Is an Exercise Bike right for you?

Exercise Bikes, along with treadmills and home
gyms, are one of the most popular pieces of fitness equipment purchased for weight
loss and improved fitness.
In this article we discuss the top ten reasons people buy exercise bikes for
their home so that you can assess whether an exercise bike is the right piece
of fitness equipment for you and your family.
The top 10 reasons to buy an exercise bike are:
1. Weight
loss and improved fitness.
Exercise Bikes have helped millions of people
to achieve their weight loss and fitness goals and they may be able to help
you too.
Cycling on an exercise bike can help you burn a lot of excess calories
and can improve the strength and health of your heart and lungs.
Cycling
at 15 kilometres per hour (9 miles per hour) burns nearly 12 kilojoules /
3 calories per kilo of body weight every half an hour. For a person weighing
100 kilos, that equates to 1200 kilojoules or 300 calories every 30 minutes.
Cycling on an exercise bike is also great for raising your heart rate into
the zones most appropriate for weight loss and fitness.
2. Exercise Bikes
can help prevent you from training too hard.
One of the most common mistakes
people make when they first start exercising is to train too hard.
Training
too hard in the beginning of your exercise program can lead to injuries and
may encourage you to quit because you feel it's too hard and not worth
all the effort.
By giving you the ability to regulate the speed at which
you cycle, exercise bikes can help you avoid this common exercise mistake.
Some exercise bikes are even sophisticated enough to monitor your heart rate
while you are exercising. What a great way to make sure you're always
training in the right heart rate zone!
3. You can make small adjustments
as your fitness improves.
Because the speed and resistance of most exercise
bikes can be adjusted in very small increments, exercise bikes are perfect
for training at increasingly higher intensities once you've built a
base level of fitness.
Because cycling on an exercise bike can be made a
little harder or a little easier with the touch of a button, they are also
great for including interval training into your routine where you cycle at
various speeds within the same workout.
4. An Exercise Bike can be used at
anytime.
One of the greatest benefits of owning an exercise bike is that
you can exercise when you want, day or night, hot or cold, sun or rain.
Many
of us today lead hectic lives and find it hard to fit exercise into our busy
schedules.
What we need is the ability to exercise when we want and for as
long as we want.
Having an exercise bike at home can be better than joining
a gym in this respect because we don't need to worry about gym opening
and closing times and having to share our exercise bike with a hundred other
time-poor exercisers.
5. Make maximum use of your time.
Owning an exercise
bike allows you to get your daily exercise done while you're doing
other things, like watching your favourite TV show or listening to your favourite
music.
Watching TV while cycling on an exercise bike often makes your workout
seem a lot shorter and even a little easier.
6. The whole family can use
it to exercise.
One of the great things about having an exercise bike at
home is that the whole family can use it to lose weight and get fitter.
Research
shows that when the whole family has similar goals and is committed to losing
weight together, each family member is more likely to succeed.
7. You can
save money.
Buying your own exercise bike can be cheaper than paying gym
fees, especially if more than one person in the family wants to exercise.
Gym fees can be expensive, and for some of us, that money may be better invested
in a good quality exercise bike that will serve us well for many years.
Most
exercise bikes today are very well built and come with good warrantees so
we can be sure to get many years of exercise out of them.
8. Exercise Bikes
can simulate cycling uphill.
Because you can adjust the resistance that exercise
bikes provide, you effectively have the ability to simulate flat ground cycling
and cycling up slight and steep inclines.
This means that with the touch
of a button you can simulate cycling uphill which helps increase your heart
rate and of course, burn more calories for every minute you exercise.
If
you are training for a cycling event, it also means that you can simulate
the undulating terrain you're likely to encounter on your ride.
9.
Exercising in private.
Many people who want to lose weight are very self
conscious and don't necessarily want to exercise in public.
Having
your own exercise bike allows you to exercise in the privacy of your own
home so you won't need to feel embarrassed working out at your own
pace.
10. Shapely thighs, calves and a tight butt.
Let's face it girls
and guys, many of us would kill for more shapely thighs and calves and a
tighter tush.
Having an exercise bike at home, and using it, can help us
achieve these things so we look great in shorts, skirts, pants and jeans.
If you would you like any of these, maybe it's time you went out and
invested in an exercise bike for your home.
Conclusion.
Exercise Bikes, along
with treadmills and home
gyms, are one of the most popular pieces of fitness
equipment purchased by people who want to lose
weight and improve their fitness.
In this article we discussed the top ten reasons many people buy an exercise
bike so you can make an informed decision about whether they are right for
you.
Good luck with your weight loss and thanks for visiting weightloss.com.au.
© Copyright Ultimate Weightloss.
This article was written by Scott Haywood.
Scott is the editor of weightloss.com.au. Scott has developed an expertise in fitness and nutrition, and their roles in weight loss, which led him to launch weightloss.com.au in 2005. Today, weightloss.com.au provides weight loss and fitness information, including hundreds of healthy recipes, weight loss tools and tips, articles, and more, to millions of people around the world, helping them to lead happier, healthier, lives.
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