You can still exercise to lose weight even if you’ve always been concerned about putting too much stress on your body. The best exercise bike benefit is exercising with no pain. There are two ways to use your exercise bike workout best:
- High intensity for a short period of time
- Low intensity for a long period of time
Exercising with high intensity for a shorter period of time allows your workout length to be shorter in general so you can work out and move on with your day.
Exercising with a low intensity for a longer period of time to develop your stamina.
Cardio workouts on exercise bikes are super beneficial to your mental health as well. The best part is cardio workouts stimulate endorphins in your body that influence your mood and help you to relieve stress so that you can tackle your day-to-day.
What muscles can you train with the exercise bike
Cardio workouts won’t make you buff, but they do work your muscles. Exercise bikes are good for strengthening muscles such as your heart and lungs. When you increase your heart rate, you strengthen your heart muscle.
Exercise bikes work well for all experience levels, but your workout should be unique to you and your body. Address your cardio workout with a target heart rate in mind, typically between 50 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate.
Stationary bikes: the benefits
A stationary bike is good for weight loss because it is efficient and effective. Another great benefit to the exercise bike is that it is safer than riding a bike outdoors. There are 2 common types of stationary bikes:
Upright
- The upright exercise bike is the most traditional and requires you to be in an upright body position. When you think of the exercise bike, most of the time this is the one that pops up in your head. Upright bikes help your posture and will give you the most similar experience to riding a bike outdoors.
Recumbent or reclined
- Reclined and relaxed, you can multitask while using this bike if you like reading or watching television. If you are opting for the comfort, you’ll want to consider using the reclined exercise bike and it’s great for you if you’re just getting started.
Each stationary bike benefits weight loss in a slightly different way but all will help you start feeling healthier and happier.
Are exercise bikes good for losing weight?
Exercise bike benefits include losing weight. It takes commitment and consistency to see weight loss results.
When you first get your bike, start working out 3 times a week for 30 minutes at a time. This will introduce your body to a cardio workout, and you’ll slowly start to replace fat with muscle. After a month of consistent cardio workouts, you will begin to improve your stamina and endurance.
If you’re wanting to up the intensity of your workout, increase the length of it after about a month.
Other tips for losing weight
When the goal of your workout is to lose weight, you’ll want to look at your diet and adjust it too.
You don’t have to go on a diet to lose weight, instead, focus on eating healthy. Make sure you are drinking plenty of water, it helps boost your metabolism. It is ideal to drink water before meals. Cut back on added sugars – not only sugar but high glucose corn syrup too. Sugars are associated with obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
To maximize the benefits of the exercise bike that help to prevent these, change the number of sugars you include in your diet. You don’t want your diet to be working against you and your weight loss journey. Low carb and less refined – lower the amount of carbs in your diet as they turn into sugars. Eating these can spike your blood sugar and increase your appetite. Include more protein in your diet – protein can also boost your metabolism. Focus your meals on your exercise goals in mind.
Pay attention to the power supply
Your manmade power that is created when using the exercise bike can be measured in watts. Just like the benefits of stationary bikes, your watt goals will be individual to you.
If you’re just beginning as a cyclist, your wattage will be lower than that of a pro cyclist, it all depends on how hard you work.
The more reps per minute you can get with your feet on the pedals, the more power you will create. Your ability to exert energy is changed by many factors so the better care you take of yourself, the more energy you can exert and the more wattage you will have. Paying attention to your wattage can help you know how efficiently you are working out.
Get at least 8 hours of sleep
Exercising can help you sleep better, and better sleep can help you exercise. Sleep is so important.
Just as important as a healthy diet and exercise routine. Our body recovers and rejuvenates during sleep. If you don’t get enough, you limit how well you can function. Giving yourself 8 hours of sleep allows you to rebuild the energy you need. The wrong amount of snoozing can put you more at risk for obesity. Getting enough sleep can help with weight gain but it also has many other benefits.
- Boosted immune system - you’ll be surprised to know that your sleep can affect your immune system. More sleep = a boosted immune system and less times you’re under the weather.
- Prevent weight gain - your metabolism and appetite are both well regulated when you are rested, this means you can help to prevent weight gain.
- Improves your mood - just like cardio exercise, sleeping can strengthen your heart and you’ll be in a better mood.
- More energy and increased productivity – your focus will be better and that helps you get more done.
- Increased exercise performance – increase your accuracy and speed.
- Improves memory – those car keys you always misplace, sleep can help with that.
When you snooze, you don’t lose. Practice getting 8 hours of sleep every night to maximize the benefits of your exercise.
