A-1 Cycling

🚲📚 Back to school? More like BIKE to school! 😎

Our Woodbridge window got a fresh new look just in time for the school year! From bikes & helmets to lights, locks, bottles, pedals & more, we’ve got everything you need to make the ride to school a good one. 🎒🚴‍♀️✨

And don’t forget to check out the bikes in the window 👀🔥

Stop by A-1 Cycling Woodbridge & Manassas to get geared up before that first bell rings! 🔔

For trail users in Sterling, please be aware that from next Monday, August 10, through Weds, August 12, Dominion Energy contractors will be clearing vegetation around distribution poles on the east side of Sterling Blvd. Please watch for flaggers and follow their instructions.

Biking is good for so many reasons 🙌

You might not feel it, but every time you clip in and ride, your body is doing some quiet work on your brain. 🧠

We've long known cycling keeps the heart strong and the legs powerful. The newer research points somewhere more interesting. When you ride, your muscles release a hormone called irisin that crosses into the brain, helps spark the growth of new neurons, and appears to push back against some of the processes behind Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at Harvard's Stem Cell Institute have helped confirm what a lot of us already suspected. Movement isn't only good for the body. It does something for the mind too.

Here's the mechanism, as best the science understands it so far.

As your legs turn the pedals, your muscle fibers make a protein called FNDC5. That protein gets cleaved into irisin, which enters the bloodstream and crosses the blood-brain barrier. Once inside, irisin goes to work in the hippocampus, the region tied to learning and memory.

In animal studies, irisin boosted brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. BDNF acts a bit like fertilizer for the brain: it encourages new neurons, strengthens the connections between them, and helps protect the cells already there.

The cause-and-effect experiments are the striking part. When scientists blocked irisin in mice, the cognitive benefits of exercise disappeared. When they raised irisin in mice with Alzheimer's-like symptoms, memory improved and brain inflammation dropped. In those models, the hormone wasn't just linked to better brain health. It drove it.

Human evidence is earlier and thinner, but it lines up. Post-mortem studies show people with Alzheimer's tend to have lower irisin levels than healthy people. In small trials, regular exercisers showed measurable rises in circulating irisin alongside better cognitive scores. It's promising, not settled, and worth saying plainly: most of the hard causal work is still in mice.

Which is a good reason to ride, not a small one.

We're not only riding to stay fit. We're riding to stay sharp. To keep remembering our grandkids' names and hold onto our independence as we get older.

And unlike an experimental drug or some supplement of the month, this one is free and most of us are already doing it. No prescription, no lab. Just a bike and the habit of getting on it.

The evidence also suggests consistency matters more than intensity. Whether you're hammering intervals or spinning easy through the countryside, your muscles are making irisin either way. The trick is to keep showing up, because the protective effects seem to build over time.

So next time someone asks why you spend so many hours on the bike, you've got an answer. You're not just chasing fitness or burning calories. You're looking after decades of clear thinking and sharp memory, and the ability to keep living on your own terms.

Every pedal stroke is a small deposit in your cognitive future. That might be one of the best reasons there is to ride.



Studies referenced:

- Wrann, C.D., et al. (2013). "Exercise induces hippocampal BDNF through a PGC-1a/FNDC5 pathway." Cell Metabolism, 18(5), 649-659.

- Lourenco, M.V., et al. (2019). "Exercise-linked FNDC5/irisin rescues synaptic plasticity and memory defects in Alzheimer's models." Nature Medicine, 25(1), 165-175.

- Islam, M.R., et al. (2021). "Exercise hormone irisin is a critical regulator of cognitive function." Nature Metabolism, 3(8), 1058-1070.

- Chen, K., Wang, K., & Wang, T. (2022). "Protective effect of irisin against Alzheimer's disease." Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 967683.



Studies referenced:

• Wrann, C.D., et al. (2013). "Exercise induces hippocampal BDNF through a PGC-1α/FNDC5 pathway." Cell Metabolism, 18(5), 649-659.

• Lourenco, M.V., et al. (2019). "Exercise-linked FNDC5/irisin rescues synaptic plasticity and memory defects in Alzheimer's models." Nature Medicine, 25(1), 165-175.

• Islam, M.R., et al. (2021). "Exercise hormone irisin is a critical regulator of cognitive function." Nature Metabolism, 3(8), 1058-1070.

• Belviranli, M., & Okudan, N. (2022). "Exercise-induced hormone irisin protects against neuronal injury via activation of Akt and ERK1/2 signaling pathways in Alzheimer's disease." Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13, 967683.

Hear that?! A noisy drivetrain is usually a sign that it’s time for a clean!

Keeping your drivetrain clean helps extend the life of your bike’s components and it’s one of the easiest ways to minimize power loss and improve efficiency.

So, what are you waiting for? Grab Stan’s Drivetrain Cleaner and show your bike some love! 🤗