Cycling with exercise bikes and 10 key benefits.

 

 

Cycling with exercise bikes(or stationary bikes) have a lot of advantages you already know of such as their convenience, mimicking the same natural movements as a real bike. They are also incredibly easy to use and can offer really great results. And some models are affordable and foldable so you can save a lot of space in your home.

In this article we list out a few other strong advantages of using exercise bikes.

 

1. Cycling With Exercise Bikes Improves Your Cardiovascular Health

Every time you mount an exercise bike and start moving your legs, your heart starts working too. This leads to a stronger heart and the first advantage you will notice about having a strong heart is that your blood pressure will decrease.

As a result your blood circulation will improve, reducing the risk of chronic or acute conditions. For example, you’re decreasing the chances of having a heart attack.

You will start seeing improvements in a few weeks, but you need to challenge yourself to peddle(workout with the exercise bike) three to four times per week and a minimum of twenty to thirty minutes per session

Also remember that people have different levels of fitness, if you are doing just 5 kilometers per hour but you are challenging yourself, then that is an excellent starting point for your body.

 

2. Improved Brain Health

Your brain gets a kick out of workouts that make your heart and lungs stronger. That is because that extra kick of oxygen and blood flow goes straight to your brain.

As such your command center can do its job much better. It takes just a few days to realize that you are sleeping better and that you are generally in a better mood. You will have more energy throughout your day in about a week or so, and you won’t feel any brain fog. 

Soon you will see medium to long term advantages too, such as improved memory and a more robust immune system.

 

3. Better Breathing

Many people believe that stationary bikes increase lung capacity, but that is not true. Your lungs’ volume won’t expand if you are using an exercise bike.

Instead your heart pumps blood more effectively and your muscles are more robust. That means they demand less oxygen to perform better.

Notice how you gasp for breath after your first few sessions, but each time you exercise your breath stabilizes, that is your lungs working less because your muscles don’t need extra oxygen, therefore, you are improving your breathing.

If you have chronic respiratory issues like asthma or chronic lung disease, exercise bikes may help alleviate your symptoms. 

Warning: Ask your doctor for advice if you have pre-existing heart and lung conditions.

 

4. Cycling Exercise Bikes Helps With Weight Loss

An hour of intense exercise on your stationary bike burns about 300 calories per thirty(30) minutes. That is about a slice of pizza or a donut worth of calories.

However, how fast you are shedding those pounds depends on some other factors like your current weight, your age, your biological sex, your current fitness level and the overall intensity of your workout.

 

5. Fat Loss

Losing weight is one thing, losing fat is another. Many people who are doing mindless cardio workouts shed a lot of water weight when they first start exercising. Afterward, they experience a plateau and get demoralized entirely, so they quit exercising.

Study shows if you are serious about fat loss, you have to use your exercise bikes for around 45 minutes per day, 3 times per week, and restrict your calories.

However drastic calorie restrictions aren’t your best bet on the long run, although it can have some effect on the short run, your body can’t benefit from a limited amount of calories per day. 

Instead, eat to nourish your body, stick to healthy food and limit your cheat days (days when you’re free to eat whatever you like). Remember that you can lose fat quicker if you do high intensity training on your bike and adding strength training to your routine. Besides this fat loss isn’t just to shape your body in a particular way, It is recommended because it will lower your harmful cholesterol levels.

 

6. Cycling with Exercise Bikes is Better for Elderly or Mobility-Challenged persons

Exercising on a stationary bike protects your joints and ligaments because you’re executing fluid motions. That way, you can strengthen muscles and bones without damaging them. So, an exercise bike benefits the elderly or mobility-challenged people. It can also help if you’re pregnant or recovering from surgery.

However If you are going to use your stationary bike as rehabilitation, check in with your doctor or physical therapist first. They will be able to discuss the pros and cons of several types of bikes to see what fits you best.

 

7. Build Stronger Muscles

Everybody knows that using a stationary bike exercises your leg muscles. The harder you are pedaling and the higher the resistance, the better you’ll shape your legs. However, that doesn’t mean that low-speed and low-resistance levels are useless.

This is a great place to start to warm up or even exercise if you have mobility issues. It is an excellent starting point if you want to improve your fitness level. The point is to challenge yourself but not put yourself through painful workouts, that is how you shape and tone your muscles.

However it is also true that only high resistance levels can increase your muscles mass. Here is a secret that not many people know, working out on an exercise bike benefits toning muscles. The reason is that it will keep your abs and lower back muscles contracted throughout your workout, and obviously, higher speed and resistance levels demand more contraction so your core will be more in tone.

Apart from the stationary bike’s benefits to your legs and core, peddling tones your arms too, that is because you’ll contract your biceps and triceps when gripping the handle bars especially during intense peddling sessions.

However, you will feel this workout in your upper body at the beginning when you’re new to paddling, after a while your arms will get used to the effort because they’re just supporting muscles, you’re not targeting them specifically. So the best advice if you want to tone and shape your entire body is to dedicate two to three days per week to focus on your upper body and core.

 

8. Cycling with Exercise Bikes is Safer that regular bikes

Pedaling on a stationary bike is obviously safer than pedaling outdoors, accidents and injuries are frequent on the roads especially in humid or foggy weather. 

So pedaling indoors saves you a lot of hassle, you can start doing it first thing in the morning to dissipate your brain fog or just before bed. That’s when most of us have enough free time. While exercising outdoors when you’re tired you can bring your exhausted brain some extra fresh air. It’s more dangerous and if you’re not used to cycling, staying safe can be tricky.

 

9. Cycling with Exercise Bikes Reduces Risk of Diabetes

Whether you’ve been diagnosed with pre-diabetes, diabetes, or a high risk of developing this condition,  know that any endurance-based sport can help you. When you’re doing this type of exercise, your muscles use more of the glucose that would otherwise spike in your blood. 

And guess what the best low-impact endurance sport that you can do in your living room is? Yes, stationary bike riding, apart from reducing your blood glucose, riding an exercise bike stabilizes insulin levels.

When you have diabetes your body secretes a lot of it because it’s no longer responding accurately to the needed amount of this hormone. In turn exercise decreases your body’s insulin sensitivity so that your pancreas won’t have to secrete so much of it, that way pedaling on your indoor bike regulates your blood and insulin levels naturally.

 

10. Better Mood

Exercise in general improves your mood and reduces stress, firstly exercise helps because it accelerates endorphins and serotonin hormones that make you feel happy. Riding your stationary bike also increases dopamine production so that you can feel accomplished too. 

Secondly exercise reduces cortisol levels in case you didn’t know this, cortisol is the stress hormone, so it’s the one to blame for your sour moods anxiety and crankiness. Besides excess cortisol tires your brain so it causes exhaustion, hazy vision and the feeling of a stuffy head. 

Exercise bikes promote the production of happiness hormones and reduce your cortisol levels, however you have to exercise regularly and spend at least 30 to 45 minutes pedaling to feel a genuine runner’s high.