Many of us have to take a number of medications to mitigate issues brought on by genetics or being overweight. Following a health issue I was told that I had to take cholesterol control, and blood pressure control medicines, as well as a blood thinner. For life.

I was 50 at the time and in my family everyone makes it to their 90s. I always had very good cholesterol numbers but my blood pressure would be in the high end or the normal range. We I started cycling again last year I saw almost immediately the impact on my BP and resting heart rate which was in the 70s.

Now I get this kind of numbers all the time and I don't have to take ANY medicines.

Félicitations!
Good job! I hope to get off BP meds some day too...

Merci!

In my case the real incentive was getting off the daily aspirin as a blood thinner. It would take forever for a shaving nick to stop bleeding.

I was on a three part regimen to lower the risk of another stroke; BP was the main thing, but the rest came with it.

I'm actually pretty light now at around 179, but I was 205 at one point.

I've watched my resting heart rate go from the mid 80's to 57. I have no idea what it was back when I was in shape (before I got out of shape) because I never monitored it before.
I pretty much caught myself getting out of shape before I really got too far out of shape, to be honest, and that's a good thing.

I remember my first ride on my brand new bike that I spent so much money on and was determined to ride. I made it about 2 miles and thought I was going to have to call an ambulance...then after resting for a couple of minutes, I figured no ambulance, but I'd have to walk my bike back. I made it home on the bike just fine, but man was I nearly dead the rest of the day.

I thought something was wrong with me...it was a couple of years before cycling really caught on and I was finally determined to either die or get it. I'd go to strava Segments and see how I did -- I'd nearly be dying and finish in like the last 5-10 places. A few months of serious training got me to top 10's (bigger local segments with like 200 riders) (I was also rehabbing a broken ankle that left me pretty laid up for 2-3 months, so I was able to get muscle back very quickly). I'm happy where I'm at...sometimes we look back and forget how hard it is to get good at cycling, but it is hard, no doubt about it. We just kind of get to a point where we take it for granted and forget...I won't forget. I will always remember that dying feeling. That's one of the reasons I like to get local people out on rides if/when I can...and be as supportive as I can be with them. I want them to experience what I did.

It is pretty amazing how much progress can be made fairly fast, with little risk if injury.

A friend of mine also uses thinners after a heart attack. He stopped shaving, it's a bit sad because he has the worst beard ever, he looks like a 15-year old who will never grow a full beard anyway. He's also very skinny, looks incredibily young for his age anyway, and has a boyish way of moving. He's a physician himself and can't wait for the grey hairs to come out to look a bit more like a doctor to new patients.

That's one of the big positives about cycling. Doing it regularly may not make your body look good on the outside the way lifting weights does, but it absolutely has a significant and positive impact on the health of the inside of your body.

I used to have BP around 180/80, now its around 125/65 after 3 years of cycling. No idea what my resting heart rate was before, but I see it in the mid 50's all the time now and was as low as 43 bpm during one check this year. My doctor has also been really excited about the numbers he sees on my blood work panels since I started riding as well. I'm sure losing 125 lbs. didn't hurt either