower rate at rest, but will also gradually settle into a lower range during exercise. You will become more efficient and your risk of cardiovascular disease will demonstrably decrease.

6. Benefit 5: Riding an ebike makes us more resilient
Similar to the cardiovascular system, other bodily functions also react relatively quickly to an increased level of activity. Muscles metabolise faster and provide energy more efficiently. Activated in this way, they enlarge over time, thus giving the musculoskeletal system more stability. For example, this helps to strengthen back muscles. The movement involved in cycling boosts the metabolism in the intervertebral discs and reduces the load on them from body weight. In addition, scientific studies show positive effects of moderate endurance exercise on our immune system and lung function.
7. How much exercise do I need?
Let’s put it this way: If you perform an exercise correctly, supply your body with enough energy and other substances, find the right balance between exertion and rest, and devote enough time to the other areas of your life, you can probably never exercise too much. So there is hardly a limit to the upside. In more concrete terms, a minimum can be determined. Many experts agree that just 15 minutes of continuous movement a day can have an effect.
So somewhere between 15 minutes and infinity lies the ideal value for you under the respective conditions. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. Those who follow this advice will demonstrably improve their own health. In fact, riding an ebike is a good idea if you want to get or stay healthy. In this context, it is important to note the intensity of the physical exertion. This is often expressed as a MET value. The Metabolic Equivalent of Task describes how much energy the body of a 40-year-old man weighing 70 kilograms must expend during a particular physical activity. For example, the US Department of Health and Human Services estimates that e-biking has a MET between 3 and 5.9. The WHO considers precisely this range to be suitable for a moderate to intense physical activity.
General target broken down to personal life situation
As part of the studies at the MHH, Uwe Tegtbur’s team analysed approximately 60,000 trips by ebike riders. On average, this amounted to 135 minutes per week riding an ebike. Although these were not entirely within the recommended range of exertion, the bottom line was that this corresponded to two-thirds of the WHO exercise target.
Which formula is best for you depends on many factors. Among other things, it depends on how fit you are at the time, how much time you can and want to invest, or when you could fit in a workout during the day. If you are just starting out, you can set yourself a daily goal of 30 minutes. Then, for the week, you could work your way up to three to five times a week. Those who have more time but less frequently will probably do well with a rhythm of three training sessions of 60 minutes each to start with.
How many kilometres you cover is of secondary importance. Firstly, factors such as your level of fitness and the route profile make comparisons extremely difficult. Secondly, the duration of the training and moving in the appropriate heart rate zone are the really decisive criteria for assessing the success of a health training session. Once the foundation has been laid, there is usually still enough time to set your sights on certain distances and other records.
8. Commuting: a recipe for success
Stay healthy with the ebike – whether you use it as a fitness programme or as a sport is entirely up to you. Actually, this motto doesn’t need a special concept to implement it. Just as easily, an everyday thing like your commute to work can become a new workout. For the year 2023, the German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR) determined that people in Germany travel an average of 17.2 kilometres to work. So, going to and from work once would mean almost 35 kilometres by ebike. In many cases, that would already cover the majority of the 150 minutes per week recommended by the WHO. Two trips to work by ebike would probably be well above this value in most cases.
Distance and effort involved in commuting are ideal for promoting health
In addition to the distance covered, intensity is another point where health concerns can be reconciled with practical demands. Very few people want to arrive at work all sweaty. It’s a good thing that moderate exertion and not sweating much go hand in hand. If you were to travel to work by ebike once or twice a week instead of by car, bus or train, you would hardly need a whole new wardrobe. And in some companies, employees can shower for free.
If the commute is shorter, it’s not a problem. For one thing, the hurdle to be overcome is immediately much lower. On the other hand, studies from the USA show that even a distance of three miles, the equivalent of about 4.8 kilometres, as a commuter route by ebike brings positive physical changes. Done regularly, it promotes cardiovascular health and calorie balance. Another study showed that just four weeks of riding can significantly reduce the risk of arteriosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases. In this case, the subjects rode their ebikes for at least 40 minutes a day. In addition to a generally fitter state of health, their aerobic fitness had noticeably improved, blood sugar levels and body fat percentage had decreased.
In the 2022 study ‘Health and well-being benefits of e-bike commuting for inactive, overweight people living in regional Australia’, researchers also found that it is not only ebike riders who benefit from commuting. Their increased energy levels from riding a bike carried over into work, which could lead to higher productivity.
9. Healthy with the ebike – how to get there
As you can see, riding an ebike and staying healthy or getting healthy is more than just a rumour. Numerous scientifically based findings support the statement that both the length of the distances travelled on an ebike and the level of physical exertion achieved are sufficient to have numerous health-promoting effects on our body. If you want to prove this to yourself, we have five helpful tips for you:
- Pursue realistic goals: rather define manageable stages than start with a mammoth task
- Highlight successes: define intermediate steps and celebrate their achievement
- Develop routines: adopt regularity as one of the secrets of success in endurance sports, for example by setting fixed days of the week for commuting to work
- Adjust your exercise to your progress: respond to slowly increasing performance and provide new motivation by choosing longer distances and additional climbs
- Stay patient: some physical reactions to increased exercise take six months or more to develop, but the effects last longer
Pictures: Bosch eBike Systems; Flyer AG; Orbea; Pexels