What are the benefits of an exercise bike?

Working out on a stationary exercise bike helps efficiently to lift your immune system, maintain your weight and keep your overall health in check. It is a great indoor exercise for people of all ages. If you want to lose weight or improve your stamina, then using an exercise bike to your fitness program will be a perfect solution. Plus, it is the right sport to refine your legs and thighs while shedding some extra fat from the body. The stationary exercise bike puts less stress on joints compared to other types of cardio equipment. But still great in providing an amazing aerobic workout. It is much effective in burning calories and body fat while it strengthens up your muscles, lungs, and heart. Finest exercise bikes are getting popular day by day because of its light-weight, go-to-use features and easy storage. Moreover, you can use the exercise bike whenever, wherever you want without thinking about the potential risk or weather outside. There are many benefits to it. So, keep reading to learn what are the benefits of an exercise bike.

Benefits of exercise bike:

1. Lifts cardio fitness.

Cardio workout helps to lower high blood pressure and prevent the risks of a heart attack. Exercising on a stationary bike is a great way to get your heart pumping. Aerobic workout activity such as cycling strengthens the heart, lungs, and muscles. It enhances blood circulation and oxygen flow throughout the body. The exercise bike works hard to lower the bad cholesterol while increasing the good cholesterol in your body. This, in turn, can be beneficial to your body in several ways such as:

• Reduce blood pressure.
• Improve mood.
• Sound sleep.
• Better memory and brain functioning.
• Enhance blood sugar levels.
• Builds up a strong immune system.
• Lower stress level and anxiety.
• More stamina.

2. Maintain joint flexibility.

A good exercise bike is easy on the joints. It put less pressure on your bone joints. The stationary exercise bike ensures flexibility on your knee, ankle and hip joints. For this, you need to maintain a proper form. By proper form, it means to bend your knee slightly on the down pedal stroke. So that spinning in the bike becomes smooth and easy. Thus, low resistance and easy spinning ensure joint flexibility and reduce joint pain. Besides, increasing pedal resistance can enhance muscle strength around the bone joints to develop joint flexibility, which in results avert joint injuries.

3. It helps in weight reduction.

Exercising on a stationary bike is an excellent way to burn calories. If you work out at a high-intensity, then it will help to burn more calories and build up strength which in turn can reduce weight. So, working out in a stationary exercise bike for 30 minutes at a stretch can reduce around 200-300 calories depending on your body weight. Plus, it is a great way to reduce lower body fat as it energizes the calves, glutes, quads, and hamstring.

4. Enhance muscle strength.

The stationary bike works hard to strengthen up the main muscle groups that support the leg, back, hamstring and thigh muscles. In exercise bike, you can adjust the resistance of the wheel. So you got to pedal harder to keep the wheel moving which ultimately increases the muscle strength of your legs and your lower part of the body.

5. It provides a low impact workout.

Riding a stationary exercise bike is a low impact activity. It bears a very low risk of injury if it used in proper form. It doesn’t need to bruise the joints as some aerobic exercises do and it’s smooth with the knees, feet, and ankles. So, it is a great choice for elderly people who may be suffering from arthritis, age-related conditions or have balance problems.

6. Increase stamina.

A recent study shows that riding a stationary bike can increase stamina by 20% and reduce fatigue by 65%. Riding any great exercise bike generates neurotransmitter dopamine in your brain, which is associated with stamina.

7. Lower Diabetes risk.

Diabetes is caused due to excess sugar in the blood. In regular exercising, our muscles use glucose which lowers the blood sugar level. Also, diabetes is related to excess weight. So, weight loss may lower the risk of diabetes. The stationary bike is a great choice to burn calories and it helps in weight reduction.

8. Decrease stress.

Our brain release hormones named endorphins and serotonin during a stationary bike exercise. These are “feel good” hormones. As a result, you feel good after the workout. These hormones regulate mood, stress, and anxiety.

9. Improve brain functionality.

Physical exercise activates some special areas of the brain. It has found from several studies that exercising on a stationary bike improves memory, cognitive function, and attention.

10. Secure than cycling on the road.

There is so much fun when you cycle outdoors, but it comes with a certain cost such as foul weather or too hot weather, uneven and risky road surfaces, inattentive drivers, traffic, etc. But when you are cycling indoor with your super exercise bike then you don’t have to worry about these issues. As a result, you can work out safely in a perfect environment throughout the year.

So, these were some of the best exercise bikes and benefits. Now let us see different types of exercise bikes.

Types of stationary exercise bike

There are generally 3 different types of exercise bike depending on their different features. Such as Upright, Recumbent, and Dual-action.

Upright bike.

The upright bike is one of the most popular exercise bikes. It looks quite like a regular bicycle in which pedals are located just beneath your body.

Working out on this bike can provide you excellent cardio while building up your core muscles and leg. As per your wish, you can work out on this bike both sitting or standing.

But the bike has small issues. Such as it has small seats which can feel uncomfortable for longer workouts and the upright position of the bike can put much pressure on your hands and wrists.

Recumbent bike.

The recumbent bike is much comfortable than an upright bike because of its comfortable larger seat. In this bike, you can seat in an appropriate reclined position which is positioned back from the pedal.

The recumbent bike puts less pressure on your upper body, hips, joints and lower back. You will also feel less tired and muscle ache after every workout. As your body is completely supported which makes the workout less intense.

The recumbent bike is a great choice for issues like joint injuries, back pain or limited mobility. Plus, it is a safer option for elderly people and newbies.

Dual-action bike.

Dual-action bike is pretty much like an upright bike but it has a set of moving handlebars that allows a user to do arm workout while the pedaling motion works the lower part of the body. Dual-action bike provides a complete body workout as the dynamic movements are working to build up the core muscle and abs as well. 

So these 3 are commonly used exercise bikes but besides them, there are also other types of exercise bikes. To check out different brands of exercise bike read our best exercise bike and Exercise bike review articles.

Final thoughts:

Indoor cycling on a stationary exercise bike is a great idea to remain fit and healthy in any season. Here you can achieve fitness goals like burning calories, weight loss, enhancing stamina, boosting muscle strength while being easy on the body. That’s why when you are working out on an exercise bike try to keep track of your progress using an app or a journal to say motivated. So, now that you have known what are the benefits of an exercise bike then I hope you will feel encouraged to start your workout with more enthusiasm. Enjoy indoor cycling!