In today’s busy and fast-moving world, taking out time for health and fitness is a must. It is easy for the people who have parks or open spaces near them. While for those who live in congested locations joining gyms or getting exercise machines like an exercise bike, at home would be great.
An exercise bike fits in compact spaces and is easy to use and maintain. The results are almost the same as outdoor, regular cycling. But then the question arises of how long to use it to be effective? The answer is simple. Depends on you. What you are targeting? How much experience do you have? You’ll need a plan, which is logical and practical, to start with, if new.
Start with a plan
In general terms, you’ll need to know what you want? Is it that you want an exercise bike for regular use or for losing weight? Or because a doctor suggested it. Be it for any reason, the number of hours will depend on your stamina and experience. To loosen up your muscles, or if you want to avoid cramps, you can start with 3-5 minutes of stretching. Then a good warmup. You can also keep changing speed while pedaling, for 5 minutes time slot to take a rest in between high-intensity pedaling.
Exercise bike for beginners
If you are a beginner, go slow. Start with 3 to 4 times a week with 30 minutes each day, gradually increasing the pace. If aiming at losing weight and a beginner, we’ll still suggest starting with a slow pace. This will ensure that you don’t end up getting cramps while you just started. You can start with a warm-up of 5-10 minutes at an average speed of 50rpm. And gradually you can stimulate level terrain and increase pedaling speed from 50 rpm to 60rpm to 80 rpm.
With little experience
If you are used to the machine, you know your strength and the machine better. You can increase your capacity on daily basis. Daily extra 10 minutes or increasing the speed or using weighted flywheels will help for better results. It will give time for your body to adjust accordingly. Even, now you can focus on toning your muscles and building cardio endurance. All this supplemented with a proper diet plan will work best.
Want to lose weight with an exercise bike?
Now if you are aiming for weight loss. Be it for some medical reasons like obesity, diabetes, or to maintain blood pressure, etc. Or be it just to fit in that dress, jeans, that t-shirt your wife gifted, or some upcoming major event. You’ll need to put in extra effort daily along with a conscious diet plan.
Start slow, with an average pedaling speed between 50rpm -60rpm and for 30-40 minutes, 5 times a week. You can supplement it with yoga, stretching, and walking.
Since your goal is to shed those extra pounds, you’ll need to pace up your game. Increase your time gradually to 60 minutes which is average for moderate-pace cycling. Otherwise if using it at a fast pace you can keep it between 40-45 minutes.
Conclusion
When starting with an exercise bike, try to understand your body requirements. Don’t push harder and end up getting cramps or muscle pull. Also, a rest day proves effective in muscle recovery so don’t skip it. For better results, you can always use the 80/20 formula keeping 20% pedaling portion as fast-paced and 80% as medium-paced for an average of 40 minutes.