Incorporating two or more different types of cardio exercises into your fitness routine is commonly known as "cross training." Cross training is beneficial for a number of reasons. It can reduce your risk of injury by using more muscle groups than you would if you stuck only to one activity (References 1). It also improves your overall fitness level and can help accelerate weight loss by keeping your body challenged in different ways and helping you avoid plateaus (References 1). It also keeps things interesting, making it easier to stick to an exercise regimen. Combining treadmill and exercise bike workouts is an excellent way to cross train because both activities provide high cardiovascular challenge, but they involve completely different movements and muscle groups.
Program Design
Step 1
Decide how many times per week you will do cardio workouts and how long you will spend on each one. Cross training is most effective when you plan ahead a little bit. You don't need a rigid schedule, but you should have an idea of what your overall training week looks like so that your exercise routine is well-rounded. An unbalanced routine puts you at risk for injury and can limit your progress. Factor in time for strength training and time for rest. For most people, a well-rounded fitness program involves three to six cardio sessions per week and at least 30 minutes per session.
Step 2
Divide your cardio workout time between the treadmill and bike. Spend at least one third of your time on the treadmill, and at least one third of your time on the bike. You can split your time evenly if you desire, or you can change the way you split your time from week to week. However, make sure you do both activities consistently, or your cross training will be less effective. You can split your time within a single workout (for instance, 20 minutes on the treadmill, followed by 20 minutes on the bike), or you can split your workouts throughout the week (treadmill on Tuesday, bike on Thursday, etc.).
Step 3
Vary the type of workout you do in addition to varying the equipment you use. Intervals, moderate-intensity endurance workouts, and hill (treadmill) or high-resistance (bike) workouts are all beneficial variations to use in assembling a good cardio program. This adds another dimension to cross training and gives you several more options in choosing your workouts. For example, in a week, you might do a treadmill interval workout one day, followed by a long moderate-intensity bike ride the next day, and a high-resistance bike ride later in the week. The next week, you might start with a long, easy workout, half treadmill and half bike, then do an interval bike workout, and finish the week with an uphill jog.
Tips and Warnings
- Remember to warm up before each workout and take time to cool down and stretch when you are finished. Don't necessarily limit yourself to the treadmill and exercise bike. The elliptical machine, swimming, stair climbing and other activities also make for great cross training.
- Always check with your doctor before beginning an exercise program.
Things You'll Need
- Treadmill
- Exercise bike
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