16 Aug Exercise bike week: Advantages to owning an exercise bike

When it comes to setting up a home gym, or just buying your first piece of exercise equipment, there are many factors to consider.
Two of the most important, probably in this order, are:
1. Will you use it? and 2. Cost.
It doesn’t make much sense to spend hard-earned money on something you aren’t going to use.
Once you determine what piece of equipment you want, then start shopping around for prices and options.
For many people, one of the most popular purchases is a home exercise bike. There are upright bikes and recumbent bikes.
Exercise bikes put less wear and tear on your legs than running on a treadmill. You won’t burn quite as many calories as running in the same amount of time, but exercise bikes still offer the chance to get consistently good workouts.
Many exercise bikes come equipped with numerous workout options that will keep you from getting bored even though you’re in a stationary position.
They come programmed with numerous biking workouts, ranging from different courses that require sprints, interval training, pedaling downhill and uphill.
You can do all this without manually having to keep pressing buttons and changing options.
If you want to be surprised, select a random options course that will keep you ready for anything.
Another nice feature of a home exercise bike is that you can control the environment in your home.
You can set up a TV in front of the bike, or listen to the stereo. On many bikes it’s possible to have a rack set up to read the newspaper, or a book, or magazine.
Studies show on average that people burn 750 calories per hour on a treadmill, compared to 550 on an exercise bike.
That can be a little misleading, though, because for many people it’s much easier to keep up a good pace longer on an exercise bike than a treadmill.
So in the long run, you may be capable of burning more calories on a bike.

At Home Fitness consultant Aaron Dorksen’s blog deals with a variety of fitness topics, ranging from workout tips, motivational ideas and feature stories on how exercise impacts people’s lives. E-mail him with comments, questions or ideas for future blogs at aaron@athomefitness.com