Getting some form of physical exercise in every day helps boost your immune system, manage your weight, and keep your body in check. One of the best ways to get your daily cardio in is on an exercise bike. Exercise bikes are becoming increasingly popular.
Riding a stationary exercise bike is an efficient and effective way to burn calories and body fat while strengthening your heart, lungs, and muscles.
Compared to some other types of cardio equipment, a stationary bicycle puts less stress on your joints, but it still provides an excellent aerobic workout.
There are different types of stationary bikes available:
- Upright Stationary Bike
- Recumbent Stationary Bikes
- Dual-Action Stationary Bikes
- Interactive Stationary Bikes
Following are the benefits of a stationary bike workout:
Boosts cardio fitness
Cycling is a good way to strengthen your heart. Regular cycling can help you to improve the wellness of your heart, enhance your body’s energy and keep you young and fresh.
While strengthening your heart, lung and muscles, cycling is an efficient way to burn calories, and body fat.
- Reduces risk of diabetes
- Improved quality of sleep
- A well-functioning immune system
Makes the heart and circulatory system stronger
Although your heart normally pumps about 4 litres of blood each minute, during aerobic exercises, this increases to about 20 litres of blood each minute.
During regular exercise, your body needs sufficient supply of blood to your muscles to give your body the energy it needs to do the exercise. This kind of physical exercise will make your heart stronger. It will also lower your risk of cardiovascular disease.
Helps in Muscle Strengthening
Stationary bikes work tirelessly to strengthen the major muscle groups that support the back, leg, thigh, and hamstring muscles.
There are 2 different strokes that are used on an exercise bike:
the push, pushing down on the pedals is a great way to strengthen the quads
the pull, pulling up is a great way to strengthen the hamstring
Bonus: exercise bikes cause less stress on the knees than outdoor bikes since you’re riding on even terrain.
Aids Weight Loss and burn more calories
Stationary biking is a great way to burn calories. You can burn anywhere between 40-80 calories in just 10 minutes, depending on your body weight and exercise intensity. It is a great way to shed fat from your lower body as it activates the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves.
Improves Joint Mobility
Cycling helps improve the range of motion of your joints. It benefits the knees, ankles, and hip joints. When you pedal, all these joints rotate, improving their range of motion and strengthening them.
Very Convenient
This may not really be a health benefit, but it does benefit your health. If biking to and fro to work or school is not convenient for you, a stationary bike is a great option to keep yourself fit. Also, you can easily avoid heat, pollution, dust, rain, and all other outdoor factors that may prevent you from exercising.
Stationary bikes are safer than riding a bike out on the road, but there are still safety concerns to consider:
- You may develop muscle fatigue or injury from the repetitive motion or from using poor form.
- You could fall off the bike or injure yourself if you don’t balance yourself correctly.
Spokeherd wishes you Happy cycling!