Treadmills and exercise bikes both provide relatively safe indoor exercise options. Although both can be monotonous in comparison to running or cycling outdoors, they keep you safe from adverse weather conditions and from sharing the road with traffic. When you consider any new exercise regimen, consult your doctor before you make significant changes to your lifestyle.
Calories Burned
The calories you will burn working out on a treadmill vary according to the intensity and speed of your workout. According to the CSG Network Calorie Burn Calculator, a 150-lb. person cycling for 30 minutes at a moderate speed of 12 to 13.9 mph will burn 273 calories. The same 150-lb. person running on a treadmill for 30 minutes, at a moderate speed of 6 mph would burn 341 calories). However, for a running speed of 5 mph, the calorie burn on a treadmill is similar to that on a bike. On either piece of equipment, the number of calories burned increases with your speed and weight.
Impact
Walking on a treadmill is a relatively low impact form of exercise, comparable to riding a bike. However, if you jog or run on a treadmill, the impact on your knees, joints and other parts of your body is greater than the impact you would experience biking. If you are seriously overweight, biking may be a better form of exercise than running on a treadmill, in order to minimize strain on your knee joints.
Flexibility
Treadmills and stationary exercise bikes both have options to change the speed and resistance of your workout -- treadmill incline adjustments simulate running uphill, while adjusting the resistance on a stationary bike compares to riding a bike uphill. For biking exercise, you can use your regular outdoor bike attached to a bike trainer -- this allows the flexibility of using your regular bike year round, indoors and outdoors. A bike may therefore be a more flexible form of exercise, and a more realistic training option for outdoor racing than a treadmill is for running.
Motivation
The success of any exercise regimen depends on your ability to stay motivated enough to adhere to the schedule you have set. In terms of indoor exercise options, a bike may be preferable to a treadmill in terms of increasing motivation and reducing boredom. On a stationary bike you can read books or magazines, or listen to music. On a treadmill, the up-and-down motion of jogging or running makes it essentially impossible to read -- you are limited to listening to music or watching TV to entertain yourself.
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