The study’s experts suggested that the inflated benefits of cycling could be put down to the fact that cycling often enabled the participants to commute longer distances compared to walking, and meant that they were doing faster, higher-intensity exercise.

The effects were still seen even when statistics were adjusted to remove the effects that factors such as weight, diet and smoking could have on the participants.

Dr Jason Gill, from the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences at Glasgow, said the study highlights "major opportunities for public health improvement". He added that it’s a sign the Government should implement more cycling schemes and infrastructure in order to enable people to cycle to work more easily.

The experts also highlighted the fact that doing your daily exercise quota via cycling didn’t require will power once it was an acquired habit. "You need to get to work every day so if you built cycling into the day it essentially takes willpower out of the equation,” Dr Jason Gill told the BBC.

Images: iStock.

Cycling to work could ‘half your risk of cancer and heart disease’, study finds