Exercise bikes help you burn calories through a variety of bike types, enabling different workouts and exercise intensities. Use different bikes in different ways to create fat-burning, aerobic and sprinting workouts. Understanding how to create exercise bike workouts helps you make the best choices for a weight-loss program.
Types of Bikes
Work out on dedicated stationary bike or turn a road bike into an exercise bike. Stationary bikes come in upright and recumbent models. An upright lets you sit in a position similar to outdoor bike riding and allows you stand on the pedals during your workout for added muscle use. A recumbent bike lets you recline backward to help take stress off your back. Putting an outdoor bicycle on a bike stand, or trainer, lets you use the bike indoors to create calorie-burning workouts.
Settings
Depending on what type of bike you have, you can change the gear or resistance settings to make it harder or easier to pedal. If you use more resistance, you'll raise your heart rate using more muscular effort. If you decrease the resistance or gear setting, you can raise your heart rate by pedaling very fast. Some exercise bikes come with electronic consoles that allow you to program workouts that feature pedaling that simulates riding on flat terrain, up a hill and sprinting.
Beginner Weight-Loss Workout
According to MayoClinic.com, a 160-lb. person will burn almost 300 calories per hour riding a bike at a leisure, 10 mph per hour rate. To get started, ride at a speed and using a gear or resistance setting that lets you continue to ride at for at least 15 minutes or longer without having to quit. This will help you build stamina and endurance as you burn calories. Try to add a few minutes to each subsequent workout until you can exercise at least 30 minutes non-stop. Focus on longer, rather than more intense workouts during your first few weeks of working out.
Advanced Weight-Loss Workout
If you can exercise at a high intensity, similar to the pace of jogging, you can create aerobic workouts on an exercise bike. You can do this riding at one speed, with one resistance the entire workout, or you can change your speeds to raise and lower your heart rates. Standing on the pedals uses more muscles because you must move your body's entire weight. If you use a recumbent bike, consider using dumbbells while you exercise to add upper-body muscle use and increase your calorie burn. Add a few very high-intensity sprints to your workouts, but check with your doctor first to make sure it's safe.
Warm Up, Cool Down and Stretch
Start each workout with several minutes of moderate-intensity pedaling to let your heart rate rise gradually, and your muscles to warm and stretch. After you have finished your workout, spend several minutes pedaling slower to let your heart rate decrease and blood and anabolic wastes to leave your muscles. Stretch your legs after you're done to help improve your flexibility and decrease muscles stiffness and soreness later.
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